Mid-year is when parents alike have a good idea about how their kids are doing in school – which subjects are hard or easy and how they like their teachers.
This is also a time of year when parents often overlook a few important aspects of their children’s school experience that can greatly impact learning success.
That’s why now is the ideal time to do a mid-year check up with your child’s progress, identify potential problems and resolve them so you make the remainder of your child’s school year go far smoother and not be caught off-guard. Here are a few items to check and solutions if you see a problem.
Academic Progress Dip
Classes often get harder now. Older kids may have switched classes or teachers. High stakes testing is approaching. Teachers will decide if your child will be promoted, retained or recommended for special placement. And all of those issues can greatly impact your child’s learning success.
Parent Check-In: Make sure you recheck the teacher’s website for your child’s current grades and test scores.If notice a downslide in your child’s academic progress…
Solutions:
Related: 7 Ways to Ensure Your Child's Success in School
Set a conference with teacher. Review test scores, grades, as well as achievement test results, which should now be available.
Find out what would improve school performance: a tutor, a class change, or hitting those books harder, then develop a plan together before you leave that meeting.
If your child needs a tutor consider hiring a retired teacher or even a high school student if cost is an issue.
Check upcoming class projects with your child like the science fair, extended book report, that social studies project and mark due dates on a calendar so your child can allow time and effort to complete those tasks. .
Attendance and Tardies
Next to grades, the highest correlation to school success is showing up in class on time ready to learn. Many parents are shocked to discover their kids are “missing” classes and marked absent even though you thought you sent your child to school on time.
Parent Check-In: Don’t overlook reviewing your child’s attendance and tardies which are posted on the school’s website. If there is a discrepancy:
Solutions: Find out what’s going on why and find a simple solution.
If your child is chronically late waking up, get him an alarm clock.
Communicate with the teacher on a daily or weekly basis until the problem is resolved.
Don’t overlook another cause: could his tardiness have anything due to your own behavior like you can’t find those car keys for the carpool or you’re always scheduling his doctor’s appointments during his crucial AP science class? Revamp your own behavior if needed.
Related: Top 9 Reasons Kids Cheat (and the Solutions)
Lacks Friends or Rejected
Friends play an enormous part of not only our children’s self-esteem but also school success. A lack of friends or rejection makes concentrating on those school assignments a lot harder. While your child doesn’t need many friends he does need one loyal buddy and hanging around the kind of friends who value education does impact his learning..
Parent Check-in: To see if your child has peer support is to ask him to draw a map of school locations where kids most likely to be excluded: school cafeteria or playground. Where are other kids in relation to your child? If no friends or rejected frequently:
Solutions:
Contact the teacher for friendship-making ideas.
Find group activity to support your child’s passion. School-aged children choose friends based on similar interests so identify your child’s passion or interests and then find a group activity with same-aged peers that support it. For instance, if he loves guitar, find him a group class where he’ll be more likely to make a new buddy.
*For more information on your child's mid-year check up, go to Michele Borba's site.
More from GalTime:
- Perfect Ways to Help Perfectionist Kids
- 7 Secrets to Reducing Parental Stress
- Should You Discipline Other People's Kids?
- Most Dangerous Websites for Teen Girls
Michele Borba, Ed.D., is an educational psychologist, former teacher, and mom. She is recognized for offering research-driven advice culled from a career of working with over one million parents, educators, and children. A Today show contributor and recipient of the National Educator Award, Michele is the author of 23 books including Building Moral Intelligence, No More Misbehavin', and her latest release, The Big Book of Parenting Solutions: 101 Answers to Your Everyday Challenges and Wildest Worries. She also appears on countless shows including Dr. Phil, The View, Tyra, CNN HLN,and The Early Show, and has been featured in numerous publications, including U.S. News & World Report, The Chicago Tribune, Redbook, Family Circle, Parenting, and Child. She is an advisory board member for Parents magazine and she writes the blog “Parenting Solutions” for NBC's iVillage.
ORDER 'The BIG BOOK of Parenting Solutions' for more of Dr. Borba's proven strategies. Your kids will thank you!
Free consultation 
