Parental involvement plays a key factor in your child’s academic success not only for conventional reasons. It’s not just hunching over reading your child or helping him in his projects every time they come home.
It also goes beyond things like volunteering in the classroom, involving yourself in the regular education of your child, or spending time with your child in any of his or her school work.
These are indeed the usual stuff most of us parents do. However, these are only part of what effective parenting does for his or her child’s education. We’ll go as far as to say that it’s not the most important part.
In this article, we’ll discuss some effective methods of assisting your child’s learning and education.
Sustained engagement
Multiple research shows that effective parental involvement takes care of the most important factor in any academically successful child: engagement. This means that a child is fully involved in the learning process ~ enthusiastic, motivated, and responsible. Engagement in any student regardless of education setting he or she is in, whether public, private, home-school, etc.
More than the school or education spending, the real challenge for us is if we can keep our kids motivated and interested in the learning process for years to come.
On the other hand, disengagement from school is not just an educational problem but can be traced back to how learners are when they are away from school. Studies clearly show that lack of interest in school is affected by worrisome home setting ~ fighting parents, nutrition, neighborhood, drug and alcohol use, depression, etc.
The importance of parents
We know deep down inside that we as parents exert a profound and lasting effect on our child’s achievement in school, which can be summed in three ways:
- We communicate messages to our child whether intentionally and inadvertently about their academic performance and attitude at home.
- Our children model the relative value of school via our behavior {by attending school functions, volunteering, helping with their homework, etc.}.
- Most importantly, through the atmosphere at home, we need to utilize an authoritative parenting style {as opposed to authoritarian, which is all about dictatorship and control}.
The importance of peer groups
Here’s where it gets very interesting. Our relationship with our children also determines what their values will be toward education. So, we parents must ensure that our child values education via our involvement, so they can head toward academic success.
The importance of a good learning institution
Enrolling your child in a top international school and following the tips in this article may very well be the most important thing you can do for your child’s education. While the setting at home is vital to any student’s academic success ~ the right school will allow a child to maximize the good values set at home by parents and other relatives.
If you’re currently considering a new school for your children, we strongly consider enrolling him or her to an international school if your finances can handle it. The educational approach at an international school is unique because rather than structuring the learning around a strict curriculum, the focus is on trying to create learning experiences that prepare students to be happy, balanced, productive and innovative citizens.
There you have it. As parents, you should know how to best deal with your children, but by making use of tips like the ones offered in this article, you’ll be in a better position to help your student be the best he or she can be at school and in life.