Back to school tips and tools

Posted in back to school
by Lorain County Moms

By Amy Kossoff Smith, The Business of Motherhood

I recently published some tips for back to school and wanted to share some of the highlights. In “New School Year, New Trends,” I compare the home to the school setting to help parents find creative ways to bring expectations and rewards offered at school into the home environment. This way, you’re consistent; you’re speaking the same “language” as the teacher; and it may surprise you that your child is capable of many things … even vacuuming!

I suggested modeling the home system after the school system if possible, and also, using the school year as an opportunity to set up (or re-establish daily routines at home). For the full set of tips, visit http://momtinilounge.com/?p1254.

Next, I published a guest post from Ashley Leeds, a writing and study skills specialist at Thinking Caps Tutoring had some great academic/goal-setting ideas. Leeds said, “Now that everyone seems to have gotten into the back-to-school mindset, it’s time to take all of our hopes for our kids’ academic successes and put them into action. The first step in making progress this school year is to help your kids establish goals that will keep them motivated throughout the school year.”

She said this goal-setting will help continue the momentum throughout the school year. Here are some of her ideas:

1. Set goals together.
2. Make a game plan on how to make school more successful.
3. Talk about ways to specifically improve areas of interest.
4. Check in periodically to assess progress.

Leeds added, “The goal-setting process should be continuous throughout the school year: as a student makes strides in one area, he or she might find difficulty in another.” She stressed the importance of continuing the dialogue, “It is important to consistently assess and reassess a student’s progress in order to help them achieve the academic successes they are capable of.”

For the full set of tips, visit http://momtinilounge.com/?p1256.

Amy Kossoff Smith, Founder of The MomTini Lounge, is a nationally recognized Mompreneur who recently relaunched her site, www.MomTiniLounge.com, which is full of tips and tools for the business of motherhood. Available 24/7, just like Mom, the site has helped women around the world to manage the job of motherhood.