MAKING THE GRADE PT. 2

I would be remiss if I did not blog about parents and the integral role they play in the success of their children's education. I appreciate the comments some of the panelists made during the telecast.

"Its not that parents don't care, many parents don't know what to do."

"If a parent feeds their child breakfast, gets them to school on time, and makes sure they receive the proper rest the night before they are doing there part."

"Some parents cannot attend PTA meetings etc. because they are working to keep food on the table."

So to the parents there are little things that we can do to help with the our children's educational success. Simply talking to your children, whether its sitting down and engaging them in conversation, or talking with them as you drive in the car pointing out the stars, sun, moon, sky, birds etc., while in the grocery store, in the park etc. everything can be turned into a learning experience that is fun and engaging and the child doesn't even realize you are trying to teach them.

Read to your child. Their are mothers whom read to their babies while they are still in the womb. From the 1st day your child is born you can begin reading to them novels, children's books, newspaper articles, magazines it doesn't matter just read to them. One of the biggest determinants of the jail population is 3rd grade reading scores!

A great way to introduce math to a young child can be done while eating food. For example, give your child 5 carrots let them know if they aren't at the speaking state just yet or even if so, you have 5 carrots and then when the child eats one say something like now you have 4 and finish it with 5 - 1 = 4. Something just as simple as that.

Using the 3 above examples you can introduce math, reading, and exploration to your child in their everyday lives day and have their little minds thinking, engaged and learning with little to no effort.

Once your child is school age, check their homework to ensure its done, keep communication open with their teachers if possible, do whatever you feel is necessary as a parent to keep them on the right track. Target sells worksheets in their dollar aisle. Visit the teacher store and buy things to do with your child or simply google ways to engage your child at home with products you already have. You can teach your child about condensation and the different stages of water simply buy running the faucet, freezing it, allow ice to evaporate, and boiling water in a pot.

Yes, parents you can be a teacher and it doesn't require a lot of tools and gadgets. As I think about the days of old and people learned about the stars and space buy simply looking up in the sky at night and writing down what they saw.

There are unlimited possibilities step out of the box, find them and use them as parents whether we try to or not, whether a good influence or not so good influence are their children's first teachers.

Be a blessing and be blessed,
Epiphany Essentials