If you want your child to do well in school, there are several things that you as a parent can do to enhance his or her opportunities. Many of these are common sense items, but go often over-looked in this world of latch key children and hurry, hurry.
- Ensure that your child is getting an adequate amount of sleep. I would venture to say that about half of my students do not get more than five or six hours of sleep each night. I currently have a student that averages only two hours per night, because he is working a full time job in addition to attending high school. At the beginning of each school term, I survey my students. Many of them work more than twenty hours each week. Of the students that do work, most of them are working only for spending money or to maintain a car, not to assist the family. If you allow your child to work, limit the number of hours each week that he or she can work to no more than 8 or 10. I recommend that a child not be allowed to work while attending high school. Save it for the summer.
- Ensure that your child is following a proper diet. Too many times children are left to their own devices when it comes to deciding what to eat. Moms and dads often both work outside of the home, and are often too tired at the end of the day to prepare a nutritious meal. Children will go the quick and easy route. Sometimes parents go the quick and easy route. I know several students who subsist on a diet of fast food and junk food. All of us require proper nutrition for optimum health, but this is especially true of children who still have growing bodies. If you are too busy or too tired to ensure that your child is eating nutritious, balanced meals, then try round robin meals with a friend or neighbor, or ask the child to keep a food log. Also, ensure that the child is eating more than one meal a day -- lots of my students skip break- fast so they can sleep later, and skip lunch because they are only allowed a minimum amount of time to eat at school and they would rather socialize.
- Know your child's teachers. As a teacher and a parent, I know that not every child will get along with every teacher, and vice versa. Be involved -- check with your child's school (the counselor or the principal is a good place to start) to see if your child can be moved to another teacher. If you know your child is a visual learner, and has an auditory teacher, then obviously your child isn't under optimum learning conditions.
- Know your child's friends. Stay on top of who your child is friends with. Peer pressure has an amazing stronghold on most children. Invite the children to your house, allow them to stay for diner, have sleepovers, and take them with you on fun days. If your child is friends with kids who place family and academics in high priority, then chances are your child will too. If your child is hanging around with known drinkers and drug users, it is a safe bet that your child is at least experimenting with the same. Place restrictions on your child.
- Know the parents of your child's friends. Even through high school, children look up to the adults they are around. Children often mimic the behaviors of their parents -- if Mom and/or Dad smoke, it is a good chance that the child will too.
- Lead by example. Be the kind of adult that you want your child to be. If you want your child to be educated, ensure that you are educated -- let your child see you learning. Don't drink and smoke if you don't want your child to do so. Don't have sex outside of marriage if you expect your child to be chaste.
- One of the best things you can do if you want your child to do well in school is read to him or her every day when they are small -- several times throughout the day if at all possible. Almost all students who enjoy reading the most are those that say they were read to lots when they were small.
You can teach your child to love reading. Make shared reading your nighttime routine -- and nap time, and any other time you desire quiet time from your children. When my own children were pre-school age, they lugged books around everywhere! They memorized several of them, and "read" to one another, to their toys, to anyone who will listen. In addition, they often "read" the pictures of the stories.
When my children, who see me reading for pleasure often, ask me why Mommy thinks reading is so important, I reply, "Smart people read."
Finally: One would think that this would be an already known fact, but it doesn't appear to be. So here goes -- if you want your child to be successful in school, and ultimately grow up and be a successful adult, one of the most basic things that a parent or guardian can do is ensure that your child is not only going to school, but is actually attending his or her classes!
In this day and age, especially when the majority of parents work (both of them), it is easy to either see your children off on the bus, or even drop them off at school, and assume that he or she is attending class. However, in some cases, once that bus or parent drives away, so does the authority that got the child to school in the first place. It is easy for the older child, once at school, to leave. It is also relatively easy for the child to have a note or backup plan when and if the school calls home or attempts to contact the parent or guardian.
Please check with your child's teacher (or teachers, as the case may be) to ensure that
your child is regularly attending class. You would be surprised at how eager most teachers are to help you child succeed -- just as you will be surprised when you get a poor progress report, only to discover that your child has not regularly been attending class!
When my children, who see me reading for pleasure often, ask me why Mommy thinks reading is so important, I reply, "Smart people read."
Finally: One would think that this would be an already known fact, but it doesn't appear to be. So here goes -- if you want your child to be successful in school, and ultimately grow up and be a successful adult, one of the most basic things that a parent or guardian can do is ensure that your child is not only going to school, but is actually attending his or her classes!
In this day and age, especially when the majority of parents work (both of them), it is easy to either see your children off on the bus, or even drop them off at school, and assume that he or she is attending class. However, in some cases, once that bus or parent drives away, so does the authority that got the child to school in the first place. It is easy for the older child, once at school, to leave. It is also relatively easy for the child to have a note or backup plan when and if the school calls home or attempts to contact the parent or guardian.
Please check with your child's teacher (or teachers, as the case may be) to ensure that
your child is regularly attending class. You would be surprised at how eager most teachers are to help you child succeed -- just as you will be surprised when you get a poor progress report, only to discover that your child has not regularly been attending class!
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