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Contents
• Get the school year off to a good start
• Back to school tips for children with special needs
• Helping kids with theier homework
• Spotlight: Conduct Disorder

Quick back to school tips

• Establish daily routines with regular bedtimes, study times and quiet study areas for homework.
• Talk with your child about goals and priorities for the year. Establish guidelines about how many activities your child may participate in at a time.
• During the first days of school, get a copy of the school calendar and write important dates, holidays, etc. on your home planning calendar.
• Go over the school handbook/rules with your child.
• Find out the best way and time to contact your child’s teacher and let the teacher know the best way to contact you. Ask to hear about successes, not just to be called if there is a problem. Be sure the school has current, accurate emergency numbers. Be sure to notify the teacher if there is something going on – illness, family emergency, etc. – that may affect your child’s school performance or behavior.
• Learn how much your child will be using computers and ask if Internet access is monitored and supervised.
• Request a copy of the learning “standards” that your child will be expected to reach during the school year. Discuss the ways your child will be required to be able to show he/she has met the standards.
• Be positive and encouraging about school. Talk with your child daily about success and problems. Help your child find solutions.
• Ask about parent involvement activities and participate. Studies have shown that childre n do better in school when their parents are active and involved.

Contact your child’s teacher

Meeting your child’s teacher is important in laying the foundation for a productive school year. Not only are you introducing yourself as your child’s parent, but you are also opening a line of communication for the school year with the person who will be guiding your child’s education. If your work schedule doesn’t allow you to visit the classroom at the beginning of the school year, a short note of introduction can be helpful in forging the bond between teacher and parent.

Most schools have parent/teacher orientation or “Back to School” nights soon after school starts. It is important for parents

communication is essential to your child having a good year. Find ways to regularly communicate with the teacher, whether it is in person, by phone, e-mail or notes. Share positives, as well as problems.

Help your child get organized

One of the most critical skills for school success is organization. For most children, this is a skill that must be learned – and for some it doesn’t come easy. In many of today’s households, with both parents working and children involved in after school and extracurricular activities, organization is especially essential.

A home planning calendar where each member of the family can write upcoming events is essential. Children’s sports events, concerts, school parties and medical or dental appointments, along with parent’s business trips and social events should be recorded. This is a place where long-term assignments can be written also – to avoid the last minute rush to build a volcano or do a term paper.

This calendar is probably one of the best organizing tools for today’s busy families.

A well-stocked backpack is the first step for organizing school-age children. Be sure your child has pens, pencils and rulers. (Check periodically to see if these easily misplaced items need to be restocked.) Ask teachers at the beginning of the school year what they prefer – binders, notebooks, folders, etc. – for each subject and be sure your child has what he or she needs in the backpack. A daily assignment book or planner is also indispensable. Insist that your child record every assignment, the exact particulars and when it is due. Cross checking the planner and the homework can help prevent confusion over whether the homework is completed or not, and it is a tool that helps prevent your child from telling you the homework is complete if it is not.

Another organizational tool children need to learn is how to break down large projects into smaller steps, and how to develop manageable plans. Help your child map out a schedule for large projects on the calendar. Some children need this tool just for everyday assignments. If your child seems overwhelmed by an assignment such as “Read and take notes on chapter three,” show him or her how to read and find the most important point in each paragraph. Sometimes we assume this is a skill children are taught at school, or that they just know. Many children have trouble breaking down a long assignment into manageable parts without some direction.

Encourage kids to love learning

There are ways that parents can encourage children to love learning. First and most important, children need to know when they’ve done well – and they need to hear it from the people that matter most – mom and dad.

One way to be sure you are encouraging your children, rather than discouraging them, is to keep a ratio of at least four positive remarks to every critical one. Praise effort, as well as success, and celebrate every accomplishment. By acknowledging progress, you show your child that you understand that he or she is trying, and that it is just as important to do your best as it is to always be the winner.

Making everyday experiences learning experiences helps children to know that there is something to be learned from everything. Talk to your children as you share walks, short excursions, and trips to the grocery store. Discuss the books they are reading, or the work they are doing in their classes. If your child expresses curiosity about something, help him or her figure out how to find the answer. Let your children help with household chores and make learning experiences out of measuring ingredients, or the length of a board.

Go to the library and check out books for the whole family. Read together. One mom says she helped her daughter begin to enjoy reading by reading the same books and discussing them with her daughter. Mom would stay just a bit ahead and then rouse her daughter’s curiosity by asking if she’d come to this or that exciting part yet. It wasn’t long before the daughter was enjoying reading.

Back to school tips for children with special needs

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Some questions that will ease the back to school transition for children with special education needs include:

• Is the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) current? Federal law requires that IEP’s be updated at least annually. If your child is 14 or older, does the IEP include his/her transition plan?
• Do you know who your child’s case manager is? Who do you take your questions and concerns to? Who supervises whom? Who is responsible for your child’s grades?
• Is the school ready for your child? Does the IEP call for assistive devices, educational paraprofessionals, or other special provisions? Are they in place? Do you know the paras, special educators, therapists and regular educators who will be working with your child? Has school staff received appropriate in-service training?
• Have teachers and school staff been provided with a copy of the child’s IEP – including those who are not special educators? Parents can prevent problems by being sure that ALL staff who have regular contact with their child receive a copy of the IEP. It is sometimes helpful to do an “IEP summary” to provide to support staff (such as cafeteria workers or janitors) who will come into contact with your child.
• Is your child familiar with the layout of the school building and the teachers and other school staff? If not, call to arrange a tour before school starts at a time when he/she can meet school staff.
• Are your child’s regular education teachers familiar with your child’s needs and prepared to implement the IEP? If not, arrange a time to visit with them and familiarize them with your child’s needs and IEP goals.

Helping kids with homework

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For children who have been out of school for nearly three months, getting back on schedule can be a challenge. One of the most difficult ordeals for some families is getting back on track to get homework completed, returned to school and turned in when it is due.

The first step for parents in helping their children with homework is to communicate with their child’s teachers and find out exactly what is expected of their child. Parents should also set up a method of communication so teachers can contact them about homework problems as soon as they arise. Solutions can be worked out right away, and don’t come as a big shock when the report card arrives. (Children don’t always associate poor grades with homework that wasn’t completed five weeks ago anyway!!)

It is also important for parents to talk with their child about the reasons for homework:

• offers valuable practice;
• improves skills and grades;
• encourages responsibility.

Ways parents can be involved

• Set a regular time for homework – one that works for your child and family. (Research shows a correlation between successful students and parents who create and maintain family routines.) If homework time tends to become a dispute between you and your child, list the requirements and expectations on paper and post it on the fridge – then refer your child to the list if he or she argues with you about homework.
• Provide a place for the homework to be done – your child may work better at the kitchen table than at a desk in her bedroom – find what works best for each individual child.
• Remove distractions – turn off the television and discourage social telephone calls during homework time.
• Provide supplies and resources such as pencils, pens, erasers, paper, dictionary, etc. If your child studies at the kitchen table, keep the necessary supplies in a basket or box that can be easily transported to the table when needed, then put away when the table is set for meals.
• Provide aids to good organization such as an assignment calendar or planner, book bag and folders.
• Look over homework, but do not do your child’s homework for him or her.

Most parents have had the experience of asking, “Do you have homework,” and being told no – then discovering a day or two later that the child did indeed have homework and it was not done. There are questions parents can ask to prevent these situations:

What did you do in history (or math or English) today?

• What is your assignment?
• Is the assignment clear?
• When is it due?
• Do you need special resources or supplies?
• Have you started today’s assignment? Have you finished it?

One of the best ways to be sure that homework is done is to ask to see the completed homework before your child may turn on the television, go out to play, make social phone calls or do something with friends.

that each step should be completed. (This can prevent those last minute scrambles and emergencies!)

Some children need help with organization and with studying for tests. Ask your child if it would be helpful if you ask him the questions or give her a practice test.

If problems with homework arise, discuss them with your child, and work out a solution with your child’s teacher. Maybe your child needs more help, doesn’t understand the assignments, or just doesn’t get the subject matter. It is much better to work on solutions right away than to wait until report card time when it is too late to make a difference in the grade.

Maybe you need to check your child’s homework and initial your child’s assignment book or planner that you have seen the completed homework. Then if the homework is being completed, but not turned in, work with the teacher to find a way to help your child remember to turn in the homework at school.

Staying on top of homework problems can sometimes help parents and teachers identify a learning problem in a child. If the homework is consistently too difficult and frustrating, discuss that with your child’s teacher. Maybe your child has an unidentified learning problem and needs to be assessed. Many things can be done in the classroom and with homework assignments to accommodate a student who has difficulty in some area of learning.