Success in School is a Family Affair

Christian County Extension Specialist Renette Wardlow gives advice for student success.  

Teachers have children in the classroom for about seven hours a day, but what happens during the other 17 hours can make or break your child’s success in school.

Attitude can make all the difference, a University of Missouri Extension human development specialist says.

“Parents need to be very involved in their children’s education, starting with a good positive attitude about education,” Renette Wardlow said. “Often times, parents who had a bad attitude about the entire school environment tend to carry that over to their children. Just stay positive about it. Keep those negative comments to yourself.”

Demonstrate the value of learning by reading to your children, having books available for them and modeling persistence and hard work. “Children often mirror what their parents say and do,” Wardlow said. “And we all know that often times young children will say what’s on their mind, or repeat what they had heard in the past. So we have to watch what we say and do.”