A recent article collated data from various studies of how children spend their time.http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/24/the-single-largest-advantage-parents-can-give-their-kids/?utm_source=Brilliant%3A+The+New+Science+of+Smart+Newsletter&utm_campaign=8c91e60078-Brilliant_Report_16_1_2012&utm_medium=email
Here are a few nuggets:
- Children spend less than 15% of their time in school
- Parental involvement has a more powerful influence on academic performance than school-related factors
- Parents have a greater ability to impact a child’s academic achievement than the child’s teacher does
Multiple studies, including the ones above, have come to the conclusion that there is one main difference that sets the parent-child relationship apart and makes it so powerful: conversation. When a parent regularly engages his or her child in a two-way conversation, language development skyrockets, and children grow in their thought-organization and ability to self-advocate.
Does this make sense to you as a parent? Can you share any stories about the power of conversation, especially if you have a shy child?
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Sarah Forrest is a System Coach for the Easyread System, an online course for children with dyslexia, auditory processing disorders and highly visual learning styles that uses the Guided Phonetic Reading technique. Find out more at www.easyreadsystem.com
The article has some good points but your header makes absolutely no sense… I’m sure it’s a typo but please correct. This looks bad for advocates of parental involvement. Also, including sleeping hours in that 15% figure isn’t a true testament of the time a school/teacher has influence on a student. If you were to be true to the number of influential hours, a typical student spends 3024 hours a year (based on a 7a – 9p day, 7 days a week). This puts the typical student in school 1680 hours a year (based on a typical 8a – 3p, not including homework or extra school activities), or more than 50% of his waking hours… Which is why home education is so important.
Dear KD
Thanks for your thoughts and response — take a look at the original article for references on their data. Thanks for your data on waking hours percentages…fascinating!
Sarah