Arithmetic

1.  Let your Child help you double check your shopping list.

             Help measure for a do-it-yourself project.

             Figure cooking recipes.

             Keep track of oil, gas, mileage, on trips.

             Plan the route on a road map.

             Check the temperature.

             Help make out the deposit slips.

             Check your canceled checks with you.

             Go over floor plans of new house or camp.

2.  Give him numbers in his play time puzzle books and dominoes.

             Quick mental drills with number facts.

             Card games involving numbers.

             Brain teasers and magic squares.

             Word puzzles involving number concepts.

3.   Don't pass your dislikes for mathematics on to your child you will solve nothing by 

              Telling him or her that you hated fractions too.

4.   Help him to see ways mathematics is used in the modern world.

               Making tall buildings stand up.

               Rockets, jets and space flights.

               Building roads and bridges.

5.    Help him understand big numbers

               How big is a million dollars?

               How long would it take to count to a billion?

               How big would a pile of a million dimes be?

6.    Help him solve simple problems.

Reading

1.   Make your house a house of books -  if you are a TV bug rather than a reader, your child is apt to be one too.

2.   Start with books that center around your child's interest.

3.   You didn't get upset because the neighbor's child got a tooth before yours.  Remember reading skills are

       not all developed  at  the same time.

4.   Introduce your child to the library.  But if the Library is to have a lasting impression to him, you must use it too.

5.   Give books as a gift for Birthdays, and so on. 

6.   Give a child a place for the books.

7.   Don't send the child on an errand as soon as he sits down with a book. 

8.   To know the alphabet is not to unlock the door to reading.

9.   Encourage your child to tell you about what they have read.

10.  Read to him.  Have family reading periods.

11.  Find time to discuss stories with him.

12.  Subscribe to a children's magazine.

13.   Supply words your child does not know when he reads to you.

14.   If you feel you must drill your child's spelling words use a flash card technique.

Handwriting

1.   Set a good example.  Be sure notes you write are legible.

2.    Give your child many opportunities to write - shopping lists, notes to relatives, invitations, greeting cards.  

         (in primary grades,  the teacher will help you make a manuscript alphabet)

3.    Do not be concerned about left handedness.  Do not try to change it.  (Most Presidents were left handed)

4.    Comment on written papers - discuss, do not criticize.

5.   Have the child take time to proofread any finished writing.

Social Studies

1.   Save all issues of National Geographic magazines.  Back issues can be found at second hand stores.

2.   Have good reference material in the house - atlas, globe, encyclopedia, almanac.

3.   Make "let's look it up" an important phrase in your household.

4.   Have at least one good newspaper and new magazine.  Tune your TV and radio to some good news programs.

5.   Make news of the day part of your dinner - table conversation.  Avoid the violent topics.  

      Let your child know you feel  keeping up on the current affairs is important.  Give him a chance to talk, too.

6.   Let him have a large map on a wall of his room.  Maps also make a excellent picture puzzles.

7.   Explore your local area with him - museums, docks, industries, newspapers, radio stations, and so on.

8.   Encourage a hobby that will help him build social studies concepts; for example, stamp collections,

      flags, travel posters, dolls in native costumes, foreign pictures.

9.   Help him to judge people individually. (avoid prejudices)

10.  Take the child with you on trips whenever possible.  Visit important places in route and give him a

        notebook to jot down  impressions and discoveries.

Science

1.   Develop a scientific interest - if your household appliances are mysteries to you, your child may have

       the same point of view.

2.   Let him be a collector - a little dirt is a small price to pay for intellectual curiosity.  Provide a place for the collection.

3.   Be able to take cruises to outer space with him - be conversant with rockets, jets, missiles.  

      A simple telescope is a  good   investment; charts of moon and stars are good wall decorations.

4.   Use Christmas and birthdays to advance science - give scientific toys and science books, both fact and fiction.

5.   Provide opportunities to experiment - weather sets, simple chemistry sets, erector sets, photo - developing materials,

       do-it-yourself kits.  Provide old clocks, radios, motors, and so on, to take apart.

6.   Encourage nature study - learn names and locations of stars, geology of area, plant life, bird and animal life around

      area.  (know these things yourself.)

7.   Invest in an inexpensive microscope.

8.   Subscribe to one of the children's scientific magazines.

9.   Watch together some of the fine science programs on TV. (Bill Nye the Science Guy.)

10.  Visit science attractions - museums, zoos, planetarium, industrial plant, and so on.

11.   Have some back-yard science - a bird feeding station, a rock garden.

12.   Make science part of your vacation - look for fossils; study rocks, fields, shores, mountains, erosion; visit mines,

         quarries, industries; look for new plants, birds, and animals.