Family Engagement

Family engagement is crucial for a child's overall academic, social, emotional, and behavioral development. In fact, family engagement with schools is one of the strongest predictors of student success. When families and schools work together, students thrive in ways that neither group can achieve alone. Why is family engagement so important? Read on below:

Reading improves student concentration and helps students develop important language skills. Ultimately, being a good reader can help a student perform better in all subject areas.

Reading with your child helps them develop critical literacy skills and build their vocabulary. Here are some ways that you can help increase your child's reading skills:

• Organize a family reading time. Set aside and prioritize opportunities for everyone in the family to read.
• Visit your local library and let your child choose books to check out. Research actvities at the library like story times and other age-appropriate events.
• Incorporate reading into your everyday life. Read a poem at the dinner table, read signs while driving, or read a book while your child takes their bath.
• Ask questions to help develop your child's comprehension skills. When you are reading together, ask, "what will happen next?" or "How do you think this character feels?"
• Be a good reading role model. Let your child see you reading and talk about what you learned.

Regular attendance puts students of all ages on the road to success.

Parents want their children to do well in school but many don’t fully understand the connection between chronic absence and a student’s academic achievement.

Everyone in your child's school wants them to have a positive and successful year. Here are ways that parents and families can stay informed and engaged so that your child can succeed.

Before your have a conference with your child's teacher, make a list of what you want to share, along with your questions and concerns. Also, ask your child if there is anything they want you to discuss with their teacher.

Below, find our helpful conference checklist:

Establishing the importance and routine of doing homework helps students develop study habits that will help them succeed in school now and for years to come.

Homework Tips

• Make homework a part of the daily after-school routine.
• Show your child how to organize and prioritize assignments. Ask them what needs to be done, and then help them develop a homework plan.
• Make homework time a quiet time in your home. Turn off the TV and remove as many distractions as possible.
• Show your child how to break large assignments down into smaller, more maneagble tasks.
• If your child rushes through homework just to get it done, insist that you review all completed homework together.

Children need healthy boundaries for screen time and technology use. Here's how you can set up a home environment that will help ensure that your child uses technology safely and responsibly:

• Be aware of what your child is doing online and what apps they use regularly. Insist on transparency.
• Use parental controls, but know that supervision and monitoring are the best deterrents to inappropriate behavior.
• Limit the amount of time your child spends online, monitor their online activities, and encourage "offline" activities, like crafts, reading, and outside play.
• Monitor your child's onling game playing. Some games contain explicit violence, mature language, and sexual content. Check the ratings of the games your children are playing and set firm boundaries on the types of games that you will allow.
• Discuss what's appropriate to share online. If your child has access to social media, make sure their account is set to private, and encourage them to only allow people they know in real life to follow them.
• Spend time with your child online. Find common interest websites and apps that you can review together.

Want to make sure your child excels in school? Support their mental health through these easy practices:

• Communicate: Regularly talking with your child is the best way to check in on their mental health.
• Exercise: Being active improves physical and mental health. Consider fun ways to integrate physical health into your child's routine---join a local sports league, go on a walk everyday, hike a trail, take a run, throw a ball, visit a playground, the ideas are endless for staying active.
• Eat Healthy: Good nutrition is the key for healthy living. Involve your child in shopping, meal planning and cooking to help build healthy habits.
• Create Calm: Children need to be able to relax and learn what calms them. Reading a book, taking a warm bath, exercising, listening to calming music, taking a nap, are all strategies that you can model and present to help your child learn how to calm down when they are aggitated or anxious.
• Sleep: The amount of sleep a child gets has an impact on their mood and attitude. Make sure your child gets an age appropriate amount of sleep each night.

Practicing gratitude can help increase happiness and improve mental health. Encourage your child to notice and appreciate the little things and to write down one thing they are grateful for each day.

Self-esteem is the perception of one's worth. Children with good self-esteem have the confidence to try new things and are better able to cope with setbacks. Here are some ways to help build your child's self-esteem:

• Encourage new experiences: Whether it's trying a new sport or learning how to use a camera, allowing your child to try different things and conquer new challenges will help boost their self-esteem.
• Delegate responsibility: Give your child age-appropriate household tasks, such as taking out the trash or helping put away laundry. Helping and completing even simple tasks can lead to big gains in self-confidence. Be sure to provide praise for a job well done!
• Set Goals: Goals give children direction, focus, and purpose. Help your child set simple short and long-term goals. When children accomplish goals they feel strong and capable.
• Fail Forward: Children need to experience failure. Experiencing failure teaches your child that it's not the end of the world and that failure provides information they can use to grow.

Engagement and involvment don't require extraordinary effort, it just requires that your show up and do the little things that are important. Here are some examples:

• Spend time together: Regularly set aside time to spend with your child. Engage in activites you both enjoy and use the time to connect and bond.
• Communicate and listen: Maintain open lines of communication with your child by encouraging them to express themselves and by listening to their thoughts, concerns, and feelings without judgement.
• Be present: Be physically and mentally present when interacting with your child.
• Prioritize health: Encourage good hygiene and make sure your child maintains a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet, regular exercise, and adequate sleep.
• Promote independence: Try to help your child figure out questions or problems on their own. This helps to build confidence and independence.
• Lead by example: Demonstrate the values and behaviors you want to instill in your child through your own choices and actions.
• Set boundaries and rules: Establish clear, age-appropriate rules and boundaries and consistently enforce them. Explain the reasons behind the rules.
• Encourage extracurricular activities: Encourage your child to participate in extracurricular activites that interest them, like sports, art, music, or dance.
• Show interest in what they are doing in school: Ask to see your child's work and let them know that you are there to help them.
• Support emotional development: Help your child identify and manage their emotions. Teach them healthy ways to express themselves and help them learn how to calmly and effectively handle difficult situations.
• Celebrate acheivement: Celebrate your child's accomplishments, both big and small.

Every child is unique, so adapt your approach based on personality, interest and needs. Stay engaged, show genuine interest, and make your child's education a top priority because when families and schools work together, great things happen!