Pointers for Parents

Parent Tutor employees, as well as several guest writers who are experts in their field, contributed content contained in Pointers for Parents. Authors include Melinda Allman, Lisa Hannich, Alexandra Mercer, Megan Moore, Dr. James Rivet, and April Roethel.

HEALTH

Immunizations
Are your child’s immunizations up to date? In the last five years, the Hepatitis B series and chickenpox shot have been introduced. This means that most younger children have gotten these immunizations as part of their regular immunizations, but older children (10-12 year olds) may not have received them.  Some older children may also need a tetanus booster, as they are usually administered every ten years. If you use an Internet search engine, you can locate the immunizations that are required by your state. Simply type "required immunizations" followed by your state’s name on the search line.

Back-to-School Sleep Habits
Bedtime- almost all parents shudder when they hear the word. The end of summer usually means a change in bedtime and sleep routines. Many children go to bed later and also sleep later during the summer break, which means  bedtime routines often have to be altered for the start of school. The easiest way to transition back to the school year sleep routine is gradually. Try to move your child’s bedtime up by half-an-hour the week prior to the start of school. Only you know how much sleep your child requires, so it will be up to you to decide the appropriate bedtime that will allow your child an adequate amount of sleep on school days. Not getting enough sleep is a major cause of school performance problems and can lead to behavioral and attention problems in children. Remember, some children require more sleep than others do. Observe your child’s behavior to gauge if he or she is getting the proper amount of sleep.

How Much Sleep Is Enough Sleep?

Physicians have long advocated the importance of adequate sleep in order for the human brain to function properly. As children have to rise earlier on school days, it’s important their bedtimes are early enough to allow them the proper amount of sleep. Recent studies have shown that many school-aged children do not get enough sleep. Many physicians recommend that children ages 5 to 9 require 10-11 hours of sleep per night, children between the ages of 10 and 14 need 9-10 hours of sleep, and those 14 to 18 years of age need 8 to 9 hours nightly. The simple reason that many children don’t receive adequate sleep is that parents are unaware of children’s sleep requirements. Many parents mistakenly assume that like adults, children only need eight hours. Remember, children are still growing, and their bodies are often undergoing changes and growth that adult bodies no longer experience.

Why is Good Nutrition so Important for Children?
Children are growing, and their bodies and brains need fuel to stimulate the growth process. Inadequate nutrition can stunt this growth and affect a child’s brain and behavior. Sugary drinks, candy, white breads, processed meats, and countless other non-nutritious foods can cause many problems for children both at school and at home. Excessive sugar intake can lead to hyperactivity, obesity, and poor concentration. Students who don’t have a healthy diet often have more trouble concentrating in school than their healthy-eating peers. In addition, children who ingest high levels of caffeine often experience sleep problems, causing them to be tired and less attentive in class. Experts say that many behavioral problems can be managed, or at least improved, by changing a child’s diet and making sure he or she eats healthy, low-sugar foods.

What Kinds of Things Can Parents Do to Foster Good Nutritional Habits in Their Children?
Learning healthy habits starts early. Even preschoolers can be taught the difference between healthy and “junk” foods. As children grow, they can take more of an active role in their health. School-age children can help plan shopping lists, assist with meals, and help pack their own lunches. Parents can also take to heart the following tips to make healthy eating a part of daily life. Make it fun- children like bright colors, finger foods, and fun shapes. The advertisers who market sugary snacks know and use this to entice children to beg for their products. There’s no reason parents can’t use the same methods to foster healthy eating. Bite-sized pieces of fruit, baby carrots, peanut butter sandwiches cut into shapes, and egg salad sculpted to look like a fish all make eating healthy meals and snacks fun.

Backpack Concern
A topic of concern in many schools in recent years involves the back injuries that children are experiencing due to heavy textbooks that they are required to transport to and from school. As children move to the higher grades, it’s common to have more textbooks and also more homework, which requires the transport of books. Physicians are seeing an increase in the amount of cases involving children who have low-level, chronic back trauma, as well as chronic shoulder, neck, and back pain. There are several things that you can do as a parent to help minimize the injuries associated with carrying a heavy backpack, including the following:

Safety
It’s important to discuss safety with your child, especially if he or she walks or rides a bike to school. Review rules such as wearing a bike helmet, walking or riding on sidewalks only, and obeying all traffic signals and stop signs. Remind your child to exercise caution around strangers. The following Web sites offer valuable information about safety that you can share with your child.

www.nsc.org
www.aap.org 

READ, READ, READ

Read To Your Child from a Young Age
Read to your child as soon and as often as possible. Starting with your little one’s first night at home isn’t too soon. Many parents make stories part of the nighttime routine. Try to incorporate reading into active parts of your child’s day, as well. That way, he or she can see how to hold a book and follow along with you. You can help your child by pointing to words as you read and asking questions about the book. It’s never too late to start reading to your child. If you have an older child, see the next tip about reading with your child.

Read With Your Child
Perhaps your nine-year-old daughter is old enough to read a story by herself. What about reading with her instead of to her? To do this, simply choose a book that is a little more difficult than the books she normally reads. Sit with her and read aloud, allowing her to join in whenever she likes. This is especially helpful with elementary age children who might be interested in longer stories, for example, The Secret Garden or The Hobbit. This activity can take weeks, so it’s a wonderful way to monitor your child’s reading abilities. You can do the things teachers do every day, such as help decipher difficult words, or discuss the more complex elements of the text, such as character motive and plot.

Find Reading Materials that Interest Your Child
Remember, reading doesn’t necessarily mean “literature.” If you can’t get your son to read the school’s assigned books, try using a different approach. Magazines, newspapers, and comic books all count as reading materials. Reading means more than understanding the words on a page. In order to truly read, one must understand things like author purpose, plot, and theme. If you can find a type of reading that your child enjoys, you can discuss these things with him. For example, if you notice that your son likes to watch superhero cartoons, extend this to reading comic books. You can ask the same questions about comic books as you do about a novel or short story. “What happened first?” “Who are the main characters?” “What was the problem, and how was it solved?” Tackling these questions with texts your child enjoys will make them easier to tackle with other texts. You can also look for informational texts that focus on some of your child’s interests. Remember, there are magazines dedicated entirely to video games, popular music, and sports. These choices can tempt even the most reluctant readers.

Go to the Public or School Library
The school’s media center and the public library offer excellent tools for all types of readers. Librarians are experts and hold a wealth of knowledge about reading. You can ask the librarian to help you find books on specific topics, as well as books that would be suited to your child’s reading abilities. You can even ask the librarian about books to help build reading skills. The library should have vocabulary and spelling books, as well as poetry and short stories for your child. Many libraries have activities for children, such as puppet shows, story telling, and movies. Check your local library for activities your child might enjoy.

Encourage Independent Reading

Look for texts that will interest your child, and involve him or her in the reading selection process. Find anything that will hold his or her interest: books, magazines, newspapers, or online sources of information.

Track what and how much your child reads. You can even offer rewards for finishing books. For example, for each completed book, he or she receives a sticker. After ten books, you could go out for ice cream or a favorite treat.

Need some help choosing books? There is one easy step to get you started — determine your child’s interests. You can even ask your child what things he or she likes. If your child doesn’t like to read, avoid questions like, “What books should we pick?” or “What would you like to read about?”. Instead, choose a book or magazine for him or her, saying, “I picked up this book on trucks for you. It has a picture of that truck you were talking about last week.” You could also say, “I noticed this magazine has an article about that clothing designer you were talking about last week.”

BACK TO SCHOOL

Communicate with Your Child

Summer’s end brings us to the beginning of a new school year. While many parents look forward to the start of school, many others feel anxious when they think about the challenges that their children will face. Not only are kids faced with the typical educational and social stresses associated with going to school, but they also must deal with many issues that many of their parents never encountered. Violence, drug use, and bullies are just a few of these issues. That is why communicating with your child is so important. Discussing such issues with your child is likely to decrease her chances of becoming involved in risky or dangerous situations. Talking with your child also opens the lines of communication; it will be easier for your child to approach you with concerns during the school year if you’ve discussed them prior to the start of the school year. Also, ask your child questions about school so you can better understand how she feels about it. The following are good questions to start with.

• Does your child like school?
• Is there anything that she worries about?
• Does she have friends at school?
• What does she do when she has free time at lunch or recess?
• Does she feel safe at school?

Questions such as these can make it easier for your child to open up about problems she may be having at school.

Help Your Child to be Prepared and Organized

Set up a workspace for your child. Depending on your child’s age, it may be a small table or desk in the bedroom or play area. Consider the following:

·        Keep it clear of  distractions, such as radio and television.

·        Keep an eye on the workspace. If your child is working independently, stop by occasionally to check progress and make sure your child is on task.

·        Help your child keep the area organized and clean.

·        Have your child do school-related activities in the study space, even if your child does not have homework. For example, practice writing the alphabet, short words, or sentences in the study space.

The following steps should be taken with respect to your child’s workspace:

1. Location of desk at home is key
2. Room should be well lit
3. Desk should have plenty of room for school supplies and computer
4. Desk should be well equipped with all necessary materials
5. Work area needs to be comfortable
6. Communication with teacher about where your child sits at school is also important
7.  Desk at school should be clean and safe

Materials
At the start of each school year, teachers usually give a list of materials that are required for their class. Many of these items are obvious things, such as a dictionary, a thesaurus, a plentiful supply of paper, pens, pencils, a protractor, a ruler, a computer (in some cases), software, and the list becomes deeper and deeper as the student progresses in age. This list is indicative of the items that your child needs for both school use, as well as for use at home. Take this list seriously! Save the list and look back over it periodically to see that the supplies that your child needs are always available and easily accessible. Again, as adults, when we think about our surroundings in our own offices, we do our best to make sure that we are comfortable and have all of the adequate supplies we need to perform each of our daily tasks. The same should apply to your child. At home, they more than likely will need a filing cabinet to store their papers, a trashcan, a pencil sharpener, a stapler, paper clips, scissors, along with all of the other office supplies and some amenities to add comfort.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

Ten Steps to Becoming a Successful Parent Tutor

1. Read through the entire Parent Tutor activity before discussing it with your child.
   • Visit any included links prior to beginning the activity to ensure that the content is suitable for your child.
   • If you’re unclear about part of the activity, ask your child’s teacher.
2. Gather any necessary items needed prior to beginning the activity.
3. Choose a "work place" to complete the activities each week. Designate the space as study space, and keep it clear from other distractions, such as radio or television.
4. Pay attention to your child’s responses.
   • If he or she seems confused, slow down and repeat information. Review prior activities if necessary.
   • If he or she seems to already understand the information, allow your child to work more independently. Be available for questions and encouragement.
5. Keep other sources on hand for clarification. Things you might want to have close by include a dictionary, the child’s textbook, and access to the Internet.
6. Be aware of how much time the activity will take.
   • Give yourself enough time to complete the activity with your child. For example, a weekend day would be better than a night when your child has an after-school commitment.
   • Plan accordingly. Many activities require your child to complete part of it over a period of days and then share results with you.
7. Remember, your child isn’t expected to master each activity on the first try. You may need to review the activity at a later date or follow up with your child as the school year progresses.
8. Encourage and reward your child for hard work.
   • Be supportive if your child makes a mistake and remember that he or she might not immediately understand a concept.
   • Respond with claps, hugs, or a special treat when your child understands a particular skill or answers questions correctly. Treats might include a favorite activity like playing a video game, a favorite snack, stickers, gum, notebooks, etc.
9. Share your child’s success with friends and family. Post completed work on a bulletin board, the refrigerator, or the wall.
10. Have fun!

What Type of Learner Is my Child?

There are three widely recognized learning styles that most learners utilize when learning new information. Identifying your child’s learning style will enable you to help your child take advantage of his strengths and improve his weaknesses to become a more successful, confident learner. While the following three styles are defined and described separately, many people find that their child often fits characteristics of more than one style and are combination learners.

Visual learners learn through seeing. Often, visual learners observe a teacher’s facial expressions and body language to help them understand a lesson’s content. Visual learners sometimes think in pictures and learn most successfully from visual displays including the following:

• Handouts
• Flip charts
• Illustrated textbooks
• Overhead transparencies
• Diagrams
• Videos

Auditory learners learn through listening. People who are auditory learners can often interpret unspoken meanings of speech simply by listening to tone of voice, speed, and pitch. Unlike visual learners, auditory learners may not comprehend written information until it is heard. Simply seeing the information presented is often not enough. Not surprisingly, these learners often benefit from using a tape recorder to record lectures or discussion, or even reading the material aloud.

If your child is an auditory learner, consider asking her to review material aloud.  For example, she could spell words orally when she is studying for a spelling test. Auditory learners depend on the following to learn new concepts or material:

• Discussions
• Verbal lectures
• Auditory tapes
• Talking things through
• Listening to others
• Making up songs to help them learn material, and then singing them

Tactile/Kinesthetic learners learn best through doing, moving, and touching. People who are tactile/kinesthetic learn best through a hands-on approach. They feel most comfortable exploring the physical world around them. Not surprisingly, these learners often find it difficult to sit still for extended periods and become easily distracted.

You probably have a good idea by now if your child fits into this category (or is a combination of another style and tactile/kinesthetic). If your child fits into this category, consider allowing him to take short study breaks when he’s doing his homework so that he doesn’t become frustrated and lose focus.

Kinesthetic learners learn best when using the following techniques:

• Acting out a story or historical scene
• Singing and dancing a rhyme to help remember a concept
• Performing an experiment
• Using manipulatives (objects) to help solve mathematical problems

Get Involved in Your Child’s Education

Be as involved as possible so your child knows there will be consequences for missing assignments or "forgetting" to do homework. If you maintain a high level of involvement now, you’ll be able to back off when your child gets older, knowing you’ve instilled good habits.

• Show interest in your child’s schoolwork.
• Offer encouragement while he works.
• Post completed projects, pictures, or other work on the refrigerator or bulletin board.
• Make sure your child completes all assignments on time.
• Set clear expectations about education, and find out what interests your child. Often, you can use these interests to relate to homework or help your child find a book that he will enjoy.
• Contact your child’s teacher at the beginning of the school year to open the lines of communication. If possible, set up a parent-teacher conference so that you can learn the teacher’s expectations and policies early on.
• Be positive! Encourage your child to try his best on all academic material. Ask him if he is having difficulty in any of his classes, and if he is, contact his teacher to make sure that she is aware. Ask what you can do at home to help your child. Sometimes it can be something as simple as reviewing your child’s homework together.
• Provide your child with academic enrichment whenever possible. This can include things such as visiting a museum, your public library, cultural fairs in your town, etc. Check your local newspaper to see what free events are taking place each weekend that might interest your child.

Does Parental Involvement Really Make a Difference?

Research has shown that the following types of parental involvement have a positive impact on student achievement:

• Offering a stimulating learning environment
• Emphasizing effort versus ability
• Setting high expectations and giving your child academic support
• Completing learning activities with your child
• Monitoring the amount of television watched and the completion of homework

Enrichment

When parents learn that their child excels academically, it is not unusual for the topic of “skipping” a grade to arise. This is an example of vertical curriculum expansion, or acceleration. That is, students are challenged with skills at a higher grade level. Because many students aren’t socially advanced or mature enough to successfully transition to a grade that doesn’t correlate with their chronological age, parents and teachers need to look for other ways to challenge gifted students. Likewise, some students excel in one particular subject area, but perform on grade level in others. Such students also need to be challenged in the area in which they are advanced.

 Horizontal curriculum expansion, commonly known as enrichment, is one alternative to acceleration. As an alternative to providing the student with advanced texts (vertical expansion), the teacher can challenge the student with higher-level thinking skills that are based on the grade-level standard or objective. The teacher offers skills at a higher level that require the student to use critical thinking skills. Critical thinking involves logical thinking and reasoning, including skills such as comparison, classification, sequencing, cause/effect, analogies, deductive and inductive reasoning, planning, hypothesizing, and critiquing or analyzing. A lower-level objective might be, “Identify the main characters in the story.” Examples of higher-level objectives are, “Compare two of the main characters from the story. Which is more important to the story’s ending or outcome? Explain.” These still involve the grade-level reading source but challenge the student to use critical thinking skills to answer the question. Not only do students performing at advanced levels benefit from horizontal expansion (enrichment), but many studies have shown that students who are performing at grade level benefit too.

Set Clear Expectations

You may want to take some time to discuss ground rules and goals for the coming year. Keep your child’s interests and abilities in mind. For example, a math whiz may find it easy to get by with a B, even though he could get an A. You need to decide what’s acceptable for your household. Conversely, a child who works hard but struggles with math, may find it extremely difficult to get an A. Avoid setting unrealistic expectations for this child.

For children in early elementary, we recommend short-term goals. A semester can seem like an eternity to an eight-year-old child. Find out what skills teachers will cover in the coming months, such as writing a sentence, multiplication tables, or identifying the different types of weather. You can set goals for these smaller tasks, as opposed to the overall grade. (This might work for older students, too!)

HOMEWORK

Be the Homework Enforcer

What can you do to ensure that your child completes his homework?

·        Create easy-to-meet deadlines for larger assignments, modeling good planning behaviors. You can create the deadlines with your child’s input.

·        If your child is not turning in assignments on time, then perhaps some form of monitoring is needed. A student is never too old to have their homework monitored.

·        The use of assignment sheets and communication with teacher through phone calls or e-mail are both wonderful ways of keeping the lines of communication open between home and school. We must say, however, that with respect to e-mail, it is the parents’ responsibility to initiate communication so that the teacher is simply responding. The burden should not be with the teacher; responsibility is with the parent.

·          To some extent, homework should be monitored during the younger grades as children are beginning to establish their independence and establishing foundational study habits.

·          If your child is doing well in school and submitting all assignments, be flexible and allow levels of freedom from monitoring if it has been earned.

10 Steps to Conquering Homework

1. Remember the overall purpose for homework - discipline and self-directed learning.
2. Address problems as soon as possible.
3. If needed, request adjustments in the amount of homework your child is given.
4. Establish a designated study time in which the whole family participates.
5. Carefully consider the use of punishments and rewards.
6. Collaborate with your child in regards to punishments and/or rewards.
7. Monitor homework.
8. Use tailor-made assignment sheets.
9. Open up lines of communication between home and school with assignment sheets, telephone calls, or e-mail.
10. As a family, consider yourselves a team that meets regularly to problem solve.

Through homework, we prepare our children for life’s challenges. While growing up, we expose our children to very few opportunities where they become self-directed learners, independent of their teachers and parents. Think about it, our children spend most of their day under the direction of their teachers and parents, with very little time for self-assessment. Through homework, we introduce them to commitment, focus, and organization- traits that become invaluable later in life.

What Can You Do If Your Child Is Struggling With Homework?

If you are wondering how your child is really doing with respect to homework, here’s a good place to start. Examine your son or daughter’s ability to complete assignments. If they are able to work independently and meet the expectations of their teachers, then there is no need to change what is working. If you suspect that your child is beginning to experience difficulty in completing homework assignments according to expectations, it’s always best to address the problem in its early stages. Do realize, however, that from elementary school to middle school, and from middle school to high school, expectations increase exponentially.

There is no magic formula that dictates how much homework a student should have in school. Regardless of the amount, the quality of your child’s homework must be acceptable, presentable, and neat. If you as a parent feel as though your child is receiving too much homework, you have every right to request that the amount be modified. You also have the right to request more homework to challenge your child. Remember, you can always supplement what is taking place in the classroom with tutorial-based software and traditional workbooks that can be purchased at any educational supply store.

Does Your Child Have All the Necessary Tools to Conquer Homework?

If you find that your child consistently forgets homework or chooses not to complete it, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does your child have a comfortable and appropriate area to work? Is the area free from distractions?
• Does your child understand the instructions and possess the necessary skills to complete the assignment?
• Does he have all of the necessary materials?
• Is your child well rested and physically well? (It’s difficult to focus on homework when a child is tired or sick.)
• Is the work too easy or too difficult for your child? If this is consistently true, contact the teacher to discuss your concerns. He or she may not be aware of this.

Handwriting Help

If your child attends a school or is in a classroom in which handwriting is not emphasized, you may have to take it upon yourself to ensure that your child can write legibly. There are many sources you can turn to. Begin by asking your child’s teacher to suggest handwriting practice materials. You can also purchase handwriting books at bookstores and educational supply stores. There are also several Web sites that offer free handwriting instruction, drills, and activities.

IN THE CLASSROOM

Educational Philosophies

Parents who want to find out more about a school’s educational philosophy can ask teachers and administrators the following questions:

• What do you believe is the best way to educate children?
• How do you discipline unruly students?
• What educational challenges and milestones will my child encounter as she passes through your program?
• How will she be graded?
• What standards do you use to determine whether or not she has mastered a particular subject or curriculum requirement?

What Is Standards-Based Education?

According to its proponents, the important goals of standards-based education include the following:

·        Identifying what is most important for the student to learn: Providing a clear curriculum focus for students, teachers, parents, and administrators.

• Setting clear, high expectations for achievement and learning: Informing students and parents of what is expected of them and supporting children in meeting those expectations. This helps them prepare for future academic experiences and success on achievement tests.
• Providing clear targets and accountability for teachers: Teachers have clarity on specific content and skills, goals, and expected outcomes at each grade level.  They are held accountable to these outcomes, and they can know that their students are likely to learn more as a result.
• Providing clear targets and accountability for students and their parents: Students and their parents have clearly defined and understandable learning goals. Students know that they are responsible and also accountable for their achievement of those goals.
• Focusing lessons on the outcome: Instructional plans are shaped around the results teachers expect their students to achieve.
• Providing simple and consistent formats for discussing student performance, evaluating and comparing student outcomes, and supporting equal opportunities: Standards are a community focus for teachers, administrators, parents and students, and encourage equity among various student populations.
• Identifying struggling students earlier: Students who have difficulty are more easily recognizable when all students are held accountable to the same standards, and they can be provided with the needed support earlier.
• Focusing resources on common, well-defined priorities: Financial resources, time, instructional material, and staff are used to support specific outcome goals.

Updated 12/5/6 12/9/6 for rr