When families take an active role in children’s learning at home, students develop a lifelong love of learning. Meaningful family engagement extends education beyond the classroom, nurturing academic and personal growth. In this article, we'll explore ways family engagement transforms learning at home. Plus, download a free resource with tips to help parents support their children’s learning.
Learning Is a Lifelong Pursuit
Learning isn't just a youthful pursuit; it’s a lifelong journey. Children are constantly learning—at school and beyond. Parents can help children build a love of learning and an enduring mindset for success outside of the classroom. This is why parent engagement is important: families play a vital role in helping children build pathways to learning and success at home.
Pathway 1: Set the Stage for Lifelong Learning with Reading
Reading with your child from an early age is one of the most powerful ways to support their learning. Books are not only fun—they’re key tools for building vocabulary, empathy, and critical thinking. There are countless ways to make reading an exciting and educational part of your child’s life, no matter their age.
Reading Together in the Early Years
Start reading with your child even before they can speak. Early books often teach simple concepts like colors and animals, but even simple stories offer opportunities to discuss words, pictures, and ideas. Don't shy away from books with big words—children have a surprising ability to understand and use complex language!
Reading Together in Elementary School
As your child enters elementary school, continue reading together. Raise the level of conversation by asking questions like, “How do you think the character in the story felt?” or “How would you handle that situation?” Discussing the setting of the story and comparing it to your own life can build rich knowledge and empathy.
Reading with Older Children
Reading aloud with your older child can still be valuable. Share the joy of a good story and keep talking about its themes, characters, and lessons. Reading their assigned books together can also reinforce classroom learning while building a deeper connection to the material.
Pathway 2: Supporting All Kinds of Learning at Home
Research shows that families are highly effective in supporting their child’s learning at home, beyond just academics. Parents can help in numerous ways:
Practicing Skills
Skills aren’t learned in one lesson—they develop over time with practice. Encourage your child to apply what they’ve learned in class, and emphasize the importance of the learning process, not just the end result. Focus on effort and growth rather than on the final grade. Acknowledge how they got to the answer and help them refine their approach.
Communicating Values
Setting goals and maintaining clear values are essential. As role models, parents have a significant impact on the values children hold. By communicating your values and expectations, you help your child build their own goals for success—both academic and personal.
Building Confidence
Encourage your child to ask questions and to seek help when needed. Confidence in seeking help is a life skill. Teach them to approach teachers with questions and guide them on how to advocate for themselves. Even as academic content becomes more complex in middle and high school, help your child feel empowered to ask for help when they need it.
Pathway 3: Monitor Your Child’s Performance
Effective family engagement includes monitoring both academic performance and your child’s emotional well-being. Keep track of report cards, test results, and general classroom performance. But also, pay attention to what you notice day-to-day: Is your child excited about a particular subject? Are they frustrated with certain assignments or topics? Being in tune with their feelings helps identify issues early, so you can support them both in and out of the classroom.
In middle and high school, your ability to assist with homework may decrease, but you can still monitor performance through digital platforms that track grades. Stay in contact with teachers and celebrate successes with your child. Open communication with your child is a crucial monitoring system.
Pathway 4: Help Your Child Build a Mindset for Hard Work
Dr. Carol Dweck’s research shows that a growth mindset—believing that intelligence can improve with effort—has a profound effect on student performance. Building this mindset is vital, especially when faced with challenges. In contrast, a fixed mindset—the belief that intelligence is fixed—can limit growth.
Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
A growth mindset encourages students to embrace challenges, to work through setbacks, and to seek continuous improvement. On the other hand, students with a fixed mindset may avoid challenges and give up easily, fearing failure.
Help Your Child Build a Growth Mindset and Grit
To help your child develop a growth mindset, model this attitude yourself. Show how you handle mistakes and setbacks as opportunities to learn. Frame your child’s efforts with words like, “You’re getting better with each try” instead of, “You’re so smart.” Embrace the power of “yet”—help your child understand that they may not have mastered something yet, but they are on the path to success.
Praise the Hard Work, Not Intelligence
Focus on praising your child’s effort rather than telling them they are smart. For example:
Say This:
“I can see you worked hard on this.”
“I like watching you do that.”
“That’s not right. You don’t understand this yet. What strategies can you try to understand it better?”
Not This:
“You’re so smart!”
“You’re a natural at that!”
“That’s not right. Are you paying attention in class? It seems like you’re not even trying.”
Pathway 5: Establish Solid Study Habits
Good study habits are critical for success. The earlier you establish these habits, the more likely your child will succeed long-term.
Study Habits for Younger Children
Start by creating a distraction-free homework space for younger children. Help them focus and ask questions as needed. Building a routine and keeping homework organized from a young age can set the foundation for future academic success.
Study Habits for Younger Children
As your child grows, they will need to develop their own planning and organization skills. Encourage them to use a planner and keep track of assignments. Use your own organizational techniques as a model, but allow your child to experiment with what works best for them.
Pathway 6: Support Sleep
Sleep plays a crucial role in learning and memory. Help your child establish healthy bedtime routines. Elementary school-aged children need 9 to 11 hours of sleep, while teens require 8 to 10 hours. Due to changes in their circadian rhythm, teens often don’t feel tired until much later at night, making it harder to go to bed at 9 or 10 PM. Help them stick to a sleep schedule that works for both their academic and personal life.
What you do with and for your child may change as they grow, but your support remains a constant factor in their development. Reading together, tackling challenges, and maintaining an open dialogue with your child will build their ability to accept new challenges and succeed in school and beyond. By fostering a routine that encourages hard work, resilience, and curiosity, you’re setting your child on the path to transformative lifelong learning.
