Besides everyday "practical" lessons such as household safety and food handling, young children that spend time in the kitchen begin to develop a whole set of math and science skills before they even reach elementary school. In helping a parent cook, children can learn about measurement, fractions, weight and volume to name a few skills. They also better understand basic scientific method, principles such as cause and effect, they dabble in chemistry, and learn...
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All too often teachers hear excuses from children for all the reasons that their homework isn’t done. Ideally homework is assigned to practice new skills that have been learned during the school day. Homework should be given for an age appropriate amount of time and shouldn’t be considered as “busy work.” Here are a few tips that parents might want to adopt in order to improve their child’s homework experience: Have a designated time...
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Morning Routines After a long lazy summer most parents are wondering how they are ever going to get their school age children back into the routine of getting up and out of the house for school. Here are a few tips for an easier transition. Two weeks before school starts (or as soon as possible if time is short), insist that your child wake up earlier. Set an alarm. The first few...
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SEPARATION ANXIETY Every fall the scene repeats itself, a lone child screaming and inconsolable, every day for the first few weeks of school. Not only is that child deeply distressed, but he disrupts the teacher and increases the anxiety of all of his classmates as they too attempt to adjust to this new situation. For your child’s benefit and everyone else’s with whom he comes into contact with, please read and put into practice the...
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Looking for ways to build reading and writing skills over the summer? Poetry is the answer! Children of all ages love the magic, rhyme and silliness that often accompany poems written for children. Many of my favorite children’s poems are written by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein.Prelutsky books include A Pizza the Size of the Sun and The Dragons Are Singing Tonight. Both are perfect for all ages of elementary school aged children. Silverstein’s Falling Up,...
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