What you can do for your child – and school
by Golda Velez on Sep. 01, 2011, under Community, kids and schoolsDespite the budget pressures and large classes, our kids’ success mostly depends on us, their parents. We just went to our elementary open house, and a few thoughts of note:
– Attendance matters. Kids who miss days in first grade are the ones who struggle in fourth and fifth.
– If your child is a first grader this year, they have to be reading by the end of third grade in order to be promoted. The AIMS reading test requirement starts in the spring of 2014.
– Making friends, and family connections is really important to kids. One way to help out is to make a class directory for your child’s classroom. Bring a sign-up sheet to open house or ask the teacher to send home forms with each child asking parents to give their contact information for a class directory that will be shared with everyone in the class. Then assemble the info and give it back to be handed out. This needs to be a parent initiative since teachers are generally doing all they can just to teach!
– Reading at home is key! Here are some ideas for teaching reading: http://bteaching.com/subject/language/reading
Pima Library has lists of recommended books for kids of different ages:
http://www.library.pima.gov/kidsweb/books/
The teen site even has recommended books for guys and girls, writings by teens, and a link to the lexile test to help recommend books by reading level:
http://www.library.pima.gov/teenzone/read/
– If you have time, volunteer to tutor or help out at your school. Family involvement can make a huge difference to your child’s community.
– Holladay Elementary will be offering ESL classes onsite for parents who want to learn English. Is your school doing this?
Do you volunteer at your child’s school already, or have other ideas to help out? Please spread the word. I posted these ideas also to http://btucson.com/194474 and http://btucson.com/194475, feel free to post yours as well.
