Making Your Child Successful in School....
Giving your child the best opportunity to succeed and excel in
school starts at home and extends into the classroom.

Involving Yourself in the Classroom..

• Talk to your teacher about visiting classroom; a visit will give you an idea of what your child does at school and how he or she interacts with other children.

• Talk to your teacher about volunteering to help in the classroom as an assistant (listening to children read, for example, or serving as an aide during computer work).

• Support student events and performances by helping with them (such as sewing costumes or painting scenery for a school play) and by attending them.

• Participate in workshops that are offered, such as those on child development or concerns that parents have (or help plan such workshops).

• Take advantage of parent-teacher contracts (perhaps agreeing to read with your child for a certain amount of time each night).
• Ask your child's teacher if he or she has materials that you can use to help your child at home and to supplement homework.

Helping With Homework...

• Reward progress; use lots of praise; display good work.
• Find out how much and what type of homework is assigned in each class, how students are expected to prepare it and turn it in, and what students can do when they don't understand something; help your child manage the workload by dividing it into small doses.
• Help your child develop a homework schedule that he or she can stick to.
• Talk to your child each day about homework assignments; go over work; see if it's complete; ask questions about it. But don't do your child's homework yourself.
• Provide a suitable place for study (if possible, make it quiet and away from the distractions of TV, phone, and loud music).

• Avoid making homework a punishment.

Learning at Home...

• Have high expectations for your child's learning and behavior, both at home and at school.
• Praise and encourage your child.
• Emphasize effort and achievement, and be a role model for getting work done before play.
• Establish rules and routines in the home.
• Monitor television viewing.
• Limit after-school jobs and activities.
• Encourage your child to share information about school and respond with empathy.

• If you don't do anything else, read to your young child or have him or her read to you every night. Encourage older children to read by reading yourself and by having interesting and appropriate materials available.