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November 2008
The following articles are reprinted with permission from the Parent Institute: www.parent-institute.com.
Preschool
Know the stages your child goes through when learning to write
Any time your child purposefully makes marks on paper, she is developing her writing. Pay attention to your child’s writing and encourage her through each stage.
If she is:
• Scribbling, do not ask, “What is that?” Instead, say, “Please tell me about your picture!” You may be surprised at the thought that went into it.
• Drawing lines, take the same approach. Write what she tells you about her drawing beneath the lines. Then read it with her.
• Writing letters that don’t seem to be words. Ask her to tell you what she wrote. Write it correctly for her below her picture. Read it together.
• Writing beginning and ending consonants, such as “CT” above a picture of a cat. Help her sound out the words she wrote. Say, “Yes, C and T are sounds in the word cat!”
• Writing real words (that may be misspelled, which is fine at this age), read the words with her. Continue to ask about her writing and drawing. Simple sentences should follow soon.
Reprinted with permission from the November 2008 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Early Childhood Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2008 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Carol Wright, A Parent’s Guide to Home and School Success: Kindergarten, ISBN: 1-55254-169-X (Brighter Vision Publications, 1-800-370-5838, www.brightervision.com).
Elementary School
Support your beginning reader with three simple strategies
She’s just learning to read and she is so proud. But when she reads aloud, it’s s-l-o-w. Here are three ways to support your beginning reader:
1. Help her choose the right book. Beginning readers should start by reading from books they find easy. Ask your child’s teacher or the librarian to help you select books at the right level. Look for books with pictures, or those with just one sentence on a page. As her confidence grows, she can move on to more challenging books.
2. Take turns. Read a sentence yourself, touching the words as you read them. Then ask your child to read the same sentence. Or read a sentence and then ask her to read the next sentence.
3. Bite your tongue if she reads a word incorrectly. Give her a chance to correct the miscue herself. If she doesn’t, ask, “Did that make sense to you?” You can help her sound out the word and then let her reread the sentence.
Reprinted with permission from the November 2008 issue of Parents make the difference!® (Elementary School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2008 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: Nancie Atwell, The Reading Zone, ISBN: 9780-4399-2644-7 (Scholastic, Inc., 1-800-246-2986, www.scholastic.com).
Middle School
Use strategies to boost your middle schooler’s memory skills
Help your middle schooler remember the things she studies! To boost her memory skills:
• Be sure she understands what she’s studying. It’s tough to memorize something if you don’t know what it means in the first place.
• Set it to music. Help your middle schooler make up a tune or simple rhyme to remember names, dates or math formulas.
• Surround her with the material. Is she studying a certain history topic? Find books, movies and songs about that topic, too.
• Have her tackle the tough stuff first. When she’s studying at night, remind her to focus on the must-remember topic first. That way, she’ll be at her freshest when dealing with the most critical material.
• Try visualization. Get your middle schooler to associate the thing she’s trying to memorize with a mental image. Have her close her eyes and picture what she is studying. A picture really is worth a thousand words (or facts).
• Make it personal. Ask your middle schooler to explain the topic she’s studying to you. Just putting it into her own words may help the concepts stick in her mind.
• Be thorough. Remind your middle schooler to read through all of her notes when she’s studying. Afterward, she can go back and reread the parts she’s struggling to recall.
Reprinted with permission from the November 2008 issue of Parents Still make the difference!® (Middle School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2008 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc. Source: “10 Ways to Build Your Child’s Memory,” OxfordLearning.com, www.oxfordlearning.com/letstalk/howtostudy.
High School
Is your teenager ready to get an after-school job?
He’s desperate to earn some spending money. You’re not so sure he’s ready for the responsibility of a part-time job.
Here’s a quiz to see whether your teen is really ready for after-school work. Answer yes or no to each question below:
___1. Does your teen get himself out of bed and to school on time almost every morning?
___2. Does your teen usually make good decisions? Do you trust him to choose good friends?
___3. Does your teen take responsibility for his mistakes and try to do better?
___4. Does your teen take responsibility for getting his schoolwork completed every day without your nagging?
___5. Is your teen able to stick with projects until they are finished?
Each yes means your teen is a little closer to accepting the responsibility of a part-time job. If you answered no several times, you may want to wait until he is a little more mature.
Reprinted with permission from the November 2008 issue of Parents Still make the difference!® (High School Edition) newsletter. Copyright © 2008 The Parent Institute®, a division of NIS, Inc.
