How Parents Can Help

Parents play an UNDENIABLY important role in their child's education. Although many of us view education as strictly what we learn from school, it actually encompasses all our experiences, thoughts, actions, and more. However, this post will be encouraging various ways that parents can be involved in their child's school-based education.

Even before children are of appropriate age to send to school, they should be exposed to plenty of reading, math, and creative thinking activities. These can be as simple as reading a bedtime story, colouring pictures, counting toys, or exploring learning with siblings and friends.

Here are some wonderful sites explaining why you should read to your child every night, 7 reasons why you should read aloud, and fun ways to read with your children.

When students are first introduced to the school system, they need to be prepared for it. This can be done through positively talking about the school, being informed of what happens at school, and having experience interacting with peers. Not only do the students need to be prepared, but the parents as well. It is increasingly important for parents to be informed about school and classroom procedures so they can do their best to adapt their home practices to support those at school. Having a schedule, setting expectations, and requiring children to perform tasks (i.e. - chores) help them to better settle into the school setting.

Go meet the school!! 

Walk the halls, talk to the principal, teachers, janitor, and support staff to help yourself feel comfortable at the school. There are often websites for each school that help to introduce you to the school, however, it is so beneficial to future communication if you and the school staff are able to put a face to a name, in turn creating more meaningful interactions.

If you are familiar with the school setting and staff, it will make contacting the teacher more comfortable. Ways to contact the teacher would be sending a note, email, phone message, writing a note in the agenda, call and set up a meeting; however, there are also not so great contacting methods such as calling a teacher at home, showing up and expecting an immediate meeting, speaking in the heat of anger, expecting instant results, criticizing the teacher infront of students, or continually bailing out your student from the consequences of their actions. Be sure you are familar with the school's policy on contacting staff members.

A quick note, if there are issues that arise from the classroom or school, be sure to address them immediately as they arise so they do not develop into something worse.

Be forgiving -- teachers are human too. They bring different teaching styles, areas of expertise, personality, strengths and weaknesses. New and well-seasoned teachers both have something to bring to the classroom whether it be new methodologies or years of experience, be supportive of the teacher your child is lucky to have! Yet, if issues to arise, be prepared to address them with the teacher and if necessary, the principal.

If you have the time, become a parent volunteer! Extra hands in the classroom are beneficial and you will will gain an understanding into the environment of the classroom that your child is involved in on a daily basis. (I will speak to this in another post.)

Ideas for home...

Visit the library on a regular basis --> Free books? Yes please! Endless choice? Yes please! 

Libraries allow us to read more and more books to expand our schema and understanding of the world around us. Often we, especially students, pick books that are outside our level of reading so our comprehension and understanding of the book is low. Try out the Five Finger Rule with your child!

1 - Pick a page with a lot of text

2 - If there is a word you cannot read put up one finger, and so on. 

 3 - If 5 fingers are up before the page is over, it is too difficult to read at this time.

Note: If 0-1 fingers are up, the book may be too easy, if 2-3 fingers are up the book is at their instructional level, and if 4 fingers are up it may be a struggle to get through. 

Talk about books --> Make sure to encourage reading by talking about books they've read, you've read, or books you've encountered together! Actively listen to your child talk about the book they have been reading and ask them questions about it. Encourage them to read books of different genres and types (such as poetry, nursery rhymes, environment, picture books, pop-up books, novelty books, folk and fairy tales... the types are endless and exciting!)


Have a positive attitude and be willing to practice --> Even though we all have our disliked subjects, make yourself aware of how you portray that to your child. For instance, math. Some people get a bad taste when they even hear the word, others thrive to compute. Some of us are stronger at math, and some are weaker; be willing to accept that fact. If there is a subject your child is struggling with, present them with opportunities to practice! Whether that be printing off math questions or doing flashcards, buying new art supplies and going to town with them, conducting an at home science experiment, or reading various texts -- be willing to partner with them to grow and develop your knowledge together!


Give time to complete homework --> Homework may be given, may not, depending on the teacher, school policies, and the learning environment. However, if homework is assigned, it is important for you to allow your child time to complete it. It is important for everyone to learn that if you start something you should finish it. Homework reinforces skills, cements concepts, and allows students to gain a sense of accomplishment or realize they need some extra help (don't EVER be afraid to ask the teacher for this!!). It is also good practice to solidify learning. As they say, practice makes perfect! Or does it... let's try!