School Family

Not exactly light reading, but if you’re looking for a good read on the hows and whys of getting involved with your child’s school, this parent involvement Q&A with a Connecticut district’s parent involvement coordinator captures all the angles.  Good stuff.

Short and sweet — and right on the money!  CNN’s Roland Martin makes an impassioned plea here for parent involvement.  Love it.  As he says:

Show up on the first day and do not make it your last. There is no greater gift you can provide your children.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Great message for back-to-school.

Late notice, but I’ll be talking about back-to-school habits for parents tomorrow morning on Fox 25 in Boston.  Believe we’re set to go live at about 8:20 AM.  Will try and get the clip on here later this week, provided it’s not in HD (face made for radio — or at least lo-def!). 

This article on Conversations to Have with Your Kids in the Car hits just the right note.  I think sometimes — and we can be guilty of this on schoolfamily.com, as well — there’s a  tendency to make involvement seem so arduous, and it doesn’t have to be. 

We’ve got a great article on the site on “Parents as Teachers” that really hits home, as well.

This general concept covers two distinct battles on the involvement front.  One is having actual meaningful conversations with your child, and it’s obviously important.  But the second is simply making sure your child knows you’re interested and interacting.  Every conversation doesn’t have to be deep and real, but it’s important to keep asking the questions and opening the lines.  I like to say:  even if the answer to “how was your day?” is “fine” 121 days in a row, please be sure to ask it again on the 122nd day.

Love to hear your thoughts on the art of the sometimes-inane conversation…

Love the thinking in Denver — getting parents energized about staying connected with their kids’ education.  Heck — it’s what this site is all about!

For the Denver Public Schools  (and the — love this name! — Parent Empowerment Council), it’s a new program — the Mile High Parent Campaign – aimed at getting parents to commit 5,280 minutes per year (get it? one mile for the Mile High city) or about a half hour per day to connecting with their children’s education. Education (how to connect), inspiration (why to connect) and even prizes. 

I’m sure some will say that parents should do this without incentives or a half hour is not enough — but we love the spirit and creativity of this approach. So many districts give lip-service only to the importance of involvement.

What do you think?

So all 6 of us Sullivans are on vacation this week.  We’re at Smuggler’s Notch in Vermont (America’s Family Resort, they call it.) and — despite rain today — are having a great time.

After a year of typical parent and family craziness – arranging and re-arranging multiple schedules, school projects, work demands, kids’ sports, more homework than ever — vacation is providing a really unique insight into a year of school progress and growth.  It seems that having this more quiet time provides the necessary perspective to assess how all that craziness went.  Hard to make that kind of assessment in real-time between Little League games and bedtimes and school projects.

The good news is that things seem solid.  We came here last year, too, so it’s fun to compare what the kids were comfortable with last year and what they want to do now. A desire for more independence (for the older kids) seems to be the theme this year.  And I suppose that’s a good thing.

Of course, they also aced the “are you ready” quizzes that we have here on the site.  So I guess I can head to the pool guilt-free for the rest of the weekend.

Happy 4th all.

Just found this excellent year-long feature from New Haven, CT.  The focus:  how several parents made parent involvemnt work for themselves on their own schedules and within their own interests.  Great, great stuff.  And a lot for all of us to learn from.

The key take-away here (and this is coming from someone very involved in PTO and PTA stuff) is that the traditional entry points (Open House, PTO meetings) don’t have to be your entry points.  Those traditional structures are fine, and they work well for many.  But they don’t have to work for you.  Find your own way to connect.  Make sure your children know (and the school knows) that school is a priority for your family, but do that in a way that works for you.  It’s the involvement that matters, not the form of that involvement. 

Took me a couple of reads to actually like this story from England about the joys and perils of connecting with the PTO or PTA at your school.

My first reaction was to criticize the stereotypical portrayal that parent group volunteering means getting caught up in playground politics and cliques. (I actually wrote a column for our sister site — ptotoday.com — on how PTOs can avoid cliquedom) Also was disappointed that the representative from the British national PTA seems to say that “all PTAs are cliques and if you don’t like it, find something else.”

“Of course there’s going to be the idea that the PTA is a bit cliquey. It’s never intended but it almost always is.”

Ugh. It’s not inevitable. It’s certainly an issue, but in my experience a lot of parents also go in expecting a problem and then use the first negative experience as an excuse to turn away.

But on the whole, I really liked the overall message, which is:

“Whether you’re batch-baking cakes or just buying a raffle ticket, the golden rule to stress-free PTA involvement seems to be do what you can and forget the guilt.”

That really hits it.  If the PTO or PTA volunteering is for you — great.  If not, find another way to connect.  The positive results of getting involved are just too great to ignore.  We’ve also got good ideas on how you can get involed on your own terms.

And you thought those dinner conversations and parent-teacher conferences didn’t matter :-)….

A pair of University of New Hampshire economists add more proof to what we’ve known for years — parent involvement makes a proven difference for your kids and our schools.  Read the newest parent involvement research here.

These guys even put a pricetag on it, saying that increased involvement is worth the equivalent of $1000 more in spending for the average school district. We probably shouldn’t wait for our checks in the mail, but we certainly should stay involved and help others get it, too.

Welcome to our newest resource for involved moms and dads — schoolfamily.com. 

Today, you’ll find tons of great articles for helping you help your school-aged kids do great and helping you and your family keep school sane.  Over the next few weeks and months and years, you’re going to find lots and lots more.  Think of this site as the central web meeting spot (a portal, if you will) for all things that can help you be a great school parent.

My best advice:  1) Enjoy!  We’re sure having a great time working on all this stuff. Hope it’ll serve you well.   And 2) Relax.  There’s so much to worry about these days, but it’s near impossible to be a good school parent while cowering in the corner.  SchoolFamily.com is about getting that balance just right.

Finally,  a quick thanks to all the folks who work so hard to make this site go.  Our editorial team, the designers, our tech folks and more.  The work does seem a bit lighter when you’re working on such a valuable site.  But it’s work nonetheless, and no one does it better.

On we go…