Mrs. Durkin
At Home Learning

This page provides parents and other caregivers with ideas they can do at home to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom.

Responsibility:
Being responsible includes perserverance, preparedness, diligence, hard work and the goal to do everything in such a manner as to merit pride. To help kids understand responsibility you can:

• Have your kids list their responsibilities at home
• Make sure kids know their phone number, address, and birth date
• Practice decision making with your child by exploring choices and consequences
• Talk about your responsibilities at home and/or at work and what might happen if you decided not to be responsible one day

Citizenship:
Good citizens are ethical and they work to make their community a better place for everyone. Voting and taking on social or environmental issues are both examples of citizenship. You can practice citizenship with your children by:

• Talking about the elections and taking them with you to vote
• Explore the internet to find stories about kids who have made a difference
• Make cookies for the police or fire department
• Hold family meetings and practice democratic ways to problem solve
• Celebrate Veteran’s Day and thank a Veteran

Respect:
Respect means you are kind and polite, that you treat others the way you want to be treated, and that you value differences in others. Here are some things you can do at home to help reinforce what kids will be learning in their classrooms:

• Model respectful language including the words you use, the intonation, and the volume of your voice.
• Choose one area of respect to focus on for a period of time.  For example, you can start by remembering to use the "magic words" (please and thank you)
• When watching television programs with your kids discuss or point out respectful and disrespectful behaviors of characters and the resulting feelings of others around them
• Make a list of respectful people that you know and write down the specific ways each person shows respect

Caring:
Caring is the heart of an ethical person’s character. “Caring people are loving, helpful, giving, and kind" (from Exercising Character). Following are some ideas you can do with your child at home to help them learn more about the importance of being a caring person:

• Work with your child on creating a “Caring Goal Sheet.” Each week create a different goal to work on, for example; be nice to my little brother or make cupcakes for the shelter
• Spend some time volunteering
• Talk about the Golden Rule; treat others the way you want to be treated
• Point out caring behaviors and how it makes you feel

Fairness:
Younger children understand fairness as taking turns and sharing while older kids begin to understand that fairness includes justice. As children’s character develops they will learn that fairness includes getting all the facts (even if it means listening to opposing viewpoints), not taking advantage of others, not cheating to win, and treating others the way they want to be treated. To help your child develop fairness you can try the following:

• Make expectations at home clear and predictable
• Involve children in decisions that will affect them
•  Listen carefully to your child’s explanation of an even before jumping to conclusions
• Model openness and appreciation of differences between people and groups of people
• Participate in community events that celebrate diversity

Trustworthiness: 

Students should know that being trustworthy means being reliable, doing what you say you are going to do, keeping promises, and being loyal. The more trustworthy someone is, the more responsibilities they have. You can help your child learn about trustworthiness at home through the following:

• Make sure your own behavior is modeling what you want your kids to emulate.
• Use the word trustworthy so you child becomes familiar with it. Talk about being trustworthy by using examples from your own life.
• Point out behaviors that make you trust your child more.
• Reward trustworthy behavior by giving children more responsibilities.
• When watching television discuss commercials and how honest or dishonest they are.