Welcome!

This blog is dedicated to parents, guardians, educators and students who are interested in ideas that can support a child’s success in school. I work in the education field as a Parent Coordinator at World Journalism Preparatory School in Queens, New York. Before that, I was employed by the local school board after having been a stay-at-home mom for nine years. Prior to that, I worked for many years in marketing and public relations.

I discovered “the curriculum of the home” while reading the research of Dr. Sam Redding and Herbert J. Wahlberg on the influence schools can and should have on supporting families.

The curriculum of the home encompasses specific family behaviors that enhance children’s learning. These are day in, day out routines that can help your child do better in school. Some are easy, some are hard. Some will come easily to you, while others will require more effort. All families can practice the curriculum of the home – you don’t have to know physics formulas to support your child in that class, you don’t have to understand the “new” math, nor do you have to remember all the characters in “Animal Farm.”

My intention is that this blog will delve deeper into the curriculum of the home and offer details on how all families can use it to support their children in school:

• Family Relationships that involve talking about school and everyday events; expressions of affection and interest in your child’s activities
• Routine of Family life that includes encouraging and discussing reading for pleasure
• Family Expectations centered around discussing and setting educational expectations and social behaviors
• Home-School Communications that flow in both directions
• Parent/Guardian Involvement that includes parenting practices as well as interacting with your child’s school

References that influenced me:

Henderson, A. T. 2007. Beyond the Bake Sale: The Essential Guide to Family-school Partnerships. New York: New.

Redding, S. 1992. Family Values, the Curriculum of the Home, and Education Productivity. The School Community Journal, Vol 2, No.1, Spring/Summer 1992: 62-69 http://www.adi.org/journal/ss92/reddingspring1992.pdf

Ripley, A. 2013. The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way. New York: Simon and Shuster.

Walberg, H.J., M. Bakalis, J. Bast, and S. Baer. 1988. We can rescue our children. Chicago: URF Education Foundation

Publications from the International Bureau of Education:

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/en/services/online-materials/publications/educational-practices.html

Walberg, Herbert J.; Paik, Susan J., Effective Educational Practices, Educational practices series; 3, Publ: 2000; 24 p.

Redding, Sam, Parents and Learning, Educational practices series; 2 Publ: 2000; 33 p.