The Leadership Village Network

All publications featured in the table toward the end of the page are available for FREE download from our Downloads Page.

Contact
Subscribe


Try a random post?

The Benefits of School Volunteering and Parent Involvement: How You Can Help to Drive Your Child's Success

asked:




What would you expect to be the biggest problem facing the American public school system? Is it poor teaching? Lack of proper facilities for inner-city kids? Wasted resources down the infinite drain of petty politics and bureaucratic snafus? In fact, research shows that lack of parental involvement is the biggest problem facing America’s public schools. Children enrolled in the education system spend 70% of their waking hours outside of the classroom, and decades of research consistently demonstrate that parent involvement is of cardinal importance with regards to their child’s success in school. Students with engaged parents, on a whole, tend to have lower rates of suspension, fewer instances of violent behavior, decreased rates of drugs and alcohol, better school attendance, increased motivation, better self-esteem, and higher grades, test scores, and graduation rates. I argue that parenting, like teaching, requires talent and social aptitude, not the least of whose tenets revolve around self-insight and the active pursuit of furthering a child’s prospects of success in an increasingly competitive world.

“When parents are welcome in the school and are consulted about decisions affecting their children,” Project Appleseed elucidates, “an atmosphere of trust and collaboration develops between school and home.” The school is the omphalos of its community, as the quality of its services determine not only the success of its students, but the insurance of its own future, as well. Indeed, the earlier parents get involved in their children’s education, the more powerful the effects. Here are seven ways you can be a true superhero in your child’s scholastic upbringing:

Establish a daily household routine: Studies show that when parents encourage reading at home, students fare better in class and progress more rapidly than if they were only to read in school. Be firm with bedtimes, leisure time, and household responsibilities, but not stringent to the point of authoritarianism. In a world defined by flux and social upheaval, the importance of providing stability and encouragement for children at home cannot be stressed enough.

Monitor extracurricular activities: Children spend the vast majority of their time with parents, either at or near home. Surely, parents need time to work and run errands, and families can’t always afford babysitters or day care. Get your kids involved in extracurricular activities like sports, school clubs, and community support groups for children. With some targeted research and effort, you’ll find that a wealth of community resources are available to provide your children with enriching, fun, and collaborative environments, even if you can’t be there to participate.

Print This Post Print This Post

Try a random post?

Can You Feed Your Children Raw Food?

asked:




Every mother wants the best for her child. You want your child to look healthy, grow proportionately, feel energized and have a great immune system. So, why do most parents in America feed their children junk food by the time they start eating table food? Why do most restaurants serve French fries or macaroni and cheese for side orders and not steamed broccoli? It is really a sad situation to watch young children who are obese. Even schools offer peanut butter and jelly or ice cream for lunch.

To ensure that your child is eating correctly you must feed them plenty of fruits and vegetables. But the trick is to make it delicious and fun. For instance, for breakfast, arrange a platter of fruit, oranges, grapefruit, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, they will love it!



Print This Post Print This Post
« Older Posts

Home TOC Next

One: Your Nurturing Family

Your child is special, a unique individual, the only one of him (or her) there will ever be. If you do not embrace this simple truth with reverence and enthusiasm, your child will know and will never completely get over it.

He began life's journey with boundless potential but also with limitations. With your help, he can be extraordinarily successful. Still, there are mountains he can never climb, rivers he can never cross, races he can never run. He comes to you on an "as is" basis. He can only be who he is, can only become the best him there ever was or ever will be.

Hello world, it's your child!

Your journey into your child's future is exciting and challenging, rewarding and disappointing, filled with pleasure and pain for you and for him. At the same time, it is the most important adventure you will ever experience. Your successful excursion into your child's tomorrow begins with your assurance he grows up in a loving home.

Leo Tolstoy said, "All happy families resemble one another; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Buddha said, "A family is a place where minds come in contact with one another. If these minds love one another, the home will be as beautiful as a flower garden. But if these minds get out of harmony with one another it's like a storm that plays havoc with the garden."

The loving home where your child flourishes includes the love and harmony of Buddha's flower garden and much more.

*     It is Tolstoy's happy family.

*     It is a place where encouragement, concern, attention, and affection abound.

*     It is a place where your child can fully realize his potentials physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and intellectually.

*     It is a place where your child does not merely succeed, he excels.

Your child is counting on you for unconditional love and encouragement, constructive opportunities and experiences, continuous care and concern. He's also counting on you to teach him how to behave and to keep him on the right track. That track is wide and open but it does have boundaries. Along with constructive opportunities and experiences, your child needs age-appropriate rules and limits, expectations and responsibilities. Keeping him on the right track while being sure he receives the love and encouragement he must have is neither simple nor easy. Nonetheless, it is essential if your child is to excel in the ongoing, on-growing journey into his future.

Just as your child wants your unconditional love and encouragement, you want him to love you, to love himself, to love other people, and to love the world around him. You express your love through hugs, playing, and doing things together. You encourage him to share his feelings, fears, and frustrations. At the same time, you give him the freedom to grow and to experience the bigger world. You want him to have an exciting life of his own, knowing his relationship with you is secure and predictable.

In addition, you want your child to respect you, to respect himself, to respect other people, and to respect the world about him. You know much of his attitude toward himself and toward the world about him comes from your attitude about him.

Just as children learn to love by being loved, they learn respect for self and others by being respected. Your behavior, attitudes, and beliefs are reflected in your child. More than you may ever know, he "does as you do."

Children also develop attitudes toward themselves and others as a response to the attitudes and beliefs others communicate to them. In part, your child becomes what you tell him he will become. You convey this definition of self through your physical, emotional, spiritual, and social interactions with him as well as through the way you relate as his parent. Beyond these things, there is a whole world of influences over which you have little control. Your hope must be you have nourished and nurtured your child's potentials so he can effectively deal with the multiple influences of the world. You hope your loving respect has been strong enough and clear enough to be integrated into his being as he moves out into a world that may not perceive him as unique. His sense of being special comes from you. You can only trust it is solid enough to last him a lifetime.

Home TOC Next