Parents of grade school students,
Want your student to be successful in high school? Want to give them the edge so that they are ahead of the curve when it comes to higher education? With a shift in culture to technology-based skills, certain everyday skills are falling by the wayside. These abilities are still needed in school every single day, though. While these skills may seem simple, the absence of them (as I observe day-in and day-out), causes students to be behind the curve in terms of their functioning in high school. You have the power to help them out today. Don’t wait until they get to high school- start now! Here are four skills that you can teach your student today that will pay off for them when they arrive in high school.
- Telling Time on Analog Clocks: Every single classroom has an analog clock. With students being required to keep their phones away, students need to be able to tell time with the clocks made available to them, rather than their digital clocks. If they are unable to read these clocks, this impacts their ability to pace themselves in work, tests, and being prepared for class during passing period. Help your student become responsible time-wise by teaching them to ready these types of clocks now!
- Knowing Directional Terms: With the shift towards digital clocks, students are becoming increasingly unable to distinguish between clockwise and counterclockwise. Many activities in school and sports require students and players to rotate in a specific direction (e.g. “When you finish this question, rotate counterclockwise to the next station,” “After you make a basket, rotate clockwise to the next basket,” etc.). Even more so, knowing lefts from rights is crucial for correctly accomplishing a task (eg. “If you agree, point to the left side of the room,” “After you pass, cut to the right side of the court,” etc.). Help your student/player be ready for any directional instructions that are given by teaching them now!
- Writing Legibly: Becoming digitally literate has caused an inverse impact on students’ fine motor skills. While students are able to navigate apps, type emails, and operate learning management systems, their handwriting has suffered as a byproduct. This directly impacts teachers, classmates, and even themselves. If a teacher can’t read an answer, it will most likely be counted as incorrect. If a classmate can’t read their notes from class, that classmate misses out on important information. If a student can’t read their own handwriting (yes, this happens more often than you’d think), well, that’s pretty self-explanatory. Help your student become a top level performer by focusing on their handwriting now!
- Staying Organized: The students that I find to be most prepared for a quiz or assessment are those that keep their notes sheets, homework assignments, and lab sheets well organized in a binder, ready to be used at any point. The students that I find that struggle the most are the ones whose binders have crunched up papers falling out of them from every single class. I use a review activity in which students need to pull out all of their notes sheets from the unit. This is quite the observational experience as I get a glimpse into each student’s organization. I can tell pretty quickly which students will do well on the upcoming assessment by seeing which students have their papers accessible the quickest. Help your child become a top notch student by teaching them organizational skills now!
All of these skills, while they seem easy or dismissable, can directly benefit your students as they progress through their schooling. As a recipient of your investment in their learning, my future self thanks you come freshman Biology time!