Calling all parents! Listen, we love your child, we really do. We learn more by being their teacher than they learn from being our student. We regularly take home the emotions that our school day served us, and sometimes not until late hours of the night. But full circle, we choose  to be your child’s teacher and we are proud of it. Here are some things we need from you this year!

1. Establish a routine that will help them slide right into the groove at school. The kids who respond the best to the new demands of the school year have kick-ass parents running a tight ship at home!
2. Play outside! For the love of all things good, PLEASE push your kids out the door – and go with them! Playing outside in the sunshine, breathing in fresh air, and getting their bodies moving does more than you realize for them. Electronics do not.
3. Support their emotions. We live in a day where emotions run deep but we aren’t allowed to feel them. Boys are wussy and girls are bratty if we raise our voice or quiver our lip. Here’s the deal – emotions drive communication and we are desperate for constructive and honest communication skills from our students! Let your child be a shining example!
4. Be involved. If you volunteer to chaperone a field trip, send classroom snacks, and ask us to take a picture with our now, almost split-custody, child after the Winter concert, we will love you. I repeat, we will love you. We sincerely appreciate your effort and involvement in our classroom and school.
5. Read and let them see you doing it. I don’t care if it’s Curious George or 50 Shades Darker – a book is a book. Monkey see, monkey do… are you catching my massive drift? Read. And then read some more!
6. Call their teacher early on if something seems off. There is nothing worse than answering the phone mid-lesson and busting an eardrum before saying hello to the mom who isn’t happy with her child’s mid-quarter report card. Did you forget you have access to the parent portal, that she was absent 3 days because of the flu two weeks ago, and this month’s newsletter said our project wouldn’t be graded until after mid-quarter? Just checking.
7. Accept responsibility as parents. Please don’t expect us to take over your obligation as parents. Practice self-discipline and respect for others at home – don’t rely on us to teach these basic behaviors and attitudes. I promise we will build on what you teach them.
8. Check their backpack. I literally beg you. The permission slip needs to be signed, he took 2 library books home last week and they are overdue, and you’re invited to have lunch with us tomorrow. But it looks like Harry can’t go on the field trip, he won’t be able to check out a book at the library this afternoon, and you never RSVP’d to our luncheon. And that cheese stick is starting to smell. “Can you call my mom?” is worse than being called mom.
9. Get messy. Yes, you read that right! Get messy with your kids! Swim with them in 102* weather and see who can hold their breath the longest, drag rice across the carpet like your seeding a field, finger-paint until you run out, and make as many DIY crafts and experiments as you can. You won’t regret it, and we appreciate the creativity and intuitive thinker you are raising!
10. Eat dinner together. Pass me a megaphone: eating family dinner regularly increases vocabulary and academic performance, improves the likely hood that your kids will eat more fruits and veggies, be sick less, and it decreases potential behavioral issues and mental disorders!!! Ring the bell! Call the tribe! Gather at the table and have yourself a roast. Or chicken nuggets. They are fine, too.

If you pick a few things from this list, I promise your child’s teacher will notice. We love your child and want the absolute best for them. Your child can only benefit from these things!

And now I’m dying to know 10 Things Parents are BEGGING Elementary Teachers to do in the New School Year.

Cheers!