When your children start to reach school age, sending them off to school on their own can be a hard step for any parent. You go from having them in your care for the majority of the time, to them becoming that little more independent. Because school is something for them. Whether they attend the associated preschool first, or not, it can be a hard step for you. But at the same time, you know that this is a huge part of childhood, and their educational adventure is going to do them the world of good. However, it may not be enough for you to put your child’s future in the school’s hands. And if that’s how you’re currently feeling about their education, you’re not alone.
It’s natural for you to want the best for your child. When you want to make sure that your child has every opportunity, and that they’re able to choose their own path in life, it’s likely that you want to do anything and everything within your power to make that happen. So, one of the things that you may be considering is becoming more actively involved in your child’s education. But when you want to make sure that you come off as a helpful parent and not a pushy parent, you may not know the best way to approach this.
To help you ensure that you’re able to get involved in your child’s education, enhance their learning, and generally allow them to access the opportunities they want in life, here are ten different ideas you can try.
Communicate With Their Teacher
When your child first starts school, you’re not always going to know what to expect. And that’s only natural. Because it’s new. So one of the best ways to deal with that is to make sure that you’re communicating with their teacher. A lot of the time, they’ll be able to tell you how well your child is doing, or what they may need help with, especially at parents evening. They can also point you in the right direction in terms of what you can do for them.
Get To Know Their Studies
From here, you should then think about getting to know their studies. Because unless you know what they’re learning, you’re not going to be able to work out how you can help you. Whether they’re six or sixteen, if you know what they’re studying, and what kind of level they’re at, you’ll be able to make sure that the stay on track with what they know.
Encourage Them To Read
When you’re children are little, working on their reading is always a great idea. This isn’t something that every child will enjoy, but you can work to make it fun for them. Encouraging your child to read can be done in a range of ways, from the usual reading before bed or at least every day, to visiting libraries and even setting a good example by reading yourself.
Help With Homework
From here, you’re definitely going to want to think about helping out with their homework too. And this doesn’t mean doing it for them, but helping them to do it well. You make find that create a specific homework area, with no distractions, where they can do their work at a regular scheduled time will help. Then, you can support them, motivate and monitor them, and praise them to keep them going too.
Support Their Hobbies
As much as education may feel largely academic, if you want your child to be well-rounded, then it’s important to focus on other areas, like music or sports. These can often start as hobbies, or stem from school life, but if you’re able to support them by taking them to rehearsals or matches, providing financial support, and encouraging them to keep up their practices, it will help.
Join The School Committee
Maybe you want to be involved more in school life? When that’s the case, you should consider joining the committee. Most schools with have a king of parent-teacher committee or association. This can help you to be more involved in the school itself, as well as your own child’s personal education.
Help At Events
Next, you could consider providing your support at school events and functions. From chaperoning on residential school trips to making cakes to sell for charity, there is a lot that you can do. Many schools won’t be able to do such things without support, so by volunteering, you’ll be doing your bit for the school too. And this does often allow you to create a better bond with your child’s education all round too.
Hire A Tutor
If your child is struggling, or you want to make sure they can progress well in a set area (or several), you could consider hiring a tutor. While this will only ever be beneficial on top of everything else that you do, not in place of, a tutor can really help your child get a more personal education. This can often be a great idea if you’re preparing for school entrance exams.
Support Their Events
When you want to be involved, you have to fully commit from all angles. This not only means helping them to uncover their strengths academically, but standing by them with all areas of their education too. So support those exams and tests for sure, but also make sure that you attend their performances or sports matches too. Because they’ll always value your support here.
Encourage Their Progression
Finally, when it comes to thinking ahead, especially as they get towards senior school, you’re going to want to aid in their career planning, where you can. Because it can be hard for a child to figure out what they want to do. Whether they want to go to university or not, you should look to help them in any way that they need you to. From gaining experience to improving their studies, by encouraging their progression, you’ll always be able to help them chase after the opportunities they want.
*Disclaimer – This is a collaborative post*
The Coastal Mummy 