Success in school and in life is predicted by how involved parents are in their children’s lives, both at home and at school. Regardless of the age range of the students, parents’ engagement enhances the dynamics of the classroom and raises teacher expectations, student-teacher interactions, and cultural competence. To say that parents have a strong influence on their children is to state the obvious. Parent support and a positive attitude go a long way when it comes to child development. Not only does it lead to the child developing good learning habits, but it also helps them academically and in developing important life skills that are a big marker for personal happiness and success in life.
Let us look at some of the many ways in which parental involvement in the child’s academic life is beneficial for students:
Table of Contents
Promotes better behavior
Over the years, a large body of literature has documented the importance of parental involvement in the child’s academic life. It has been seen that a parent who is involved in the child’s academic life lands up making the child feel extremely secure. Among other things it gives the child’s self-esteem a big boost. Also, there can be improvement in the student’s attitude towards school and academics at large. In turn, all of this leads to the child building and maintaining healthy relationships at school. Improvement can also be noticed in terms of fewer instances of fighting, willful disobedience, and more.
Academic Achievement
The positive relationship between parental involvement and student’s academic achievement is well documented. There has been a global meta-review of 75 research studies that have tried to establish what forms of parental engagement are most powerful. According to the review, parental involvement variables that show the highest correlations with academic achievement are:
- Reading at home
- Communication between parents and children regarding school
- Parental encouragement, among others.
All of this leads to higher grades and improved overall academic achievement in children.
Improved Parent-Teacher Relationship
Another aspect that follows from parental involvement is the need for strong parent-teacher relationships besides just cursory parent-teacher meetings. In turn, it helps the parents to appreciate the issues that teachers face. It also allows the teachers a better understanding of the student and, therefore, to impart knowledge in a way that the child will be able to assimilate. With both parents and teachers on the same page, the journey becomes that much easier for the student.
On the other hand, parents who are uninvolved with the child’s teachers or, worse still, parents who disagree with teachers can negatively affect the child’s behavior and academics.
The importance of parental involvement in the child’s education is established beyond any doubt, let us look at the role of transformative parenting workshops in doing so.
Transformative Parenting Workshops
Even though parents have the best interest of their words in their minds, the fact is they could need some handholding in terms of where to start and how to be involved in ways that benefit the child without being overbearing. It is important to remember that it is a tightrope walk. On the one hand, parents need to offer the right level of support to the child, while on the other, they need to give the child independence for them to flourish. Oftentimes, transformative parenting workshops are the right answer. Among other things, these parenting workshops help them with:
- Explaining the importance and benefits of parental importance
- Help them with tips to be able to create a favorable learning atmosphere at home.
- Help them with ways to be able to track the child’s progress.
- Guide them to be able to encourage the child positively on the learning path.
- Guide them to be able to help the child set academic goals.
The workshops also help parents understand the following:
- The role of teachers and educators
- The updates and information that they can expect from the school.
- Methods through which they can raise concerns and give feedback.
Above everything such transformative workshops also help parents understand child development and psychology. The workshops come in handy in understanding what to expect at each age milestone and importantly, how to help children through these milestones. In fact, progressive schools organize these important workshops that apprise parents of aspects such as:
- Different developmental stages of children
- What to expect at each stage
Some of the other important areas that transformative workshops can cover for parents include:
Positive Parenting Approach
It is important for parents to use a parenting approach that relies on empathy, understanding, and respect. Workshops therefore aim to provide research-based positive parenting guidance to the parents and also to help them develop some strategies for dealing with challenging behavior. The workshops also aim at helping parents ensure that they equip their children with the right amount of self-esteem and give them the much-needed life skills that can help them navigate the ups and downs of life with ease. Whether it is emotional intelligence, coping with stress, communication skills, critical thinking, or more, these are skills that will help the child handle the many challenges that life presents without being overwhelmed by them.
Yell free parenting
While disciplining children is an important part of parenting, parenting need not be about physical punishment or screaming matches. Effective parenting entails that parents focus on calming their own emotional reactivity. That way they will begin to make parenting decisions out of their highest principles instead of reacting out of their deepest fears.
Such workshops also deal with helping manage parent burnout through interesting parent workshop activities. After all, parenting is a 24X7 job and can become stressful. The workshops focus on the importance of self-care, setting boundaries, as also stress management techniques.
Screen Time and Technology Use
An important aspect that many parents struggle with today is the rising screen time among students. Among other things, it also comes in the way of the child’s academic progress.
Workshops on this important topic as well as parent orientation programs, help with setting boundaries and dealing with aspects such as online safety.
To Sum Up
With parents being under constant pressure to get everything right and with children not coming up with any instruction manuals, parenting can be tough. Some of these workshops, therefore, can go a long way in empowering parents and helping them boost their children’s journey.
At Pragyanam, one of the best CBSE schools in Gurgaon, our focus is on the holistic development of children. To this end, we focus on teaching effective life skills to our students across ages, whether they are seeking school admission or are ready to step out into the world. It is also our firm belief that a strong parent-teacher relationship goes a long way in offering students the resources that they need for their all-round development.
