It's always the first day of school – no matter what grade our children are going into.  It's the new shoes, excitement and yes, apprehension…not only for kids but for parents and teachers too.

Different kinds of support and reinforcement are needed at different stages of a student's school experience.  There are new dimensions needed in this thinking about school readiness, especially for parents.  There is a danger, I've found, of getting stuck in the thinking surrounding the earliest first days of school, without moving along to the attitudes and behaviors needed as kids move through the grades.

Children, no matter what grade they're in, always have to be in a state of school readiness.  In the MegaSkills Achievement Minibooks, I outline different ways to ensure that children are ready and their parents are too.  Here is one sample activity from each book.  These books are available from the MegaSkills Center. 

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In the preschool years, school success depends on two key factors: 

1) Children's learning habits    2) Children's experience with language

Both of these are remarkably teachable and learnable.  Here's an activity that reduces TV time, develops pay-attention skills and provides language practice.                       

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Learning to Pay Attention:  Combine television watching with language development.  Sit with your child to watch a certain show you both agree on. Let your child know in advance that this is a pay-attention activity and that you'll be asking questions about the show.  For example, what are the names of the lead characters?  What are they wearing?  What happens on the show?Then let children trade places with you and ask you to recall certain details.  This is an excellent way to teach children basic communication skills they need for school.

These are the years when the cornerstones are laid for future school success.  This is the time to help children learn what it takes to succeed: to work hard, to tackle new situations, to build self-control, to start making decisions.  Drawn from Early Elementary MegaSkills, here is an activity that uses the daily newspaper for reading and for an important conversation about effort.

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Together check the sports pages.  Almost everyday there is a story about athletes who didn't give up the fight until the fight was really over.  They played the match to the end with all the strength they had.  ( Also, check the other newspaper sections for stories of heroism.)

These are inspirational stories.  Talk about them.  They are superhuman efforts, not able to be made everyday, not expected every day.  Yet, they point an inspirational way for our kids.

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Students in these grades are entering the emerging world of adults with all its privileges and perils.  These are the times when homework really sets in, when priorities for time have to be set, when critical thinking is vital. Here's an activity from Upper Elementary MegaSkills:

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Ask your child's opinion of the rule.  If it's about bed time, that opinion might be, "Having a set bed time is a bad rule.  Kids should go to bed whenever they want."  Now ask your child to give an argument opposing the first opinion.. 

Coming up with pro and can arguments helps children learn to consider alternatives before making a decision. 

The challenge of these years is in helping students keep on track and develop their own self-discipline.  Parents and teachers are in new roles with children who have to become their own "naggers." 

This is a time of hormonal ups and downs… times that can test even the hardiest among us.  Here is an activity designed to spark conversation with kids, drawn from Middle School  MegaSkills.

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Can your children see some of the same pressures they face in the pressures you face as an adult?

Encourage your children to name some of the pressures they have just as you have named some of yours.  You may find that your children have some good advice, even for you.

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Education is a human partnership.  Emotions run high.   There is greater need than ever for adult-to-adult support.  It's not easy. Here's an activity drawn from the MegaSkills minibook on School-Community Connections.  It focuses on old attitudes that can harm new relationships that are so vital for children's achievement.

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One way to find out if we're suffering from school phobia is to check our physical responses to school.

·Does our stomach tighten when we walk through the school door?

·Do we find ourselves trembling when we talk casually to our child's teacher?

·Do we sit brooding at home, biting our nails, pondering the deeper significance of a teacher's offhand comment about our child?

Many of us adults remember school days with burning resentment for what school did to us.  Try very hard to resist these old symptoms.  When our children go to school, it's time to say, "This is a new day!"

Reading, Writing, Math:  How Parents Can Help Children Succeed

We used to think that reading, writing, and math were subjects taught only in school.  We have now learned that academic subjects are taught both inside and outside the school with informal learning and reinforcement that can only take place at home and in the community. 

It makes sense:  children spend at best only half the days of the year in school

and then only about one quarter of the day at most.  The big bulk of time is outside the classroom. That's where the activities for the minibook, Reading, Writing, Math are found.  Here's one about reading at home for older students.

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Everyday Reading for Older Students:  To keep children reading, they have to read.  There is a lot of reading in places besides textbooks.

If you have a mortgage, take out the contract and read it.  If you have credit agreements, look these over.  Read them.  Read bank statements.  Everyone gets junk mail.  Before throwing those mailings away, read them.  Many provide good laughs as well as reading experience.

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As long time teacher and teacher trainer, I don't minimize the impact of school reform initiatives, but all depend on the attitudes, behaviors and habits that students bring into and learn in the classroom.  These are what I call MegaSkills® and they are taught and reinforced in the home and community as well the classroom.

By and large, kids, like everyone else, want to succeed.  That's why we have to keep finding ways to affect the inner core of the habits, attitudes, behaviors that determine children's capacities to do well in school and to get higher test scores.  That's why every day is the first day of school.

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