Studies show that when parents are engaged in education their children perform better in school. All parents want their kids to be successful in school and sometimes that means rolling up your sleeves and lending a helping hand.

The ultimate aim of education is to have children who are organized, independent thinkers, both responsible and capable of taking academic risks. The majority of children need a little support from Mom and Dad to get to that point.  But how much help is too much?

Somewhere between seeing grades on the report card for the first time and scheduling weekly phone conversations with the teacher is the perfect amount of parental school involvement. Parents should be involved and aware of what is going on at school, but not actively completing work for their kids.

HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO HELP PARENTS GET INVOLVED IN THEIR CHILD’S EDUCATION

Communicate. Talk to kids about school every day.  Ask specific questions about classes.  Rather than asking, “how was school?” ask, “how was math class?  What did you learn?” Parents should know their kids schedule and teachers’ names, and stay abreast of upcoming projects and assignments.

Don’t Wait for the Report Card. One of the biggest mistakes parents make is waiting too long to correct problems. Rather than waiting for the first report card or progress report to come home, parents should follow up with issues that come up when and if they come up. If there’s a quiz on Friday, ask how it went on Monday. If marks are not what they should be, arrange a talk with the teacher and make a plan. And don’t be afraid to simply call the teacher just to check in and make sure that everything is going smoothly.

Help with Homework. There are a lot of DOs and DON’Ts when it comes to homework help.  It boils down to two basic rules: Help, but don’t do the work for them. Parents should help create a homework-friendly atmosphere where children can focus and get the work done without getting stressed out or losing motivation.

Organization. Morning, after-school, and evening routines all require organization skills to run smoothly. Whether it’s emptying book bags right after school, picking out school clothes the night before, or enforcing bedtimes, an organized routine teaches kids consistency, which pays off in school.  If disorganization is a problem at home, it’s likely a problem at school.  Kids who demonstrate consistent organization skills at home transfer those skills with them to the classroom. Help kids get organized at home, and you’re helping them be organized in school.

Set Goals Together. Part of the communication process involves setting academic goals for the school year.  Help kids learn to think about long-term outcomes by discussing personal and academic ambitions, big or small.  Be sure to keep goals realistic, achievable, and measurable. Use calendars, planners, agendas, or use our Academic Action Plan to keep goals on-track.

Do you have great tips to share on how you get involved in your child’s education?  We’d love to hear them.  Leave us a comment…and don’t forget follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

1. Consider reviewing last year’s final report card. This will give your family an academic refresher and a little remind of the highs and lows of last year.
2. Consider setting some academic goals. Now that you’ve reviewed the outcomes of last year, start considering what academic achievements could be reached THIS year. Both parents and children can identify changes that they’d like to make this school year.
3. Consider a routine overhaul. A new school year is an opportunity to deal with any and all bad habits that can get in the way of learning. These include morning and evening routines, eating habits, after-school routines, and homework and study habits. Fine-tune your family’s routine from the first day of class and settle into a school year with better habits.
4. Consider using an agenda for more than just school. Agendas are more than just a place to write down homework, they are great for keeping track of to-do lists, questions to ask teachers, chores. Students can also use agendas to prioritize workflow, keep track of work hours, extracurricular activities, and countdown until tests and exams.
5. Consider getting extra support right off the bat. School may not even be in session yet, (or it may have just begun) but it’s not too soon to enlist in some extra support. Why wait to find out what will happen with grades this year? Get on top of any potential issues BEFORE they become a problem. Take the bull by the horns. Show this grade who’s boss!

Creating an Academic Action Plan Helps Families Start the New School Year Off On the Right Foot

With every new school year comes the opportunity to make academic changes and improve grades. It’s an opportunity to get rid of bad habits and pick up improved thinking, learning, and studying skills. It’s an opportunity to make this school the best school year ever!

But in order to seize hold of the opportunity that the new school year brings, parents and children need to have a plan for success in place; they need to set academic goals.

When setting goals for a new school year, follow the CAM rule: Goals should be

• Clearly stated
• Achievable
• Measurable

For instance, if a student’s goal for this year is to get better grades in math, it is more realistic to aim to increase math scores by five points per test, and set a goal of doing an extra 15 minutes of math homework a night, than it is to set a goal of getting 95% on the first test.

By setting a clear goal of improving 5 points per test, there is a greater likelihood of success. A realistic goal is an achievable goal.

But starting the school year off on the right foot isn’t only about resolving to get better grades. At-home habits that support in-school learning are equally as important to overall school success. There are plenty ways for families to make at-home resolutions that lead to a better grades.

Use a family calendar. Manage school, family, and extracurricular activities with a daily reminder courtesy of a wall calendar.

Get informed. Be informed of important school dates (big projects, standardized tests) well in advance to avoid last-minute scrambles.

Handle homework. Develop a homework strategy. Set a schedule, stick to a timeframe, and take frequent breaks to keep stress levels low. If necessary, parents should work on something along their children.

Hone study skills. The best study skill is to start early. By being aware of test dates and projects, parents can ensure that their kids are not leaving work until the last minute, which leads to stress for everyone.

Stick to a routine. Set bedtimes and wake up times help establish good morning routines. Kids of all ages need adequate sleep as part of their overall school routine, and parents can help ensure that they are getting the rest that they need to stay sharp in class.

By developing an Academic Action Plan–whether it’s about improving grades or working on at-home habits–parents can help ensure that their kids are on the right path for better grades this school year. And, with support from the experts at Oxford Learning, making this year the year that straight A’s happen is a goal that’s within every family’s reach!

What’s your family’s Academic Action Plan for this year? Brainstorm your ideas and download this sheet to write out academic and at-home goals and track progress!

Call it what you want—script, cursive, handwriting, cursive writing—School boards in Indiana and Georgia now have the option to eliminate it from the curriculum.

But, do we even care?  In today’s techno-literature culture, where kids can operate computers before they can read, is teaching cursive writing a nostalgic throwback to a bygone era?
Some school boards think yes: they’d prefer to use the class time—which is at a premium—to focus on keyboarding skills.

However, what about those times when technology isn’t available to us, and we have to rely on our foundation in the educational basics—reading, writing, and aRthimatic?   If kids were to find themselves in a situation where they had to leave a handwritten note, wouldn’t a printed note suffice?

Do kids need to use in-class time learning script?

Cursive supporters say, yes, it’s still a needed skill, especially when it comes to writing tests and in-class essays.  Cursive is fast, fluid, and more automatic than printing due to there being less stop and starting, and it tends to lead to more creative expression in written essays.

If time is of the essence when writing essays, then cursive is quicker.  But in order to get a point across, handwriting needs to be legible, or students can lose grades. So students still need to practice their penmanship; after all, if a teacher can’t read it, it can’t be graded.

And, there is evidence that the manual act of writing helps to stimulate cognitive processes.Wheter it’s printing or cursive, the pen-to paper act of physically writing helps the cognitive processes and can improve memory.

Researchers say that this might be because forming the letter by hands requires more steps than simply recognizing a pre-formed shape on a keyboard—it requires a more dynamic mental process.

However, if teaching your tech-savvy kids a scrolled script using pen and paper seems too low-tech, well, there’s an app for that. Students can practice their cursive using a stylus on iPads and iPhones.

The irony of using technology to practice a supposedly out-dated skill is duly noted.

Read more:

Is Handwriting Irrelevant?

Forget about turning your cellphone off before you enter class.

Forget about having it confiscated for texting during lectures, or for browsing the web while you should be listening.

Your cellphone is now part of your classroom experience, so you better make sure that your battery is fully charged before you head to school.

Many school districts have bans on cellphones in classrooms, citing them as learning distractions or tools for social harassment.

Schools in the Toronto area have lifted the ban on cellphones in the classroom and are looking at the different ways that cellphones and other hand-held technology can be harnessed to make class time interactive.

Across the US, school boards have been have been researching the effectiveness of iPads as learning tools for students of all ages.

Classrooms already using personal electronic devices (PEDs) to teach and learn all report success:

• improved student engagement
• increased literacy
• ongoing student communication outside of the classroom

Cellphones—or other PEDs—are tools to access social media, which can be harnessed as a benefit to the classroom, and might help students who might be too shy to interact in the classroom otherwise.

Universities are already using personal technology and social media to interact with students.  A recent study shows that up the 30% of profs use social media regularly.

And other studies are showing that social media site Facebook can actually help increase grades.

It will take a few years to implement a district-wide cellphone policy in Toronto, but certain teachers are embracing the technology ahead of schedule and engaging students using the technology—and the ability to learn—that they already have in their hands.

Read more:

How iPads will change textbooks forever

Media literacy and your child

Online safety tips for children

Does a shorter school week seem like the opposite of what school boards should be doing to improve on the quality of education?

A few school districts in the US have passed legislation to allow a four-day school week.

The main goal is cost-cutting, but there have been some surprising academic results.

By eliminating the Friday school day, and by extending the Monday-Thursday school hours to maintain the same number of total teaching hours, educators have noticed:

• reduced absenteeism
• reduced drop out rates
• extracurricular participation increased
• increased feelings of student positivity
• better test scores

A report examining the four-day school week indicates that the shortened week might be more beneficial to high school students to lower drop out rates.

Read more: Los Angeles Times:  Shorter Week, More Learning

Interested in alternative school schedules or better test scores? Contact your local centre today!

Does it take brains or brawn to solve a challenge such as traffic dodging?

That was the premise behind a recent study that pitted athletes against non-athletic university students in a virtual-reality test of students’ ability to cross busy city roads.

The result? Maybe not surprisingly, the student athletes completed the task more successfully; however, the study says that the real surprise is that the success is not because the athletes are in better physical shape.

The study showed that the athletes glanced down the street more frequently than the non-athletes, and were able to make quicker judgment calls—in other words, they could process data more quickly and more accurately.

Researchers linked this ability to the training that athletes receive when playing sports; athletes often have to make split-second decisions in the middle of play—who to pass to, where the ball is, to run or to stop.

This on-the-spot decision-making doesn’t just make athletes superior at sports, it develops mental processing abilities that pay off in the classroom as well.

The study also indicates that regular physical activity can increase mental skills such as concentration.

The Takeaway:

Get the blood pumping! Regular physical activity increases blood flow to the brain and builds new neural connections.

Join a sports team! The instantaneous analysis and decision-making required in organized sports, as well as the ongoing practicing, help strengthen mental processing abilities and important school skills such as focus.

Read more:
Child Not Making The Grade? Exercise is the Solution!

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, we’ve compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 12: Chip Away at Schoolwork

There’s many creative and unique ways to incorporate learning into the school holidays. But sometimes, the simplest solution is best: do a little bit of schoolwork everyday. This is especially important for high schoolers. If your teen has a school assignment over the holidays, make a plan to work on it a little bit everyday. This will not only help avoid the “I-go-back-to-school-tomorrow-and-I-haven’t-started-my-project” stress, but will help teens to not lose focus or forget important facts.

Just like over the summer break, kids’ motivation can take a nosedive over the holiday. It doesn’t take long for it to happen. The best way to prevent a holiday brain drain is to maintain the momentum. Even if no schoolwork has been assigned, organize notes. Tidy binders and pencil cases. Clean out book bags. Read over notes and highlight keywords. Make study notes.

Tip 1: Get Crafty Together
Tip 2: Snuggle Up With a Book
Tip 3: Take a Hike
Tip 4: Play Video Games
Tip 5: Roll the Dice
Tip 6: Use Your School Agenda
Tip 7: Go to the Library
Tip 8: Keep a Holiday Journal
Tip 9: Go Online
Tip 10. Send Holiday Thank You Cards
Tip 11. Get Puzzlin’

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, we’ve compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 11: Get Puzzlin’

Crossword puzzles. Search-a-words. Puzzles. Sudoku books. All of these not only make great stocking stuffers, they are a great way to challenge the mind. Sure, they can be frustrating, but the process of trying to figure out a problem, and work systematically through the steps needed to reach a solution get the mental synapses firing on all cylinders.
You can turn these otherwise solo activities into group games by attempting a puzzle together, and talking trough the steps, and explaining your reasoning to each other.

Tip 1: Get Crafty Together
Tip 2: Snuggle Up With a Book
Tip 3: Take a Hike
Tip 4: Play Video Games
Tip 5: Roll the Dice
Tip 6: Use Your School Agenda
Tip 7: Go to the Library
Tip 8: Keep a Holiday Journal
Tip 9: Go Online
Tip 10. Send Holiday Thank You Cards

We already know why it’s important to make learning part of your holidays, so, we’ve compiled 12 ideas to keep your kids mentally engaged over the holiday season. Check in often for new ideas, and if you have your own idea, we’d love to hear it!

Day 10. Send Holiday Thank You Cards.

Everybody sends cards before the holidays, so why not start a new tradition of sending holiday thank you cards after the holidays? Make a list of recipients and their addresses. For younger kids, have them decide what they want to say and write it out for them on a sheet of paper that they can use for reference. Then grab the pens and get writing! It’s a great way to practice penmanship and try out some new vocabulary words!
Try to incorporate some of the words from this Christmas vocabulary list.

Tip 1: Get Crafty Together
Tip 2: Snuggle Up With a Book
Tip 3: Take a Hike
Tip 4: Play Video Games
Tip 5: Roll the Dice
Tip 6: Use Your School Agenda
Tip 7: Go to the Library
Tip 8: Keep a Holiday Journal
Tip 9: Go Online