The end of the school year is upon us. Another school year has come and gone. At times it moved ever so slowly. There were days that seemed to go on forever and weeks that felt like they would never end and bring the rest that can only come from a weekend. Did I say restful weekends? I do not know what I was thinking…What about the weekends that had more packed in them than a calendar month, which led to nights that were marked with so much left to do, that the only available time left in the day to sacrifice was when you would be sleeping? Ironically, whether it was a wonderful season or a difficult time, the year zoomed by and we cannot believe that it is about to come to a close.
Often, we look back, we go through the year in our mind and take time to reflect on the growth and progress of our children. This year, continue to take inventory of your children’s progress and growth, but first, I invite you take inventory of how well you did.
As a parent of school-age children, did you make the grade? Below is a set of questions that address some of the most common issues educators deal with on a daily basis and need the support of parents to make the difference. Meditate on these ten questions. I want to encourage you to really think about what you did to support your child’s education this past school year:
1. Did you make sure that your children got to school every day on time (except when they were sick)?
2. Did you make sure that you had groceries at home for a lunch or did you put money on their school lunch account?
3. Did you buy your children the school supplies he/she needed in a timely manner?
4. Did you check his/her grades on a regular basis, (every two weeks)?
5. If you had any concerns, did you talk with or email the teacher in a respectful and kind manner?
6. When you heard from a teacher, regarding a concern about your child’s progress, did you follow through at home, with your child?
7. Did you hold your children accountable to do their best, complete their work, and turn it in (on time)?
8. Did you support your child in prosocial behaviors and make him/her responsible for their disrespectful, mean, or aggressive behaviors (and not blame others)?
9. If their grades were not passing, did you give appropriate consequences, i.e. take their phone, unplug their game system, etc. until they showed improvement (for a week at a time)?
10. Did you acknowledge and reward the positive behaviors: good study habits, zero missing assignments, improved grades, respect toward peers and adults?
Even the very best teachers need you. They need you to work with them, so that together you can have a partnership to help your children be the very best they can be, at every age, so that at the end of every school year, everyone makes the grade.
