The Parent's Survival Guide to Public Education: Free Chapter!

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Is Your Child Attending a Public School?

If the answer is "Yes," you need to arm yourself with the knowledge and resources to help your child succeed. Find out what to do and how to do it in my informative eBook, The Parent's Survival Guide to Public Education for just $1! Enter your information below to get on my mailing list!

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An Education Begins at Home (and it's free)

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This is a FREE excerpt from

The Parent's Survival Guide to Public Education.

Most parents these days think that it is the job of our public school system to educate their children. After all, our constitution entitles all American citizens to a "free and appropriate" education, right? The problem is that the system has too many students, and too few teachers and schools, to effectively do its job. That's where you, the parent, enter the picture.

In the days of the pilgrims and pioneers, before the modern-day public school system was created, parents taught their children to read and write at home (if they knew how themselves) or children were taught in small, public, religiously-oriented schools. Parents also taught their children how to cook, clean, do laundry, build things, barter for things, take care of farm animals, and so on. Do you see the foundations for language arts, home economics, geometry, mathematics, science, and social studies? As our countries religious and ethnic culture evolved, however, the need for a generic curriculum was evident. Religious content was removed and a universal curriculum was developed. This curriculum has changed over the years to keep up with our everchanging cultural and technological landscape.

In the 1970s and '80s, standards for what children should learn at different grade levels were added. Then, a test was needed to see if the students actually learned those standards. This concept of standards and standardized testing began to spread across the country and has been adopted in the majority of states. Some say the changes are for the better, some say the changes are for the worse. Either way, this universal curriculum, with itsuniversal textbooks, will be the basis of your child's education if he is attending a public school. Unless you take control, your child can end up with what I call an "enemic education" that focuses on just reading, writing, and arithmetic, which is not adequate preparation for admissions to our nation's best colleges.

What Can We Do?

Being a parent is the toughest job in the world - and the most important job you'll ever have! Opportunites to enrich your child's education are everywhere. If you have a household in which only one parent works outside the home, it is vitally important that the parent who stays home with the children understand this. Early planning plus the early experiences that you provide at home can either help or hinder your child's academic success. Young children can be active, noisy, and have lots of questions. Take the time to help your child understand the world around her in an age appropriate way. Here are some helpful guidelines to follow when answering questions about topics that are difficult for many parents. When your child enters the public school system, continue experiential learning at home. This will enrich and build on the skills taught at school.

Although public schools can provide book knowledge of academic subjects, the actual "hands-on" math, science, and social studies experiences that make learning last cost money - and lots of it. It's no secret that our public school system is in one budget crisis after another. In many schools, the supplies needed to do science experiments and other projects come out the the teacher's pocket! Sometimes, only one or two field trips are available each year, and in some cases, students don't go on field trips at all. Paper or simulated models made in the classroom can't take the place of actually seeing and touching the real thing.

Debates over how to fix the problem abound. In the meantime, the clock is ticking on your child's education, and it's up to YOU to make sure that your child has the knowledge and skills to be competitive. Teachers have to buy supplies for a whole classroom, whereas, you probably already have the supplies in your kitchen cupboard. The fun you and your child will have while making a recipe together is a wonderful bonding and learning experience.

If both parents work outside of the home, you will have to take advantage of every opportunity available. Weekend projects and day trips offer excellent opportunities to talk about measurement concepts such as time and distance, and history. Most of my students have never been to a museum, but they've been to every amusement park that exists! Amusement parks are fine for family fun, however, they don't offer much support for your child's education.

Finding new, exciting, and educational activities for your family is easy. The Chamber of Commerce National Directory has links to every state in the union. Each state has a tourism website with a wealth of information. You'll find all kinds of family oriented destinations and events in your state that you didn't even know existed!

Your investment in creative time with your child will translate to success in the classroom. Is your child having a birthday soon? Planning for a party involves a wide variety of skills including multiplication, division, writing, art, time management, and telephone skills. Crafts promote attention to detail and develop fine motor skills.

If the idea of spending more time at home appeals to you, but you need two incomes to survive, computers and the internet have created a variety of ways for you to work at home.

Older Brothers and Sisters Are Assets!

Older siblings can help too. Many middle and high school age students enjoy spending time with their younger brothers and sisters. Educational board games provide fun and learning opportunities for the whole family! For your sanity, try to provide an area in your home that is considered the "kid zone", where your children can have fun creating and playing together without too much worry about making a mess, and have them clean up whatever mess they make.

What About Non-Traditional Families?

Most of us would agree that a loving, two-parent family is the optimal situation for children. However, American families come in all shapes and sizes, and the children who live within these families need the same love, attention, and emotional and financial support that a nuclear family provides. American children may live in blended families (step-families), single-parent families, foster care families, grandparenting (multi-generational) families, and a host of other situations. Children may not have either a father, mother, or siblings. In which case, organizations such as Big Brothers and Sisters of America can lend a hand in providing social interaction and mentoring. Sometimes, children just need safe and productive activities after school. Quality after-school programs can provide learning opportunities beyond the regular school day in a safe, structured environment.

What About Family Entertainment?

Many families enjoy watching movies together. You can turn family movie time into a learning experience too, and believe it or not, your children will enjoy the movie more with a little background knowledge. You can talk about the genre of the movie. You can give the movie historical relevance or explain that it is a remake of an old classic. Giving your child an insight into what makes a movie special will add enjoyment to the experience, as well as provide a "jumping off" point for other topics of interest.

Is Television Really a Waste of Time? No Way!

Television is great tool! However, children need actual contact with other human beings in order to grow emotionally, socially, and intellectually. So, television is a great tool - in small doses AND with your interaction.

There are so many wonderful educational shows available these days that supplementing your child's education is a breeze. You just have to know where to find them. The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) specializes in FREE educational television. The PBS Parent's guide provides titles of current PBS shows for young children and includes activities and links that go with the shows. PBS A-Z provides program titles for all ages.

There are also wonderful educational shows on The Discovery Channel, The History Channel, Court TV, and many more. These shows require that you have cable or satellite television, but it's well worth the money in my opinion. You can go to TV Guide's site and register your email address, choose you cable company, and get FREE access to television listings anywhere in the country. Just enter the title of the show you want in the search engine to find air dates and times.

If you prefer family nights out on the town, then dinner and a movie or live theater may be just the ticket! Choose an age-appropriate movie, do your homework before you go, and make it a memorable experience for you and your child. You can encourage your child to share their opinion of the film and summarize it for other family members. These are valuable language arts skills that require a lot of practice to master.

What about summer and family vacations?

Many parents are at a loss when it comes to summer vacation. You may have to work and your child is out of school. This is obviously an opportunity to do some family bonding when you’re not at work. Or, your at home with your child and you run out of ideas for things to do. This is a time when you don't have to worry about homework or getting up early for school, so make the most of it!

The yearly family vacation is a good use of those long summer days. Visits to amusement parks are a family staple in many homes. However, I would encourage you to take vacations that support your child's education. The background knowledge your child will acquire can work wonders to support difficult subjects like history and geography.

I would like to give a word of advice here, however. With year-round schools, it may be difficult to schedule a vacation when all your children are out of school. Please try. Although I can appreciate the parent who requests work to take along on the family vacation, I always try to make the point that doing "book work" is not the same as participating in class.

Most parents don't realize the amount of interaction that takes place in the average classroom. Classroom discussions, debates, and role playing help bring a topic of study to life. Videos, overhead transparencies, and teacher read-alouds help to build background knowledge and provide a bridge for comprehension. Teacher's often provide language support in the form of "realia" (real objects) to build vocabulary. Games and activities provide extra practice and interacting with the teacher, as well as other students, provides language development. In addition, good teachers know what kind of questions to ask and how to ask them.

With all due respect, telling your child to read pages five through ten and answer the questions at the end just isn't the same. Your child's teacher would have to be quite creative, and go to a great deal of work, in order to walk you through the same quality of instruction and support your child would receive in the classroom. Not to mention the fact that it takes a lot of the fun out of a family vacation having to worry about school work.

If you are going to an exotic or historic place, you might wonder why that experience in and of itself isn't a form of education. It is! However, in this current standards-based environment, your child has a set curriculum and a laundry list of standards that she must master. Therefore, experiential work assignments would have to be aligned to the standards being taught in the classroom. This way, when you return from vacation, your student won't be behind the other students - at least in terms of the standards that were covered while she was gone.

For example, a third grade social studies standard might be for students to study local history. If you take your third grader on a trip to Europe, it would be difficult to create assignments to fit the standard. If you have a sixth grader, on the other hand, it may be a perfect fit! If an extended leave from the classroom is unavoidable, be sure to talk to your child's teacher well ahead of time (weeks ahead if possible). This will give him time to design quality assignments that will be both enriching and appropriate.

Summer camps can also be an excellent way for your child to spend time outside of school. These camps may have an educational or athletic focus. More important, summer camp can give your child an opportunity for autonomy while still being supervised by capable adults. If you plan ahead, you can put away a little money each month to pay for the tuition. The average school year lasts ten months. If you save $50 per month, you would have a $500 tuition ready by summertime!

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