How to help your children learn

After decades of telling parents to keep their hands off school subjects,many American teachers are now asking for help-a development that parents in all over may well defined

>

When his two sons came from school with low marks in mathematics,a New York father discovered that his bright ten and eleven year olds never learnt their multiplication tables."So I made up cards bearing numbers and told them no television until they learnt," he recalls."They protested-but in three days,they knew the multiplication tables."

Ads 

:Instantly Improve AutismSecret, easy techniques proven to work over 20 years revealed for Free:

This father is not a critic of school teachers,but one of their leading spokesmen:Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers.Yet as a parent he realized that he,rather than school,was ultimately responsible for his children's education.If somehow they missed learning a basic tool like multiplication tables,he'd have to make up for it at home.If a child can't multiply-or add,or read-his problems will compound.Certain fundamental skills are building-blocks for later work.

The important thing,says Shanker,is to make sure each child acquires basic reading,mathematical and writing skills by the age of nine.

After decades of telling parents to keep their hands off school subjects,many US teachers are now begging parents for help,"We recognize that when parents help,children learn immeasurably better,"says Larry Cuban,superintendent of the Arlington,USA,state schools.

One reason for the change is that the value of parental support has been demonstrated by dozens of studies.In 1966 the US Office of Education showed that the home and family background have more influence on achievement than the school.Psychologist like Chicago's Benjamine Bloom concluded that intelligence is malleable in early life.Parental attention can help raise a child's I.Q.

Word of such studies encouraged millions to stimulate their pre-school children,beginning with mobiles over cots and continuing with bedtime reading and educational toys for toddlers.But most parents hesitated to "interfere" with work after their children began school.

Today teacher attitudes have changed."The old idea that children might be confused by their parents' instruction because the school uses different methods,"says Shanker,"no longer applies."

Encourage by the green light from educators,many parents have plunged back into at-home education.One family I know keep a microscope in the playroom and a globe in the dining -room.At dinner they discussed the day's news or what everyone's been reading,and the children are expected to talk in complete sentences.Not surprisingly,the children do well in school.

How much parents can help depends on temperament,time and inclination.Those who want to help can follow these simple tips:

Ads:

Your Child Misses a GOLDEN Opportunity, If You Do Not Teach Your Child to Read Now

Provide time,place and support:

Parents should set aside a time for their youngsters to study a period sheltered from television,video games,record playing and other distractions.Even younger children who don't yet have homework should have a regular reading time.

How much actual help should parents give with homework?"You shouldn't do your children's home work for them," emphasizes Maryland's state superintendent of schools."But it helps if you are willing to talk about an assignment or to look at it when it's done."Just seeing that it's done is important.

Help teach basic operations:
Parents can teach specific building-block skills such as multiplication tables or vocabulary. Quarterfield Elementary School in Severn,USA,is one of the schools that use a special language
development programme.Parents of Quarterfield students in the first year of school get a printed "assignment" every day telling them what new letter  has been studied in the class that day.They are asked to work with their youngsters on that letter at night.As soon as the children can read,they start taking books home to read aloud to their parents.The parent send  in a report to the school each time the child completes a book.Children get "addicted" to all this attention-and on books.

Monitor school performance:

Don't wait for teachers to ask for your help.Watch out for slip-ups and intervene strategically if they occur.Until recently this was hard to do,for there was a little agreement about what should be learnt by what age.But with the new concern about minimum competency tests before leaving school-a concern that arose because so many school leavers could neither read nor write nor do maths-standards have began to emerge.In Virginia,for example,one local department of education has its own list of minimum skills.By the end of second year in primary school,its pupil should be able to identify the main idea of a short piece read to them.By the end of next year,pupils should "demonstrate a knowledge of basic multiplication of five times nine."

Keep on stimulating them:
No amount of early-childhood stimulation can guard the television generation against school failure later on.Parents who hung mobile over cots must continue working with their children.

Since 1964,Dorothy Rich,Director of pioneering Home and School Institute at Trinity College in Washington,has been waging a campaign for home-based teaching,which she hopes will expand into a national crusade.She has published four books filled with "recipes" for continued home stimulation of school-age children.

Ask your child,for instance,to check the meter at a petrol pump and calculate the cost of 20 litres.To help his writing,encourage your child to write notes and cards to grandparents and friends,and to make shopping lists.Assist ability to make judgements by asking your child why he likes a story,a room or someone's behaviour.

"SCHOOLS HAVE A LIMITED CAPACITY FOR HELPING CHILDREN ACHIEVE SUCCESS," says Dorothy Rich."If you want  them to cope in modern society,you'd better keep working with them yourself.In addition to hundreds of testimonials she has received from parents,she can point a study done by her institute in 1974-75 with eight classes of primary school children in Washington.For 16 weeks the teachers sent home one "learning recipe"  every two weeks and asked parents to use it.At the end of the year,the reading level of children in the 89 families that use the recipes had shot up dramatically.

Home education is a continuing commitment,a responsibility that does not the end when school begins.It may take time and effort,but it's a solid investment in your child's future.