Five Tips to Help Your Kids Get Better Grades.

A “B” or not a “B”. That was the question my wife asked me this week when Book Boy came home with a “B” on a Social Studies assignment.

Clean Mom takes great interest in our kids’ grades as she’s the one who works hard with them on their homework.   (I merely contributed the superior genes from which our kids were created … nurture or nature, that’s another discussion…)  This got me to thinking about what else we could do to help Book Boy and Ballet Girl excel in school.  After much research, here are the five tips that I believe will help your kids get better grades.

1. Get Involved

This is an obvious tip but easily the most powerful.  Several studies have shown that parental involvement is the greatest determinant in how well your children will do in school.  There absolutely is a significant investment of time here (and we’re all Busy Dads) but if you’re serious about helping your kids get better grades, it starts with you!  Help your kids with their homework and ask them questions about what they’re learning.  It can also be as simple as letting your younger child be involved with writing grocery lists and reading labels at the grocery store.  Be the catalyst in helping your child strive for excellence, be more than mediocre and aim for high marks.  Know what they’re doing in their class then, at home, go beyond that (i.e. if a young child needs to know how to write all their letters by the end of junior kindergarten, start teaching them how to recognize letters well before then using magnetic letters, toys, etc..  As Book Boy is going through Grade 1 science, at home, we’ve already exposed him to science concepts that he won’t be exposed to until Grade 3 through Magic School Bus science chapter books and science experiment kits purchased from Mastermind).  Congratulate them for their academic achievements and always let them know of your confidence that they can do even better.  These values of striving for excellence and aiming high, communicated both consciously and unconsciously, will impact both their current academic performance and will serve them well for the rest of their life.

One caveat, beware of framing homework as a negative experience (i.e. get your homework out of the way first then you can play your video games); instead, frame learning as an exciting part of life and put it in a context that they can understand and relate to (i.e. astronauts who travel into space study very hard and get very good grades to be selected).  When you get report cards or graded projects back, ensure you praise their efforts instead of their grades; if you do otherwise, you run the risk of making them fear mistakes and avoid challenges in order to avoid getting bad grades.

2. Set the Stage

The love of learning isn’t made or broken during homework time.  It’s built (or not built) every day in the positive things you expose them to (i.e. puzzles, books, extra-cirricular activities). From an even more mundane perspective, ensure that you establish routines so your kids get enough sleep, eat regular healthy meals and receive enough exercise.  Finally, provide your kids with an area to do homework that is tidy and free from distractions.

3. Read, Read, Read

By the time Book Boy finished Kindergarten, he was reading at a Grade 2 level.  His love of reading has opened his mind and interests to a host of knowledge he wouldn’t have otherwise been exposed to at this age (i.e. he’s currently reading an Ocean Encyclopedia).  His vocabulary is very strong, he communicates well with his teachers and their perception of him is that he’s very smart (and we all know about perceptions and how they influence behaviours…).  As your kids progress through school, I’ve read that as much as 75 percent of what they learn will come from the printed page.  Once reading becomes easy and, more importantly, enjoyable to your child, you will be surprised at how fast their grades will begin to improve in all subjects.  How do you establish this love of reading?  Start young!  Read books to your kids when they’re young (and represent a captive audience).  Read with them when they’re older.  Get them books that interest them, they don’t necessarily have to be academic.  Set an example and read yourself!

4. Show Them How to Get Things Done

Think about how important your organizational skills are to your own life and you’ll get a sense of why this is one of the top 5 tips.  Kids who are organized find it much easier to succeed in school.  Teach your children how to use organizational tools such as calendars and notebooks to track test dates, project due dates and any other events that need to be remembered.  After they’ve organized their dates, teach them how to prioritize.  It’s not always the most urgent thing that needs to be worked on (i.e. colour this page or finish a minor assignment) but perhaps the most important (i.e. continue working on the report that makes up the majority of their mark).  Differentiating the “urgent and not important” from the “urgent and important” is another life skill you’re teaching them.  From a studying perspective, ensure that your children know how to prepare for tests, memorize facts and use their time efficiently.

If your child is showing little interest in studying, perhaps its because you’re not appealing to their learning style. There are several different categorizations of learning styles (Google to your heart’s content about learning styles) so try different avenues to pique your child’s love of learning.  For example, they may find it easier to study simply by reading about a topic, or maybe they learn much better when listening about a subject from a professor or discussing it with peers.  Others learn best by seeing pictures and graphs or by drawing pictures about a subject while more need to have distractions or background music to keep them focused.

5. Know The Teacher

Establishing a relationship with your child’s teacher is invaluable.  Having good communications between yourself and the teacher makes it easier to understand what they expect from their class, address any problems, solicit feedback and get their advice with respect to helping your child get better grades. Make the time to attend parent-teacher nights and visit your kids’ classrooms.  If you or your wife have time, volunteer to help their teachers.  Finally, as with all relationships, don’t forget to thank the teachers for all that they do for your children.

Bonus Tip – 6. It Doesn’t Pay to Pay

If you start paying your kids money for good grades (i.e. $X for each A, $Y for each B, etc.), you’re starting down a slippery slope.  Some parents swear by this method but I believe it’s not sustainable.  Kids need to learn the personal gratification of doing a job well and achieving something worthwhile.  Don’t incentivize performance; instead, teach them to be self-motivated (through your encouragement and involvement) and to view success as a reward in itself.

There you have it, the five… I mean six tips to help your kids get better grades.  Agree or disagree?  Other thoughts?  Look forward to hearing your Incredible suggestions.

Images from Foxtrot by Bill Amend, ScholasticScribe Blog and Google Images.

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