The Keys to School Success: How to Maximize Your Child’s Potential.

Do you want your child to have a report card covered in A+?  There are two keys to your child’s success.

A growing body of research suggests that the keys to success are “learning skills”.  These are the skills children need to be able to learn, the skills that enable them to reach their full learning potential.

Every student needs these skills, even gifted students can benefit from developing the learning skills that help them get higher scores in school.

What are these skills?

Learning skills include the ability to work with others, to take initiative, to study independently, to set goals and to plan how to get there.  They are the skills students need if they are going to be able to benefit from the teaching that happens in school.  They are the skills that allow your child to demonstrate his or her abilities and to reach their learning potential.

How do children develop these skills?

Would it surprise you to know that children develop these skills are fostered at home, that YOU help your child develop these skills?  Whether you know this or not, it is how you help your child develop these skills that determines your child’s success in school.

Sure, children sometimes need extra tutoring, and maybe even some specialist help, but it is what YOU do in the home that has the most impact on your child’s grades in school.  You help your child develop the learning skills he or she needs to succeed.

The second key to your child’s success is how you are involved with your child’s education.  Research shows that the kind of parental involvement that made a difference was not what you might expect.  It had nothing to do with hiring tutors or even helping with homework.  There are four types of parental involvement that help your child succeed in school.

1.  Set clear expectations of what you want your child to achieve, of the amount of work you expect them to do

2.  Set learning goals and monitor how well your child achieves them

3. Help with study skills.  This does not mean help with homework!!  It means help your child develop the skils he needs to be able to do homework on his own.

4.  Set a high value on education. Let your child know that education leads to a better life, whatever that life might be.

Notice that I never once mentioned teaching in this article, well, I don’t think I did.  YOU are the key to your child’s success and you don’t need to be a teacher to give your child the learning opportunities he or she needs to reach their full learning potential.

You have the power to help your child succeed in school.  Take it and use it, your child deserves no less.