Parenting tips to help your child succeed in first grade including building study skills, volunteering in the classroom, conference tips, and offering additional curriculum.
By the time children cross the threshold into first grade, they often have several years of school behind them including pre-school, pre-k, and kindergarten. Others enter first grade with only kindergarten as a stepping-stone. Whichever group your child comes from, first grade will be a new experience. Often it is the first year your child will attend full days, five days a week. Take an active role in your child's new academic travels to ease their way.
Arrange a tour for yourself and child of the school and classroom before the school year starts. Some schools offer orientation, while others do not. If yours does not, set up your own.
Introduce yourself to your child's teacher. Choose a time other than as children pour through the doorway of the classroom on the first morning. Re-introduce yourself through the year, and let the teachers know that you can be approached with any issues they deem necessary. Attend school conferences prepared. Make a list if you feel this will help you remember important issues. If an issue arises that you feel cannot wait until the next conference, request a meeting in the interim.
If you can, volunteer to come into the classroom a few times throughout the year to help with the daily activities. This can be advantageous to your child in several ways. It will allow other children to identify an adult with their classmate. It will give you an opportunity to see how the children interact with each other and their teacher. It will give you a knowledge base of what your child does daily and whom they interact. If there are other teachers that your child attends classes with, such as reading or music, include their classrooms in your volunteer time if feasible.
Whether you are able to physically come into your child's classroom or not, ask your child daily what takes place. If notes are sent home, make sure you read them. By setting up this strategy early on, you will show your child that you have an interest in what goes on at their school. Ask specific questions if answers to "˜What happened in school today?' are vague. What did you do in math class? Did you receive your spelling test back? Did you have computer time today? Did so-and-so get his name on the board? What did you have for lunch? Did you check out any library books? As information is shared, listen. By keeping yourself open to what your child tells you, they will learn to share both the good and not so good happenings of their school day. An aware parent is an informed parent.
Academically, some children breeze through first grade while others struggle. With either scenario, a parent should offer extra help and/or curriculum to create a positive learning environment. If your child struggles with the teacher appointed work, do not do the work for the child, but provide as much clarification for each assignment as needed. Extra curriculum can offer the child different views of similar work. For those that breeze through the work, additional curriculum can help keep boredom at bay.
Remember to give as much support as your child needs during homework time. First grade students often have no study skills to turn to. Give extra support in areas that require attention now so your budding student learns these valuable skills. Provide a quiet place to study, but within earshot of an adult. Make sure your child knows they can ask you a question even if they have asked it a dozen times already. Repetition at this early age is a common learning must. Only by going over things repeatedly do some children learn.
First and last, make sure your child understands that you love them. Heading off to the world we adults refer to as school, can be a bit scary. Knowing they go there with the love of the adults in their lives can make the trip a wee bit easier.
