School is more different than ever nowadays—children spend more hours inside the classroom, and homework and projects are eating up more and more of their time. But as parents, your goals remain the same as those of your own folks: to help your children finish each grade or year level--with flying colors, if they can. It’s no easy feat, because along the way, you will find yourself tempted to either help them to the point of doing their schoolwork for them, or leave them be to the point of becoming indifferent. As with everything, there has to be a balance somewhere, and you should never lose sight of the fact that parents play an important role in the kind of students your kids turn out to be.
“Parents and teachers should assume they are starting out each day with children who are preoccupied, overstressed, and anxious, and that it will be up to them to acknowledge this and help out,” says Jennifer Cox, MD, author of Your Child’s Strengths. But rather than just taking the easy way out—such as finishing the project for your child—there’s really more that parents can do. Teaching your kids the simple essentials like time management and following directions, for example, may do wonders for their school submissions. Read on for suggestions.
(First published as “Make the Grade” in the "Features" Section of Good Housekeeping Philippines' June 2008 issue. Adapted for use in Female Network. Photo by Jessica Wilson via Flickr Creative Commons.)
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