Five Tips to Make This School Year Successful

The school year is off to a start, but you want to make it the best start possible. There are several easy ways to help your child set the tone for a positive, productive year:  

1. Confront last year’s problems. Be honest: did you and your child address any past year issues over summer break, or did the months slip by you without dealing with the things that were challenges last school year? As the school year begins, make sure to put a plan in place to close any skill gaps, deal with any lingering academic or other problems, and talk with your child’s teacher about what your child has faced in the past. Things to discuss with your child’s teacher:
   • Support that your child might need in the classroom
   • Any accommodations set forth in your child’s 504 plan or Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
   • Concerns you have about the school year (e.g., things that have been issues in the past, such as poor grades or low motivation)
   • Tutoring outside of school with Huntington to provide the personalized attention your child needs, and other ways you can support your child at home.
2. Establish good organizational routines. An organized student is a successful student. Help your child create and stick to good habits. A planner should be your child’s best friend, whether they use a homework planner app on their smartphone or a paper planner. The key is to get them writing down homework assignments as assigned and recording all upcoming dates in their calendar. At home, get your child into the habit of tidying up their backpack and workspace every evening and keeping all important papers filed correctly. 
3. Discuss goals and a plan to revisit them. Goal setting is incredibly valuable for students of all ages, and it doesn’t need to be lengthy to be effective. Sit down together now and talk about what your child wants to achieve or change this year. This might be as simple as improving their GPA or improving their reading skills. It might be a list of several things. Talk about some of the steps your child can take to achieve these goals and set a date to discuss them again in a month to see how they’re progressing.
4. Address big transitions. The start of a new school year is full of change for all students, but if you have a new middle school student, a new high school student, or a student starting to think ahead to the college journey, make sure you spend time discussing these milestones (here are tips for new middle school students and new high school students). Your middle schooler might need support with time management since they’ll be taking several classes with all different teachers for the first time, for example. Your high school junior or senior might need reminders about what is on the horizon as far as college tasks.
5. Last and certainly not least, parents should reach out to Huntington Learning Center for support. We work with students who want to work ahead and maintain a strong GPA as well as those who are hoping to rebuild weak skills and raise their grades. We can help your child achieve their goals this year and beyond.” Call us to learn more about Huntington’s diagnostic evaluations at 1-800 CAN LEARN.