ADVICE RATING |
 4.70 (Highly recommend) from 14 votes (485 Visits) |
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School expectations and goals for learning |
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by mcm  (July 2006) (rank 5th) |
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Kids take their cue from you as a parent. So how you respond to their school reports will inevitably have an effect on the attitude of your child. The challenge is to focus on your child's strengths rather than just on areas that need improving. Be sure to take into
account the effort your child has put into their work as well as their attitude. If your child is putting in the effort reqired then you can't really ask for any more.Try to form a picture of how your child is progressing as an individual socially. Independance and co-operation are highly rated by employers so don't dismiss these important skills.
Talk to your child about their strengths first before you discuss where they need to make improvements. My girl's teacher was telling me at the parent teacher interview that she is a wonderful student to have in the class. Socially she is doing very well. So I made sure that my girl knew she was valued within the class. She has areas to improve in but that takes time and I feel confident that she will improve with patience and practice. I ask her about how she feels about how she is going and this helps me as her parent to find perspective. It is nice also to celebrate the achievements that have been made, maybe with a special dinner with the family. I know my daughter loves that!
Questions to ask yourself that are good to keep in mind;
- Are your expectations in line with their abilities?
- Do you understand that children learn at different rates?
- Are you willing to protect their self esteem rather than deflate it?
Many children respond more positively to short term goals. Instead of saying 'you have to improve your spelling' or 'practice your maths', it would be more effective to keep students focussed on a short term goal. For example, my daughter has 5 common spelling words and 5 challenge words every week to practice. We focus on the common words on a weekly basis. You can help your children to set daily or weekly goals and then remind them. It is a tremendous motivator for anyone to achieve a goal.Once you reach one goal reset another. Before you know it, you will see amazing results! I love seeing my daughter learn and achieve. I never thought she would learn to read but slowly she did!
