Do You Know How to Help Your Child with School?

Is your child making the grade? If not, these tips can help.

What You Need to Know

Parents are often concerned about their child’s performance in school. As a rule, two groups of students need extra help in a typical classroom situation: students with below average mental skills and students with average mental skills who are nevertheless falling behind. The first group may need tutoring or extra home instruction; the latter may need special education because of a learning disability.

Whatever your child’s situation, you can help her improve in the following areas:

• Homework. It’s important for your child to do her homework and know that you are there to help her but not do it for her.
• Study skills. Help her study effectively by starting well in advance of a test and providing a quiet place and consistent time for both study and homework.
• Organization. Your child needs all of her papers, assignments, and materials to do her work, so help her get organized and keep track of what she needs to do.
• Class participation. If your child doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do for an assignment, it may be because she isn’t participating in class. Talk to the teacher about your child’s participation and ways to boost it.
• Work and study habits. Develop these by communicating your high expectations, teaching your child good work and study skills, monitoring your child’s progress, and rewarding her for using the skills.

How You Can Help

• Break down the grade. Find out what elements will make up the whole grade and how much weight each has. A chart in the full article can help you assess how much of a grade is based on class work, homework, or projects.
• Refer to the Center for Effective Parenting or education.com for tips on how to help your child in each of the five areas mentioned here.

For more information about learning and grades, please see the full article:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Improving_Your_Child/