Help Your Child Stay on Track When They Have to Miss School

The sick season is in full force. Everyone either has the flu or some other illness or knows someone who does. Despite all the precautions we take at home and in school, student absences are peaking due to the sicknesses that plague us this time of year. Taking center stage as the 2nd reason for increased student absences in November and December is family holiday travel.

However, even during these times, the show must go on! Instruction, classwork, homework and tests do not stop. If your student has missed several days or more of school, make sure to remember the following to keep them on track:

• Missing a few days or a week is very different than just missing one day of school. During the time a student is absent, they are missing multiple lessons. Most teachers have a tight curriculum schedule they need to stick to in order to cover the required material. This is already hard enough for teachers to accomplish at this particular time of year given the amount of school holidays, classroom parties and school programs and assemblies. Chances are your student's teacher is not able to clone themselves so that they can teach the class the next lesson in one classroom while simultaneously teaching your student several days' worth of lessons they missed. Make sure you are communicating with teachers to find out what new material was covered while your student was absent and go over it with them ensuring they understand it.
• It is your student's and your responsibility to make sure they complete and turn in missed assignments. Whenever possible, the best practice in this situation is to go ahead and request any assignments your student is missing each day they are not present at school and pick them up. This way as soon as they are feeling up to it, they can begin working on them and not have so much to do at once. When you are not able to do this, obtain all the missing assignments as soon as possible and get to work on them. You do not have to complete everything in one evening! But do realize that your student is likely a little lost in whatever their class is currently doing because they missed so much. The sooner they can complete their missed work, the better.
• Beware of Tests. Find out if your student missed any tests while absent and what exactly they need to study to prepare to make the test up. Then help them study! There is also the possibility that there is an upcoming test that contains material your student missed while absent (another reason to complete and review make-up work asap). Keep in mind that your student can probably delay taking such tests given the fact that they missed several days of school, BUT if you do this make sure that you are helping them prepare and take the test in a timely manner.

We've been there - when your kid gets sick and misses a lot of school it just sucks! Chances are you probably are not feeling that well yourself and have other family members that are sick too. If you need help getting them caught up on their math lessons and work, be sure to download our Free Grade Level Guide or for help preparing for a math test they may have missed or have coming up be check out How to Help Your Child Study for Math Test Success!