How to Be Involved at Your Child's School

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By StacyP
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Help a Teacher

If your schedule permits, volunteering at your child's school is a simple thing you can do as a parent to give back to your community. Parent involvement in the classroom is a great way to help a teacher and be involved in your child's education. Classroom volunteer ideas aren't always easy to come by, so keep reading to learn how to be involved at your child's school.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

time

Step 1

**Share a talent.**

Students (and teachers!) enjoy having parent involvement in the classroom. Parent involvement helps break up the monotony of the usual school day and offers a new approach to learning. Helping children learn could be as easy as sharing your knack for making balloon animals or your 'famous' no-bake dessert recipe.
Step 2

**Teach a lesson!**

Keep it brief and make it a hands-on learning activity, if possible. Children like to be involved! Even things like props and pictures can make the lesson more exciting for the students. For this parent involvement idea, talk ahead of time with the teacher to find out what learning topics are appropriate for the students. Make it a lesson you'll enjoy teaching, such as your favorite science experiment back when you were a child. Are you a computer whiz? Ask if you can teach a lesson in the school's computer lab.
Step 3

**Read a story.**

Does your child have a favorite book? Help a teacher by reading the story to the class. With this kind of parent involvement, you'll want to make sure the teacher hasn't read it to the class earlier in the school year. And don't worry if it's a popular book; children in the classroom will enjoy hearing a lively reading of their favorite short story.
Step 4

**Get cultural!**

Are you originally from another country? Do you treasure your family's traditions? Share them with your child's class! Whether it's a foreign language, an ethnic dish, or traditional garb, helping children understand cultures other than their own allows them to appreciate how big the world is. Sharing your culture is one of the best classroom volunteer ideas because when you teach diversity, you expand a child's world.
Step 5

**Volunteer as a chaperone.**

Whether you're chaperoning on a learning field trip or on the school playground, the teacher will be thankful for your parent involvement. And chaperoning (for short durations) is a fun way of helping children. The experience also allows you to build a relationship with the students.
Step 6

**Help the teacher.**

Does the thought of parent involvement in the form of entertaining a classroom full of children make you break out in hives? That's quite okay. You can still help a teacher out 'behind the scenes' by doing things like making copies and laminating learning materials. The teacher will be extremely grateful for your parent involvement-even if it's not technically in the classroom! She or he will appreciate the extra time to do other things, like grade papers and plan lessons.

Comments

jenphelps said

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on 11/8/2008 Very important advice! 5 stars!

purrfect1969-2 said

on 11/6/2008 Great tips and a great way to bond with your child.

MotherDove said

on 11/6/2008 I used to volunteer at my son's school (it helped with tuition, too) and now he does the same for his daughter. Your advice provides great ideas for involvement. It makes such a difference, both and in your child's education and in your relationship with your child. Great article!