Helping Your Child Do Well in School

What parents do at home can be very important in children’s school success. The purpose of this piece of writing is to discuss the importance of parents and the family in children’s school learning, and to discuss some things parents can do at home to help children do well in school.

Parents Matter!

Researchers looked at the differences in the average performance of 8th graders’ mathematics scores among 37 states. They found three factors that accounted for almost all the difference:

• Students missing too much school
• Variety of reading materials in the home
• Too much TV watching.

In other words, most of the differences in learning across states can be explained by what goes on in the home.

What you do at home with your child is powerful! In fact, research studies have found that what you do to help your child is more important than how much money or education you have.

Parents who are more involved in their children’s education are able to get their children to do more homework. And research has shown that students who do more homework learn more.

Four STEPS PARENTS CAN TAKE To help THEIR child be more successful at school

Read Together

The first and perhaps most important activity you can do at home to help your child do well in school is to read with him. Reading out loud to children is the single most important activity you can do at home to help your child learn to read well. Reading to children and listening to them read is related to success in school. However, only one half of parents with children under age 9 say they read to them every day, and only 13% of parents read to their children during the ages of 9 to 15. Below are some reading activities you can do with your child.

• Read out loud to your child every day. Spend about 15 minutes or more every day and read something interesting to your child. You can also spend time listening to her read to you.
• You can take your child to the library and help him get a library card.
• Help your child find interesting things to read. Help your child find books related to her interests and hobbies. Your child needs to learn that reading can be enjoyable. In school, she has to read what is assigned, but she also can read for her own pleasure. So, help her find books that will be of interest to her.

Use TV Wisely

If your child is spending too much time watching TV, he will not have time to do other important activities, like reading, playing, talking, doing homework, or doing a hobby. Your child needs to spend time doing these things in order to learn and grow as a person.
Surveys of parents show that most parents want to limit their children’s TV viewing. This is hard to do if you work or are not at home.
Research has also shown that children who watch more than 10 hours of TV a week, or more than 2 hours per day, learn less than children who watch less TV. This means that the more TV children watch over 10 hours, the less they are likely to learn.
Below are some things you can do with your child and TV.