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The Geriatric Mom Podcast with Dr. Nefertiti B. Poyner
Join us every Friday at 5 on a heartwarming and insightful journey through the diverse world of parenting with Dr. Nefertiti B. Poyner, a "seasoned mother" who brings over two decades of expertise in child development, social-emotional learning, and resilience. This podcast is a haven for moms at every stage of the parenting adventure.
The Geriatric Mom Podcast with Dr. Nefertiti B. Poyner
Tennis Anyone? The Game-Changing Power of Engaging in Your Child's Education
Have you ever felt a tug in your heart when a child beams with pride over a mastered skill, especially when you've played a part in their journey? That's the essence of what we unpack in today's episode. Join me as we explore the transformative effects of parent involvement in education. We dig into why the metaphor of a tennis match perfectly captures the dynamic parent-teacher partnership necessary for our children's thriving academic careers—where the 'ball' of responsibility and communication must be kept in play.
Click here to download the Reminder Braclets shared during this podcast!
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The first five years of life are the fastest period of human growth and development, as 90% of a person's brain development occurs by the age of 5. Parents, we have some work to do. I'm Dr Nefertiti Poiner, a first-time mom at the age of 41 with over two decades of experience as a teacher, speaker and researcher in the fields of early care and education and adult well-being. Welcome to a space for moms who are raising children, prenatal through age 8. You're not alone, and we will do this together. Just as soon as I can find my glasses, madison, have you seen my glasses? So five, four, three, two, one, hey, hey there, welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 1:I am the host of Dr Nefertiti Poiner, the Geriatric Normal. Not that I consider myself geriatric, because, look at this, there's nothing geriatric about me, right, right, you're shaking your head, right. Those of you that are listening on YouTube, you know. Drop me a comment and say Nefertiti, you're not geriatric. That's what the yeah say something to make me feel better about this term given to me. And actually you don't even have to, because, although the world may call those moms who have a baby over 35, over the age of 35, they may call us geriatric, and I get it. This space we call the Geriatric Mind Podcast, because I'm going to take my over two decades of experience and couple it with my life as a mama, and we're going to we're going to have conversations about just how to do things to the best of our ability. Right, that's what we're going to do. So welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 1:If you're listening to me in an audio format, this might be a day when you want to come over to YouTube because I'm using props. Today I've got some props to be able to fully explain what I want to talk about this podcast. I actually was wondering if I should do it now, because it actually is. It's not timely. I take that back. It is timely because anytime you hear a little bit of knowledge that helps you think about some things, I think it's timely. But you didn't really think we are here to play tennis, did you? No, no, no, we're not here to play tennis, but I'm going to show you something in just a second.
Speaker 1:Most of the content. I mean probably all of it. When I come before you, I bring the content because I either saw something in the research and or we are living it as parents of an eight year old, and so today we just had a few days ago we had our PTO meeting here at Madison School. Pto stands for parent teacher organization. Some people still may call it the parent teacher association. We call ours the PTO, and so it met. We met at five o'clock and so I ended my day. Madison had tutoring, so I picked her up, I went and dropped her off with my mom and I got back over to the meeting for our PTO meeting. There were five people there. There were five people there, and we make our meeting available online so that parents who may be coming from work or otherwise busy they can also log in and join us remotely. And there was no one there.
Speaker 1:And I talked to enough moms across the city and state and city and states all over the United States and I hear this often about the lack of parent participation and involvement in our children's education, and so that's what I want to talk about today, and I want to give you an example of what this looks like, and that's why I'm calling it tennis. Anyone watch this with me. Alright, again, those of you who are listening to me on audio format, you might want to come over to YouTube, because I've got a racket balls. I've got racket balls, alright, so I want you to pretend that this is you, this is you and your family, and this is the teacher, the teachers in the school, these that this is, this is us, we've got our bit, we've got, we've got us in our family and we've got the school. And then this right here, this is the child, or our children, and remember, there's the net that we want to get things over. Okay, so just visualize this with me again. Right, so this is us and, again, this is our school. Because I'm saying school because it's not just a teacher that we want to really be involved with, is the school as a whole. But for the sake of this conversation, let's just think about you working along with a teacher. Okay, so in a really good game of tennis, we're going back and forth and these are racket balls, so just pretend they're tennis balls, although the same skill is needed for a good game of racket ball. Okay, you're going back and forth. Alright, we get so in sync with each other that that ball is not hitting the ground, right? That's a that's a good match of tennis or a good match of racket ball. It's also an amazing opportunity and an amazing experience of parent teacher involvement and engagement.
Speaker 1:Sometimes what happens in schools is this the ball gets over the fence but it falls. The teacher picks it up, hits it back over. It falls on your side. You pick it back up, you send it back over. It falls. You pick it back up. You send it back over. It falls. You pick it back up, you send it back over. It falls.
Speaker 1:Don't don't let me break out in silence in a song here. Do you get it? But I want you to imagine the difference in a child experience, in the teacher's experience, in your experience, when most of the time, that ball is served right into the, to the next, to the hand, to the tennis racket, to the right ball of the other person, and it gets right back to you and you're doing it. You're doing all the things. This ball is getting over the net successfully every time. Yeah, every now and again it hits the ground, but you're getting it back. And why are you getting it back? Because you're in sync, you've been practicing, there's some reciprocity here and that is what I want to make sure we're clear about.
Speaker 1:Today and again, I'm dropping this podcast. If all goes well, it's being dropped in January, and somebody may say never TV, while you're talking about parent involvement. In January, parents should have been doing Listen, I know you, I know, I know, I know, I know, but it's never too late. And again, what I might do is I might run this back again at the beginning of a school year. But if you're listening to me today and you've not been involved in the way that maybe you think you should or you know you should, I want you just to think about okay, I'm going to do my best for the rest of the school year, now that I've listened to the geriatric mom, and the next year, when my babies get ready for school, I'm going to make sure that ball doesn't hit the ground. Tennis anyone, tennis anyone. And I want to show you one more thing to really make sure we drive this point home today and then we'll start working on some what to do. In my example today, I'm saying that the tennis ball is representing the child and each of these rackets is representing us as a family and our school systems and our teachers.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you're going to have to throw an egg or sometimes you're going to have to receive an egg. You want to know what I mean when I say that there may be a point in your family's life when you're going through something terribly sensitive. You don't necessarily want to disclose it, but you know that team members at the school need to understand so that the student can get what they need. And then sometimes, as educators, we're dealing with some things in school that, again, may not be the easiest thing to do. No school system, no school teacher wants to call a parent in the middle of the day to report anything. We don't want to do that. When that does become necessary, I consider that like an egg. It's not the easiest thing to catch.
Speaker 1:But, if I can take you back to this imaginary game of tennis, when we are so in sync with each other that, no matter what I have to catch from the family, I got it. I got it and because I've been doing so, I've been working so hard as a parent to make sure I am engaged with my child's teacher and the school, they can catch what I'm going to throw because we are in sync. I hope my putting these tennis rackets, these racket ball things up in the air are making all of this makes sense for you today. I promised myself when I started the podcast that I would always do my best to make it very plain. I get a chance to look at research and readings all the time and often I say, boy, if only everybody had this knowledge. And again, that's why we have our podcast space, because I would love for us to strengthen our villages, and today we're talking about strengthening the village by being more involved as families within our schools.
Speaker 1:So, in the example that I've been using of this tennis ball conversation, if nothing else happens, if you, if you two, are just making sure the balls are going back over the fence, even if it's hitting the floor more often than not, that could actually, if that's the best you have right now, that's OK. At least you're on the court, you're trying your best to get that ball, also known as your child, back and forth. There is some reciprocity. But again, because you're still listening to me today, I want you to also think about moving from just involvement to engagement in most schools, and this is again as the way I look at it. I welcome a differing of opinion, that's always OK, but involvement is, is, is is one thing. It's one thing to do your best at home to come to some things at school, to talk to the teacher when you can. That's involvement, and a lot of involvement actually rests on the responsibility of the school.
Speaker 1:One thing we had to do last night in our PTO meeting was to look through all of the different ways that we were going to work to involve families. You know that's what school systems do at the all the time trying to think about, oh, this would be great for schools and this would be great for schools and those of you who are in my child care community, you know how we do it. We always are thinking about ways to involve our families. But I want you to go beyond just involvement, I want you to stretch it a little bit and I want you to go for engagement. There's a there's a difference between just being involved and being engaged. When I think about the fact that there's a difference between involvement and engagement and I again I've been reading to prepare for our podcast today I think when I was in the classroom I went for involvement.
Speaker 1:I really did. I tried to make sure my families were involved and a lot of them were, and if you notice, I'm choosing my words carefully because I didn't just want to engage parents. My students were picked up by many people a lot of the time. So if I couldn't always get parent engagement, I went for whoever. There was one time when one of my students was being picked up by his older brother most of the time, and I wanted I was teaching a preschool at this point I wanted my preschool children all to have a tape of a family member reading their favorite book.
Speaker 1:So here again, this geriatric mom remember tape recorders? Yeah, don't look at me like that. Anyway, there were these. We had tape recorders. So I send a note home to my family saying listen, I've got one recorder, I'm going to send it home. Would you please your child really loves this book in school. Would you please read it? Or if you've got one you want to read, please read it for me and send it back to school so all of my little ones could have a book narrated by somebody they love. Oh, it was going so well, it was going so well and then it wasn't. Then it wasn't. You know there's always going to be a few.
Speaker 1:And again I say that with love this particular family, I could not get them to record the book, a book. I sent the book home. I tried to remind the brother to. You know, ask mom or dad to have to read the book. And it just didn't happen. And so you know what I did. I said you know what? I said I need your help Now.
Speaker 1:Every day he would come in. He had his Walkman on so he couldn't even. I mean, I was like honey, I need you to sign out. I said take your earphones off. And you know, tell mom this blah, blah, blah, blah. So I said I need your help. I said I explained to him what I'm wanting. I was trying to have a book on tape and he said Miss Prusa, I'll do that for you, no problem. I said do you think you can do it, maybe before the week is over? He said, yeah, I'll get it done tonight. You know what happened. He came with the tape the next day.
Speaker 1:But let me tell you what this young man did. Not only did he read the book, he used his brother's name when he said Turn the page now, turn the page now. There were moments in the book where you were supposed to be super excited, or his tone of voice. It was one of the best read books in the entire series. And I was like yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and so I say this to say there are times where and I'm saying this to my educators who are listening, and I mean all of my educators no parent gets up in the morning and says I want to do whatever I can to mess my child's life up. No parent does that.
Speaker 1:I am offering today's podcast because I want parents to understand Do you know one of the defining factors and many, many pieces of research around what leads to a better outcomes for children in schools? It is parental involvement. I cannot impress upon you enough what we see in the research around how important it is that we are doing this thing together, and that is the difference between just being involved and being engaged. Engaged is when we are doing this thing together, we are trying so hard to be in sync with each other and to practice reciprocity that that ball don't fall on the ground. Now, again, I don't want you to don't. You don't want you to feel like, oh my God, I don't know. That's not what I'm saying. What I am asking you is to work on moving from involvement, because that's the first step, and then I want you to really, really dig in and work your way toward active engagement. All right. So I want to share with you just a few ideas and we'll get out of here, because I told you I am trying my best in 2024 to make sure that that I don't talk any more than I need to. I do really believe in micro learning and I believe that we can use a small amount of time to share an important topic, and it can be enough to get that person started. Now, of course, if I peak your interest today and you want to learn more, we can certainly do that. You can certainly do that. But again, in our podcast space, I'm going to give it to you in a way that I feel is both tangible by the heart, by the hand, and, again, actionable steps that we can do. So first thing I want us to do as parents, to make sure we are not just involved but also engaged, is I want you to make sure the home front is conducive for learning.
Speaker 1:Never TD what you talking about. What's she talking about? So the other day my mom was like why the kids don't have books and where is this and what is going on with this? And my mother was going on and on and on and on. You know, I shout out to all the moms and grandmoms that are out there like that, right? Yes, well, what am I saying? I don't. I want you to remember that, even before your child walks up the steps to his or her school, they were in one of the most important schools they are ever going to be in, and that school is your home and, whether you like it or not, you are a teacher, and so maybe that fourth grade math is sending you for a whirlwind. I got it.
Speaker 1:There's been some questions. I had to go to Facebook and say I need y'all to solve this problem for me because I can't figure it out. Right, but your home, your home, has to be conducive for learning. So what does that look like? Well, I'm not asking you to go look for a three-bear room apartment with a library and a loft. That's not what I'm saying. What I am saying what routines do you have for the afternoon when your children come home from school?
Speaker 1:Some of our children are in different forms of care before they finally get home, which we understand, but even in those other places that they go before they finally get home, when it is time to get home, parents, moms, what are we doing to check in? What are we doing to check in? Did you check the folder to see if there's anything in there? Because if you have a child like Madison, I'll say Madison, is there anything in the take-home folder I need to read? Madison will say no, and before every night or every morning, I always check behind her just to make sure she don't know. I'm doing it because I'm trusting her, but I go back behind her and I check that folder and normally she's right. She knows when something is in the take-home folder that I need to see or that I need to read. But then there's this question that we always ask our children. Do you ask your child this question Do you have any homework? Madison loves to say no and mommy loves it when she says no, because then I get to do what I want.
Speaker 1:Guess what, when your home is conducive for learning and you are working on number one of parent involvement and parent engagement, your child always has homework, and I'm talking about those babies particularly who are in first grade and up. You know, when I was a kindergarten teacher, my children always had homework every night. Why are you looking at me like that? They had homework every night. Kindergarteners yeah, they had homework every night. Sometimes the homework was make sure you make dinner with your parent or your loved one tonight. Sometimes homework was go outside and play before you go to bed. Sometimes homework was call grandma or grandpa or somebody you love on the phone and be able to come back and tell me what they said. Sometimes homework was go to bed 15 minutes earlier than you did last night. Do you see what I mean? And again, I know people have varying opinions about homework.
Speaker 1:There is a need for us to get quiet and make sure our home is conducive. Do you have books at home? Do you have pencils? Do you have pencil sharpeners? Do you have a schedule and a routine? You know, if you listen to the last podcast, you know I need 30 minutes before Madison starts talking to me when we get home. I need 30 minutes because I'm an introverted mom. I just need 30 minutes to give myself back together and then she knows we're gonna do something. If we've got homework, we're gonna work on that. We're gonna get that done. If not, we're always gonna do something else. And listen, especially my K and above families. Our children aren't reading well. Seventh and eighth grade, fifth grade, fourth grade teachers are reporting that children aren't reading well, and a lot of that has a lot to do with things that are just far too numerous to talk about on today's podcast. But instead of spreading our wills on the things that are a bit out of our control right now, I want to bring you to number two of what we can do to be more engaged and activist parents is make sure we're reading to our babies. Now again, if finances are an issue and we don't have lots of books around, there are so many different programs that we can tap into to get resources like books, the Goodwill, the thrift shops. They always have wonderful books.
Speaker 1:I've always told my parents have something to read with you all the time, all the time. You know, when you're on the ride home at night, put down those devices and make sure there's a book in the back of the car. You know, can you read to me chapter 2? What's happening in chapter 2? First of all, all the songs that you're playing on the radio. Our children have no business here in the many way. Do you? Did you hear the lyrics? Do you hear the lyrics of the songs that are coming across the radio? All right, so let's be careful of that.
Speaker 1:And again. We can. They can read to us If you. I mean, I've got a car where I can tap into my Bluetooth, and so maybe we'll put an audio book on All of those things. I want you to understand.
Speaker 1:That's parent involvement. It's also one of the things that lead us to parent engagement, because when you're talking to your child's teacher about the things that you're doing, let me tell you something Our hearts sing for joy. The teacher's heart sings for joy when he or she knows that you're trying your best at home too. It's nothing that brings us great, it's greater pleasure. All right, I got my props back. All right, because my my third idea or suggestion is to think about how are we going to communicate with each other.
Speaker 1:Now again, it's January. It's a little bit late to be talking about this, but I say again, it's never too late, and if I don't run this back again in January, then you make sure you come back and you listen to it, because even when two players are playing tennis or racket ball, they start to get to know oh, she uses her right hand, or she uses her left hand, or he tells this way when I do this right, you start to learn the nuances of how your partner plays, and in parent-teacher relationships we really should be partners, and so I would love for you to make sure you know how the person wants to be communicated with. So if you're listening to me as an educator and you're caring for our preschool babies, you might have apps that we're using. Those are wonderful, but again, I want to make sure what I'm putting in the app is getting read. So I don't have fancy apps.
Speaker 1:When I was a teacher, I didn't have all that fancy stuff. I'm telling you I would. I would be an even better teacher if I had some of all this fancy stuff we have out there now. But you know what I did have when I was a teacher? I had a reminder bracelet. So this is an example. Again, if you're listening to me on audio, you should come over to YouTube today because I'm using all these visuals. So you know color card stock, color card stock.
Speaker 1:Right, when I had a message in my children's book bags that I wanted parents to get to, I used to print on eight and eight and a half by 11 card stock. I have a message in my book bag. I have a message in my book bag. And then I would cut them out and I will put them on my children's wrist. Just tape them on their wrist loosely so when parents or family members pick the child up at the end of the day they saw this bright pink thing or bright green thing on their wrist and it said I have a message in my book bag. So it was my hope that somebody would go look at the message in the book bag. But what I loved about it is my babies made sure that message got got. Somebody heard it. Now, somebody didn't listen. It wasn't because my babies didn't say I have a message in my book bag. So again, just really bright pieces of cardstock that I wrote I have a message in my book bag and I could tape it on the children's wrist and they would make sure that the families were reminded that there was a message in the book bag.
Speaker 1:So you can do all of those things. But remember, maybe I'm not good at technology, maybe everybody else has those fancy phones and I'm still using a flip phone and I like it. So maybe I prefer a phone call, maybe I prefer a phone call and I know my educators looking at me like never TV. You want me to call all 14 parents in my class. You will want someone to call you, you want somebody to accommodate you, to make sure that we're doing the best in this game of raising healthy children right. So again, find out the best ways for communication for both parties.
Speaker 1:The next thing I want to ask that you do that. I know sometimes when I say this, people say never to. You really want me to quit my job. How am I supposed to do this? I want you to do your best to attend all of the school events, and I'm not saying go to all of them. I am saying look at the calendar of events that are going to be offered throughout the year, and Most schools are going to outline those on a yearly or at least a monthly basis. Talk about where you need to take a day off, because it matters so much is those days when your school is hosting events.
Speaker 1:Listen to me there is a lot of effort financial, physical, emotional, mental that goes into the events. We cheerlead the children on those. Again in my, in my preschool environment, when it's time for these events and these babies are singing and dancing and doing all these things. They are, oh my gosh. You have no idea what we do to make these things happen and those families in my K and above world. A lot of effort goes into it and when you don't come, when you don't participate, you don't. You don't really recognize how let down the children feel. They don't feel important, they don't feel like they're worthy, they're like, oh, what's the big deal?
Speaker 1:And again to somebody that's looking at me like never TV, I can't get to all the events, I understand, but today's podcast is asking you whenever you can, especially when schedules are super busy, can you ask somebody to come? Remember it doesn't just take you to raise your children, it takes a healthy village. So is there another loved one that can come to the school and and and stand in proxy for you today because you can't make it and you Really want to show engagement? Come to the event when your child is not the center of it, of the event or not even participating, what? That's what I'm talking about when I say engagement. Join the events and come. Come with your family, because you are engaged in this school, not just your child, but you're engaged in the whole school, the whole learning process, and so come to those events and guess what plan to enjoy yourself. Hang out with us a little bit, learn what we do. You wonder why we play so much in preschool. Well, come to the event and we will show you what we're learning as we play. You want to see what the day is like in an infant toddler classroom? The next time an opportunity presents itself, come on and hang out with us.
Speaker 1:All right, so I gave some ideas of what the parents need to do. Now, my fellow educated friends I'm talking about my, my preschool environment, all the way up to my eight-year-old classroom teachers we have a role to play as well. You are on the other side of this, and as much as I'm asking parents to get to know you, I'm asking you to get to know your families. What do the families need? Just like I said, maybe it's not it, maybe it's not the teeth, the parent that has the fit foam, maybe it's you. Maybe you are sick and tired of being on your computer all day. When somebody needs to reach you, it is best to send you a note on hand written stationary and to put it in a child's book bag. I don't know, I'm just making things up. Or maybe you really do like the apps that we use as a school, as a program. So instead of sending me an email or a text, will you please try to just communicate with me within our app. That way I don't miss any messages.
Speaker 1:Did you hear what I said? I want you, as an educator, to really relate to the families. What you need To in terms of communication. You have every right to say I prefer this, just like the parent has every right to say I would love it if we could communicate in this way. That's the reciprocity I'm talking about a little bit over here, a little bit over here, this child, this lovely, lovely child, and those of you who are not listening to me and you can't see me on YouTube, I've got the tennis ball, also known as our child, in my hand. It gets back and forth in a safe way Because the people who love me and care about me are on the same page.
Speaker 1:Another thing that I think schools we could do a better job of and you may say again, nefertiti, I don't always feel that that's my role, but I'm not asking you to like do it in a big, formal way, but I am asking you to pay attention to it, and that's parenting skills. You know, one of the things that I did as a preschool teacher was I always make sure I impart it knowledge around what I was doing in the classroom and I Hope did that help parents with their parenting skills. I like I told you there is no book. Well, that's not true. There are a thousand books that come with how to be a good parent. But it's like my daddy called it sidewalk University. You're kind of learning as you go. Now One of the things you should and could be doing is you could be offering the geriatric mom podcast and your newsletters, like that's what you could be doing.
Speaker 1:You could put me on a. Somebody very close to me One of my one, of my one, of somebody so dear to my heart sent me a picture yesterday. Guess how she was watching the video, guess how she was watching the geriatric mom podcast on TV, because it's on YouTube and if you've got Roku, you've got or, or Apple TV or any of these fancy new TVs, you can get YouTube on your TV. So, yes, you're walking while you're listening to me, but you could put me on the big TV in the conference room and you can have parent education. Just make sure you tell the people don't call me geriatric mom, don't call me geriatric. They can call me geriatric, but they didn't have to say never TD. Okay, what are you saying never TD?
Speaker 1:Parenting education is Such a good thing to make a part of what we do within our school systems, and I'm talking about everything around parenting education mind, body and spirit. One of the reasons why I started the geriatric mom podcast was because I I struggle and I know what to do. I know what to do and I struggle, and so I often wonder about people who struggle and they don't know what to do. And so that's why I started the Geriatric Mom podcast, because I want to heal villages to the best of my ability, while God has given me the air to breathe. When you don't know how you can't do it and you don't know who to listen to or where to go or who you can trust. And I hope that we can build a trusting community here where we won't always say it correctly, grammatically correct, that it's not always gonna be stuff you want to hear, but it's always coming from a place of, from my heart, from the research, and remember I also layer over my teachings that I adhere to from the Bible in the work that we do within the Geriatric Mom podcast community. So once again, put me on the TV in the conference room and let's have at it. So again, make sure our parenting skills are promoted and supported and remember what parents are doing at home when we are engaged and involved. I have an idea of how things are going at home. I have an idea of how things are going at school and whenever I can, I try to replicate that. That's how we get in sync and we make sure the child is successful, all right.
Speaker 1:Something else that we want to make sure that we're doing as a school system is creating opportunities for parents to be actively involved. We had a discussion in our PTO meeting about how many times parents are invited into classrooms and all of those things. And remember parents, no rule is set up to hurt us. There's no rule that any school district is making to hurt us. We may not like it that we can't come to the birthday party, but you have to understand it's about learning and education and keeping children safe and school districts. If parents are saying to you, I don't feel valued here, I don't feel welcomed here, then you have to hear that and see what you can do to make things different. But parents, we also have to understand that no school district well, I'm not gonna say no, many school districts are not setting things up to keep us out.
Speaker 1:Now, again, I'll say I wanna be very clear, because I know and I understand that some of you are experiencing some things within your school districts that you should not have to deal with. I understand that. And again, if you're listening to me as a school district leader, teacher, educator, stakeholder, it's a partnership and I think, at the end of the day, we want to be able to say what did we do as a school, what did we do as a district to make sure our families felt valued and welcomed and respected? And so, if we're gonna do this right, each party has a responsibility, all right. So I'm getting ready to let you go, all right. So I want you, if you're listening to me on audio, I want you to put your hands together like you're sprinkling salt, but it's really magic dust. It's magic dust. And if I was sprinkling magic dust over our family, as we think about Madison as an eight-year-old in third grade and we wanna lean into success for her.
Speaker 1:There are three things I saw in the research that we really could put forward and I think we can do all of these, especially after listening to today's podcast. All right, the first thing is make sure the home is conducive for learning Again routine schedules, books, pencils, paper space where are we doing the work? That is the first thing. It is wonderful if some work is done in the afterschool program. I love Boys and Girls Clubs, I love the YMCA afterschool. That is all amazing. But when they get home, we still need to look at the homework, we still need to check it, we still need to say that answer is not right. Do that one again, even as you're taking off your shoes cause your feet hurt. Listen, I understand, but that is a part of actively being involved and engaged and this is one indicator of student success.
Speaker 1:The second one is expectations. Make them. Let your baby know that there are expectations set around your learning, and I'm not asking you to win a Nobel Peace Prize in the third grade. I am asking you to always give it your best and to know that the expectation in this house is that you'll give it your best. Set those expectations, never rest on those, and let them know that when you leave this house today, I am expecting you to show up in excellence. That's the second thing I saw in the research around what we can do. And then you know what number three is. That's why I did today's podcast Stay involved.
Speaker 1:Stay involved, mom. I know you've got a million things to do, but stay involved. All right, I'm gonna go ahead and close the podcast cause I don't like how you're looking at me and you about to turn me off on the on Apple. You about to press the stop button, so I'm gonna say see you next time. But again, today we were talking about just reigniting this thing around parent involvement and engagement. Thank you for listening. I'll see you next time. Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. We are gonna again try to do our best to make sure we're not just involved but we're also engaged. And remember those reminder bracelets that I told you I used to give to my preschoolers to remind families that they had a message in their book bag? Well, and the show notes or the description? On YouTube you can find a copy of those reminder bracelets and you can download them and use them and let me know how it goes. And, of course, always let me know if you have any questions. All right, I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening.