Five Ways to Get Involved In Your Child’s Education

Are you looking for ways to get involved in your child’s education? 

I am excited to be an ambassador this year for the #FairFundingPA campaign that is encouraging parents to get involved and use social media to let their legislators know that the way education is funded in our state is important.

In my life before staying home with my kids, I was an elementary school teacher and a gifted specialist. One of the most frequently asked questions I got from parents was about ways they could get more involved and help their children learn. Many parents wanted to be a bigger part of the school experience, but just weren’t quite sure how to go about it. Here are a few easy ways to bring some hands-on involvement into your child’s education.

1. Visit the Campaign for Fair Education Funding to learn more about other ways to get involved!  You can attend the upcoming rally in Harrisburg, contact your own legislator, or sign up for their email newsletter to learn about more ways to get involved. 

2. Get Messy. Practice spelling or sight words in sidewalk chalk or in shaving cream on the dining room table. Do a science experiment together. Help to visualize math problems by adding or taking away chocolate chips, then eating them when the work is over. Find ways to take the drudgery out of schoolwork by turning it into more of an enjoyable hands-on experience.

3. Let them read what they want at home (within reason). Of course you should not give a second grader a copy of Romeo and Juliet, because the content would not be appropriate, but reading is reading. Graphic novels (more commonly referred to as comic books), magazines for kids, and books geared toward a specific interest are great ways to encourage reading. If you have a boy who loves reading Star Wars comics, don’t stress too much that he isn’t reading enough of a different genre. As we said, reading is reading. Your child is being exposed to many required texts at school. Reading at home should be as pleasurable as possible.
4. Ask your child’s teacher how to get involved. Sometimes the best way to find out the answer to a question is simply to ask it. Your child’s teacher may have some volunteer opportunities in the classroom that you hadn’t realized were possibilities. Maybe you could stop in and be a guest reader before work one day. Perhaps the school is looking for speakers for career day, and you or your spouse would be a good fit. When I was teaching, I had a parent volunteer come in once a week and work one-on-one with my students on their spelling words. Other teachers in my school had “copy moms” who ran photocopies for them. There are a lot of ways to get involved!
5. Use Technology to Your Advantage. It’s no secret that kids love their screen time. There are actually quite a few apps available now, like Reading Rainbow or Mr. Pencil that you could sit and do for a few minutes with a younger student on a tablet. If you are a tech-savvy parent, use that knowledge to your advantage. Join me and the rest of the #FairFundingPA ambassadors June 15 when we attempt to take over Twitter. 

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf o the Campaign for Fair Education Funding. All opinions are my own.