• Set aside a regular time to read to your children every day.  Studies show that regularly reading out loud to children will produce significant gains in reading comprehension, vocabulary, and the decoding of words.
• Surround your children with reading material.  Children with a large array of reading materials in their homes score higher on standardized tests.
• Have a family reading time.  Establish a daily 15 to 30 minute time when everyone in the family reads together silently.  Seeing you read will inspire your children to read.
• Encourage a wide variety of reading activities.  Make reading an integral part of your children's lives.  Have them read menus, readside sign, game directions, weather reports, movie time listings, and other practical everyday information.
• Develop the library habit.  Entice your children to read more by taking them to the library every few weeks to get new reading materials.  The library also offers reading programs for children of all ages.
• Be knowledgeable about your children's progress.  Find out what reading skills they are expected to have at each grade level.
• Look for reading problems.  Find out if your children can sound out words, know sight words, use context to identify unknown words, and clearly understand what they read.
• Get help promptly for reading problems.  The earlier children receive help, the more likely they will become good readers.
• Use a variety of aids to help your children.  To help your children improve their reading, use textbooks, computer programs, books-on-tape, and other materials available in stores.
• Show enthusiasm for your children's reading.  Your reaction has a great influence on how hard they will try to become good readers.  Be sure to give them genuine praise for their efforts.

• Make sure your children understand mathematical concepts. Otherwise, math becomes a meaningless mental exercise of just memorizing rules and doing rote drills.
• Help them master the basic facts. Mastery of a basic fact means that children can give an answer in less than three seconds.  
• Teach them  to write their numbers neatly. Twenty-five percent of all errors in solving math problems can be traced back to sloppy number writing.
• Provide help immediately when your children need itl. Math is one subject in which everything builds upon what has been previously learned.  Provide the help yourself or use a tutor or learning center.
• Show them how to handle their math homework. Doing math homework reinforces the skills your children are learning in class. Teach them to begin every assignment by studying the textbook or worksheet examples.
• Encourage your children to do more than the assigned problems. Practice is necessary for your children to improve their math skills.
• Explain how to solve word problems. Have them draw a picture or diagram to describe a word problem.
• Help your children learn the vocabulary of mathematics. Check that your children can define new terms.
• Teach them how to do math "in their head." When helping your children with a problem help them determine when it would be appropriate to use mental math.
• Make mathematics part of your children's daily life. Mathematics will become more meaningful when your kids see how important it is in so many real-life situations.  For example, ask them to space new plants a certain distance apart, double a recipe, and pay bill in stores. 

Your child will struggle if he/she isn't able to:

• Apply phonics rules in reading.
• Write complete sentences.
• Automatically read high-frequency words.
• Solve simple story problems in math.
• Write legibly in cursive.
• Add and subtract 1-digit and 2-digit numbers.
• Tell time on an analog-clock.
• Develop good organizational skills.
• Understand the consequences of his/her behavior.
• Challenge themselves to experience different type of books.