What can I do at home to help my child have a successful first grade year?
Answer: routine, organization, consistency and responsibility!
You will be doing yourself and your child a favor if you start practicing these four skills at home now. You’ll be teaching your child how to be a student at home just like I do at school! Many thanks in advance for your hard work and commitment to help your child succeed!
We have
routines at school to help the day run smoothly. Your child will know what to expect throughout the day and feels comfortable because of it. When a routine is in place, more teaching can take place on a regular basis. When the teacher is absent, school does go on without her!
An
organized student is able to find things easily. He is able to maximize his work time, enabling him to choose extension activities, which he likes. Organization gives her a sense of pride when she completes activities and does a good job.
Consistency in expectations means that your child will know just what is acceptable and what is not in his classwork and behavior. I strive to be consistent in the way that we treat others and strive to teach that difficult skill to all students.
Responsibility is a skill that must be taught. As the year progresses, we work very hard to teach your child how to make good choices in order to complete tasks. We love that feeling when our children really need us. It makes us feel important. You know that when we do too much for our children, we take away their need to take risks and make mistakes. We strive to help your child understand that mistakes will be made, but we can learn from them. Children need to be given this chance.
Strive to give your child more and more responsibility as the year progresses. Teach her to be an independent thinker. Support him in everything that he tries to do. He will love you for the confidence that you have in him!
Ideas to make your life EASIER!
It’s common knowledge that it takes at least 2 weeks of doing something consistently for it to become a routine. We challenge you to try to use these ideas to help your child become an organized and responsible first grader.
Have a specific place where your child keeps his things for school. There should be some particular place where your child can find his backpack, lunch, take home folder and any other necessary school items. Get her in the habit of putting her things in this place every night after dinner. Won’t this be easier on you when it is 7:45 a.m. and it is time to leave for school?
When homework is sent home, talk with your child and “assign” a specific place and time for her to complete this work. What will this routine be? Will he choose to do his homework at the kitchen table with a snack? Will she choose to do her homework at the desk in the study after watching a cartoon? Let your child decide at the beginning of the year what this routine will be the first time homework comes home and STICK WITH IT. When sports seasons and ballet recitals come up, you’ll be thankful for your child’s routine.
TELL your child if something different will happen during the school day. Is she going to be picked up differently from school? Is he going to the dentist in the middle of the school day? Tell her and WRITE the teacher a note. Then if the teacher forgets about it (as we all do), your child can remind her of these unusual things in her personal routine.
Children will not be allowed to switch from his “normal”
dismissal routine if there is no note from you.
Let your child begin to take some responsibility for her things. Try to refrain from running up to school every time her library book was left at home. It can be returned the next day! If you help your child develop a routine, you’ll notice that this doesn’t happen as often.
This probably seems like logical advice. It is, and it works! Remember that school and home are in a cycle -- whatever you do at home to reinforce these skills helps your child succeed at school. Likewise, learning the importance of good organization, routines, consistency and responsibility at school transfers to their home life too. Doesn’t that make your life easier? I hope so!