Tips for School Success

1. Learning happens gradually, so your kids will need your help and encouragement throughout the school year, including, lessons on the benefits of hard work and on the importance of not giving up - ever!

2. Learning requires confidence, so help your children believe in themselves.

3. Learning is not just something that happens at school, and learning is not just dependent on formal lessons. Families that are involved, interested, and curious can foster learning all the time.

4. Show your kids that you have a positive attitude toward learning. Your children watch how you react when you try to master a skill, show interest in a new topic, spend time at a museum, do puzzles, read and seek answers.

5. Follow-up on your child’s interests by providing materials, books, and experiences on things they want to learn about. There’s no limit to the ways you can follow-up on your child’s interests.

6. Help your children find activities they’re interested in that meet their needs and allow them to explore a hobby or skill as fully as they desire.

7. Encourage your children to go beyond the school’s lessons when they show an interest in an academic subject.

8. Talk to your children regularly about their schoolwork, their interests, and current events that are at their level of understanding.

9. Have a lot of discussions that revolve around sports, the environment, history, popular entertainment, space exploration, fashion, music, or animals. As long as the subject is interesting to your children, the talk will be valuable.

10. Listen carefully to their opinions and questions. That way, they’ll learn to see themselves as an important part of family talks.

11. Don’t give negative judgments about your child’s progress or compare your children’s achievements to their siblings or their friends. They’ll do better academically without that pressure.

12. Leave a dictionary and encyclopedia out - yes hard copies! - that can be read, explored and discussed at the kitchen table. Increase your child’s vocabulary by using new words and post new words on the refrigerator.

13. Take trips to the zoo, museums, nature centers, concerts, events, and children’ plays together. Watch educational programs together, particularly ones on nature. Talk about what you watch and experience together.

14. Make learning a pleasurable, shared experience, and your children will join in.

Your relationship with your child’s teacher also fosters school success:

1. Listen carefully to suggestions from your child’s teacher.

2. Let teachers know if there are problems at home. Read school newsletters and notices, attend meetings and comfortably discuss your child’s behavior. Ask questions about what you can do at home to foster learning and more cooperative behavior.

3. Respect the teacher’s standards, be mindful of your expectations and tone, and work cooperatively with your child’s teacher.

Most important - a fun, loving, and nurturing home that emphasizes the value of learning, honesty, being nice and a generosity of spirit, will help your child develop school success!