Help Them Be Successful In School

There is so much parents can do to prepare a nurturing environment and increase their children's excellence in scholastic pursuits, enhance their reading capacities, and promote an atmosphere of life-long learning.


Read to and with Children from an Early Age

Reading to a child from a very young age as part of his daily routine cannot be over-emphasized as an important foundation for success in formal schooling. Parents of a young child should arrange schedules as much as possible to allow for a quiet time each day when reading is done together by parent and child. Yes, for many years you will be doing the reading and rereading of favorite books while the child will mostly be listening, but by this modeling you will establish the habit in the child’s life of stopping, sitting, concentrating, and learning.

You see, a child will learn more from a book he desires to read and retain more of what he does read when he has chosen a book of interest to him. Cultivate the opportunity and capacity to read in your family every day!

Eventually, the children will pick up books on their own and look through them. Finally, they will begin to desire to read on their own. Patiently read to them, encouraging their reading capacity by involvement in simple books, and eventually challenging them to be the main reader of the book. Books should take precedence over TV, movies, videos, and any other kind of “non-participatory” entertainment.

You must read, too, as part of your daily routine, so they see it is a high priority in your life. For mothers this can be difficult with the many projects that must remain temporarily undone in order to read in front of your children, but read you must if you want them to read, too.

This daily reading is continued during their formal schooling years but happens usually after they have arrived home from school. Continue to read a chapter or two of a book of interest to them each afternoon until they refuse to cooperate in their teenage years. Then continue to read to the younger ones when they come home and you will find your teenagers just within ear shot to participate in the latest novel you are exploring as a family.

Again, create a reading love affair in your home to establish the basis for good homework habits, success in school, and a lifetime love of learning.


Create a Functional Home Library

I believe the home environment is enhanced with an open dictionary located under a spot lamp which is easy to turn on in a main area of the home. There should also be sturdy books to chew for the youngest members of the family, treasured books each member of the family owns with their names written in the front and permission to mark in the books when they desire to make notes or underline important paragraphs. There should be books borrowed from libraries, read and returned on a regular basis to fill out your family’s reading experiences to include frequent “field trips” to larger, more expansive libraries in your locality.

You might also consider storing an encyclopedia set near the kitchen table for answering questions and clarifying issues during dinnertime conversations. How much a family can learn with the answers at hand!


Have Homework Standards

When your children begin school, you will need to establish some important daily habits for homework completion. Set up a quiet and secluded place within your ever watchful supervision where children can do their homework.

For instance, have a quiet hour after school when the kitchen table is the “homework” area with the rules of no talking, no face-making, and no silly noises. In other words, there is a serious attempt to keep children focused on their homework.

Or, you might let older children retire to their bedrooms to complete this work. A personal desk in the child’s bedroom is very helpful for homework. With a small overhead book shelf, personal office supplies, and a good lamp, homework time also becomes a time to be alone, think, wonder, and dream (which sometimes isn’t exactly the idea). But if the child is left in his room until the homework is done and can’t do anything until then, he will soon get to the task.

When the homework is complete, check its correctness, and then talk to your child about what has been done right and wrong. After making the necessary corrections to his homework, the child is free to pursue other, more attractive activities.

Have a regular time for homework. Some families let their children play at home for an hour after school gets out and then the family gathers back home for homework. This tends to get out the wiggles, refresh their minds, and make them more likely to get it done expediently.

Other families find that it is better to feed their children a snack, pull out the books, and get the homework done before any friends are allowed into the house or the children are allowed to go out and play.

Motivating with “before…” is an effective technique for seeking cooperation. Children will do little, if anything, without some motivation to keep their energy up through the process of homework. It is helpful to always remind them of something wonderful or interesting that will follow. “We will watch a short video when you are done!” “There is a piece of chocolate cake at dinner tonight for everyone who gets their homework done and corrected before Dad gets home!” “You may have John over when you homework is done!” Set a pattern of homework first and then pleasures afterward.

Some children need more supervision and encouragement than others. Sometimes a child will struggle with a skill long past the normal time for children to be competent at that skill. Patiently work each day with the child, helping her and motivating her with attention and encouragement. It may take longer to get the homework done than usual, but once this child understands, she will turn out to be more competent and skillful than anticipated. Usually, a child will hit her stride and off she will go to become more independent, self-motivating, and creative than you could have ever expected, all because of your continued nurturing and care.

So set a time, find a place, get creative with motivators, and be patient with the “slower” ones. Soon homework routines will become a natural part of your children’s days and they will understand that you mean business when you say it is “homework” time. And, they will be much better students for your diligence.

Every day you help them get through their homework, check it, and then have them correct it, is one day closer to them turning out to be mature, delightful, creative adults who will thank you frequently for being there during this critical time of their lives.


Learn Right the First Time

While there are many opinions about how to initiate teaching with children, especially when there is only one right answer as when learning spelling words or multiplication facts, it is better to tell the right answer upfront than to have the child guess at the answer, get it wrong, and then have to learn it right. Is it just better to teach things the right way first than to have children guess “wrong” and have to learn twice: once to unlearn and the second time to relearn it right.


Memorize for Fun

Many times during a child’s educational experience, memorization will be needed. A parent can help this process along the way by teaching children how to memorize from an early age. It is easiest to start with simple rhymes or songs and then advance to longer and more complex ditties. This process of focusing on memorization can take place while driving in the car, walking to school, and waiting at the doctor’s office. It can be fun, but it will take the creative nurturing of an interested adult.

The adult who teaches a child to say the alphabet backwards, for instance, is not only teaching a valuable skill for filing papers, searching in a dictionary for words, or for other needs, this adult is also having a good time showing a child that memorization is a process of review, try it, review again, try it more, review again, and finally get it.

“Marci, we have to sit in the doctor’s office for about ten more minutes before the doctor will see us. I’m trying to learn the alphabet backwards. Do you want to join me? Let’s write it out so we can have a reference sheet while we learn. What do you think will be the first three letters in a backwards alphabet?”

There is much parents can do to create a rich, full, endearing, and creative atmosphere for their children. Reading every day will lay the foundation, careful monitoring of homework each day, teaching them “right” the first time, and nurturing the memorization process will greatly enhance a child’s formal education and make it fun to learn and be successful in school. “Z, Y, X…here we go on the Backwards Alphabet!”

© 2009 Marie Calder Ricks/www.houseoforder.com