Over the past few weeks I have received more than 400 emails and 60 telephone calls from coaching clients, readers of my columns and listeners to my radio show who wanted some tips that would help them get their kids off to a great start to this new school year. I also received more than 200 emails and calls from high school students making the same request.
That's right! Your friendly Life & Executive Coach appears to be big with the pre-adults among us. This is real pressure.
I will provide the requested tips. I will also share one of the biggest mistakes parents make that causes their kids to get off to a slow start in school. But, before I do that I want to acknowledge my teenage readers.
For you teenagers, I want to make the case for why performing at a high level in school may be important in the first place.
Performance in school reflects an understanding that we live in a competitive world. Great study habits and making exceptional grades shows that you can compete and win.
Life rewards the winners among us.
Performance in school reflects more than just the acquisition of information from books. It also sheds light on your ability to set and get worthy goals. Lasting success in the one life you have is impossible without the habit of goal setting and goal getting.
Performance in school reflects a certain degree of self-discipline and organizational skills. For most of us, getting great grades is the result of focus in class and attention to homework. Doing homework shows an understanding of Mobley's Rules of Life #17, #29, and #35: We become good at what we consistently do. Life does not provide rich rewards for sitting around and being really good at mind-numbing activities such as texting, watching TV, and chatting on Facebook.
Spend the bulk of your time doing those things that reflect your highest life goals.
Being able to compete, setting & getting worthy goals, living a life of self-discipline, and developing your organizational skills.
These are four of the reasons why your performance in school is important.
If you are still reading this, then you want me to deliver the secrets that will get you and your kids off to a great start this school year.
Here we go:
1.
Sit down with your child and Set Goals for the school year. Goals should include time given to homework each evening, amount of participation in school, and grade targets.
This one action will make the biggest difference in a student's performance.
2.
Meet with the Teacher(s). Request a meeting with the teacher within the first few weeks of school.
Discuss your child's strengths and weaknesses, your hopes for the year, methods of communication, the teacher's style, and homework. An interested parent leads to an interested teacher leads to a higher-performing student.
3. Establish a Study Place and Time in the home. Set aside a portion of time during the evening when the TV is off and homework is completed.
Make sure your kids do their schoolwork first - before TV, Facebook, texting, or any other non-essential activity.
My advice: Your child's room is quite often NOT the best place for quality study. The average child's room is full of too many distractions.
The biggest mistake parents make that causes their kids to get off to a slow start in their schoolwork is not showing interest in schoolwork until the grades are a problem. If you show interest starting on day one, your kids never have a chance to lose their focus on performing in school.
Remember - You (students and parents) DO deserve to live a great life.
Enjoy Life!
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