Parents can improve their children’s achievement levels in thirty days by following some basic educational strategies. These strategies can be done at home and should last a minimum of thirty days. Most of the focus will involve reading as research has told us that reading is the foundation of education.
These strategies can be best implemented during the summer months when most children are not in their regular school. Plus, kids won’t have to worry about having a lot of homework from school and having to do extra homework. These strategies can even be done when the family is on vacation and parents want to keep the educational momentum going.
Children must complete the activities six days a week for a minimum of four weeks. Each activity should not last more than an hour and a half. The parent will need to lead the activity and be available for any questions the child may have.
The child will need the following material; read books that are one grade level above the child’s current grade, pencils, pens, note cards, paper, folders, lighter, and dictionary. The best results will be obtained if the child has all the necessary material and is in a quiet place for the duration of the activities.
Activity one:
This activity begins by having the child read about thirty pages or a few chapters of the reading book. Divide the book so that the child can complete the entire book by the end of the week. This activity can be done four times a week.
During the reading task, the child should highlight anything in the chapter that they think is important and/or write the important ideas in the margin of the book. Also, the child must write the name of any word that she does not understand. Before continuing with the reading, the child must find the definition of the words and write them on a separate sheet of paper.
Finally, the child must summarize what was read and write it on a sheet of paper. After completing the written summary, the child should take a few minutes to explain to the parents what she read. Make sure the child uses complete sentences when he explains the chapters.
Activity two:
This activity should focus on the list of words that the child was not familiar with in the first few days. The child must take the list of the two days and combine them to obtain a new list of up to forty words. This activity can be done twice a week. The child must find the definition of each word and write it on a piece of paper. Once the child is familiar with the words, she should write each word in two complete (separate) sentences.
After completing the above task, the parent must take everything from the child and give him a spelling test using the forty words. The father should shout the words to his son and ask him to spell them and write the definition next to the word. The second part of the test involves having the child write the words in a complete sentence.
Activity Three
This activity should be done after reading the book. This strategy should be planned every seven days.
Time should be set aside for the child to review all the material for the week. This should include a summary of each chapter, spelling words, full sentences from the spelling list. Time should be allotted to review all materials. Then, the child must put together an oral presentation of the material used. This presentation should be a summary of what the book is about. The child can use note cards to help with the presentation.
The brief strategies listed above are just a few of the many strategies parents can use to improve their child’s performance level in thirty days. If parents are serious about improving their child’s achievement level, this plan can work.