Fourth Grade: Supporting Your Child as a Parent

Parents want to help their children build self-esteem, develop creativity and reach physical, social, emotional and intellectual potential. This newsletter will help you better understand your fourth-grader. It will be distributed each month of the school year.

Responsibility and independence are the major differences between primary and intermediate grades. It becomes the child's responsibility to complete daily assignments and homework on time. Homework helps your child learn to work and think independently, a major development for children this age.

In the primary grades, your child was learning to read. In the intermediate grades, your child is reading to learn. Reading is a tool through which children will learn about subjects. Continue to encourage reading for enjoyment by reading to and with children at home.

Settling into a structured school day may be difficult for children after a carefree summer. Help make this transition easier by making sure your fourth-grader is getting plenty of rest, a nutritious diet and a little extra nurturing.

Supporting Your Child

Parents play a crucial role in providing their children with the values and skills essential for success in school and in later life. To motivate children to do their best, parents need to:

• Relate personal experiences and family stories that reinforce the message that effort, persistence and good character count.
• Give children responsibilities at home to foster self-reliance, industriousness, resourcefulness.
• Teach children to plan ahead by requiring them to place schoolwork and household chores before play.
• Recognize and encourage positive behavior, efforts and performance as well as correcting misconduct.
• Encourage children to work to the best of their abilities in school and to make the effort needed to succeed in their studies.
• Establish family rules (by such things as setting curfews and restricting activities during the school week) that provide youngsters with structure and a guide to their actions.
• Expect to see homework assignments. Parents should question their children if homework appears to be too excessive. Fourth grade is a time to introduce children to homework and help them adjust to being responsible for their work. Homework should not be given every day. Fourth graders need to adjust gradually without being overwhelmed.
• Make effective use of leisure time at home. Talk to children about their experiences to help them extract meaning from events. This skill is important to success at school. Also, limit the amount of time children spend watching television and monitor their choice of programs.
• Show support for the school and teachers. Get children to school on time, regularly and with needed schoolwork and supplies. Support school disciplinary measures, and work with the school to meet the child's needs. Get to know the teachers, attend school meetings and contact the school with concerns.
• Learn about the school's expectations and practices by talking directly with the principal and teachers and visiting the classroom.
• Join with other parents to improve the school. A group of parents working together, such as through PTA, is more effective than just one person. Volunteer to spend time at school at least once during the year to read a story, chaperone a field trip, or teach a special lesson or science experiment. Teachers appreciate support and your children will know you value their education.

Families and schools working together provide the best possible environment for the schooling of children.