10 Back to School Tips for Parents for Creating a Successful Year
1. Ensure your child has the proper work space for doing homework. Provide good lighting so they don’t strain their eyes, and a place where they can work quietly and uninterrupted.
2. Set a house rule that there can be no music or television during home work time. Explain that they will get their home work done more efficiently and accurately without distractions. School work is their job and the most important job they can attend to.
3. Ensure that your child has a good sturdy backpack and teach them to use it correctly. Explain how distributing the weight of their back pack load will reduce the chance of aches and pains and save them long term health problems from strain. Describe what it is like to have severe back pain and how it affects movements and disposition and how you would not want to see your child go through life with problems just because they carried their books wrong!
4. Devote an half hour a week where both you and your child can go to the library. Even if they don’t need library books for their home work, encourage them to read books they enjoy. Good reading habits last a lifetime and will help them with many future skills both inside school and beyond. Let them also witness your interest in reading and spend time discussing your latest books over dinner. Showing an interest in what your child reads will be positive and increase your communication. You will inspire their love for reading and learning.
5. Listen to your child when they talk about their school day. Show you are interested and identify with how they feel about things. If getting them to talk about their school day is like pulling teeth, them make them listen to a stories about when you went to school and what you enjoyed the most and liked the least. Your child will have an opinion and begin to share their experiences with you to see that the two of you have certain things in common about school.
6. Talk about safety issues in relation to school. If they are walking or taking a bike, discuss safety tips. If they are taking the bus, discuss the bus route and getting to the bus stop on time and how to deal with various weather conditions. Give examples of certain scenarios where is a child feels their safety is in danger how they should proceed and what adult they should contact for help.
7. Discuss after school activities and how they will impact transportation, dinner issues and homework and free time. Teach your child to organize their time and give them ideas on how to manage their daily life by talking about all their daily school related and home tasks and creating a to-do list so your child always feels prepared. Make sure your child is getting adequate sleep and can handle the load of after school activities.
8. Praise your child on anything worth praising. Tell them you are proud at how hard they are working or how impressed you are with certain talents they have exhibited. Compliment them on certain personality traits you feel will make them a successful person both in school and as an adult beyond school. Teach them confidence and have high expectations for them to be successful. High expectations does not mean you demand perfection, it means you continually show them you believe they are successful and can be successful by applying their efforts and willingness to learn. Explain to them that their interest and self-discipline will pay off both in relationships and in finding a career they will love.
9. If a child asks for help with home-work, help them. It doesn’t mean you give them answers, but you teach them how to tackle the problem. If you teach them how to solve a question they will learn reading comprehension and gain confidence in tacking future problems on their own before just running to you for an answer or help. Teach them not to give up. If you are busy when they ask for help, tell them you will schedule a time before bedtime when you can help them and stick to it. They can move on to the rest of their school work and deal with the unsolved issue when you can devote your full attention.
10. If your child is bring lunch to school, discuss their lunch options and pack the lunch the night before. Discuss also what you can add to the grocery list as after school snacks or healthy lunches they enjoy. Insist your child has breakfast before school, even if it is something as simple as an apple or a smoothie or a granola bar. Explain how food equals fuel for the body and processed sugar will just slow them down. If they want cereal, show them how they can have sweetened cereals without being sugary cereals. Adding fresh or dried fruits to cold or hot cereals can be tasty and energizing.
