Why Family Time Matters

All too often, children and parents arrive home from school and work, exhausted from long hours of work and extra math and/or language classes. Carpools and pickups add to the hustle and bustle with family members arriving at different times and with different needs. Dinners may be rushed or even eaten in shifts. Tempers may be short and the weekend, perhaps only one day for family, still a few days way.

Elite college admission’s criteria have expanded beyond pure academic excellence to include additional criteria such as diversity of interests and leadership skills.

Springbridge International School is specifically designed to provide more time for families to spend together sharing experiences and cultivating interests without compromising academics. Springbridge students experience that learning is fun and, as a result, learn to love learning. Our self-confident learners are eager to excel and follow their passions. Our strong character education program, comprehensive, integrated mathematics curriculum and unique linguistic environment frees students from the burden of weekend or late night math and/or language “cram” schools.

The benefits of family spending time together are vast. Numerous studies found that children that hike with their parents or spend time outdoors together on weekends score higher on tests than families that do not. Conversely, families that spend less time together often find their child less able to focus at school and possibly involved in risky, unhealthy behavior.

Family Facts, a Heritage Foundation Organization, recently compiled data from nine separate studies and concluded the following:

“Spending time as a family is a wise investment. Children with involved parents tend to fare better in school and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.

Spending time in everyday family leisure activities isassociated with greater emotional bonding within the family.
Children’s academic success is associated with having mothers who frequently communicated with them.
Children whose fathers spend time with them doing activities tend to have better academic performance.

Adolescents whose parents are involved in their lives tend to exhibit fewer behavioral problems.
Youths who communicate, do activities and have close relationships with their parents are less likely to engage in violence.
Teens who frequently have dinner with their families are at a lower risk for substance abuse.
Teens whose parents are home with them after school and in the evening are less likely to experience emotional distress.

Family Facts

Inadequate quality family time may have negative impacts on students’ academics, social interactions and behavior. Dean Lillard and Jennifer Gerner concluded in their study “Getting to the Ivy League: How Family Composition Affects College Choice,” that children from disrupted families acquire less education, which, unfortunately, shows up at every decision point for postsecondary education. Psychological strains resulting from disrupted families, reduces the ability of the child to concentrate in school and results in lower performance. The quality of college attendance is related to family composition.

A Wise Investment:

Benefits from Families Spending Time Together

Families that spend time together not only perform better in school, but are less likely to become involved in delinquent behavior and/or substance abuse.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University concluded in it’s 10 year study “The Importance of Family Dinners” that families

that dine together five to seven times per week with low inter-family stress levels are 40% likelier to receive A’s and B’s and 47% less likely to abuse substances. Conversations at the dinner table allow for parents and children to bond and better understand what is happening in each other’s lives. Consequently, parents felt prouder of their children, who were more likely to confide in parents.

Why Family Time Matters

Elite college admission’s criteria have expanded beyond pure academic excellence to include additional criteria such as diversity of interests and leadership skills.

Family Facts, a Heritage Foundation Organization, recently compiled data from nine separate studies and concluded the following:

“Spending time as a family is a wise investment. Children with involved parents tend to fare better in school and are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.

Spending time in everyday family leisure activities isassociated with greater emotional bonding within the family.
Children’s academic success is associated with having mothers who frequently communicated with them.
Children whose fathers spend time with them doing activities tend to have better academic performance.

Adolescents whose parents are involved in their lives tend to exhibit fewer behavioral problems.
Youths who communicate, do activities and have close relationships with their parents are less likely to engage in violence.
Teens who frequently have dinner with their families are at a lower risk for substance abuse.
Teens whose parents are home with them after school and in the evening are less likely to experience emotional distress.