Successful Ideas For Effective Parental Involvement With High School Students
Parents of all students should make an effort to involve themselves in their child’s education. With a strong support system from their family and their parental figures, students are able to work through the hard times in school and get excited about their future. At the very least, parents of high school students should make a large effort to encourage their children through the hard times and cheer them on in their wins. There are lots of other ways to involve yourself in your child’s academic life.
Whether you want to serve as an important source of encouragement or offer them specific tools and resources to improve their performance, your involvement in your high schooler’s life will make a difference!
Acknowledge and celebrate your child’s effort to raise their GPA, reach a goal score on the SAT or ACT exam, enroll in difficult classes, and build strong study habits for their college careers.
It is also crucial that you involve yourself in their life outside of the classroom. High school students face extreme academic pressure, and if they feel like their entire relationship with their parents is centered on their academic career, it can be isolating and stressful for a teenager.
In this article, you can find successful ideas for effective parental involvement with high school students. You can support your student and lift them up in their academic pursuits and goals in life by getting involved.
Communicate Frequently And Check In With Your Student As Much As Possible
We all live busy lives and in the day-to-day chaos of balancing your own schedule alongside your kids’ schedules it is easy to lose track of intentional check-ins with your high school student. To get involved in your high school student’s life and to support their journey to success you can start with strong communication. Make it a point to sit down with your child once or twice a week to check in with how they are feeling about school. Ask them if they need more or less support from you as a parent. Some weeks are harder than others, and it is important that your student feels support from their parents when the pressure is on in the classroom.
Ask them about the classes that excite them and the classes they are struggling with. Check in with your student before and after exams to make sure goals are set for each class and poor performance is held accountable. It is also a good idea to talk to them about their teachers, so you know whether or not they are getting the support they need in the classroom.
By making an effort with deliberate check-ins, you can keep track of what your student needs from you. Communication with teenagers is notoriously difficult, but you know your child best. If you are struggling to communicate with them regularly, start with small talks and work on developing a relationship that is built on trust and support. Do your best to set the expectation that your frequent discussions about their academics are not implemented to add to the pressure your high school student experiences, but to offer direct support.
If they are struggling to raise their algebra grade after scoring poorly on the first exam, talk to them about their strategy for reaching their goals on the next test. Do they need a tutor? Have they asked their teacher about extra credit projects? Do they want to join a study group? If they do not know how to come back from mistakes, you can offer them options and advice.
If they are feeling overwhelmed by a difficult course load, ask them how you can help them manage their time or find balance in their day-to-day schedule. With so many demands, it can be difficult to realize that rest and breaks are important.
If your student is staying up late working on homework, talk about how you can encourage them to prioritize their health. Healthy sleeping and eating habits are crucial for your student’s long and short-term success.
All of these questions can be discussed in regular check-ins with your high school student. Although some questions are tougher to answer than others, your child will appreciate the support that is obvious in your communication and concern.
Be Present
Another successful idea for parents looking to get involved in their high school student’s life is being present. Showing up to the school’s open house and meeting your child’s teachers is important. Showing up to their sports games, concerts, and events means a lot to your child. Be sure to make an effort to show up for them in a variety of ways. Fostering passions outside of the classroom is important for young people who are discovering who they are. Make an effort to be there to cheer them on in their successes and support them in the moments that do not go to plan.
Showing up for your high school student should not be conditional. Make sure they know that you will be there for them, win or lose.
If you want to get involved in your high schooler’s life, be present for your child, not just at home, but in the events and moments that they have worked for at school, on the field, on the court, on the stage, or anywhere else.
Talk About Your High Schooler’s Plans For The Future
As a teenager, it is easy to get caught up in the moment, especially in the midst of deadlines, applications, and intense class schedules. Still, a crucial way for parents to support their child’s success is by talking about their plans for the future. After high school, what does your child want to do with their life? Remind your high school student that all of their hard work will pay off. As a parent, you should do your best to help them set their sights on their future. What is ahead for them in college and their careers? What is important to them? How do they see themselves making a difference in the world? What motivates them? All of these questions can fuel great conversations about your child’s future.
Having conversations with your child about their future goals, plans, and dreams is a great way to bond with your high school student. Make them feel confident enough to dream big, knowing that you have their back. If they have a dream school they are working hard to get into, talk to them about the path they need to take to get there. If they hope to raise their GPA before Junior year, talk to them about their options for tutors, clubs, and study groups. If they want to pursue a career in STEM, talk to them about the extracurriculars they can participate in to stand out as a college applicant.
Help Your Student Make A Plan
It is overwhelming to realize how much is expected as a high school student applying to college. If your child plans to go to college in the future, a great way to support them is by helping them make a plan. What SAT and ACT scores do they need to get? What scholarships can they apply for? What GPA should they strive to uphold? What classes will set them on track to make an impression with their transcript? Help your child outline what is expected of them and talk about how they plan to reach those expectations.
Having a full understanding of your child’s passions and goals for the future is really important. Talk to them about how you can support them on their way to achieving all that they set out to achieve.
Monitor Their Growth and Celebrate Your Student’s Wins
High school goes by fast, and as a parent, you can involve yourself in your high school student’s life by acknowledging their growth and celebrating their wins over the years.
Involve yourself in your student’s life by offering motivation through genuine recognition for their hard work. With so much pressure to perform, high school students can easily fall into the passivity of keeping up with their peers. Every student has their strengths and weaknesses. If you know your child has had to work twice as hard as their peers to score well on their Math test, then acknowledge the work it took to succeed! If your high schooler goes through a breakup before finals week, acknowledge the extra emotional work it took to succeed. If your child is injured in sports and is able to recover for the following season, celebrate the work it took! High school is a time when so much growth happens, and that growth takes focus, commitment, resilience, and hard work. Celebrate with them!
Research Support Systems
If your child has ambitious goals, you should know the support systems that are available to help them get where they want to go. You should know that not all study support resources are expensive. Many high schools offer free after-school study programs where students can learn from their peers. You can also help your student contact their teachers to talk about tutoring opportunities available outside of class.
If you are interested in academic tutoring, you should know that FLEX College Prep offers tutoring services, including classes to support AP courses, build study skills, and improve your student’s organization skills. FLEX also offers one on one tutoring and small group tutoring, so students receive personalized support based on their needs.
FLEX also offers test prep courses to help students study for ACT exams, SAT exams, PSAT exams, and AP exams. If you are looking for professional support throughout the college application process, FLEX’s admissions consulting team has the expert experience to guide your high schooler through college applications, college essay writing, and college research.
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