Education || Home Environment

|| Establishing ‘Culture of Education’ at home is a must to instill in students a desire to Learn and move ahead.

The future of your child is in your hands

We, as parents, need to recognize the fact that no school or place can replace the role of home in a child’s life. And, neither can any teacher replace a parent. A nourishing and supportive environment at home is essential for kids to remain calm, focused, energetic and confident. And, it is a task only suited for the parents.

For children the process of learning starts at home and ends at home. Home is the most important place for a child. It is where the child gets the emotional support and energy to handle and enjoy the task of learning at school. The environment at home plays a very important role in a child’s mental and physical development.

Kids, above all, need healthy nutrition and sufficient amounts of sleep and rest. Besides, they also need to be physically fit to remain alert and have energy to handle the daily chores. A healthy home environment provides the right eating, sleeping and physical exercise habits.

There needs to be a balance between love and discipline. Children must be respected and trusted but, at the same time, they have to learn to assume responsibility and take charge of their day to day affairs — It is a lot of doing on the parents’ part.

Time Management is one of the skills that the sooner kids master the better off they will be as they grow. It is a good idea to create an environment at home that brings in a sense of time awareness. It is essential for kids to recognize the fact that time is an irreplaceable commodity and, as such, they must must use it with great care.

With the right approach, children will learn to appreciate the value of time and use their time wisely. They will understand that at any given day they have only a limited amount of time.

It is very supportive and encouraging to kids if parents sit with them every day and help them organize and assign their time to various tasks that have to be tackled and to the activities of their liking. The environment at home should support and encourage them to remain faithful to their schedule. Children will always remember and appreciate their parents helping them acquire this very useful skill as they turn into adults.

Children, of course, need to have fun. They need time to relax and enjoy their life. The only thing that we need to pay attention to is that there has to be a balance and discipline in the life of a child.

The following is a report compiled by the Department of Education . We may not fully agree with the report – some parts may not even apply to every household, but it provides a ‘general perspective’.

☞ Please take note: Video & Web Games fall into the same category as watching TV.

Creating a Home Environment for Learning

American children spend an average of 4 hours each day in front of the television. This rate will equal 22,000 hours of TV by age 18, more time than will be spent in the classroom. Research has shown that children who watch more than 10 hours of TV a week, or more than 2 hours per day, learn less than children who watch less TV. If your child is spending too much time watching TV, he will not have time to do other important activities, like reading, playing, exercising, talking, doing homework, or doing a hobby. Your child needs to spend time doing these things in order to learn and grow as a person. Other types of “screen time,” such as video games or computers, can also interfere with these important activities.

Surveys of parents show that most parents want to limit their children’s TV viewing; however, this can be difficult. Below are some ideas for managing screen time.

Limit your child to no more than about 2 hours of “screen time” per day.

Provide alternatives to TV, video games, and computers, such as books, kids’ magazines, toys, puzzles, board games, and trips to the library or park.

• Do not have a TV or computer in your child’s room.
• Turn off the TV during meals.
• Do not allow your child to watch TV while doing homework.
• Use screen time as a privilege for your child completing his chores and homework.

Help your child select programs to watch. Many television programs show scenes of violence and sex that will not be right for children. Some shows may promote values that are different from your own. Help your child select programs that are more wholesome and educational.

Watch programs with your child. The program may provide you with a chance to talk with your child about important topics.

In order to learn, get good grades, and succeed in school, your child will need to use good work habits. You play an important role in helping your child to use good work habits. You can use a four-step process to teach your child good work and study habits.

Set and communicate high expectations about your child’s work and study habits.

Teach your child specific organization and study methods. You can get some good information about effective study and organizational skills and become familiar with them before you teach them to your child. You should expect to spend most of the school year working with your child each night, showing him how to use the skills.

Monitor your child’s use of the skills. You should frequently remind your child to use the skills and watch that she uses them. You should closely monitor your child’s use of the skills until they become a habit. You will always need to stay involved with your child’s education; however, you can expect to spend less time as she develops her skills.

Reward your child for using the skills. You can increase motivation and strengthen your child’s work habits by rewarding him when he uses the methods. Make a special effort to give your child frequent praise for the effort he puts into his home study time. Praise him immediately after you see him use a skill correctly. You can use tangible rewards or privileges to increase his motivation to use good work habits. Provide him with a small, but meaningful reward or privilege each day for using the skills. In addition, you can add up the good days and provide a larger weekly reward for meeting some set goal. You should try to avoid criticism, punishment, and conflict in your efforts to teach your child to use the work skills.

It is important for you to share responsibility with the school for your child’s learning and school success. Creating a home environment for learning will help you send your child to school on time and ready and prepared to learn.

The students’ home and school environments provide the foundation for learning. As parents, you have the responsibility of getting your children to school in a condition where they are most ready to learn. This includes both physical and mental readiness. Physically, you need to send your child to school on time, well-rested and well-fed. Mentally, you need to send your child to school happy and calm, motivated to learn, and well-behaved. In addition, you need to send your children to school prepared to learn. This includes helping them to discipline themselves to work hard and use good work habits.

In school, students have to sit still and pay attention for long periods of time. Some students have problems with keeping their attention focused over time. Some students have trouble sitting still and being quiet. Students with these problems can have difficulty getting their class work and homework completed. If you think your child has problems with attention and hyperactivity you can ask for an evaluation from your school principal or primary care physician.

A student’s motivation to learn can also affect school performance and grades. Motivation is what drives students to stay engaged in learning. It involves student beliefs about their skills and about what the results will be if they try. Students that do not think they can do a task may not start the task. Also, students that believe that things will turn out bad even if they try may not start a task. Motivation also involves the value of learning to the student. Some students know they can do it and that the result will be good if they try, but they do not want to do it. These students will choose to do something they value more. What parents and teachers expect, communicate, and do with students has a powerful effect on motivation to learn.

Homework provides an important chance for students to repeat skills taught in school. Research shows that students who do homework learn more than those that do not. In addition, the more time a student spends doing homework, the more learning takes place. As a parent, you play an important role in helping your child do their homework on their own and on time.

Studying for tests at home provides another important chance for students to repeat material taught in school. Since studying for tests at home is not always required by the school, you need to help your child develop this habit. Since learning requires repetition across time, it is best for your child to begin studying several nights before each test rather than “cramming” the night before. It is also important for your child to use good study methods during his or her study time. Effective studying requires many different skills. Parents can teach these skills to their children in early elementary school. As a parent, you play an important role in teaching your child to spend the time to study and to use good study skills.

In order to regularly do homework and study at home, students will need to plan ahead and get their books and papers to and from school. Disorganization can be a part of the cause of poor grades. Organization and planning ahead are learned skills. Children often have a hard time organizing themselves and staying motivated to practice good organization skills. You play an important role in teaching your child how to stay organized and in keeping them motivated to practice the skills.

Participating in classroom activities provides a critical opportunity for learning new skills. Participation helps students make deep, meaningful connections in the mind that are important in learning. Participating in class involves several types of behaviors as listed in the table at the right. Signs of problems with classroom participation can include low grades, incomplete work coming home as homework, and low grades on classroom papers. If your child often does not know how to do homework, this could be a sign that he or she is not participating well in class.

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