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August 13, 2007
Getting Started for a New School Year
It's definitely time to go back to school. There are sales in every store I'm in. Ads everywhere tell me to buy things for school. It seems every aisle has notebooks and pencils convieniently placed for your purusal. I love it. It's fun to watch the kids picking out their backpacks and lunch boxes and chatting with their friends about what the teachers will be like. I find it interesting that they spend more time on what the teacher will be like and who's going to be in their room than what they will be learning, but, we are afterall, very social beings.
I'm doing a back to school workshop for a group of parents tomorrow, and I was just going over the material I will be talking about. Maybe you'd like a sneak preview. You won't even have to get out of your easy chair for it.
I'm talking about the importance of getting invovled in your child's learning. Now I can hear some of you right now saying, "Yeah, but I don't know how to do geometry or chemistry. I can't help."
I'm sure there will be parents tomorrow saying the same thing. I'm going to tell you what I will tell them. There are a whole bunch of studies out there (66 that I know of) that show that every time a parent gets inolved in their child learning, the child does better in school. Not one of the studies show that a child does worse. In addition the studies show that it doesn't matter your level of education or your job or your race or the amount of money you have. All that matters is that you do two things: have a positive attitude about your child's education and show confidence that your child will succeed.
Two items only that can make a difference. I know when I did those two things, my children did well in school. When I got frustrated and told one of my children he wasn't doing well in his Spanish class and he was going to fail,he almost did! They will live up to what you tell them.
There is more I will be talking about tomorrow, and I will share it with you later this week. For now, as school begins, if you will talk about this year as being the best one ever, support your children in their learning, and tell them how well you know they'll do, you'll all enjoy a great start to a new school year.
Posted by Dr Joni at August 13, 2007 05:02 PM