How Parents Can Support their Kids’ Learning at Home

Parents are a child’s first teachers and the home is a child’s first classroom. As key resources for learning and growth, parents help to shape a child’s social, emotional and physical development so that he/she can thrive in school and beyond.

Supporting student success starts with a shared agreement among families, schools and the community to work together – and it involves committed actions to make it happen.

Parents can do their part at home to reinforce the important family-school partnership. To help prepare children for school readiness and stay on track and expand their learning opportunities, parents may do the following:

1. Set up a daily family routine, including healthy eating and sleeping habits.

2. Provide a place and time at home for study and school work.

3. Check on the kids’ assignments and projects.

4. Talk each day with your kids about their activities.

5. Promote literacy by reading to your kids and by reading yourself.

6. Limit and monitor TV watching, gaming, social media and computer time.

7. Express high expectations and standards for your child’s learning.

8. ‘ Attend’ online parent- teacher conferences.

9. Participate in decisions that affect your kids’ education.

10. Tap into community resources with visits to a virtual library, museum, zoo or theater and encourage participation in afterschool activities.

Engaged parents are a key factor in helping students and schools succeed. With families, schools and communities working together as partners, student achievement is enhanced and children are better prepared to do well in school.

With pre- teens and teens, staying connected with student learning remains critical. Yet, studies show that family engagement in school drops as students move from elementary to middle and high school. With this transition to higher grades, parents often face new challenges including figuring out ways to best support student success at home.

Parent involvement at middle and high school takes many forms. Whether it’s checking homework, talking more about college and career choices, parental engagement makes a difference.

By knowing what’s happening in the kids’ studies, parents can help their students to focus on coursework and related activities to ensure college and career readiness. (http:// toolkit.capta.org)