GenParenting

Parenting resources for all who love and care for children

How Covid Affected Student Learning – Part 1

How Covid Affected Student Learning – Part 1

The Week of March 4th, 2019

The country had been going crazy with the politics of President Trump. Protesters were wreaking havoc in cities. Random fires were being set. A real threat to our safety was felt throughout the neighborhood, school, and home.

My first experience/awareness of the panic with COVID-19 was a routine Thursday evening trip to Costco. The parking lot was full like it was a day in December getting close to the holiday season. We could barely find a place to park. The store was packed and buzzing with people. This is super unusual for Thursdays. The main reason I shopped on that day of the week was because it was not packed. On this particular Thursday you could find some people masked while shopping. [Read more…]

Purposeful Parenting and Ovecoming Challenges

Purposeful Parenting and Overcoming Challenges

Guest blogger Erik Youngman’s blogs on purposeful parenting and learning from challenges embrace the following ten practical approaches to parenting:

  1. Through positive, patient, and purposeful problem-solving, parents can model effective limit setting for their children. This includes clearly defined boundaries and goals for daily living.
  2. Parents incorporate play in project-based learning activities at home. These may include messy art projects, science explorations, performing arts, creative writing, and sports.
  3. Children are encouraged to ponder and creatively reflect on their various learning activities for continuous improvement and growth.
  4. Kids learn to pivot and respond resiliently to life’s great adventures and challenges.
  5. Parents encourage their children to embrace and learn from mistakes and challenges.
  6. Children effectively manage daily challenges through time management and understanding their family’s clearly defined boundaries.
  7. Parents help their children overcome difficulties by modeling effective problem-solving skills and encouraging new skill development.
  8. When students own their learning challenges, they identify how they can overcome learning and skill development difficulties and ask for help for added guidance.
  9. Children are inspired to do their best through resourceful goal setting and self-self-assessments.
  10. When parents collaborate with their children’s teachers, they can help their children ask deliberate questions, model through example, and encourage classmate support.

[Read more…]

College and Career Explorations

College and Career Explorations

When children are preschoolers, they love to think about what they want to be when they grow up. Some want to be garbage collectors, doctors, princesses, and athletes. Whatever career passions children relish, it is important to reinforce these interests with relevant play activities and enrichment outings to learn more about various careers. Parents can help children visualize a plan for a career opportunity by encouraging their children to:

  • Communicate with folks in specific professions.
  • Research the educational and job requirements for potential careers.
  • Participate in field trips and community activities to learn more about specific careers.
  • Attend parents’ work activities and shadow parents, colleagues, and friends to explore various careers
  • Encourage children to help at work with duplications, mailings, and computer inputting if permitted by the company.
  • Secure community service volunteer responsibilities, internships, and paid jobs.

As children enter middle school and explore various careers, they must learn how to research various college and career academic requirements to ensure that they are taking the proper courses for a specific career. They can attend career exploration days, meet with college counselors, and attend college tours to learn more about academic preparations. The more children understand the requirements for specific careers, the greater their successes will be to prepare and plan for appropriate course selections.

Early College Options

Early college, or the ability to take college courses in high school, can save thousands of dollars in educational preparations and tuition costs later. Middle school and high school students can learn more about early college by contacting their local school district to determine which high school campuses offer community college courses at the high school site. Parents and students can also contact their local community college to learn which courses high school students can register for during and after the school day. Additionally, many state and private colleges offer summer and vacation break intra-sessions on different careers including computer coding, science and math academics, performing arts, and writing workshops.

Community Service Leadership Opportunities

As part of their high school graduation requirements, most high school students are required to participate in community service activities. Some students use this time to explore careers and provide community services at elementary schools, for youth sports teams, and at various social service agencies. During summer breaks, students may participate in an international business program or cultural exchange program in another country. Other students work at summer jobs or internships to learn about merchandising, computer coding, and legislative support services for a local legislator.

Much success supporting your children’s school leadership and career planning options.

Becoming a School Leader

Becoming a School Leader

Parents are their children’s first teachers. Many feel inadequate on how to become a school leader. Some parents may have had a negative experience in their own academic experiences. Others may have attended school in another country. By participating in their children’s classrooms, parents can learn how to help their children at home with their homework and school projects. Parents can share their own skills, hobbies, and cultural experiences with students in the classroom. Additionally, children will respect their parents’ presence at the school and feel important. Parent classroom volunteers can:

  • Provide food donations when requested and help prepare meals with the students.
  • Donate classroom supplies requested by the teacher and prep curricular projects at home for classroom use.
  • Serve as a classroom parent representative to provide added support for class parties, field trips, and grade-level events.
  • Share a talent or hobby in small group learning centers.
  • Mentor and shadow new classroom parent volunteers.
  • Provide interpretation and translation support for parent volunteers and students

Classroom Support

Classroom parent volunteers will be able to:

  • Gain insight in how their children are adjusting to the new school year with their classmates and the academic course work.
  • Observe how the teacher is coaching and interacting with various students when responding to diverse educational challenges.
  • Advocate effectively with teachers and staff because they have an established relationship and committed partnership with the school community.

School Leadership Roles 

As parents become experienced classroom volunteers, many will receive leadership training from teachers and parent mentors to expand their volunteer leadership at the school. Parents can become school leaders and support the school by:

  • Serving as a parent representative on school and district committees
  • Participating in the school’s Parent, Teacher, and Student Association (P.T.S.A.)
  • Supporting a school’s fundraising foundation with fundraising and sponsorship events
  • Soliciting and advocating for added community partnerships at the school site through community-based organizations and local businesses
  • Leveraging added instructional support services by organizing special events, field trips, and community service projects for students and their families
  • Creating a school-based performing arts program with local artists, museums, and community theaters
  • Expanding physical fitness and nutritional programs with community-based organizations and sports groups

As parents partner and expand their roles at school, they will become more confident in supporting their children’s academic needs and successes.

How to Form School Partnerships – Part 2

How to Form School Partnerships – Part 2

Last week, we described how Kyle was able to overcome an enormous power struggle by:

  • Talking about previous successes and the current challenge of not being able to complete the assignment
  • Expressing feelings of frustration, anger, sadness, and fear from the student and his parents
  • Meeting with the teacher and the student together to brainstorm a satisfying solution
  • Following-up with Kyle to ensure that he felt supported by his parents’ coaching to achieve success
  • Being open to try an alternative solution to a difficult problem
  • Having parents and the student recognize that they were caught in a power struggle and that the parents were owning the student’s problem

[Read more…]