Parent Involvement in Education by Kathleen Cotton and Karen Reed Wikelund
The research overwhelmingly demonstrates that parent involvement in children's learning is positively related to achievement. Further, the research shows that the more intensively parents are involved in their children's learning, the more beneficial are the achievement effects. This holds true for all types of parent involvement in children's learning and for all types and ages of students.
Homeschooling is the ultimate in parental involvement.
Why is parental involvement so important. Because it demonstrates to our kids that we care about them and that we care about their education. It shows that we as parents value education and think it is important.
Some simple and fun ways to enrich your child's life.
- Read a book together and discuss it. Our family has tremendously enjoyed our literary discussions of Lord of the Rings.
- Encourage your children to tell you about books they are reading.
- Attend a play or other cultural event together.
- Make vacations educational. Encourage your family to read about the history and culture of the places you will be visiting.
- Allow your kids to help plan the trip.
3 comments:
And yet the NEA and a great majority of people just don't get it! That continually amazes me. More parental involvement=greater achievement. How much more involved can we get than to homeschool? I noticed in the paper this "actively tutoring their children at home" as a definition of parental involvement. Duh!
This is exactly why the push for full-day kindergarten and universal preschool is so flawed. How is having *less* parental involvement with young children going to benefit their education?
I think the push for universal preschool is because society no longer values women who choose to be full time homemakers.
Tragically the children who would benefit from having at least one parent home full time during their formative years are forgotten.
I think the NEA is afraid that IF they encourage homeschooling people will question teachers salaries. Nothing could be further from the truth. While I happily homeschooled my two boys, my years as a substitute teacher left me with the knowledge that there isn't enough money in the world to get me to be a full time public school teacher.
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