ABCnews.com confirms that parents can help improve the academic performance of their kids. Kate Rice ends with these tips (excerpt):
Educators Calkins, Langer, Paulu give the following tips for helping your child do better with schoolwork at home:
Set up a specific area in your home for homework–even if it’s the kitchen table. Know what works for your children. Sequestering them in their room with the door shut may be too isolating, while being on the fringe of family activities may be better.
If possible, have some member of the family work at the same time the child is–be it reading, checking e-mail, paying bills, balancing the checkbook, etc.
It’s OK to help. Sometimes students can get sidetracked from the main task by something that is part of the assignment but not the main job. The fact that they can’t think of a particular word or remember how to spell it, for example, may throw them off track and cause them to lose sight of the main goal–writing a paper. In these instances, it’s fine to supply the answer in order to help children to complete the main goal.
Ask questions. It could be about books they’re reading or a science or social studies topic. The questions shouldn’t have right or wrong answers but generate conversations. A parent could express admiration for one character and give reasons, then ask the child which character is his or her favorite and why.
Appreciate your children’s work. Praise it when it merits it–not falsely, but honestly. Show their work to friends and relatives. Hang younger children’s work on the wall or refrigerator, send it to grandparents.