Helping Your Child Succeed

Here are three questions to ask yourself:

What do you want and expect for your child when he or she is an adult?
What do they need now to achieve all you want for them?
What can we do better with you to assure they receive all they need?

The more involved parents are with the school the better the student achieves in school and the better the student feels. Here are several important ways you can make a difference in your child’s education.

Show an interest in what your child is learning.

Ask many questions about what they are learning. Four questions you can choose from to begin a conversation that will help the thinking process are:
What do you know today that you did not know yesterday?
What do you want to learn about tomorrow that you do not know now?
What can you do today that you could not do yesterday?
What do you want to do tomorrow that you cannot do today?

Ask them to teach you what they are learning, regardless of their age. Teaching is a great way to increase understanding. You do not need to know the content to have a great learning experience with your child. All that is needed to be successful is your interest. Some questions you can ask include:
What ideas are you learning about in math class that you can help me understand?
Are there any other ways to think about or solve that problem?
What book are you reading?
What is it about?
Why do you think the author wrote it?
Do any of the characters remind you of characters from other books?
Do any of the characters remind you of real people you know?
Do any of the characters remind you of you?
Can you teach me a song you sing in music class?
What is your favorite?
What sport are you learning in gym class?

Show an interest in what your child does at school.

Ask questions about the social aspects of the school day.
What happened today?
What was the best thing about your day?
What was the funniest thing that happened today?
What was the most enjoyable part of your day?
What was the hardest thing you had to do today?

Communicate with your child’s teacher(s).

Call the school to speak with your child’s teacher.

Send a note and ask your child’s teacher to respond.

E-mail your child’s teacher if that is more convenient for you. Contact the school if you want a teacher's e-mail address.

Visit the school.

Be sure to attend “back-to-school” nights, conferences, open houses and student performances.
Help your child’s teacher, particularly during special events such as field trips and performances.

Learning is what your brain does best.

Everyone becomes more intelligent by learning to think better. We become better thinkers when we test our ideas, make mistakes, practice skills and generate new knowledge in a supportive environment. The opportunity to think better comes from engaging in long-term projects, discussions, research, creating, building, designing and reflecting. We do not become smarter by studying a narrow range of responses needed for a test even though in the short-term that may help earn a higher grade. Smart people get smart not by knowing all the answers, but by being better thinkers and making good choices. Interacting with your children is a better way for them to learn than trying to teach them.

Assuring your children have healthy food, plenty of water, sleep, and physical activity is the best way to prepare them for learning. Did you know that your brain is only about 2% of your body’s weight but it consumes about 20% of all your energy? Its primary source of energy is the eight gallons of nutrient rich blood circulating through it every hour. Your brain needs eight to twelve glasses of water a day to function optimally.

Learning is messy! The single best way to increase learning is through problem solving. Use real life age appropriate problems to notice how effectively they solve them. Do you notice in your discussions with them that they are thinking more clearly and deeply? Are they making better choices?

Children are highly adaptable and context dependent. The more negatives we can remove the more they will flourish. Parenting and teaching can be stressful, demanding, complicated, and challenging jobs that can push us to our physical, emotional, and psychological limits. That is why we want to create the most positive learning environments enabling our children to fulfill their potential.