Blog: The Light of Aurora

Three Tips to Support Your Child’s Success in School

00:00 AM - September 14, 2021

There are many ways that parents offer support to their school-age children. From feeding them a healthy breakfast, to helping pack backpacks with all the essentials, to overseeing that homework assignments are completed. Here are a few tips that you may not have considered as strategies to support your child’s success in school, but they make a big impact

Routine

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

As summer comes to a close and children head back to school family life has the opportunity to fall into a familiar rhythm. It may surprise some parents to learn that guiding your child through an evening routine actually supports their development and leads to greater success in school and happier, healthier family ties.

Harvard graduate and book author of Prime Time Parenting, Heather Miller, says:

“As all routines require impulse control and focus, the very practice of executing routines strengthens our capacity for learning...In the digital age, when the constant stream of devices so frequently interrupts the flow of home life and face-to-face interaction, routines at home are more important than ever — especially ones that involve turning off those devices entirely for limited amounts of time. A nightly two-hour, screen-free routine can help us actively parent and provide a meaningful, positive home structure that not only benefits a child’s development but enhances the well-being of the entire family.”

While building a routine takes some effort up-front, in the long run the familiarity of the routine offers a sense of security and will support a family through challenging times.

Adult Self-Care

Parents and teachers often selflessly put the needs of children before their own personal needs. However, if adults deplete their inner resources, they may not be able to give their children/students optimal care.

Stress can build-up quickly. Making self-care a priority allows adults to model a healthy lifestyle for the children in their lives. And a healthy lifestyle offers a strong foundation for academic success.

Consider what small actions you can take to make sure your physical, social, and emotional needs are met...your children are watching and learning from your example. Self care doesn’t have to be extravagant but it should be personalized. Think about what activities fill your cup and leave you feeling renewed and plan to weave those activities into your schedule.

Shea Cours, 3rd grade teacher and recent graduate from Stanford University states, “In reality, self-care is any activity we do to better the broad scope of our health.” She shares some simple ideas of how to incorporate self-care into your days with a fun Self-Care Bingo Board!

Limiting Media

Waldorf educators generally recommend screen-free days for younger students during the school week and limited screen use for middle schoolers. Their suggestions to parents are backed by a growing body of research as shared by AWSNA affiliate Beverly Amico:

“We know media use in children can lead to sleep problems, poorer self regulation, lower grades and personal contentment levels, increased hostility, anxiety, obesity, and depression. It also changes brain structure in a way that could feed addiction. Those who are labeled as addicted to media also suffer notable brain structure changes. And we’ve recently learned that cognitive control in media multi-taskers falters compared to multi-tasking amongst less media immersed peers. This correlates nicely with a study showing a one-third decline in attention spans thanks to our media-heavy world,”

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Mary Rooney, Ph.D.believes that the negative effects of media use have less to do with the content of what is being consumed, rather the impact is likely due to the activities that children are not participating in while staring at a screen. These effects cannot simply be mitigated by finding educational content for your child to watch on TV. Instead establish media usage rules for your family and stick to them.

This will inevitably lead to space in your child’s day that they can fill with imaginative play, deep dives into good books, music making, and creative artistic expression- all factors associated with improved school success. And if they complain they are bored, remind them that as Robert M. Pirsig once stated, “Boredom always precedes a period of great creativity.”

Jaime Thompson, M. Ed. and B.S. Early Childhood Education, SUNY Fredonia, is an AWS Early Childhood teacher.

Top Photo Credit: Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash