Involved Parents are Essential for Cyber School Success

Written by Kristen Wilkerson, GLCA

Just as they have been for students in traditional brick-and-mortar schools, involved parents or direct caregivers are an essential component to the academic success of students who learn online at home.  Parents of cyber school students play an active role in the education of their student, serving to monitor the academic progress by supporting the at-home learning environment, fostering a love of learning and setting high expectations.

Supporting the at-home learning environment
First and foremost, parents set the learning environment in the home.  This could involve setting up a quiet, focused area for students to study.  It could mean providing healthy meals or snacks to give students brain power, or turning off the television.

Daily responsibilities for a parent also include recording attendance, asking students follow-up questions about content, and helping with organizational skills.  They also set deadlines and help students with the pace of their personalized learning program.

Parents can help students learn to properly communicate via e-mail rather than typing in text message jargon as they might do with their friends.  Parents can also help scan and save documents, showing their students how to attach or upload their work so that they become more familiar with critical tools. 

Fostering a love of learning
Caregivers foster an entire learning culture.  When students become discouraged, parents become the motivators.  If a student becomes distracted, the parent guides them back to being on task.  Asking follow-up questions becomes essential to reinforcing learning ideas and connecting multiple topics.

For example, when studying the concept of “pressure” in science a parent may be able to draw parallels to the pressure in a tire, peer pressure, air pressure systems, or even the pressure required when opening a jar.  By being involved and knowing what content their child is learning, parents have the unique opportunity to help their children “live” their education.

Setting high expectations
Many parents have gleaned a multitude of experience from careers or educational institutions over the years.  Often, parents draw from their experience to set expectations for their children to meet (or exceed).  When a particular lesson includes a concept that is difficult for a student to understand, a parent can step in to make it more interesting and to help with comprehension. When children see the value their own parents place on education they often follow their lead and become lifelong learners.  When parents are engaged in their child’s learning experience, they are laying the foundation for a legacy of learning across multiple generations.