Is your child reluctant to go to school? Not bringing homework home? Refusing to read and write? Disliking Mathematics? Check out more signs of a child who may be failing to do well at school
Recent research found parental involvement in children learning to read, write, and do Mathematics to be a key factor in them doing well at school. Results showed that parental involvement shapes the child’s identity as a learner, and sets higher expectations for the child to do well with reading, writing, and Mathematics (Ally Bull, Keren Brooking & Renee Campbell, 2008). I encourage you to become involved in your child’s reading, writing, and Mathematics learning so they can become excellent and confident students.
Involvement in supporting your children’s reading, writing and Mathematics education requires a little time and patience from you, and the expectation that they practice at home the reading, writing, and Mathematics skills they are learning at school. Perhaps you are thinking this involves hours and hours of extra reading, writing, and Mathematics work. On the contrary, regular short bursts of time practising reading, writing, and Mathematics skills, a few days a week will make a noticeable difference in your child’s performance at school.You can extend and develop your child’s reading, writing and Mathematics skills beyond what is possible at school where your child has limited one-on-one teacher time.
I teach families how to help their children do well with reading, writing, and Mathematics at school. Check out this post for more ideas on creating a relaxed but focused coaching environment for you and your child, and this post for ways to coach reading, writing, and Mathematics skills.
Tips:
- Keep checking and rechecking which reading, writing, and Mathematics strategies your children are using and be prepared to spend more time practising the skills you thought they had mastered.
- Respond calmly and without disappointment or any other negative emotion when they make mistakes or use poor strategies when reading, writing, and doing Mathematics.
- Realise that making mistakes is part of the learning process and that if you spend time coaching reading, writing, and Mathematics skills, you give your child the time and feedback necessary to change ineffective old habits.
- A coach is always checking ‘how’ their student completes their reading, writing, and Mathematics tasks. Whether they get the right or wrong answer is secondary to ‘how’ they do it. If they consistently use the most useful strategies when reading, writing, and doing Mathematics, they will, over time, become very good students.
- I say to my students, whatever their age, that they have to create new memory patterns and allow the old patterns to grow over by not using them. I tell them that, “Practicing reading, writing, and Mathematics skills is the same as walking regularly down a pathway so that any weeds are trampled under and the path becomes broad and easy to walk on”.
The idea that you the parents, grandparents, and aunties can help your child develop excellent reading, writing, and Mathematics skills is well known amongst educationalists. However you were never systematically shown how to help your child develop those skills. A programme that can coach you to create this positive change in both literacy and numeracy is a new idea. One I have created with the families and children I have worked with over the last 20 years.
I like to share my coaching ideas with as many people as possible so hello fellow Twitter user! Don’t forget to Tweet this post if you like it, or follow me on Twitter if you find me interesting. Keep spreading my ideas and share this post and the excellyourchild.com website with other like-minded families so they too can develop the skills to create exceptional students in their families.
Warmly,
Families as Coaches 