The impact of effective parental engagement

The role of family in a child’s education is a very important one. Parents cannot renounce their role and leave it all to the teachers at school. We need to be well involved in what the child is learning at every grade they are in. It would be great if we can help to make the subjects more approachable for our child using practical methods and experiments while at home. This could supplement some of the theoretical learning at school, and give the child a different perspective to their assignments.

It would also help to maintain a learning log, with information on what the child may be learning every week, so that we can plan activities around these. This would be useful for helping the child revise the topics when needed as we would always have an idea as to what they are learning at school that week. It is essential that the parent provides educational leadership and reinforces what is done at school.

Some great ways to supplement what your child learns at school could be

• Going to the Zoo – The fun that you will have on such a trip will be an interesting way to introduce your child to the animal and bird life. You can spend time in discussing their characteristics, environment and feeding habits. When planned according to your child’s curriculum, it will make it a great addition to the lessons at school.
• Family trip to the Museum – You are sure to find some great museums close by, and depending on the period they are dealing with at school, you can plan to visit one dealing with Roman history or Impressionist paintings. Such an outing may turn out to be a teaching and learning experience for you too.
• Home experiments – There are some great home science kits available that you can use to demonstrate simple scientific principles to your child. As the child grows up, they can do most of it by themselves, though we must make sure they are supervised in case the experiment warrants it.
• Nature walks – This would be a great way to introduce your child to the local flora and fauna. You can even plan a trip to a nearby state park which will make the experience even more enjoyable.

These are just some of the activities you can plan to enhance your child’s education and effectively play a role in your child’s learning. Another helpful activity would be to enable your child to create a revision plan for what he learns in school, so that as your child grows up, he will be able to do it by himself with just minimal help from your end.

Through these simple means, we can ensure an optimal level of parental engagement and help our child effectively understand and assimilate all that they learn at school.

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