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By Brenda Nixon
School Success Starts at Home
Parents, you make the difference! Your everyday activities, discussions about school, and enthusiasm about learning set the stage for your child's success. Your ability to impress your child with a motivation to learn begins in the early years.
All parents agree that education benefits their child. Skillful parents also recognize that education creates a better community in which children live. Victor Hugo observed, "He who opens a school door, closes a prison."
Regardless of your economic, racial, educational or cultural environment, you have the power to give your child a key to academic success. Right now, use your powerful influence to help your child look forward to and enjoy school.
Here are easy - yet profound - tips to get your child on the road to school success:
- Shop together for school supplies and, whenever possible, accept your child's opinion on necessary materials. Research shows that children who participate in a decision are more invested in the outcome. When you and your child spend time together picking out necessities the message your child receives is that preparation is important.
- Establish "school" bedtimes and morning routines. A well-rested child is less distracted, misses less sick days, more able to focus, and is generally in a better mood. Sleep behavior is a habit. Form the habit of sending your child to bed at the same hour every evening. According to Richard Ferber, M.D., author of the book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problem, elementary age kids need nine to ten hours of sleep for optimal performance. Young children need more sleep. Morning routines ease stress because the day starts in a comfortably predictable way. Then kids are less tense and cope better with the demands of a school day.
- Make breakfast matter. In a Harvard/Kellogg School Breakfast program study published in 1998, kids who ate a morning meal earned higher math grades than those who skipped breakfast. Teachers and parents in this study reported that the frequency of hyper-activity and tardiness also dropped among breakfast eaters.
- Go to the school's Open House and Parent/Teacher meetings. It's during these times that you can view your child's work and school exhibits. More important, this is your opportunity to have a say in your child's learning. Also, teachers draw an opinion about parents based on their at-school participation.
- Make encouraging statements to your child like, "You are making progress," or "I'm glad you listen to your teacher," or "You really stuck with your homework." Words sink deep into a child's heart and what you say can be prophetic.
- Plan constructive use of after-school time. Children do need downtime to relax after school; however, research indicates that children who watch TV more than 10 hours per week are at greater risk of school failure. The humorist Groucho Marx quipped, "I find TV very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book."
- Get your child's hearing checked. Hearing loss is common in kids and often goes undiagnosed. If your child cannot hear completely, it's difficult for him to hear the teacher's instructions or to learn pronunciations. Children who can't hear everything might be left out of peer play or worse be the brunt of cruel jokes. As a parent do all you can to insure your child has equal opportunity to enjoy school. It's never too late to make a difference! In this brief season of nurturing your child's desire and ability to learn remember Benjamin Franklin's counsel, "An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."
About The Author ...
Brenda Nixon's mission is to build
stronger families through parent education and affirmation. She is
a speaker, writer, and author of Parenting Power in the Early
Years, available at amazon or her website
www.brendanixon.com.
From the book Parenting Power in
The Early Years, by Brenda Nixon. For more parenting articles and
tips go to
www.parentpwr.com.
For program planners looking for a speaker, Brenda is available to
speak at family retreats, banquets and parenting events. She can
be reached via e-mail at
speaker2parents@juno.com.
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