DAILY CUSTODY TIP: Back to school before back to court: Take a class with your child and gain an advantage in your custody case.

An excellent way to improve your stake in a child custody case is to take a class with your child. Sign up for a cooking class with your teen. Or sign up for karate together. Enroll in a summer basketball camp – both of you – and complete the program together. Join an art club or take a painting class together.

Not only will taking a class together draw you and your child closer together, tightening the parent-child bond, but it could be lots of fun and could provide a great recreational activity for a sometimes stressful relationship. Perhaps most importantly, taking a class together will provide demonstrable evidence of your commitment to your children, creating strong evidence in your favor in a family court.

There may also be enduring benefits even after the class ends. Consider, for example, cooking up a feast with your child for Thanksgiving, while showing off some of things you learned together in the cooking class. Or, practicing karate together as a form of exercise at the commencement of each of your weekend visitations with the child, drawing on the techniques learned in your karate class. By extending the classroom experience, you can enhance the parenting experience while bolstering your position in a contested custody case.

Has anybody ever taken a class with their son or daughter?

DAILY CUSTODY TIP: Do you have any idea what they’re really teaching your kids at school?

You should familiarize yourself with the curriculum at your child’s school if you want to gain an edge in your child custody dispute. Of course, this is good parenting advice in general. But learning what your kids are learning in the classroom can bolster your chances of success in the Family Court too....as long as you put this knowledge to work.

For example, does your child’s teacher use a "Word Wall" as a device to teach reading skills. A Word Wall helps primary students to learn sight words, sounds, rhymes, word patterns and spelling skills. Try building a Word Wall at home to extend the experience at school. What about mathematics? Does your school use the traditional skills-and-drills method of teaching math, or are the teachers more creative? For example, some teachers ask students to take measurements of objects in the classroom, or to measure the length of a hallway (in yards, then in feet, inches and centimeters). This is another skill set that can be carried into the household after the school day ends.

Older students may be learning about certain cultural themes such as "prejudice" or "the environment." They may be studying historical periods such as "the Middle Ages" or "Colonial Times." Often, textbooks, films and other media are incorporated into thematic classroom discussions as part of a semester-long course on American History or Western Culture. These topical areas can be exploited and examined in greater detail at home as parents and children carry on discussions at the dinner table, or while watching a television relevant program together.

By engaging your children in relevant exercises, activities and discussions at home, that are tied to the educational activities at school, you’re not only improving your child’s chance of success at school, but you’re building a strong case for your role as a caring, devoted parent. In a child custody case, the court will be happy to see a parent who took the time to understand the child’s classroom curriculum and to extend the learning process into the home environment.