3 Things To Consider With Your Child's Education

Many parents develop a love-hate relationship with their children's education. Naturally, it has to be appropriate, and it can be a drama if your child doesn’t perform as well as you had hoped.  As parents we all derive great personal pride when our children do well.

Far more important, however is the question of how well your child's education is preparing them for adult life.

Will they leave school equipped for higher education and with a clear idea of the kind of job that will excite and motivate them? 

In the end, our role as a parent is to make sure that our kids have all they need in life, and this includes an education that allows plenty of room for self-growth. 

Here are three areas in which you can help them best. 

How Are Your Kids Doing In School?

First of all, the unavoidable parents’ evening at your child’s school is the best way for you to take the temperature. Parents’ evening is often a bit of an ordeal for many parents, but this is a necessary step to finding out first hand how your child is doing. 

A lot of parents will use the evening as a way of sharing their parenting opinions with the teachers, but it's important to attend for the following reasons.

The teacher is there to give you an overview of your child’s social interactions, school performance, and overall behaviour. This is the evening in the year during which you can find out from an adult specialised in working with children, whether yours are having difficulties making friends, getting their heads around maths, or sitting quietly in class. 

This is an important step on your parenting journey to help them and a key opportunity to find out where the issues are and discuss possible solutions with the teacher and other parents.

Consider The School Equipment

If you are still in the process of choosing your child’s future school, or if you are visiting the school for an appointment with the teacher, then make sure you take the time to look around. 

Do they have modern playground equipment for schools in the playground? Are they using digital technology in the classroom? Is there a computer room, and if so, what types of computers are there? 

Schools need to provide a healthy mix of modern equipment to help your child get prepared for the modern life. For some children, the school is the only place where they can get to see a digital tablet or read a book. So it’s important that they can use relatively current equipment so that they are best prepared for the active world that awaits them. 

Help Them To Discover Their Passion

Finally, as a parent, it is your role to help your child develop his or her passion. Passions are notoriously difficult to find, so help your children by planning cultural outings such as an afternoon at the museum or theatre, even an art gallery or how about a library?

You could even plan a cultural holiday abroad, but it's probably best not to do that in term time unless you have the permission of the head teacher!

There are plenty of things that you can do to help your child broaden their horizons. But as you do, you are getting them one step closer to defining a future path that they will love.