Parents Can Improve A Childs Performance By 40%

www.keen2learn.co.uk provides an ideal way to involve parents through educational games and educational toys. These learning resources used in school allow children way to practice at home with their parents in the core subjects taught at school. Covering maths games, English games and science games they key is the enjoyment that can be involved in learning and follow the findings of the following report.

Studies on the Impact of Parent and Community Involvement on Student Achievement

Taken as a whole, these studies found a positive and convincing relationship between family involvement and benefits for students, including improved academic achievement. This relationship holds across families of all economic, racial/ethnic, and educational backgrounds and for students at all ages. Although there is less research on the effects of community involvement, it also suggests benefits for schools, families, and students, including improved achievement and behaviour.

National Center for Family & Community Connections with Schools

Southwest Educational Development Laboratory

Web: www.sedl.org/connections/

Among the studies reviewed here, the benefits for students include

• Higher grade point averages and scores on standardized tests or rating scales,

• Enrolment in more challenging academic programs,

• More classes passed and credits earned,

• Better attendance,

• Improved behaviour at home and at school, and

• Better social skills and adaptation to school.

Key Finding

Programmes and interventions that engage families in supporting their children’s learning at home are linked to higher student achievement. In schools where teachers reported high levels of outreach to parents, test scores grew at a rate 40 percent higher than in schools where teachers reported low levels of outreach.

The studies that compared levels of involvement found that achievement increased directly with the extent to which parents were engaged in the programme. Parents with high involvement ratings, compared with those with low or median ratings, tended to have children with higher grades and scores.This finding held across all family income levels and backgrounds.

Families also have a major impact on other key outcomes, such as attendance and behaviour, that affect achievement. When families of all backgrounds are engaged in their children’s learning, their children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and pursue higher education. Clearly, children at risk of failure or poor performance can profit from the extra support that engaged families and communities provide.

All students, but especially those in middle and high school, would benefit if schools support parents in helping children at home and in guiding their educational career. Studies that look at high-achieving students of all backgrounds found that their parents encourage them, talk with them about school, help them plan for higher education, and keep them focused on learning and homework. The continuity that this constant support provides helps students through changes of school, program, and grade level. This does not mean, however, that parent involvement at school is unimportant. It means that the ways parents are involved at school should be linked to improving learning, developing students’ skills in specific subjects, and steering students toward more challenging classes. Parent involvement programs should also be designed to develop close working relationships between families and teachers.

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Teaching Resources

One of the keys to effective learning is to fire up the imagination. Children learn more when they are enjoying something rather than seeing it as a chore. There are many computer games that have a "hidden" education content as well as being fun - learning in disguise. The following web site is a good example of the extent of the opportunity for parents to enjoy games with their children.

Educational Toys

Keen2learn - award winning selection of Educational Games, educational games and toys induces fun to stimulate learning.

These three quotations best summarise the opportunity:

"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own".
Ben Sweetland

"Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them".
James Baldwin

"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre".
Gail Godwin

The Teaching Trauma

Have you ever considered the number of people who will teach your child during their schooling career? Primary school starts with one or two teachers per year over the three years means your child will be taught by six different teachers. The three years at junior school adds a further nine, but the real shock perhaps arrives at secondary school.

Subject speciality involves a dedicated teacher per subject per year. Allowing for seven subjects over the five years racks up a further 35 teachers. But this assumes that nobody leaves. In reality 50 % of newly qualified teachers quit the profession within three years. Add other changes due to staff movements, retirements, promotions etc. adds a further five changes.

In total the average child will be taught by an army of 65 different teachers during their schooling programme. The law of averages states some of the teachers will be brilliant, others average and unfortunately some will be poor. Add in changes to the curriculum, government policy, lifestyle, technology, social attitudes, and the pot-pourri becomes staggeringly complex.

Yet there is one constant in the equation. As a parent you are present throughout the entire process. And yes – you are a teacher. Who else taught then to walk, talk, ride a bike, understand hygiene health and safety, social etiquette and to stand up for themselves. So why do we let go when they go to school.?

A combination of external issues arises. To some parents it is a relief to get some free time back; work commitments re-emerge and many feel unwilling or possibly inadequate supporting the schooling process; not wishing to interfere. The reality is the opposite. Ask any teacher and they will say one of their biggest frustrations is the absence of parents’ effective involvement in the schooling process. This is not just the end of term report or attending parent’s night, this is the hands on approach throughout the term.

Learning is achieved in stages. The “see and hear” process at school achieves a 30% score in learning retention, whereas the “do” practice activity achieves 75%. Ironically it is this practice function that is the most difficult to achieve at school – timetable, equipment availability, differing learning speeds all conspire to disrupt the activity. Yet this is the one function that is ideal for parents to help at home.

Teachers use a host of educational games to practice the lesson content whenever they can. The further use of these games at home can have a huge befit. This is not the conventional text and exercise homework where parents can perhaps feel isolated. This is spending some fun time at home at the pace of the child enjoying games that significantly help their performance back in class. Like all games there are rules, challenges and the opportunity to become the winner! The key is the opportunity o repeat the exercise at the speed of the child. In effect it is “learning in disguise”

The educational games extend across the whole curriculum, and ideal where a child is perhaps struggling to keep up or wants that extra challenge ahead of the class. More importantly it keeps parents in touch with just how their child is performing and where a little help can have a dramatic effect. And you become the learning mentor, the one constant in a world of academic change!