In order to conceive our vision for the overall development of children, parents too are expected to visualize the learning process with a progressive outlook.
• Please do lots of reading and discussion with your child, make them think, analyze, and introspect.
• Do several learning activities to relate the concepts in books to real life.
• While discussing a topic with the child, enjoy the learning and focus on clarity of concept and understanding of the content in the lesson. Never encourage your child to mug up meaninglessly.
• Please monitor the kind of language the child uses and the company he/she follows.
• Encourage creative writing, attempting to answer new questions or questioning in different ways. The child may commit a few mistakes, may earn a lesser grade, but eventually, he/she would develop a thinking and analytical mind. Is that not what we want to see in our kids? So please don’t panic over 1 or 2 marks, A or B grades. Enjoy and acknowledge the process of learning. Believe me, particularly in this age group, ‘conceptual clarity' and ‘developing a thinking mind’ are important, rather than the marks & grades.
• Excursions & visits would be an integral part of our learning program, some special thematic visits could be paid visits too and I would like to see all our children joining all such real-life exposures.
• Activities and events would also be the extremely enriching components of our curriculum, which leads to all-round development of a child’s personality. All the children will take part in Morning Assembly, presentations, and other activities. So please contribute promptly towards all such activities without a second thought.
• Try your best to give an English Speaking Environment to children at home too as the language is not taught but caught. At school, children are surely being exposed to the English language in several ways and a good number of our children do understand and converse in English fairly well. However, some are first-generation learners and are in the process of picking up the language fluently.
• In the classrooms, the overall transaction, by practice, is in English. However, for a clear understanding of concepts, teachers do need to go bilingual at times. The concept of clarity is certainly the most important focus point.
• Syllabus has been planned very thoughtfully. But at times, children take more time to understand a topic than expected. In such a case, a thorough understanding of the concept would be the priority, and we would not prefer to run mindlessly with the syllabus. Parents are expected to understand and acknowledge that children learn at different paces, which cannot be always pre-calculated. However, formal intimation would be given, wherever and whenever necessary.
• Do work regularly with the children, in a pleasant way. Discipline them through role modeling. Children may not do what you say, but they surely catch what you do.
• There is a lot of violence, excessive media exposure, and degenerating value systems around our children. At times, this brings a lot of negativity, restlessness, and a short attention span in children. So, please limit and monitor the quality of T.V. programs they watch. Instead, give your quality time to children. Read, interact, play or go outdoors with them. Involve them in the daily chores you do. Let them feel a part and take responsibility.
• Discipline them gently yet firmly by following a well-structured itinerary at home. Take all the necessary activities into account. Most importantly, be consistent. Say what you mean and mean what you say.
• Do respect your child’s temple of learning, his/her school. Be positive and supportive towards all the programs initiated by the school.
• Be constructive and volunteer towards all the activities of the school curriculum.
• Parents must keep on revising and helping their words as per the teacher’s instruction. It should be according to the methods used in class. There is no need to run ahead of the syllabus. There is no hurry. Let the child learn at his/her pace.
• Create a good and conducive atmosphere at home and be a role model. The child ways learn from what his/her parents do, how they talk, how they behave, the language they use, etc.
• Encourage the child to wish you and other family members in the morning and before sleeping. Motivate the child to greet the guests and serve them water, etc. make sure that you behave in a similar manner, in front of the child.
• Parents must respect each other and respect the child’s teachers and school so that the child imbibes the right kind of values.
• Please make sure that the child is always regular and punctual to school.