New Year’s resolutions to put your children on the path to As and Bs

What you do directly influences how successful your children will be in school. They don’t have to be geniuses to get As and Bs. However, you do have to instill in them a willingness to work hard and a desire to do their best in order for them to be rewarded with top grades.

Because it the start of a new year and the traditional time to make resolutions, why not choose one or more of the following resolutions to make sure your children are truly on the path to making the Honor Roll each grading period.

Resolve to:

• Praise your children for making an effort to do well in school.
• Communicate the importance of education.
• Establish the homework habit.
• Encourage your children to talk about what happened at school each day.
• Eat dinner with your children every night.
• Monitor the type and amount of TV your children watch.
• Limit the time your children spend using electronic gadgetry.
• Stress the importance of good attendance records.
• Limit the number of extracurricular activities in which your children participate.
• Work closely with your children’s teachers.
• Help your children learn organizational skills.
• Teach your children how to set and accomplish realistic long- and short-term goals.
• Help your children learn more about the world.
• Take your children to museums and historical sights.
• Encourage your children to read as much as they can.
• Avoid homework battles by using a homework contract.
• Express enthusiasm about how much they are learning in school.

Peggy Gisler and Marge Eberts are retired teachers and the authors of the Dear Teacher blog at www.dearteacher.com.