Top 10 List for Helping Your Child Succeed in High School
by the Dulaney HS School Improvement Team's 9th Grade Success Work Group

1. Show that you are interested in your child's education. Take a few minutes to ask your child about school daily. Commit to attending school events such as Grade Nine Parent Orientation, Back-to-School Night, and conference nights.

2. Set up a study area. Have your child choose a location at home in which homework will be done. This area must be well-lit, quiet, and have all necessary supplies.

3. Equip the study area with necessary materials. The study area should have the following supplies: pencils, pens, highlighters, colored pencils or markers, sharpener, ruler, calculator, erasers, tape, hole punch, stapler, white-out, dictionary, thesaurus, glue, and any other necessary supplies.

4. Schedule daily homework time at the same time each day. During daily homework time, all other activities must stop; your child must go to his or her study area and get to work.

5. Check the planner and completed homework. At the end of the daily homework time, review the homework list in the planner and check that all assignments are completed. All teachers require that assignments be recorded in the planner.

6. Encourage your child to work independently. Check to see that your child is doing homework at the proper time. Give your child help only if a real effort has been made to do the work.

7. Motivate your child with praise. Students need encouragement and support from the people whose opinions they value the most-their parents. Your consistent praise can increase your child's self-confidence and provide motivation to do the best work possible.

8. Help with long-range planning. Break down BIG assignments into all of the smaller steps it takes to get the project done. Write down "mini" due dates for each step and final due date in the month-at-a-glance section of the planner.

9. Help your child study for tests. Determine what the test will cover and organize all stud y materials. The following study techniques can be helpful: lit Write important information on index cards. Review homework and class notes. Review study questions, past quizzes, and tests. Make a list of sample test questions.