This erroneous vision was fostered in the 1980s with the crack epidemic centered in Washington Heights, an area located north of New York City and predominantly populated by Dominican immigrants. Thousands of dollars in cash were sent back to the families, who still lived in the Dominican Republic.

Though the days of easy money have passed, the Dominican poor still believe that, if only family member can reach the U.S. and remain for a few years, he or she could bring the entire family remaining in the Dominican Republic out of poverty. Thus, the Dominican Republic is the largest exporter of immigrants to the New York City schools. Dominican immigrants now comprise ten percent of the 1.1 million students in the New York City schools.

These young New York City schools immigrants face particularly difficult problems as they attempt to acclimate into American society. They face the pressures to integrate at school, while facing the pressures to remain the same at home. Parents too face challenges with the New York City schools.

The first problem is culture shock. In the Dominican Republic, children always must defer to their elders and hold their tongues, having no way to express their own feelings or opinions. In contrast, children quickly learn in the New York City schools that American children are vital members of society, like any adult. They realize that adults care what they think. They become more outspoken both at school and at home, finding the social freedoms compelling and liberating.

Parents feel themselves losing control of their children, who are shedding their cultural restrictions. They view New York City schools children as arrogant and flamboyant, with no respect for their elders. Such contrasting expectations between children and parents cause stress at home. Of course, many parents blame the New York City schools for their children adopting these attributes, where they did not wish to send their children anyway.

The Dominican immigrant home environment is not always conducive to learning. For impoverished families in the Dominican Republic, education is not a priority, as it is with the wealthy families there. Though early schooling is free for children, it is seen as a costly endeavor for families just trying to make ends meet. Clothing for school, meals, school supplies, books, and transportation are luxuries for such families. According to the World Bank, 13 percent of children ages 7-14 work outside the home, rather than attend school. According to Unicef, 16 percent of children ages 10-17 are illiterate. Usually, one or both parents have little or no education, due to less long-term educational exposure for children of poorer families. Is it any wonder they may resent the mandatory law for their children to attend the New York City schools?

Though cultural differences present a major obstacle, language is the biggest difficulty for these immigrant children in the New York City schools. According to Robert Mercedes, Principal of Middle School 390 in the Bronx and President of the Association of Dominican-American Supervisors and Administrators, Dominican children arrive at the New York City schools lacking the basic native-language skills of the Dominican Republic. This makes transitioning them into the English language even more difficult.

They feel like outsiders in the New York City schools. They are in a language and cultural isolation. They are generally dumped into bilingual classes at low-income schools, and feel more of a burden to the New York City schools than an equal to the other students. The victim mentality takes over for many of these youth, who separate themselves into close-knit ethnic groups. They are especially vulnerable to street gang recruitment, which pervades the areas around the ghetto-like atmosphere of some of the New York City schools they attend.

On one side, the New York City schools are a haven of new opportunities for the Dominican children and their parents. Yet, these same opportunities can be the downfall of the immigrant family values and the children, as well. It is a dual-edged sword, afflicted with stressful difficulties and insurmountable obstacles for many.

This information on New York City schools is brought to you by http://www.schoolsk-12.com

Patricia Hawke is a staff writer for Schools K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12 schools. Patricia has a nose for research and writes stimulating news and views on school issues. For more on New York City schools visit New York CIty Schools

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patricia_Hawke

Some families are willing to sacrifice a lot to homeschool their children simply because they feel that their children need more than the public educational system is offering. In particular, parents want their children to experience more than just a harried existence of rushing to everywhere and getting the minimum out of life. Three particular areas have many parents quitting jobs or changing job schedules to be able to educate their children themselves so that they can provide religious instruction, more advanced training than they can get in public school and finally that family bonding that is slipping away from the traditional family.

Religious Instruction

Public education is required to teach a non-religious curriculum because of the vast differences in the backgrounds of students and teachers. Parents who wish to sidestep the influences of the public education system can find help in homeschooling. It is easy to find a home school curriculum that will promote whatever religious beliefs the parent wants to teach their child. Many Christian based curriculum choices are available that provide the vast resources that children need while reinforcing the Christian values and teaching of the Bible.

As more and more families are choosing to homeschool, Jewish and Muslim (and even more than can be mentioned in this article) curricula are being developed by families and made available for sale once they have been tested. Different religious groups can also develop their own curriculum based on one of currently available, but tailored to their specific belief structure. The basic structure is similar in all of the religious curricula, but the tenets of the particular faith is interwoven into the reading, writing and history.

Advanced Training

The measure of a homeschool curriculum is whether it satisfies the criteria of the government agencies that are responsible for education. Seeing as how the majority of public schools are churning out children who are passably able to read and can barely spell, it is possible to beat the public school system by just spending more time with children, reading with them and going over their homework with them. The operative words are “with them” because quality time with children means more interaction and places more importance on doing a good job with schoolwork.

For parents who want their children to be college ready, a more advanced curriculum is required. Luckily, many advanced programs are available for home school families. Since parents who decide to homeschool come from varied backgrounds, many homeschooling materials are created by these parents to satisfy a need that was lacking in the homeschool community. As more families homeschool their children, more advanced curricula are becoming available for college prep.

Engineers, lawyers, doctors, chemists and CEOs have all contributed to the vast array of home educator materials available for parents to use for their children. These people make it possible for a child to choose whatever career path they can envision without having to attend public school. The only limitation is how much a parent can afford to invest in their own child’s education.

Family Bonding

Because of the closeness of parents with their children in a homeschool environment, a special bond occurs with kids and parents that makes the experience even more beneficial. Instead of having a complete stranger instilling their (who knows what kind) values on children, parents can form a stronger relationship and develop a more eager desire to learn in their children simply by continuing to encourage them.

Closeness with children is something that the family unit lacks, and simply showing an interest in a child’s education is more important than the actual training materials on their own, since children respond to parental involvement very positively by wanting to excel. Obviously, stress and mental problems can get in the way of a positive learning environment, so before embarking on a homeschool curriculum, it is vital for parents to understand how much time they must devote to their children’s education and whether they are mentally able to undertake such a task.

Some methods of homeschooling have a more “hands off” approach to teaching, by basically giving children a list of books to read and workbooks to use, but no real structure or interaction. This style is typically better for parents who are not able to deal with a structured schooling environment. Parental involvement is still crucial, but only in the encouragement of the child to continue reading and working at their own pace.

Summary

Religion in schools is a target from a lot of directions. Students are leaving school ready for a $10 per hour job. Too many families are fractured or simply damaged. It is crucial that parents become involved in their own children’s education; even if it means after school religious instruction, help with homework and family activities. Homeschooling is one way to take away complete control of the preparation of children from the government (which has difficulty doing any large task effectively) and placing in back in the hands of the parent.

After seeing the results of having his 3 daughters in public school and in home school, Micheal Savoie found that home educators need more resources at their disposal to make homeschooling simpler for the parent and student. By making a website where home educators could exchange ideas and resources, the Home Educators Resource Exchange was born. Find out more at http://heregroups.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Micheal_Savoie

It is quite common to see children actively involved in the family business. Even young children can perform valuable services. Many business owners, however, miss out on the major tax savings generated by actually hiring their children and paying them a fair wage for their services.

The expense is tax-deductible to you, and the income is tax-free to them. [Reg Sec 1.162-7(a) ] The tax-free limit for dependent children was $5,350 per child per year for 2007, and it tends to be increased somewhat each year. The amount is equal to the Standard Deduction.

[Rev. Proc. 95-53 and IRC Section § 63(h)(2) ]

In order to qualify, the wages must be reasonable in amount, based on services actually rendered and documented as paid. Children as young as seven years old have been found to qualify as employees of the parents’ business. [Reference Eller v. Commissioner, 77 T.C. 934 (1981) ]

And if they are family members under 18 working for a sole proprietorship, they are exempt from payroll taxes [IRC Section § 3121(b)(3)(A) and § 3306(c)(5) ] and the business is not required to withhold or to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. [Tax Court Ruling 48 TC 439, 450 (196) in the case of Denman v. IRS Commissioner]

For incorporated business owners, your corporation will have to pay payroll tax and you do need to withhold social security/medicare from the children’s wages, but the benefits are still well worth it.

In order to qualify, the wage rate has to be “reasonable and customary” within your region of the country and within your industry for the type of work being performed. These wages must be paid and the appropriate payroll tax returns and W-2 forms filed with the IRS and Social Security Administration. Before hiring your children, check with your tax pro to be sure your documentation and reporting will follow the rules. [Revenue Ruling 73-393]

The kids (as employees) should document what they did to earn the money, [Revenue Ruling 73-393] so have them fill out a simple “work log” with headings like:
o Date they worked
o Type of work performed
o Amount of time spent working
o Hourly rate you paid them

** Pay Attention Here **
We’re about to show you how to pay for…
o The car your high-schooler wants
o Designer-label clothes the kids demand
o Movie and Concert tickets
o A High School graduation trip
o College tuition, books and supplies
o Your daughter’s expensive wedding
o And lots of other personal out-of-pocket expenses

ALL in PRE-TAX Dollars!

Here’s how you can do this…

The tax-deductible $5,350/year Uncle Sam lets you pay your children as employees, is equivalent to about $100.00 per week! But, you say, “Who gives their kids a $100.00 per week allowance?” YOU might now! And here’s why…

Let’s say you come up with the tax-free limit of about $100.00 per week worth of business related “chores” for them to do. After they turn in their “work log”, you then pay them by check. So, you’ll have to open a separate checking account for them to deposit and cash payroll checks. Of course, you will deposit every week’s $100.00 paycheck into that account. Make sure it’s an interest-bearing account. (You will see why in a minute.)

The bank will require it to be a “joint account” with you, since they are minors. Although it is technically a “joint” account, only you will be authorized to make withdrawals or to write checks on that account, since the child is a minor.

Reader Alert! Here is Where It Gets REALLY Interesting…

The law requires you to pay them the wage they earned, in order for you to be able to deduct the amount as a business expense.

These funds can now be used in a variety of ways so long as they are for the benefit of your child. The only other specific restriction is that this money cannot be used for your child’s lodging or meals. [Rev. Rule 73-393]

So, you simply tell your child, “I will withdraw $10 (for example) out of each week’s pay for you to spend any way you wish, however, the other $90.00 will stay in the (interest-bearing) account to be used by you to pay for your________.”

Fill in the blank with words like car, graduation trip, wedding, or whatever you like.

Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, anticipate that you would be able to pay for school supplies and tennis shoes, or pay for cars, trips, and weddings out of pre-tax dollars? It’s true! It’s real! And it’s 100% legal!

There’s another practical benefit to this strategy that is at least as important as the tax benefits. Your child/children will begin learning the value of a dollar. Imagine being at the mall to buy a new pair of shoes. The child has to decide whether he or she wants the $150 designer-label brand or the $45 generic brand – knowing that whatever they have left in their checking/savings account will be theirs someday, to pay for their car, trip, college, wedding, etc.

Isn’t that a great tax-savings strategy and a great learning opportunity for your children?

Next – Hire Your SPOUSE, So You Can Write Off Medical “Out-of-Pocket” Expenses for YOURSELF!

This applies to sole proprietor entities only. When your spouse is an employee of your home-business, he/she is eligible for “benefits” from his/her employer (that’s you), and those benefits are deductible as business expenses. [IRC Section § 162(a)]

So you establish this benefit as company policy: Any and all employees and their family members (again, that includes YOU) will be reimbursed (by the home-business) for all medical-related expenses not covered under any other insurance plan he/she may have under another employer.

“Any and all employees” means your spouse and your children, “and all members of their family” includes YOU.

A Word of Caution: Only establish this company policy if your business will be hiring only your own family members. If you establish this policy and then hire non-family members, you will be required to offer this benefit to them as well, and that could defeat the purpose.

So What Just Happened?
You just set into place a strategy for legally tax-deducting all annual insurance plan deductibles, co-pays for doctor visits, prescription drugs, and non-covered expenses like braces, glasses, contact lenses, dental work, and possibly even cosmetic surgery. [Reg Sec 71-588; Plr. 9409006]

No minimum thresholds apply; every single dollar is tax-deductible by the business as an employee benefit cost.

It is important that this “policy” be established in writing, as a legal document and that the benefit is reasonable in relation to the level of services provided by the employee to your business. In Appendix C to this system you will find a sample fill-in-the-blanks “Self-Insured Medical Reimbursement Plan”, which you may feel free to adopt or adapt, if you wish. [Reg Sec 1.105-5(a)]

A Word About the Level of Your Spouse’s Wages

A sole practitioner (Schedule C taxpayer) is not required to pay Unemployment Taxes on the employment of a spouse; however the business is required to pay Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on adult family-member employees.

Since those taxes are calculated based on a percentage of the employee’s wages, the lower the wage level, the lower the payroll taxes will be. Even if you employ your spouse at “minimum wage”, you qualify to use this medical expense reimbursement tax strategy, so long as this benefit is reasonable in relation to the level of services provided by your spouse. [IRC Section § 3306(c)(5); IRS Publication 15, and IRS Circular E all apply]

URL: http://www.recordsinorder.com/
Scott C Turner, CPA Mission, Path and Today’s Focus

Life Mission: His mission has always been to find a better, more affordable method for the average to above-average smaller business owner to successfully access a higher level of tax strategy service that formerly could only have been obtained by the wealthier and more-informed business owner.

The Path: He was aggressively recruited upon graduation in 1978 by each of the “Big-8″ accounting firms. He accepted an offer from Main LaFrentz, the ninth largest CPA firm worldwide at the time, an affiliate of KPMG, the largest international accounting firm, where he immediately specialized in small business taxation – a specialty in which he has remained focused to this day.

Scott Turner is the former Director of Tax Consultation Services for the nation’s second largest employee benefits provider, serving more than 10 million taxpayers. This service provided an in-depth view of individual and business questions faced by today’s smaller business owners.

Today’s Focus: Use the latest technological advances to relieve business owners in reporting their financial and tax data, to establish their best legal tax position, to implement the most updated and appropriate tax strategies, and to provide for them the information they need for management decisions.

He currently manages his firm in the SF Bay Area having represented thousands of small business clients; while staying focused on his specialty for over 25 years – Strategizing for Small Business to achieve their best overall tax results. Though the majority of the clientele he has served consists of average to above-average smaller business owners, other notables include several highly successful health professionals, multi-millionaire real estate investors, authors, and highly-regarded Silicon Valley business consultants.

With eagerness he looks forward to assisting in the success of his next small business client.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_C_Turner

A. Does your environment provide the same language you and your partner speak ? This will mean you will have to invest a lot of effort to expose your child to another language.

B. Or is the dominant language of your environment (language of the country/school/nursery) different from yours ? In that case you will be faced with relatively low effort. Below is a summary of key challenges and recommendations for the high effort scenario.

Monolingual parents in a same-language environment (e.g. English speaking parents in an English speaking country)

You are speaking your native language to your child(ren) and the environment you live in surrounds your children with that same language as well. Your environment does not help you with your goal to bring your children up bi-lingually, all the effort will have to come from you.

Parental Effort Required for Bilingual Children: High Effort

Special Challenges: Enough second language exposure in your children’s life.

Special Advice: Find others in the same boat and tackle the project together.

Parental Effort:

Your children are spending all their time in one language, be it in the environment (school/friends) or at home. In order to give your children the gift of bilingualism you have to “adopt” a new language into your DAILY life. For your children to eventually become fluent in a language, they need to have regular, continuous exposure to it – a 1 hour/week language club alone is not enough (although this would be a start and could be the basis for a later increase in exposure). If you aim for bilingualism, i.e. sophisticated language skills – as opposed to basic skills – your children should be exposed to the language for at least 1 hour a day. As the environment does not help you, all the effort will have to come from you – but it will be worth it ! You need to find enough language opportunities for your children which they can enjoy (personal interactions and media), plan trips to the country, show an interest/respect in the people from the country and maybe learn the language yourself. A good idea is to join or start a support group to surround yourself by others in a similar situation who can encourage you along the way.

Special Challenges:

You need to be very organised and maybe also creative to keep enough exposure to the 2nd language in your life, as all language input will come from third parties. Your children might already have a full calendar of after-school activities and you might have budget restrictions which don’t allow you to add more classes/courses or tutors.

From a motivational perspective your challenge is to make the exposure to the new language fun and enjoyable for your children rather than a chore. This can be done by choosing the right quality with the help of a good support network and by varying the type of language resource you choose.

Special Advice:

1. Get support: Join a support network and find other families in the same situation. Teaming up with others in the same situation makes your job much easier. Not only do you have others to share your experiences and challenges with, you can also bring together enough children to start new clubs/courses. You can swap materials to keep the language input new and interesting without spending more money. Your children might also find it more fun and less daunting to see other children with similar background in the same situation. A support network can get you in touch with equally committed families and save you the job of having to find new language opportunities by phoning around.

2. Build your own resource library. Start collecting ideas and sources for language resources which can help you create extra exposure of your children to the second language, e.g. media (TV, DVD, books, music, and interactive computer games). You can find a selection of resources online at the Multilingual Network.

3. If you can, read to your children in the second language. You can read books in a second language to your child – provided your language skills are good enough. This is a great way to extend vocabulary.

4. Nourish and build your children’s pride in making the effort to learn another language. Mono-lingual peers (and their parents) might not understand your motivation to exposing your child to a foreign language. Their comments might make you/your children unsure of whether it is all worth it. General advice: never take advice from someone on something, unless they have done it successfully themselves ! Surround yourself with people who are positive and supportive rather than holding you back. As your children’s school/peers might not reward/recognise your child’s new skills, you should praise your child lots and highlight to your children regularly how wonderful they are being able to speak in two languages, keeping friendships with children from different countries etc. Don’t take it for granted, talk about it!

Silke Rehman is a co-active life coach specializing in helping powerful women, who dream of making a real difference in this world. She coaches because she loves seeing her clients grow and achieve things they did not think were possible. Silke shares her thoughts and expertise with the world at http://www.developandgrow.com and you can buy her book “Make Your Child Multilingual!” here Raising Bilingual & Multilingual Children

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Silke_Rehman

Psychologically, problems can be classified into two types. One type is the problems ‘to the children’ both physically and mentally. The other type is the problems ‘by the children’ in various matters affecting the whole atmosphere of the family.

Type I problems are related to speech, handicapped, left handedness, bad dreams, nightmares, nails biting, thumb sucking,etc.

Type II problems are related to delinquency, aggressiveness, bullying, obstinacy, temper tantrums, telling lies, sibling rivalry, etc.

Identifying the problems:

Type I problems are normally physical problems while the others are mental based. The former can be identified and cured if proper medical care is taken. But the later can neither be easily identified nor be cured absolutely. The parents find it difficult when the second type problems are with their children. Only experts in psychology can analyze the problems by counseling and suggest remedy. The various ‘problems by the children’ are discussed as follows.

Delinquency:

We know stealing, gambling, cheating, violence, pick pocketing, raping and similar such antisocial acts are criminal natured. If any of one such is committed by an adult, he or she is punished with penalty or imprisonment or both. When such things are done by children up to twelve years, they are called delinquencies. Again they are of two types called potential delinquents and actual delinquents. When the criminal acts are at mind level, the children are called potential delinquents and when they actually indulge in action, they are called actual delinquents. Both are equally bad and harmful to the society.

The essential feature of delinquent character whether potential or actual is due to ‘momentary pleasure seeking’ impulses arising with the children now and on. It is noteworthy that the delinquents have no control over this character or give a check against the impulses. Consequently, they continue to indulge in antisocial activities until being detected and caught with red hand. The basic reason for delinquency is the home condition and friends circle.

Aggressiveness:

Aggressiveness is a show of temper. It is sometimes normal and usual. Such character is serious when it is persistent and unusual in certain cases. Aggressive children are problem children only in case of unusual and unnecessary behavior in one hand as well as regular and persistent on the other hand.

There are two types of aggressiveness. One type is to cause damage on other objects and people. They are called the ’sadistic’ with externalized cause from the surrounding world. The other type is to express the anger on him and is called the ‘masochistic’ with internalized reasons. The children are tyrants in school, feel frustrated, interfere in others’ affair, need love from others, adventurous and feel unsecured.

Obstinacy:

Obstinate children are always contradicting, rebellious with others, arguing for everything, not flexible but rigid in many things. Obstinacy is similar to aggressiveness. The behavior will be somewhat rude and rough. Disobedience is another nature with obstinate children. In many cases, it is due to sibling rivalry when the parents show unequal importance for different children of their own. Obstinate children try to get the things done by such indifferent behavior towards others particularly with the parents.

Shyness and hesitation:

Feeling shyness in everything is another problem with many children. If there is meaningless shyness and hesitation, the children cannot do anything with own effort. Such children are always in the mercy of their parents and friends in getting the things done. It is a hurdle against the progress for the child and there is less chance to achieve the goal.

Fear, anger and anxiety:

These qualities are undesirable since they give a set back for doing anything with confidence. For anything, confidence is mostly needed for achieving the goal. If there is meaningless fear and anger, the child will be loosing many things to own. Fear is a submissive character and anger is destructive character. Eagerness is a desirable character while undue anxiety causes personal disappointment in some cases.

Conclusion:

Problem children are to be tackled with utmost care by the parents at home and by the teachers in school. If not, everything will be made worst and the results will be the ‘worries’ to the parents. It is suggested

i) To monitor the children in all activities

ii) To send them to special schools if necessary

iii) To give freedom at home to some extent

iv) To separate from bad friends

v) To provide good atmosphere at home

vi) To make them realize the moral values of life

vii) To teach them good habits

viii) To make them understand the pains given to others

ix) To provide medical treatment in some cases

x) To make them realize the values of ‘good habits’ and evils of ‘bad habits’.

By close and continuous observation in general, problem children can be treated and made good citizens.

The author has recently published some other interesting topics on “Problems of Backward Children” AND “Emotional Problems of Children”

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Varadharajan_R

1. Shop secondhand stores, yard sales, consignment shops and at factory outlets.
2. Create a clothing co-op. Buy clothes from parents with older children, or develop a swap.
3. Pack clothes in storage bins once your children outgrow them. Reuse them when your younger children grow into them, sell them at a garage/yard sale or through a consignment shop, or donate them to a charity for a tax deduction.
4. Ask family members to save the clothes their children grow out of, or do not want anymore. You can then go through the clothes and see what you want to keep.
5. Search online for online coupons and free shipping codes.
6. Shop off-season to find clothes on sale – shop in the spring for winter clothes on sale and in the fall for summer clothes on sale.
7. Buy children’s clothing in a slightly larger size so they last a few seasons.
8. Avoid back-to-school sales since the clothes will be 50 percent off two weeks later.
9. Add your name to store mailing lists to receive coupons and sale information.
10. Inventory and organize the clothing in closets so you know what you have or don’t have prior to shopping.

Teach your children to keep clean clothes out of the laundry basket. Clothing lasts longer with fewer washes!

Hilary Basile is a writer for MyGuidesUSA.com. At http://www.myguidesusa.com, you will find valuable tips and resources for handling life’s major events. Whether you’re planning a wedding, buying your first home, anxiously awaiting the birth of a child, contending with a divorce, searching for a new job, or planning for your retirement, you’ll find answers to your questions at MyGuidesUSA.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Hilary_Basile

But all these actions don’t really help to improve children’s education. More probably, it will just add to their tensions and problems.

So exactly, what can you do if your children come home with poor report card?

Support. Encourage. Motivate. These are the key words to help children improve their performance.

Also, here are 6 simple education tips to bring faster improvement in your children:

Child Education Tip 1: Don’t Attach Negative labels

Do not label your children with degrading titles like: “Stupid,” “Lazy,” and other negative names which create poor self-image. Firmly believe that your children are capable of achieving anything they really desire.

Child Education Tip 2: Identify Your Children’s Problem

Children who don’t perform well in studies have some problems. These problems can be solved if identified. To identify problems, observe your children closely and ask them questions. Here are examples of some common problems of children:

” Complaining about classmates/teachers

” Coming from school tired and irritated

” Good in one subject but not in another

” Slow reading and understanding of study material

” Avoiding homework until the last minute

” Finding it difficult to interact with other children and adults

” Spending time on unimportant activities

” Learning little or nothing in class

” Problems with eyesight or hearing

” Not enthusiastic in going to school

” Being disobedient and/or sulky

Once you identify your children’s problem related to education, it will become easy for you to think and find solutions for it.

Child Education Tip 3: Puff up Your Children’s Self-Confidence

This is one of the best ways to improve your children’s performance. Search for some good study habits or skills of your children and talk about it.

No matter how poorly your children are performing right now, there might be some topic or study skill in which they are good.

For example, your son might be good in spelling, or reading or drawing diagrams. Your daughter might be good in math or biology or in remembering formulas. Think about it and praise your children for their good education skills.

Also, search for some education related achievements of your children in the past and discuss it with them. For example, perhaps your son had got ‘good’ remarks on his science report. Or perhaps your daughter had scored better grades in some subjects last year, or even year before that.

Discuss such past education related success. Remind your children about their achievements, however small it is. This will shift your children’s mental focus on their good study skills and on their ‘education success.’ They will realize that they do have the ability to learn. The power to win.

Tell your children, “If you can learn one thing, you can also learn other things. If you can achieve success once, you can achieve it again.” Such words from you will strongly motivate your children to succeed in education.

Child Education Tip 4: Speak With Their Teacher

Meet your children’s school or college teachers and discuss your children’s performance and education problems with them. Ask them what is wrong with your children, and what you can do to help them improve. Advice and suggestions of teachers will help you immensely.

Child Education Tip 5: Set Achievable Goals

When children have clear goals in their mind, they usually make efforts to study better. Hence encourage your children to set small and reasonable goals for their studies.

For example, if your daughter has scored C grade in math test, she can set a goal to score B grade in next math test. If your son has fallen behind in his History class, then he can set a goal to read two or three history lessons each week, depending upon his speed.

Child Education Tip 6: Keep Your Children Fit

Encourage your children to get some physical exercise like, running, jogging, skipping, cycling, swimming, etc. Exercise improves blood circulation, digestion, and provides more oxygen to brain. This leads to better learning and memory. Ask your children to exercise everyday, or at least five days a week.

Finally, remember what Edison’s mother did!

Thomas Edison was labeled as “slow learner” by his teachers. But his mother, Nancy Edison, did not accept her son as ‘dull.’ She motivated, encouraged, and taught Edison to learn at his own speed and style. And we all know what Edison went on to achieve in his life as a scientist!

Want to make success easy for your children? Download free Positive Parenting ebook and Success Training manual for children written by Preeti Narayan, who is educational expert and co-author of ‘Success Mindware’ an All-in-One self development course for children at http://www.mindpowerguide.biz

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Child psychology is associated with the social and personal development of children and a child goes through several stages before stepping into the adult world. The psychology of children has been studied from various perspectives including issues of nature and nurture and whether the child is a product of genes and heredity or a product of society and environment as also different developmental stages of sensory discrimination and perception, emotional expression and learning through language and cognitive development, development of intelligence and the socialization process. The study of child sexuality and sexual and moral development are also very important especially from a psychoanalytic viewpoint.

Children are vulnerable and affected easily by all events in the immediate environment. Events which are only trivial or unimportant to adults, may leave deep scars or memories in a child’s mind. A child’s mind is extremely impressionable and changeable and before the child reaches adolescence, certain very insignificant events can have great personal significance in a child’s life. So ‘childhood memories’ and ‘childhood events’ are primary factors in determining adult personality pattern. Some major factors which can affect a child’s later development and have potential long term effects are:

1. Loss or gain of a friend or friends
2. Memorable physical/bodily sensations
3. Separation in the family or divorce of parents
4. Domestic abuse or violence
5. Sexual molestation or abuse
6. Learning experiences either at play or during study
7. Personal experiences/events that evoked strong emotions of fear, joy, sorrow etc.
8. Accidents or illnesses experienced or observed
9. Death of family members, neighbors or close ones
10. Change of residence or relocation
11. Emotional relationships with friends, teachers or family members
12. Personal success or failure in school
13. Influence of films, stories, books or news events
14. War, terrorism, conflicts, bomb attacks etc.
15. Natural calamities like earthquakes, flood, famine etc.

The factors here are very general and every child goes through certain very specific events that affect him or her individually although there are certain very general theories in psychology that have been established through research studies and these theories have highlighted links between success or failure in later life and childhood events. Some of the major theorists of child development are John Bowlby, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Lawrence Kohlberg and Lev Vygotsky. Whereas Bowlby emphasized on childhood relationships, Piaget focused on cognitive development of the child through various stages and Freud wrote extensively on sexual development of children. Kohlberg studied moral development of children whereas Vygotsky analyzed the socialization process of children through social contextualism. All these theories on different aspects of child development only prove the immense complexity and the varied number of factors that tend to play a role in the psychological development of children. There are many dimensions to the psychology of children from social, emotional to cognitive, sexual and moral. Here I will provide a brief account of all these different theories and finally provide a comprehensive analysis on how these theories could be used along with the general factors listed above in the study of the psychology of children.

John Bowlby, a British psychiatrist, developed the ‘attachment theory’ in which he emphasized the importance of a mother or primary caregiver in a child’s life. He showed in his study that any infant should develop and maintain a warm and intimate relationship with the mother or mother substitute and all maternal deprivation can lead to serious mental health problems in the child later in life. Bowlby’s theory is very true and a mother should develop a strong physical and emotional intimacy with the child by being physically close to the child at least until the child is 2 years old. Doctors around the world have recommended breast feeding and an important part of this is the physical closeness between the child and the mother which is extremely necessary once the child is out of the mother’s womb. When the child is released from the mother’s womb, the first emotion is fear and the mother’s continued physical closeness instills confidence and a sense of security in the child. Orphaned children or children who are separated from their mothers at birth require a substitute or they can grow up as mentally ill or maladjusted individuals.

Freud on the other hand provided a complete psychosexual theory and emphasized on what many of us don’t like to believe – the sexual pleasure of children. Freud overturned the concept of childhood innocence and suggested that we are born with our unrepressed basic instincts which are slowly tempered with social adaptation. Freud believed that the inherent pleasure seeking desires that we are born with focus on certain erogenous zones of the body and accordingly there are different stages of psychosexual development from oral and anal to phallic, latent and genital stages. In psychosexual development, the child’s pleasure seeking behavior changes from the mouth as in sucking and biting to the anus through toilet training and then finally to the genitals. Thus the child according to psychoanalysis derives complete sexual pleasure by sucking, biting, playing with genitals and releasing waste by defecation. I do not necessarily endorse Freud’s views on the sexual pleasure of children and the pleasure derived from bodily sensations could be explained in other ways as I will discuss in another article.

Jean Piaget, a French-Swiss philosopher established the theory of cognitive development in children and laid out four developmental stages – the sensorimotor period, the pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage and the formal operational stage. The first stage is when the child develops spatial abilities and comes to terms with the world through the senses during the first two years of life. The second stage is about developing and using concepts when children understand meaning of things and this continues until the age of 7. From 7-11 years the child reaches higher cognitive development through concrete operational stage and can sort and classify objects and can use logic to solve problems. The formal operational stage that begins around 12 years of age helps children to understand abstract thoughts, hidden meanings etc. Kohlberg provided a theory of moral development of children through six stages of pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional levels. These are related to concerns for punishment and self interest, as also inner need for conformity and striving for social order, as maintaining universal ethical principles. So moral development seems to move from a belief of ‘what is right and what is wrong’ and whether there is punishment for the wrong to what is universally ethical and acceptable social behavior. Another prominent psychologist Vygotsky highlighted the importance of socialization and interpersonal communication and child development according to this theory is seen as an internalization of social and cultural knowledge.

Of course, all these theories will have to be added up and a complete or comprehensive theory that would provide an insight into the child’s mind and behavior will have components from all these theories. In addition childhood experiences and events which have been highlighted in psychoanalytic theories are also extremely important and not just from a sexual point of view. All the general factors that I have mentioned in the beginning of the essay should be considered as factors that underlie social, sexual, moral, emotional, physical and cognitive development of children. As learning experiences lead to cognitive development, personal emotional experiences lead to later emotional development and maturity. Sexual molestation, abuse or other types of bodily sensations in childhood affect later sexual development and divorce or separation in the family can affect moral development. Thus an individual who has been molested as a child may either develop a fear of sexual activity or may show complete lack of sexual restraint as an adult.

A child who has lived without a father may either become extremely irresponsible or can develop into an adult with a very strong sense of parental responsibility. Experiencing trauma in childhood through death or accidents of family members or living in times of war, natural calamities have deep impact on children and can leave a perennial sense of insecurity or a need for attachment in the children which continues through adulthood and even old age or on the other hand these events can make a child isolated, schizophrenic or simply detached in later life. For healthy life of children it is important to not just depend on psychological theories to understand how a child grows up and perceives the world, but it is also important to focus on events or experiences of the child and use these along with the theories for complete psychological understanding of children.

In contemporary child psychology the focus on events is mainly psychoanalytic and the impact of adverse events is considered especially significant. However it is important that all events, positive and negative are considered and this should then be used to complement psychological theories. To understand the child, it is important to understand the child’s world and memories so an ‘event-based’ psychology of children should be balanced with a ‘theory-based’ psychology of children.

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1. They make education easier

Most of the children educational program deal with topics that are also taught in classroom. Thus when your children use the educational programs at home, they get additional practice of subjects which they learn in the classroom. This helps your children to learn better.

Example: “Middle School Math Excelerator” program teaches math skills. So in addition to learning math in classroom, your children get more math practice when they use those educational programs at home.

2. Children can practice at home

Once you buy a particular children educational program, it will be available to your children 24 hours a day. Your children can repeatedly use them whenever they get the time or whenever they get in the ‘mood’ to use them. Thus your children will get lot of practice.

3. Include exercises and games to develop important skills

All good children educational programs include well-planned exercises to help your children learn and improve a particular skill or ability. Some educational programs also include games-like or story-like exercises to help children learn better. These kind of educational programs are highly suited for younger children below the age of 12.

4. Helps to improve those weak areas

Children educational programs are especially useful if your kids have problem in a particular area of study. For example, do your children find grammar difficult? Or are they weak in math? Or do your children find science tough?

In such cases, a good educational program will help your children improve in those subjects. Many such subject-specific educational programs are available on internet to help children improve. For example: “Quickstudy English Vocabulary” to improve word power in English, and “I Love Science” program to improve in Science subjects are available at http://www.softwareforkids.com

Also, a different kind of children educational programs are available that work as “self-help” programs. These kind of programs contain easy step-by-step exercises to help children improve their concentration power. Also, they teach children how to study better with correct study techniques and how to deal with exams and so on.

These “self-help” kind of educational programs are also highly useful for your children. Example of one such program is “Success Mindware: Total Self-Development Program For Student” available at http://www.mindpowerguide.biz

5. Increases interest in studies

A good children educational program also helps your children to become more interested in studies. Because they help to make learning fun for your children and also motivate them through good examples, stories and games.

Hence investing few dollars in a children educational program will not cause any loss to you, provided you select the right one. It will only make education easier and interesting for your children.

© Preeti Narayan – is author of ‘Success Mindware’ a first Total self-development program for children to help them succeed in 21st century. Download popular Success Training lessons and worksheets for your children absolutely free at http://www.mindpowerguide.biz

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The importance of parental involvement as an accelerating and motivating factor in their children’s education is a worldwide-accepted fact. This research project provides an in depth explanation along with specific reasons, the importance of parents’ involvement in their children’s education. It also discusses the parenting techniques, their types and their consequences if neglected. It also describes the ways to measure the outcome of the positive parental involvement. Furthermore, it mentions the teachers involvement and the difficulties faced by the teachers in getting parents involved in their children’s (this is further supported by the examples of two teachers who with their deliberate efforts won the parents over to devote their maximum attention towards their children), single-parent involvement, children’s own efforts to improve their academic levels and joint home-school based interventions. A detailed analysis of the different main ideas is given, based on the findings from other research surveys and projects.

INTRODUCTION:

Parental involvement can be seen to fall into three types: 1) Behavioral, 2) Intellectual and 3) Personal. The research explores the effect of multi-dimensional participation of parents and the resulting progress of children in their studies when different parental resources were dedicated to them. Actively participating parents help their children in their academic development by going to schools and participating in open houses. By keenly observing the behavior of their children they can rightly judge the kind of behavior or the allocation of resources required by their children. Such caring parents can also motivate teachers to become more attentive towards a particular student, thus maintaining the cycle of parent-teacher involvement. Encourage Building up cognitive and perception abilities in a child is a major concern in the upbringing of the child. The way the parents involve their children in cognitive learning is by exposing them to different cognitively stimulating activities and materials such as books, electronic media and current events at home. This helps the child to practice all sorts of language comprehending skills at the school. The results show a remarkably positive behavior at the school and with peers.

Two parenting processes namely the Supportive Parenting (SP) and Harsh Parenting (HP) helped a lot in the research of parental involvement in their children’s education. By adjusting the levels of supportive parenting, different levels of successful outcomes were observed. Supportive parenting in even kindergarten students yielded positive results. Four measures of supportive parenting were used in the study, they were:

1. Proactive teaching.

2. Calm discussion in disciplinary encounters.

3. Warmth.

4. Interest and involvement in peer activities.

The assessments were conducted when children entered kindergarten and when they reached grade 6. There was a factor noted to hinder children’s development: family adversity. It was the result of a multipurpose negative process that included the risk of low socio-economic status, single-parenting and family stress. Child maladjustments were found to be more common in families with such adversities. No matter how much negative impacts were cast, SP was found to overcome the risks associated with family adversity. SP was strongly related to adjustment procedures in grade 6 children who had single parent family or experienced low socio-economic status (SES) in their early childhood.

In a way to socialize their children, parents adopted the techniques of calm discussion and proactive teaching. They helped lessen the behavioral problems by carrying long discussions with their children, cultivating in them a sense of respect, calmness and peace of mind. Mothers also participated actively in reducing the peer stress among their children. It is also a widely accepted fact that supportive parenting plays an important role in the children’s development of empathy, prosocial behavior and emotional competence. On the negative side, the absence of supportive parenting may be related to the development of internal problems such as anxiety and depression.

Lack of the necessary parental care and attention is the main factor for the subsequent rise in the percentage of juvenile delinquency (crime among children). The absence of parental instructions causes children to develop irreversible behavioral and emotional problems. They in order to seek attention, resort to crimes thinking that in this way they could fulfill their wishes. They may revert to uncontrolled violence if not kept an eye upon. Such criminal activities cannot be brought to a halt until their distressing symptoms of low self-esteem, depression, dysphonic mood, tension and worries, and other disturbances are relieved. And the importance of parents’ role in this regard cannot be over-emphasized.

In an effort to describe parental involvement, many researchers use a term “Transition”(Lombardi, Joan). “Transition” is used to describe the time period in which children move from home to school, from school to after school activities, from one activity to another within a pre-school, or from pre-school to kindergarten. The untiring endeavors of teachers in the phenomenon of transition cannot be ignored. They prepared the children and their parents to face the problems of adjusting to elementary school programs that had different psychology, teaching styles and structure than the programs offered at the kindergarten level. In the elementary level schools the teachers had to face serious challenges in motivating the parents to take interest in their children’s activities. The teachers adopted different methods to involve the parents in day-to-day classroom and home activities. They used to send notes, invitation of parent-teacher meetings, invitation of parental guidance sessions and training sessions, continuously directing the parent’s attention towards their children. Patricia Brown Clark suggests that it is very important to keep the line of communication between teachers and parents open, so that the parents can interact with the teachers and get up to date information of their children’s school activities. One way to involve parents is to schedule school events and arranging classroom activities such as volunteering for libraries, acting as classroom aides or efficiently organizing lunch breaks. The teachers also opt for making phone calls at the children’s houses to keep in touch with the parents and getting to know the extent to which they are contributing towards the welfare of their children. Apart from the above activities, the teachers also assign home activities for both the parents and their children so that the parents remain indulged in their children and the children get to study at home. However, it was a bad and disappointing experience for the teachers when many of the parents failed to respond as expected. Many of the parents were so overwhelmed with their official work that they could hardly take out some time for their beloved children.

Moreover, for some parents their schoolings were not positive and character-boosting experiences, therefore they preferred to keep a distance from their children’s school as well. This made it really difficult and at times impossible for teachers to bring the parental involvement to the desired level. Nevertheless, the activities of two teachers proved greatly fruitful in making parents involved in their children. They were Carlos Valdez, an art teacher and 8th grade class sponsor, and Mike Hogan, the school’s band director. They did it by involving parents in music festivals and other school ceremonies. They proved to be great examples for the future teachers to come.

If the children’s academic development programs are to prove successful they must share two characteristics:

1) Developmentally appropriate practice:

A child’s academic progress is clearly reflected by the appropriate practice he/she administers while in school life. During transitions from pre-school to kindergarten, a child if given the exact developmentally appropriate practice tends to learn a great deal of language and playing skills. He develops a keen interest in exploring his environments and interacting (without hesitation) with his adults.

2) Supportive services:

These include the assistance that the school provides to low-income family students. The services include health care, childcare and community care. This strengthens the relation between school and children and creates a sense of security and confidence among the children. They get to learn that their communities are a part of their school since the school’s supportive services strive to help community development.

It is commonly believed that children are good self-teachers. Their self-initiated strategies help improve their expression, creativity, intellectual capabilities and extra-curricular skills. This idea is proved by the documentation of young children’s work provided by Reggio Emilia :

“The Reggio Emilia educators highlight young children’s amazing capabilities and indicate that it is through the unity of thinking and feeling that young children can explore their world, represent their ideas, and communicate with others at their highest level.”(Edwards, Pope. C, Springate, Wright.K)

The climax rests in the fact that how the parents would know that their sincere involvements are really proving worthwhile for their children. The answer lies in the attitude of the children. The degree of parental involvement can be judged by a child’s attitude towards his school subjects, his academic desires and achievements. There is a direct relationship between academic achievements and the attitude towards school. Schunk in 1981 had the following idea of aspiration or academic desires:

“Level of aspiration is defined as one’s subjective probability that he or she will reach a certain level of education.”(Abu, H. & Maher, M)

As a result children who received adequate parental concern were found to be much more confident in their academic desires and achievements than those who could not get the right amount of parental concern.
The individual involvement of mothers and fathers also plays a vital role in the behavioral development of a child. Students from one-parent household were observed to show less positive attitude towards schools and studies as compared to students from two-parent households. One study aimed at investigating parental concern showed that despite mothers’ sincere endeavors, the role of fathers could not be ignored and both served as an important foundation for the future progress of the child. This can be proved from the following fact:

According to a recent report from the National Center for Educational Statistics (1997), compared to their counterparts, children with involved fathers are more likely to have participated in educational activities with their parents (e.g., to have visited a museum or a historical site with their parents in the past month), and are more likely to have access to multiple types of resources at home as well (as measured by the proportion of parents who belong to community or professional organizations, or regularly volunteer in the community). (Flouri, E. And Buchanan, A, Pg.142)

Also, the parental involvement has been discussed and implemented in terms of interventions or prevention programs, which are nothing but safety measures taken to assure healthy and perfect upbringing of the child. The study uses school-based and home-only intervention programs to find out the extent of intellectual capabilities found in children from different family backgrounds. The success of one school-based interventions can be proved from the following fact, which was a part of “Education Service Improvement Plan 2001-2005” of Edinburgh:

—-The Scottish Executive Discipline Task Force, which studied the causes of poor behavior among pupils in schools produced a report of ‘Better Behavior – Better Learning’ in June 2001. The report included 36 recommendations for action, which were then turned into an Action Plan in 2002. Many of these have implications for the Education Authority. (Craig Millar Instep Project)

References

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http://www.inspire.edin.org/pages/paperA.htm – context

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Georgiou, S. (1999). Parental attributions as predictors of involvement and influences on child achievement. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 409-429.

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Halsey, P. (2004). Nurturing the Parent Involvement, Two middle Level Teachers Share their Secrets. Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Vol 77, No. 4, pages 135-137 WN: 04062038590002

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An Empirical Evaluation of School-Based Prevention Programs that Involve Parents. Oklahoma State University and, Michigan State University, copyright, Wiley Periodicals, Psychology in the Schools, Vol. 40 (6), pages 641-656

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