Every child has the power to succeed in school and in life and every parent, family
member and caregiver can help. The question is: How can we help our children succeed?
The answer comes from a combination of common sense and research about how
children learn and about how to prepare them to learn.
We know, for example, that children tend to do the same things as their parents do. What
we say and do in our daily lives can help them to develop positive attitudes toward school
and learning and to build confidence in themselves as learners. Showing our children that
we both value education and use it in our daily lives provides them with powerful models
and contributes greatly to their success in school.
As our children’s first and most important teacher, it’s important that all parents build
and keep strong ties to our children’s schools. When parents and families are involved in
their children’s schools, the children do better and have better feelings about going to
school. We help our children to succeed by working with teachers to make sure that they
provide curricula and use teaching methods that are based on strong scientific evidence
about what works best in helping students to learn.
The purpose of this booklet is to make available to you information that you can use to
help your child to succeed in school. The booklet includes
ß information about things that you can do at home to contribute to your child’s
school success;
ß activities that you can use to help your child acquire the skills to succeed in
school;
ß answers to often-asked questions about how to work with teachers and schools;
and
ß tips on how to help your child with test taking

If you think about it, although school is very important, it does not really take up very
much of a child’s time. In the United States, the school year averages 180 days; in other
nations, the school year can last up to 240 days and students are often in school more
hours per day than American students. Clearly, the hours and days that a child is not in
school are important for learning, too. Here are some things that you can do to help your
child to make the most of that time