Examines the practices and activities at home that complement school success among children of immigrant Latino families living in the United States. Research suggests that many home practices support school success without necessarily recreating school-like activities in the home. The study used a combination of longitudinal ethnographic data and experience-sampling methods (ESMs) to map home activities among low-income Latino immigrant families and their 10- to 11-year-old children. Among the key results were that: (1) children with higher school achievement tended to be engaged in a pattern of family activities that included doing chores, doing homework, engaging in outside activities, and engaging in more family social activities and hobbies; (2) children with lower school achievement tended to be watching television or playing video games, playing with peers or alone, and resting; and (3) high-achieving children were more likely than low-achieving children to be engaged in joint goal-orientedactivities or those involving literary content. While the ESMs did not reveal the mechanism connecting home activities and school achievement, ethnographic work did identify several such mechanisms, including parents monitoring school-like activities at home and promoting new activities, teachers encouraging home activities, and parents responding to signs of their children’s productive school abilities.
