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Main Page Site Index Getting Pregnant Pregnancy Parenting Pregnancy and Parenting Journals Fertility Nutrition Pregnant Moms Morning Sickness Women's Health Child Health	Children and School Welcome to this section of The Labor of Love. Let me introduce myself : my name is Margo Wening and I live in the Netherlands. I am married to Hans and a proud mother of 2 great girls, Kirsten ( age 6 ) and Denise ( age 4 ). My interests are computers, Internet, webdesign, reading, and singing in an opera/operetta choir, for which I am also webmaster. When I first visited this site it struck me that Vickie really started something wonderful : moms all over the world, sharing experiences, helping each other. I have found that children can come across a lot of different situations and problems when they attend school, and most of those can be used in a positive way, so here's what I've learned. It is important to create a home atmosphere that allows children to feel comfortable to come to you with their stories, questions and problems, even ( in your eyes ) futile ones. Denise once came home one afternoon with a tale: she said she hadn't been allowed to help the teacher, though she had been promised it was her turn. My response was that when the teacher promised that, she had every intention to act on it, but maybe something else had come up that she could do nothing about, and that she would surely let Denise help the next day. Try and make time to listen, take everything seriously. Nothing discourages a child more than feeling what they have to say is not important. The stories about things that happened at school can be used to give guidelines how to react to those events. For instance : Kirsten came home one day and told me that a girl in her class had made fun of her because she didn't like the dress Kirsten was wearing. I told her to ignore those kind of taunts, that it doesn't matter what others think of her clothes. She is entitled to her own taste as long as she doesn't offend others. If other people don't agree with that, that's their problem. Ofcourse this response applies to more subjects than clothing. I think the real topic here is not to make fun of people who dress differently, act differently, or look different, because by making fun of them they can get really hurt. Especially children. Once your child has learned how to read, encourage it! Once a child can read, she gains access to whole new worlds, and there is so much to discover. As soon as Kirsten learned how to read, she asked for a bible, and we bought her an encyclopedia for children with lots of pictures so she can look up whatever she wants to know. Both Denise and Kirsten are members of the library, and they are developing their own preferences. I found helping with homework to be difficult because I am impatient. I would like to present the solution or the right way to do things at once. Of course that's wrong. I have to give them the time and the opportunity to figure it out for themselves and just guide them through the process. If I give straight answers, they will become accustomed to that and they will not learn how to obtain the outcome themselves. I should be patient and remember that a method that differs from mine does not have to be a wrong method. Since I am not familiar with educational systems in other countries, I can only give general examples, but I think most moms can relate to the ones mentioned above.