Helping Your Child Learn

Helping your child develop good study habits and providing the proper tools and environment in which to work are vital to academic success. You can help your child develop good, consistent study skills by:

• setting high expectations for learning and behavior;
  
  
• establishing and enforcing study rules and routines;
  
  
• creating a quiet, comfortable place for reading and studying;
  
  
• providing important reference materials such as a dictionary,
  thesaurus, encyclopedias and school supplies;
  
  
• asking about schoolwork and reviewing homework assignments;
  
  
• making him or her responsible for:
  • knowing what the assignment is;
  • bringing home the textbooks and school materials necessary to complete work;
  • understanding the teacher's directions;
  • concentrating during study time; and
  • asking for signatures on notes or assignments that must be returned to school;
    
    
• completing all assignments, even if your child thinks they are unimportant;
  
  
• reading to your child – or having your child read to you – each day and letting him or her see you reading;
  
  
• helping your child select books – both fiction and non-fiction – from the library or bookstore; and
  
  
• encouraging your child to reflect and to write about what he or she has read or learned.

As a parent, it is not your role to do your child's schoolwork but to monitor how time is used, edit written assignments, encourage neatness and accuracy, help study for tests, gather materials for projects and give lots of encouragement and praise.

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