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Teacher Tips For School Success
Q. What do
veteran teachers say are the best things parents can do for kids to ensure a
successful school year?
- Have
an organized family routine, with consistent bedtimes (most kids really do
need nine or 10 hours of sleep per night!), wake-up times, homework times,
and daily chores to build responsibility.
- Talk
with your child a lot; ask questions; be funny; be "safe" to bring
concerns to; give comfort and ask about feelings; a lot of interaction
with Mom and Dad at home builds brainpower and self-esteem better than
anything school can do, by far.
- Limit
junk food and pop, make sure your child eats a nutritious breakfast, and
stock healthy after-school snacks.
- Send
a sack lunch with milk money to ensure your child eats a healthy lunch.
- Set
up a study area with no distractions. It doesn't have to be big, but it
does require good lighting, space to write, and probably shouldn't include
any music or other multitasking capabilities. Teach a child to concentrate
and the brain "muscle" will get stronger.
- Meet
the teacher early in the school year and establish a good relationship.
Urge the teacher to call you or email you at any time with any concerns.
Send a couple of notes of encouragement to the teacher through the school
year, and try for 100% attendance at important school events, such as open
houses, parent-teacher conferences, and concerts. You "vote with your
feet," and teachers appreciate it.
- If
you can arrange to pick up your child after school, that's the best time
to find out what's really going on; although the days of the "stay-at-home
mom" are numbered, it's smart to try to schedule this.
- Read to or with your children
every day for 20 to 30 minutes, from infancy through sixth grade. A lot of
parents think that's over once the child is reading pretty well on his or
her own. But that's a big mistake; children's oral vocabularies should be
a few years ahead of their reading vocabularies in order to stretch them
upward. So they need to listen to text read aloud which is a little more
difficult than what they can read on their own. Plus, the "snuggle time"
is priceless at any age!
- Limit
"plugged-in time" to an hour a day of TV, video games, Instant Messenger
and other electronic amusements. Otherwise, they'll be passive learners
and easily distracted.
- Limit
extracurricular activities to two per week: perhaps one sport and one
"civilizing" activity such as music lessons, or a service activity such as
scouts.
- Spiritual
education is priceless for character development; the kids who behave the
best usually go to Sunday School or receive other religious training.
- Be on
time, with homework completed.
- Let
homework be your child's domain - never do it FOR him or her - as long as
there are no problems. But if it's not getting done, or grades are low,
enforce homework rules. Work out a temporary system in which you initial
the assignment notebook and communicate with the teacher until assignments
are being turned in on a regular basis.
Homework: Find good advice from this "school success
guide" in several categories on:
www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/living/education/15261065.htm
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