This is why considering an institution for your child should be prioritized to help him become the best that he can be.

Since the school plays a vital role in the life of your child, as it becomes his second home, it is imperative for parents to pick a school which will satisfy the need and ensure the best learning for their children.

First, the physical attributes of the school should be checked to make sure the rooms are bright, well-lit, well-ventilated and child-friendly. They should be equipped with complete educational tools like books, teaching aids and other necessary equipments.

It is important that basic school facilities like water fountains with potable water supply and clean comfort rooms are accessible.

Also a secured area must be considered especially for those schools which are located near highways. Safe and spacious playground for outdoor activities is also a vital factor to evaluate.

Second, it is important to know the teachers and staff who will be responsible for your child’s education. Teachers should be creative in attending to your child’s need as his horizon expands.

Certain schools have set standards when it comes to hiring teachers and the type of curriculum the school is offering also contributes to what will best boost your child’s development.

Finally, a school should have a good foundation in forming moral values. Since your child will now spend most of his time in school, it is good to know that as they grow and learn about many things and moral values should also be encouraged to grow not only in their minds but in their hearts as well.

14 brands of backpacks are tested by the magazine for durability, comfort, accessibility of pockets and other factors.

The magazine’s deputy health editor, Gayle Williams, says that although some backpacks lack in quality, they fared pretty well, but none of the backpacks have achieved “excellent” rating.

Gayle says that the construction of backpack is important and it varies from brand to brand and maker to maker.

Orly Avitzur, neurologist and medical adviser for Consumers’ Union, says it’s important to be thorough when shopping. A poorly made backpack could lead to back pain. “Kids are very susceptible to back pain with carrying weight,” Avitzur says.

Source: USA TODAY

Yet so many children lag behind in literacy. They will do the least amount of reading possible, and do not enjoy reading as a recreational activity.

With a little bit of knowledge, however, you can make your child a better reader. As reading ability translates directly into better grades and staying in school, this can make a huge difference for your child both now and in the future.

To encourage your child to read, make sure that you have a number of books from a variety of reading levels. As your child has advanced in their education, you may have removed easier books that are now below his reading level.

While you may have thought that this would encourage your child to read, it may have the opposite effect. There should be books available that your child can pick up and read easily, just for fun.

Yes, your child will need books at the appropriate level to improve their skills, but encouraging recreational reading, and reinforcing that reading can be fun is just as important. You may also want to have children’s magazines readily available in addition to books.

It is a good idea to choose books on subjects your child is interested in. If your child likes sports, or horses, or even fairies, you can find a number of books on those subjects.

Graphic novels and comic books are also acceptable choices. Give your child books that interest them, and they are more likely to want to read. If your child loves video games, look for books that tie into those games, and video games that involve reading.

Does your child have a good place to read? You should also see that your child has a place to read that is comfortable and has good lighting. You can create such a space in a common family area, or in the child’s room. A bookcase of one’s own is also a good motivator, especially if you get to choose or decorate the bookcase.

By the time your child is in kindergarten, they should have their own library card. Go with your child to the public library, and show them that reading is an activity you enjoy as well. Show your child how to find age appropriate books.

Older children can learn to use the library’s computers to find books on their own. Try to visit the library at a time when you are not rushed. Give your child plenty of time to become acquainted with the library, and make a selection. Make regular visits to the library a fun, family activity.

You should begin making bedtime stories a regular part of your child’s bedtime routine from an early age, and do not give up bedtime stories just because your child can now read for themselves. Teens, and even adults, can enjoy being read to.

Children are sometimes reluctant to display their reading skills because they fear that becoming skilled in reading could put an end to that special bedtime ritual.

Be sure to let them know that story time will continue. Also, children who are told they can stay up an extra 10 minutes but only if they are reading will usually happily jump at the chance to stay up later, not realizing they are improving their reading skills.

You should also make sure that your child receives regular eye exams. Sometimes an aversion to reading is as simple as the need for glasses.

Reading to your child can make a significant difference in how smart your child is, and how well she does in school. [Child Education]

A child’s brain is not fully formed at birth, but rather responds to what it experiences. When you read to your child, brain cells in your child’s brain form a new connection.

The more you read, the more connections are created, and the more existing connections are strengthened.

This continues during your child’s first three years of life. After age three, connections that are regularly used continue to grow stronger, while connections that aren’t used begin to wither away. By age 10, most of the “wiring” in your child’s brain will have been completed.

One of the strongest predictors of future academic success is having been read to as a preschooler. This also improves a child’s intelligence and allows the child to form positive associations with reading as well as forming a stronger attachment to the person who is doing the reading.

Reading to your child is a simple and pleasant process. If you do not have a lot of books in your home, getting a library card at your local public library is easy and inexpensive if not free. Books can often be bought inexpensively at yard sales and thrift stores.

In particular those starting out with a below average grade level will benefit the most from an all female education.

The study carried out by the Good Schools Guide in the UK, looked at exam results over a two year period.

Of over 70,000 girls who attended single sex schools all of them did better than expected in their age relevant tests, compared to the over half a million female students in mixed education who did 20% worse than predicted by teachers.

It is commonly believed that by attending a school with an equal ratio of boys and girls results in a more rounded and relevant system of learning. That creates the perfect jumping board for the world of work and a career in the modern world.

The number of all girl schools in Britain is on the decline and there are now only 220,000 females taught in these types of establishments. This is a tiny minority of the total three million pupils in the education system currently.

The most interesting fact is that pupils who need to improve their grades would definitely benefit from this type of education. It will almost certainly re-open the debate over the availability of single sexed schools to a bigger social scale than is currently the case. Only wealthy pupils can presently avail of this system of education.

The editor of the Good School Guide, Janette Wallis, admits that the facts could be down to pushy parents who seek out these schools but believes that working without the distraction of the opposite sex can make a big difference.

In Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, they rolled out a novel approach by setting up a Parent University late last year.

Jerri Haigler is the executive director of the new program. He strongly believes that it will result in better grades and improved attendance rates.

The varied content was agreed by various interested groups from teachers to community agencies and is fairly comprehensive.

So far, over 2,500 adult family members have availed of the scheme with a very positive level of feedback. A large majority of attendees stated that they had learned a lot and plan to use the different techniques that they had been taught.

For a special Family Fun Day, held by the program in the US National Whitewater Center over nine thousand enjoyed a great day out.

Since it started in September 2008, it has increased the number of subjects covered to 64. These include health & wellbeing, parental awareness and personal development.  Interested parties can also benefit from learning about study skills, positive discipline and preparation for course tests.

Various professionals are involved in the Parent University including bilingual specialist Irania Patterson. She reports that the response to the initiative has been very positive. As a presenter, Irania knows that it is providing a great service to the whole community.

The many partners of the program include Teen Health Connection, the YMCA and Carolinas Healthcare System.

Besides achieving success at school, a parent’s involvement also helps your children to flourish in other areas of life.

However, if you can’t find a perfect way to execute your responsibility, here are a few clues for you to ignite ideas of helping your child through his/her education.

Talk more

Set aside some time to talk with your child every day in an interactive and calm manner. Make them realize that you have a genuine interest not only in their school work, but also in their likes and dislikes and hobbies.

Establish scheduled homework time

Regular time for homework every day, either in the afternoon or evening in a quiet place encourages your child to study well. Be supportive of your child in doing homework if they have problems.

This doesn’t mean that you should do the homework for them: doing this will only decrease your child’s interest and their confidence in achieving goals.

Discuss school events

Other than just sitting at a desk and learning, there is the potential every day for a new event to influence your child. Don’t interrogate; rather interact and ask them about what happened in their school day.

Read together

Do you know children who read with their parents at home perform better at school? Make your children realize how important reading and education is in their lives. Let them see you read, which will certainly encourage them to read.

The schools need to follow up the basic learning side of schooling with more career study courses; they cannot possibly substitute the parent’s role in educating the child.

It is true that many families neglect their children’s upbringing due to their social and economical difficulties, but it is not the school’s role to substitute the parents.

Teachers have to get on with teaching, after all that what schools are for; there must be an open and continual dialogue between teachers and school leaders in order to pinpoint ensuing problems.

The evaluation test, which is carried out on students each year to assess their progress, cannot possibly solve the ever-arising problems during the school terms.

This method of evaluation is not reliable; the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) programme must be followed up by more teachers meetings to improve standards of education during the school year.

There would be no point in discarding the NCLB law by replacing it with a new educational reform, though it is important to improve and change some points within the programme.

The level of education has improved greatly since the NCLB law and teachers have worked hard to enhance the level of their students’ results, in order to bring them to a graduate level.

The introduction of qualified librarians has also helped improve the instruction of students through enhanced reading.

What is lacking is a more thorough follow up on those students who could go further with instruction and achieve higher end results.

Nevertheless, some children continue to experience reading failure in spite of high parental education and support for learning to read.

University of Colorado at Boulder psychologists Angela Friend, John C. DeFries and Richard K. Olson examined if genetic and environmental influences on reading disability, the most commonly identified learning disability, interact with level of parental education.

In this study, 545 pairs of identical and fraternal twins were selected wherein at least one of the twins in each pair had a reading disability. In addition, the researchers obtained information about the parents’ years of education.

The results, described in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, showed that there was a significant interaction between parents’ years of education and the heritability of reading disability.

Children whose parents had higher levels of education tended to have stronger genetic influence on their reading disability than children whose parents had lower levels of education.

Read more at ScienceDaily

Choosing the perfect pre-school for your child is almost as important, if not more, because this is the place where your child will spend a chunk of her time during her crucial formative years.

The environment must be a nurturing one and the staff must be loving and affectionate towards children in general.

Here’s what you can do: Check out your local newspaper or the Internet, or better, ask your friends, relatives, neighbors, and remember that unless these people are really very pleased with their experience, they wouldn’t recommend it to another.

Talk to them and find out how their child fared in the pre-school they used, and if there were any problems with it.

Once you have zeroed in on a few, find out how much it would cost you. Also, measure the distance from home to school, and find out if it is practical or feasible for you to take your child to a distant pre-school, when there may be another one closer.

Next, call the school and find out if it is accredited, and whether they have strict regulations about the running of the school. Guidelines are always important, and you can rest assured that a school that follows rules will do nothing but good for your child.

Research the teacher-child ratio, and remember, the less the ratio the better it may be for your child, because this way she will get the special attention she deserves.

If possible, observe the ways in which the teachers interact with the children under their care; the warmer and more open they are, the better it will turn out for your child.

Find out about the system of education [preschool education] in the school you have zeroed in on, and analyze whether this is what you want for your child in the long run. If not, delete the school from your list and move on to the next one.

An informed choice is of utmost importance! Remember, an informed choice is infinitely better than an uninformed one, especially when it involves your precious child and her future. Therefore, do not hesitate to ask questions and obtain answers when you are in the process of choosing the best pre-school for your child. All the Best!