How can parents help their children succeed in school? - For Success
Answer: You need to realize that your children's schools are very similar to your workplace. Your kids have a boss (the teacher), are required to follow certain rules and must get along with their co-workers (the other students). School, like work, is stressful even for the most successful students, and ranges from being very challenging to boring.
Your home should be a haven where your children are able to relax, decompress and recharge for the next day. It also must be a place that nurtures and builds self-esteem. The patterns that you set at home for your family can make a significant difference in how successfully your children handle school. Here is our prescription for making sure your home provides all the support your children need to succeed in school and eliminates so many of the unpleasant hassles that undermine family life:
-Use mealtimes as family times. Encourage everyone, especially at dinner, to talk about his or her day. This should be a feel-good time that lets family members walk away from the table feeling positive about themselves. This is not the time to nag about poor spelling or math grades, which will make your children feel bad.
-Set aside time daily in which you are able to listen to your children tell you what is going on in their lives. You want to know about their schoolwork, as well as their personal challenges and successes. Perhaps this time can be when you are doing a chore together, such as washing the dishes or sorting the laundry.
-Limit television viewing time. It just takes away from valuable family interactions that could be devoted to reading, conversation and playing games. And, of course, it interferes with homework time.
-Make sure you read to your children every day, at least until they are through middle school. It has the great dividend of building family closeness with the added bonus of increasing their vocabularies and desire to read.
-Look over your children's work every day with them. Then you will know if there are any problems. If so, you will want to jump on solving them before they grow and become extremely difficult to resolve.
-Ensure that the details involved in getting to school on time, handling homework, returning forms to school, handling school lunches and getting school materials from home to school are organized routines. Having a definite plan eliminates so many daily hassles that lead to problems in school and unpleasantness at home.
-Support the extracurricular activities that your children choose to participate in. Remember that these activities are designed for your children to enjoy, not to build your ego through their successes. At the same time, don't let your children be overextended through taking part in too many activities.
-Welcome your children's friends into your home. Get to know the parents of these children in order to build a support network with other responsible parents.