When parents design strategies for rearing elementary school-aged children, they need to take in a number of considerations. Parents need strategies for discipline and character building, nutrition, socialization and schoolwork. Parents should agree on the techniques they will employ with their children and work to maintain consistency in their efforts.
Discipline
Pediatricians at Keep Kids Healthy report that children must receive discipline according to their age and temperament in order to get effective results. By the time children reach elementary school, they should have a basic understanding of right from wrong as a result of preschool disciplinary measures they learned at home. Through positive example, consistent boundaries and thorough explanations of their actions, parents can instill a level of self-discipline and confidence in their children as they send them off to school. Parent can adjust preschool strategies to better serve the older child and include more privileges that could be given or taken away according to a set of guidelines that include behavior and school performance.
Nutrition
In addition to passing on physical genes to their children that influence metabolism and body weight, parents play a huge role in their children’s eating habits, report researchers at the Obesity Society. One in five elementary-aged children is overweight in the United States in 2010. Children with one obese parent have a 50 percent chance of becoming overweight; with two overweight parents, that statistic jumps to 90 percent. Nutritional strategies for school-aged children must be implemented family-wide. Grocery shopping should include fresh fruits and vegetables and low-fat dairy options. Teach your children about meal portions at home and have healthy snacks made available for them. Parents can refer to the U.S. Department of Agriculture food pyramid for direction in establishing healthy nutritional strategies for children.
Socializing
As children enter their elementary school years, they increasingly interact with other children and adults. Topics that parents must address to prepare their children to enter the outside world include gender roles, how to handle emotions, sharing and compassion. Early childhood researchers at the University of California report that emotional regulation proves key to the socialization process and often is modeled after the parents’ own reactions and behaviors. Talking to children about how they feel and teaching them appropriate ways to express feelings should be partnered with strategies to model appropriate emotional responses in the parents themselves. How parents talk about gender bias and what kinds of activities boys and girls may participate in can help to shape children’s views of their options and roles. As with most elementary school strategies, parents also must model the kind of compassionate behavior they want to see in their children through charitable involvement and conversations about people who are different.
About this Author
Linda Ray is an award-winning journalist who’s spent more than 20 years doing in-depth research and reporting on trends in health care and fitness for newspapers and magazines, including the “Greenville News,” “Success,” “Verve,” and “American City Business Journals.” In addition to sports and alternative therapies, Ray has extensive experience covering banking, commercial development and people. Ray has a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
