For School Success, Don't Coddle Your Kids
Parents want their children to succeed in school. However, sometimes their best intentions are misguided. Attempts to provide children with a wonderful life can, in fact, increase the stress of the entire family.
Parents want their children to succeed in school. However, sometimes their
best intentions are misguided. Attempts to provide children with a wonderful
life can, in fact, increase the stress of the entire family.
"One of
parents’ most common mistakes is to want to make everything easy for their
children," says Fran Santoro Hamilton, parent, teacher, and author of _Hands-On
English_. "It’s painful for parents to see their children struggle. If children
never do anything difficult, however, they never learn that they can
successfully meet a challenge."
Hamilton suggests two dozen things
parents can do to promote their children’s success in school:
• Make
school attendance a family priority. Try to schedule doctors’ appointments and
family vacations when school is not in session. Have your child arrive at school
in time to organize for the day.
• Show your child that you consider
school to be important. Attend parent meetings and conferences. Talk with your
child about school. Don’t overemphasize grades.
• Read to and with your
child. Let your child also see you reading alone.
• Either rule out or
treat physical difficulties that may impede learning.
• Don’t
overschedule your child. Be sure at least three hours between school and bedtime
are free of extracurricular activities.
• Encourage healthy sleep
patterns. Because of the changes their bodies are undergoing, adolescents
actually require more sleep than younger children.
• Have your child
resume the school sleep schedule well before school opens. After the child has
arisen early and eaten breakfast, have him or her engage in a productive
activity, such as reading, writing, or working math problems, for at least an
hour.
• Purchase school supplies at least a week before school opens. Be
scrupulous about purchasing the exact items teachers have specified. Don’t send
your child to school with supplies that are not on the list.
• Provide
your child with nutritious foods (limited in sugar, fats, caffeine, and
additives). Be sure your child starts the day with breakfast.
• Make
dinner a family activity, complete with conversation on a wide range of
topics.
• Provide a place, with minimal distractions, for your child to
study. Be sure the study area is well lit, well ventilated, and equipped with
all the supplies your child is likely to need: pencils and pens, dictionary,
ruler, stapler, etc. Have this area set up prior to the opening of
school.
• Establish a definite time each day for homework, reading, or
other academic activities.
• Don’t allow TV or video games in the morning
before school. Limit total time for these activities to 10 hours per
week.
• Don’t give your child everything he or she wants. Doing so will
teach the child that desires can be satisfied without work.
• Be sure
your child has household chores to complete without reminders.
• Help
your child develop the habit of writing all assignments in an assignment
notebook. It works best if assignments are written on the date they are
due.
• Help your child learn to organize time and materials. Begin to
wean your child from this help as soon as he or she is able to assume partial
responsibility.
• On nights before a test, have your child review
material just before bedtime and then go to sleep without reading or listening
to music. This will aid retention of material studied.
• Make homework
your child’s responsibility. This lets your child know that you recognize him or
her as a capable person.
• Be sure your child gathers together each
evening all the materials that he or she will take to school the next
morning.
• Allow your child to experience the natural consequences of his
or her actions. For example, don’t retrieve things the child forgot.
•
Have realistic expectations for your child. If his or her abilities are slightly
above average, don’t expect the child to be at the top of the class.
•
Recognize that your child’s teachers are striving for the academic, social, and
emotional development of many children besides yours.
• Recognize that
there will be times when your child will be frustrated by a difficult task.
Resist the temptation to solve the problem yourself. Your child will learn and
grow from this experience and will emerge with confidence to face the next
challenge.
A successful school year depends on the cooperative efforts of
parents and teachers -- and, of course, on the students themselves. Each member
of the team must fulfill his or her own responsibilities -- and allow the other
members to fulfill theirs.
_Hands-On English_, a handbook now in its
second edition, also contributes to a successful school year. It gives quick
access to the basics of English and makes grammar visual with symbols to
represent parts of speech. _Hands-On English_ also includes an appendix of tips
for success in school.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/9/prweb155288.htm