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7 Ways to Help Your Child’s Teacher

August 9th, 2010

Guest Blog by Sarah Combs

back to school

Back to School Image Courtesy Pane, amore e creativita

Back-to-school is in full swing! School supply lists and school uniforms are everywhere you turn; it’s time for the lazy days of summer to come to an end and the routine of school days to begin.  Whether you’re a parent of a preschooler or a third grader, this means turning over your little ones to the capable hands of a teacher. But this doesn’t mean that you should sit back and relax! Teachers are always in need of help, and now more than ever. In almost all districts, our teachers are being asked to do more and more with less and less – budgets are tight, class size is swelling and assistants have been cut from many programs. Parents can participate in the classroom by helping with parties, recess, fundraisers, or even just everyday activities; the options are endless. Being a part of your child’s education lets them know that you’re truly interested in their success at school, and provides you with a priceless experience. Help your child’s teacher help your child! Here are seven ways that parents can actively participate at school:

  1. Basket of classroom supplies. Find out what supplies might be missing in the classroom. Ask each family to donate one or two small items: pencils, markers, glue, stickers, tissue, hand sanitizer, table wipes, etc. Ask for gift card donations from office supply and craft stores to help with classroom supplies. Parents who can’t afford to donate can participate by cutting coupons for frequented retailers.
  2. Organize a reading circle and classroom helpers. Use VolunteerSpot to coordinate volunteers -‐ each parent signs up to help once a month in the classroom — reading, helping with science experiments, and tutoring kids needing extra help.
  3. Share your special skills and traditions. Compile a list of special skills, hobbies, or family traditions that parents can share with the class throughout the year. Help organize and execute parties and class projects that highlight different aspects of each child’s culture, and introduce them to new traditions.
  4. Wish Notebook. Put together a wish notebook with teacher surveys and share it with parents. The surveys should ask teachers to list ways in which parents can help them either inside or outside of the classroom. Parents can help in the areas they feel most comfortable.
  5. Paperwork Parents. Take turns making copies, grading papers, or preparing classroom supplies after hours. Use VolunteerSpot’s online scheduling tool to coordinate the effort. If parents can help once or twice a week, that’s a tremendous time savings and welcome break for your teacher.
  6. A personal note from students. Ask each child to write a letter or note  expressing what they are looking forward to this year and why they like their teacher. Then, throughout the first semester, present the notes, one at a time.
  7. Before and After. Take a photo of 4-5 children at a time at the start of the school year. Hold on to these and take pictures of the same groupings towards the end of the year. Prepare a before-and-after flip book to share with the teacher, along with notes and remembrances from the class.

Parent participation is crucial throughout the year, make sure that classroom volunteering isn’t only a back-to-school activity, get involved and stay involved in your child’s education. For more about Room Moms and Room Dads, check out VolunteerSpot’s free eBook, Room Mom’s Survival Guide. It gives tips for class parents, and provides fun class party ideas for the school year.

Author Byline

Room Mom

VolunteerSpot

Guest post by Sarah Combs of VolunteerSpot, DOING GOOD just got easier! VolunteerSpot makes back-to-school planning a snap for parents and teachers with simple online sign up sheets – quickly organize classroom volunteers, school fundraisers, tournaments, carnivals, parent-teacher conferences, soccer snacks, Scout campouts and more!  Register on VolunteerSpot before October 1,2010 with promo code ‘TeachersSave’ for a chance to win $100 in classroom supplies for your favorite teacher from ClassWish.

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Create a Happier and More Harmonious Home, the DIY Way

August 8th, 2010
Kids Playroom

Organized Kids Playroom

Guest Blog by Victoria Crowdell

A happy and harmonious home isn’t something that is just going to fall out of the sky and into your lap: it’s something you have to strive for and accomplish through hard work and clever planning.  While learning how to handle inter-family relationships is an ongoing process and a rather abstract one at that, there are specific things that you and your family can do to improve the home and make living in it that much more enjoyable.  Various DIY home improvement jobs can be concocted and executed that will provide the various members of a family new ways to interact with each other and new things to do at home.  Let’s take a look at a handful of such ideas and see how they can contribute to making your home the place everyone would like it to be:

  • The playroom: This project is a major winner and is guaranteed to be a smashing hit with the kids.  Many homes have certain spaces that just don’t get used much or don’t get used properly, and converting such areas into play spaces is going to make a big difference.  The extent of the project will depend on the condition of the room at present and how much of a budget you want to put into, though even a bit of money can go a long way here.  Most basements and cellars can be converted without hiring any labor, as it’s not that difficult to prep the room on your own; however, if there are serious water filtration problems then a DIY project here may be a bit more risky.
  • The garden: Landscaping is a DIY home improvement project par excellence, and it is an activity where the whole family can come together and participate.  If you’re lucky enough to have a home with a yard/garden area then you should make the best of it, always mindful of the psychological benefits of being surrounded by greenness.  It’s not necessarily about having the most beautiful flower bed or the most sculpted hedges on the block; it could just be a project of increasing the grassy (usable) area for the kids to play, putting in a jungle-gym, building a dog house, or creating a vegetable garden.
  • Shared spaces: Any home with many people in it and with a decent bit of space (specifically shared space) is likely to have a lot of clutter, and that clutter can begin to have negative effects.  For communal spaces like the kitchen, the living room and the TV room it is important to have efficient storage solutions to make sure this clutter doesn’t get out of hand.  You can overcome this problem by installing more cabinets or shelves, by rearranging the furniture, or even through donating unused/unwanted possessions to charity!
  • The green route: Finally, it’s worth thinking about implementing some green solutions in your home.  Teaching your children (and yourself for that matter) about environmental issues and fostering a sustainable lifestyle among all members of the family will offer more rewards than you can imagine.  DIY projects that can get you going in this direction include setting up your own solar panels or parabolic solar oven, or putting in a tank to gather rain water for gardening purposes.  The options are many, and your imagination is really the only limit.

    • Author byline

    VictoriaVictoria Crowdell works for Construction Chemicals UK Ltd, who are experts in their field – from basement conversions for the serious renovator to DIY timber treatment products for protecting your home from insects and mold. With depots around the UK and an in-house chemistry specialist, they are the ideal partners for anyone wishing to undertake a renovation project, amateur or professional. When Victoria isn’t working full-time helping people to transform their homes, she uses her experience to create articles which can be found around the Internet and also teaches little scamps to sing like angels – quite a transformation!

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3 Quick Stress Calmers for Kids and Adults

August 6th, 2010

Guest Blog by Mike Reeves-McMillan

Have you ever been caught in a current or a tidal rip, or by a wave, swept along helplessly and struggling to escape?

Child Meditating

Child Meditating

Sure you have – metaphorically if not literally. Because this is what it’s like to be caught up in a powerful emotion, or stressed out of your mind. You’re completely surrounded and flooded by what’s happening to you, and there’s no part of you that’s outside it.

If there was a part of you outside it, maybe that part would help to pull you out of the water. Like having a friend standing by with a life preserver and a rope.

That’s what these three simple techniques have in common. They help you to get outside the flood of emotion and stress. And back-to-school time is exactly the time to know how to do that.

1. Breathing Focus. You’ve heard of this one. “Just take a slow deep breath.” It works because you’re taking what’s usually an involuntary response, that speeds up and becomes shallow under stress, and deliberately slowing and deepening it. That sends your body the message that it’s OK to calm down. It’s a simple way to start back towards feeling in control of the situation.

2. Body Awareness. Pause for a moment and connect to the feelings in your body as you’re stressed or emotional. Whereabouts are they? What are they like? How strong are they? If your emotion had a color and a shape and a sound and a temperature, what would those be? Do you think you could use your imagination to change that color and shape and sound and temperature? Again, you’ve stepped outside of the stress and started to take steps to get back in control.

3. The Now Game. My friend Gabrielle invented this one to play with her three preschoolers when they start to get upset. You just take a moment and say a simple sentence starting with “now” that describes something you can sense. So, “Now I see a big red bus going past.” “Now I taste mint.” “Now I hear a bird.” It gets you out of your head and out of your overwhelm. Instead of being all stress, you’re partly stress and partly someone who’s noticing things around you.

You know the expression “woe is me”? For kids, who are wholehearted about every emotion they feel, it’s always true when they’re upset. They’re totally identified with being “woe”. It can be true for adults as well, though, and using these simple techniques breaks you (or your kids) out of the total identification, pulls you out of the water, and stands you dripping on the beach.

Author Byline

Mike

Mike Reeves-McMillan

Mike Reeves-McMillan is a health and personal development coach who helps all kinds of people with their stress. You can get a lot more resources like these when you sign up for his free course, Simple Stress Management Techniques.

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Tweens, Teens, and Technology Overload?

August 3rd, 2010

Guest blog by Traci S. Campbell

Tween Texting

Tween Texting

Gone are the days of a cell phone being used “only in an emergency”, as my mother used to tell me. So long are the days when the only access to a computer was in the school computer lab or library. And when checking email was usually done at work or in the evenings at home, now it’s as commonplace throughout the day as grabbing a bottled water to drink (and for many, email and text takes more priority than taking time to hydrate their body).

Don’t get me wrong, the advent of the current technology trends – social media and texting in particular – have greatly changed the landscape of communication and information transfer. Overall, this is a positive phenomenon. However, for our tweens and teens, this phenomenon is much more than a better way to gather and transfer world news or current events. The current technology trends are shaping their social lives and how they communicate in general. For this reason, it is a very good idea to have a true grasp on just how widespread this impact is on their young lives. Could it be that our next generation is already the victim of technology overload?

According to research compiled and reported by sources such as the LA Times and the Kaiser Family Report, the following statistics give us a clear picture of how dependent our young people have become on modern technology:

  • Texting is the second common use of cell phones after checking the time.
  • Sixty-five percent of high school students use cell phones in school.
  • One-quarter of text messages sent by teens are sent during class.
  • Text messages connect kids instantly and privately.
  • Images and messages can be spread virally or uploaded.
  • Teens with phones averaged nearly 2,900 texts a month — a 566% increase in two years.

It is also important to note that the average amount of computer usage time those between 8-18 years of age has tripled in the last 10 years, from 27 minutes in 1999 to 1 hour and 30 mins in 2009.

So what does all of this data tell us? It is clear that we are seeing a generation that is more involved in less “human-related” activities than their counterparts from previous generations. This generation has more dependencies on technology than any generation before it. Gone are the days of coming home from school, dropping your books, and venturing outside to get in an hour or two of playtime before dinner.When I look back on those days, not only was I more physically active than my nieces and nephews are today, but I was also mentally “happier” and less stressed.

It is wise to encourage young people to find a healthy balance between the “old-fashioned” ways of recreation and communication and the current ones. Technology is great and is indeed the wave of the future. However, let’s also be mindful to encourage this generation to find time to walk away from technology and enjoy their youth with others – family and friends – in the flesh and not only through a computer screen or cell phone. Their minds and bodies will thank them – and you as a parent – for it in the long run.

Author Byline

Traci Campbell

Traci S. Campbell

Traci S. Campbell – author, family advocate, executive producer of “The C.H.A.M.P. Experiment”.

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Teach Your Child About Money

August 2nd, 2010

Guest blog by Louise Tillotson

If you haven’t already started, the time will soon come when you’ll want to teach your child the value of money. It’s an unavoidable part of life, and instilling good sound values in your child now will ensure they have a secure financial future.

Teaching your child how to save money

money

Child Money Savngs Tips

For most children, their first experience of money and saving is a piggy bank. Take your child with you and let them choose one for themselves, then make a game of putting coins in and taking them out. As the child grows older, encourage them to put any money given to them by relatives in their piggy, regularly take it out and count it with them, and keep a written record of the total each month or so. They’ll be able to see their money mounting up and this will help them to understand the concept of saving.

You may also want to open up an account for your child which they can use as they get older. Children’s savings accounts are offered by most banks, and offer similar benefits and options to adult savings accounts; competitive interest rates, withdrawal notice periods, and fixed terms of 1, 2 or 3 years. Explain to your child how their savings account works, and encourage them to deposit the money from their piggy bank into their account periodically. Older children might be interested in using an online tool called a savings calculator, which will help them to see how their money will increase over a set period with a given interest rate.

Teaching them the value of money

An allowance, or pocket money as it’s known in the UK, is perhaps the best tool available to parents who want to teach their offspring about the value of money. There are many factors to consider when deciding how much allowance you will give to your child. A general rule of thumb is to allow $1  for each year, so a 5 year old would receive $5, while a 10 year old would receive double that. But this is just a guide, and other things can be taken into account:

Their friends – ask the parents of your child’s friends how much they give their offspring, and try to keep to the same range. Children can feel left out if they know their friends get more money than they do.

What it’s used for – If your child will only buy sweets and magazines out of their allowance, then they shouldn’t need much (especially if you want to discourage them from eating too many sweets). But if you’d like them to occasionally buy their own clothes, books or CDs, then a slightly increased amount could be given to reflect this.

Saving – You could stipulate that your child put part of their allowance in their savings account or piggy bank. If this is the case, then consider giving them extra based on how much you expect them to save. You could even offer to pay ‘interest’ if you can afford it – put an extra $1 in their account for every $5 they do, for example.

Your income – How much can you afford to give to your child, consistently, each week? Examine your income and expenditure and see how much you can realistically and comfortably spare, without sacrificing household bills or other essentials.

Games you can play with your child about money

Children learn through play, so it’s a good idea to play some money-related games with your son or daughter.

The obvious one, and a firm favorite with most children, is Shops. Save some empty food packets from around the home, set up a table and let your child arrange the packets as they wish. Collect some spare change together and you can begin teaching them how to buy, sell and make change. Not only will this help them to learn what the denomination of each coin or bill is, but it can also teach them simple math.

Snap! is a familiar card game, and can be altered to teach your child more about denominations. You and your child/ren should have a handful of coins each, a mixture of high and low values. Choose a coin or coins at random, place them in the center of the playing area, and your child then has to choose different coins from their own pile which match the total value of the ones you’ve selected. If several children are playing, the winner is the first child to put out the correct total and yell “Snap!”.

Along a similar idea, Higher or Lower can be played with coins too. Select a coin, say ‘higher’ or ‘lower’, and your child has to put out a coin from their heap which is higher or lower in value than the one you selected. If they guess correctly, they can then say ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ and you then put a coin out, and so on. All of these games can be played with bills (make toy money if you’re worried about rips!) as well as coins for a greater scope of learning.

Bingo is a fun game which can be enjoyed time and time again by the whole family. First of all, get your child/ren involved in helping you create bingo cards – draw up a 6 by 6 grid on thin paper and show them how to do a different coin rubbing in each square (mix the pattern up so all the grids are different). Then, laminate each grid or cover in clear sticky plastic, and give one to each player along with small stickers or washable stamping pens. Fill a small tub with coins and choose one player to be the bingo caller. They choose a coin at random, call out the value and each player has to mark one occurrence of that coin off on their grid if it appears. The first one to get a line from side to side, or a full grid, shouts ‘Bingo!’ and wins the game.

Set a good example

Children copy their parents and older siblings, so try to exhibit responsible financial behavior around your impressionable young ones. Get into the habit of talking to them each time you’re in a shop and trying to decide on a purchase. Say things like, “If we buy this [item on a whim], then we wouldn’t be able to get this [something you need]“. Let them see grocery receipts and point out any money you may have saved on your shopping trips. You can even enlist their help in a coupon-cutting session if it’s something you do regularly.

Author Byline

Louise Tillotson is a mother based in the UK, and a regular contributor to parenting sites in the UK and the US. She also writes for personal finance sites and the price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com.

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How to Deal with Sibling Rivalry

July 31st, 2010
kids mean

Sibling Fights Picture courtesy of Teeny! Gee It's Been Awhile

Guest Blog by Kelly Wilson

If you have more than one child, the following strategies may help everyone in your home deal with sibling rivalry.

Embrace the Inevitable

Your kids will fight with you and with each other. They will alternate between playing like the best of friends and yelling at each other over who got the biggest piece of the candy bar that they had to share. And it can happen within moments.

The nice part about this kind of conflict is that it’s totally normal. Competition between siblings for attention from parents and others is not enjoyable, but developmentally appropriate behavior.

Anticipate Changing Needs

Understanding the foundational reasons for sibling rivalry can help increase the patience required to deal with it. Sibling rivalry develops for a variety of reasons.

Courtesy of Chapendra

Siblings Picture Courtesy of Chapendra

* Age Differences – unless you have a set of multiples, your kids are different ages with varying developmental needs and skills. This can create questions about why older children in your family have more independence or get certain privileges and younger kids in your family don’t.

* Personality Differences – my boys are totally opposite in every way when it comes to personality characteristics. The oldest is cautious and the youngest is a risk-taker. The oldest likes to plan out everything, and the youngest is go-with-the-flow. In our family, this can be wonderful and also the greatest source of fighting.

* Developmental Differences – My boys are three years apart, which means they have a variety of different needs and require different parenting. My oldest receives an allowance that he splits into sharing, saving and spending, and this allows him to buy toys and candy with his own money. This can be hard for the youngest, who doesn’t have a big allowance because he’s not yet ready for the responsibilities that go along with it.

Set Up Ground Rules

Since kids will fight for a variety of reasons, they need a collection of tools to be able to fight well. I like to teach my kids the following strategies to help the process along and prevent physical or emotional injury.

* “I feel” messages – set up a sentence that can be used anytime where kids learn how to share their feeling about an event. The sentence I use is “When you _______________, I feel ______________________.”

* Quiet Time – it’s difficult to come to a resolution when emotions are high. Encourage kids to time themselves out when they’re too angry to talk, and come back to resolve the problem after calming down (I’ve found this takes ten to twenty minutes).

* Make a Deal – if there’s something that one child wants, chances are good that there’s something the other one wants as well. Talking about the wants or needs of each person can help work out an arrangement that benefits both children.

* Apologize and Be Done – I remind my kids that holding a grudge works for no one. Once the problem has been discussed, apologies and forgiveness need to be shared. The situation is then officially over.

When to Get Involved

I try not to involve myself in my kids’ fights. This doesn’t mean that I sit by and let them say or do anything they want to each other. Instead, I listen and wait. Sometimes all they need is a little coaching, so I may give them a verbal cue, like “When you-“ which reminds them of the “I feel” strategy. If emotions run high, I may enforce a time out for all parties involved for about fifteen minutes. Usually my kids are ready to talk it out after some quiet time.

If kids really struggle with working out a problem, it helps to ask them questions. Start with one person at a time, stating that each person will get a turn and requiring absolutely no interruptions.

Ask for basics – what happened? Who was involved? How do you feel? What do you want or need right now? Move on to the next person, asking the same questions. By the end of this process, the kids can move on to actually solving the problem – all you’ve done is help clarify the situation for them.

Employing these strategies to deal with sibling rivalry take extra time and effort to begin with, but benefit everyone in your home for years to come.

Author byline

kelly

Kelly Wilson, Editor, Teaching Resource Center

Kelly Wilson is an editor for Teaching Resource Center, supplying classrooms with Teacher Supplies and Teachers’ Lesson Plans for over 25 years.

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When Routines Aren’t Enough – Alternative Options For Better Toddler Sleep

July 27th, 2010

Guest Blog by Susan Long

Child Sleeping Tips

Child Sleeping Tips

While difficult routines and erratic sleep patterns are expected early on, sleep problems in older toddlers and young children are harder to understand, predict and manage. Once you eliminate illness, lack of routine and troublesome milestones such as teething or growing pains, it’s hard to know where to turn next.

Be realistic

Like just about everything with small children, it can be a case of trial and error until you find something that works for you and often, solutions need to be incorporated into the child’s usual routine for some time before really taking effect. So, be patient, realistic and remember that it would be abnormal for your child to sleep perfectly, every night of their childhood; some minor sleep problems must be expected.

Alternatives to medicines

There are 1001 solutions offered by all kinds of medical and non medical professionals and parents can be forgiven for becoming a little skeptical but some attract more anecdotal (and scientific) evidence than others. Some of the more popular ideas are:

• A large serve of protein and a glass of milk before bed makes for deeper sleep
• Avoid cheese at bedtime to avoid nightmares
• An organic diet or a diet free from artificial preservatives and other “numbers” minimizes the risk of chemical hyperactivity
• Low GI cane sugar alternatives can keep moods stabilized and prevent bedtime tantrums
• Massage relaxes muscles and minds
• Gentle, rhythmic stroking or patting can help induce sleep
• A chamomile tea bag on the pillow and a pep talk about how it’s magical in inducing sleep is enough to induce sleep
• Lavender, Melissa, Jasmine, Neroli and Sandlewood dabbed on a pillow can induce sleep
• A mirror on her bedroom furniture will kill a monster under a bed
• Finding the source of any noise or light and eliminating it is the quickest way to kill a ghost
• Bed time hypnosis tapes, specifically designed to enhance sleep can work after several weeks
• Favourite pajamas and bed clothes pre-cuddled by parents (leaving a parent’s smell) makes for a more relaxed child.
• CDs containing rhythmic ocean sounds or the sound of an engine humming can induce better sleep.

These “quick fix” options are often not enough for children with serious sleep issues but anecdotal evidence suggests that they may help.

When the worries of the world on her little shoulders….

worried

Too Worried to Sleep?

Determining why a child won’t sleep can be almost impossible but parents of sensitive or emotional children may find that their child has something on her mind that is causing sleeplessness. This may also be helpful during stressful life events such as a new sibling or troubles at home.

Try incorporating a “worry time” into the bed time routine. Ask her about her day how she felt about its events. Discuss anything negative at length and help her to find a solution or better understanding. Once she indicates that she feels better about her worries, close the worry time (this can be done symbolically with a hand movement or prop such as a “worry box”). Tell her that she shouldn’t think about her worries any more for the day and introduce a fun, favorite bed time story, free of negative emotions or scary themes.

When life is too wired for sleeping….

For some children, the world is far too interesting and too exciting to waste time sleeping. It is up to parents to literally make life a little boring around bed time but if your child is passionate about her favorite sources of stimulation, this can make things worse and even turn excitement into over tired tantrums. It’s time to fight fire with fire.

Consider DVDs and computer games designed to be part of a bedtime routine. Many of your child’s favorite characters feature in stories about routines and bedtime and there are even dedicated programs designed to do nothing but put a child to sleep. The BBC broadcasts In The Night Garden, a program targeted at babies to 4 year olds where characters relive their day and then go through a bed time routine – it is extremely effective in moving children into the calm and sleepy mode. And of course, ensure there are plenty of books available to her to encourage quiet time, in lieu of play.

When she’s a bright spark

During the day, you’ve probably switched to media, activities or games that involve higher levels of physical activity in a hope of exhausting an energetic child. With the growing obesity problem, many games and TV producers now offer “get up and get involved” versions of kid’s favorites to burn that physical energy away but for bright children, brain activity can cause sleeplessness too.

Finding the balance between mentally tired and over stimulated can be tricky. For children who can’t help but lay awake thinking about stuff (as opposed to worrying or feeling fearful) try introducing an educational afternoon activity. Learn a new skill or visit somewhere interesting in the early afternoon and help your child to fully explore what they are seeing and experiencing. Ask questions, look at examples, and practice difficult words or aspects of the activity until she has a thorough understanding of it. Once her attention begins to wander, change to physical play to clear her mind and burn any extra energy ready to start her bedtime routine.

It’s hard not to feel completely helpless when a child struggles with sleep issues. Always consult your doctor and consider joining a parents’ discussion forum to gather ideas and get emotional support if things get hard.

Author Byline

Susan Long is a mother of three difficult sleepers and a wife to one snorer! She spends her nights looking for inventive ways to keep kids in bed and her days finding inventive solutions to keeping families happy at Rent To Buy

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10 Free Phonics Techniques Blogs

July 26th, 2010
letters

26 Letters, 44 Speech Sounds, & 70 Common Spellings for those Sounds

Guest Blog by Margo Smith

Phonics is the system of relationships between letters and sounds in a language and will help your child learn to read and spell. Think of the written language as a code. If your child knows the sounds of letters and letter combinations, this will help your child decode words as s/he reads. This will also help your child know which letters to use as s/he writes words. Did you know that the  26 letters of the alphabet give us 44 English speech sounds and about 70 common spellings for these speech sounds? Our little ones have a lot to learn!

Start exposing your child to phonics at an early age.  Zoodles is a free educational resource with hundreds of fun Early Reading/Phonics Games and Decoding/Word Recognition Games for children ages 2 to 8.  Our unique child interface adapts to each child’s age and cognitive abilities, so Zoodles will grow right along with your child. For additional resources on Phonics Techniques, please review the below list of  free blogs provided by Guest Blogger, Margo Smith.

Your Friends at Zoodles

  1. Phonics resources help parents and teachers assist children to learn and love to read by the use of phonics. Make the most of all the beneficial data on this site to find the best books to read to your child to promote a love of learning and start them on the road to a lifelong love of reading. This site offers free teacher and parent resources.  You can also be inspired by the real life success stories found here to help you be motivated as you help your child learn to love books.
  2. Phonics and Teaching Decoding Skills focusing on the age range of kindergartners through third graders, this blog advocates that students in this age range who are taught explicit phonetic strategies for decoding and encoding words have a stronger basis for later literacy learning. They strongly feel that during these years children benefit the most from having precise phonetic strategies modeled for them. Such a strategy helps children to decipher word meaning and provides them with a secure basis for later literacy as they grow older and gain more reading skills.
  3. How to Help Your Struggling Reader is a very suitable site that points you to an article on how to intervene if your child is having difficulty reading, with realistic tips of parents of children who struggle with reading.
  4. Home School Blogger is a teaching blog that gives you a review of different phonics teaching methods available so that you can make a more educated decision when choosing a phonics program. Be sure to take a look over all the pertinent information you’ll find on this blog when deciding which program will best suit your needs.
  5. Phonics Reading provides help for anyone taking on the challenge of learning English as their second language. This style is an exemplary phonics based classification for demonstrating the English language. It has been in use for more than 30 years in the U.K. This procedure was implemented to help teachers explain the nuances of written English, well known for its rules and their exceptions, in a child-centered manner.
  6. Teaching Phonics targets the particular needs of parents choosing to home school their children.  Specific advice is provided for all homeschoolers.
  7. Learning to Read with Phonics examines the usefulness of phonics when learning to read. This site offers other articles on this topic. Be sure your children and loved ones have all the help they need in the area of reading.
  8. Building Blocks of Reading stresses phonemic awareness, known to be at the root of spoken English,  this site will definitely assist you as you work to help your child recognize words.  Find answers to any phonics question you may have.
  9. Phonics Kids provides you with helpful overviews of the usefulness of phonics. Get to know about various downloadable programs for your use.
  10. English Pronunciation Site offers videos detailing examples of English words and phrases. You can chose to maintain your skills by following the blog or subscribe for apps free of charge to keep up the pace with these valuable complete video segments. Be certain your English passes with flying colors by making use of this helpful site.

Author Byline

Margo Smith graduated with a B.S. degree from BYU. She enjoys writing about a wide array of topics from Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) to online classes to reading and phonics. She draws from her own education, her years in school and an author’s view on life when compiling articles.

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7 tips to protect your child from obesity

July 23rd, 2010

Guest blog by Alex C.
obesity-advertisingObesity is one of the most serious problems of our century and unfortunately it affects people of all ages. Childhood obesity is a growing problem and research shows that the percentage of overweight children has doubled in the last decade. The health problems created from obesity are a lot (diabetes and heart disease to name a few) and it is vital that care is taken by parents to protect their children from this nasty disease. The good news is that there are various ways to help your children lose weight from an early age and avoid becoming obese when they grow up and this is exactly what we are going to discuss in this article.

The first thing that you need to be aware of is that the fat cells are present in children from the age of two. At this early age this is normal but if this trend continues as they grow up they end up with a high percentage of fat in their body that is difficult to get rid of. It is thus very important to deal with this situation from an early age and take all the necessary precautions to prevent this from happening.

One of the measures you can take is to help your children minimize the consumption of sweets, soft drinks and generally food and snacks that are high in fats and sugars. These items contain a lot of “empty calories” meaning that they do not have any nutritional benefit to offer to the body other than adding to the fat cells. Many of the foods offered in fast food restaurants fall into this category as well as deep fried food and food that is full of  saturated fats. Instead you should guide your children to consume more fruits and vegetables, natural and organic food, non-processed foods, fish, poultry and legumes.

While the above suggestion may sound very hard to implement since it covers nearly everything that your children may be eating, you can succeed when you approach the whole process correctly. As a start you should not try to restrict your children from eating what they want by force but you can try the following tips:

  1. Remove any sweets, chocolates, and sodas from the house. Make sure that when you visit the grocery store you buy only healthy food.
  2. Start eating healthier yourself leading the way to a healthier diet. Children are influenced by their parent’s habits so you should lead by example.
  3. Try to explain to them the dangers from eating unhealthy and how difficult this will be when they grow up.
  4. Give them alternatives where possible; for example a bag of popcorn is much healthier than a bar of chocolate.
  5. Encourage your child to play fun health and nutrition games to reinforce good food choices and healthy eating, as well as demonstrate the importance of exercise and fitness.
  6. Reward them when they are moving in the right direction. Although some experts suggest that you should not associate food with punishment or rewards, sometimes it can be beneficial to give a prize to your child when they start making healthier choices.
  7. Teach them to drink a lot of water. Water is great for many reasons and when they are accustomed to drinking a lot of water from an early age this will make a lot of things in the process easier.

Finally, the earlier in a child’s age you address the problem of obesity the better. If it’s possible you should start thinking about this during pregnancy by taking care of your eating habits. Remember that the effort you need to take as a parent when your children is still young will help them a lot in the course of their life and protect them from many unwanted situations.

alexAlex C. writes about healthy weight loss topics. All of his articles are based on healthy ways to lose weight and he has dedicated articles for weight loss tips for kids.

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The Morning Routine You’ve Been Overlooking

July 22nd, 2010

Guest blog by Logan Lindabury.

clock

5:00 AM

I’m a 20 year old entrepreneur and also a full time college student. I have no children. I have no wife. At least, not yet. And now you wonder, “What could he possibly know about what I’m dealing with? How can he possibly think he can help me when he can’t even relate to me?”

Well let us let the judging end here. Because here are your answers: Just because I’m young does not mean I have no knowledge. Just because I don’t have kids does not erase the fact that I myself was once a kid (and at many times, still act like one.) And although I may not have been in your shoes, chances are I have been in the shoes of the other person you are “dealing with.”

So give me a chance. Give me a try. What’s the worst that could happen? I’m offering ways to find happiness in your life and you want to pass that up? Really? Have you thought about what’s really important to you?

And now we begin, with the topic of this article:

Finding some happiness in your everyday life; Morning Routine Version.

You wake up each morning with a slight feeling of discontent because you know your child will stall, yet again. You have the everlasting feeling that the coffee will not be to your liking. That you’ll have forgotten to prepare lunch for the second time this week.

smile

Your child stalls getting ready, who hasn’t? I do it myself some days. But get this, when I incentivize the situation I tend to move a LOT quicker. “Hey, if I get done and out of the house in the next 10 minutes I can take the scenic route today!”

Get it? Offer your child something that he/she wants in turn for him/her getting ready on time. Do yourself a favor and come up with a few things that are both fun and free – like extra Zoodles playing time! You do that enough times, and you won’t have to give them the rewards anymore; though you still should.

But then there’s you, on your third cup of coffee before 9am. And boy are you tired! But guess what? Natural energy works so much better and has NO tired feeling afterward.

“But I’m too busy to do a workout or join a gym.” Good. Well, not good. But, OKAY. That’s fine. Here’s YOUR answer:  Sing and dance.

singing

Sing and Dance

Literally everywhere you go, sing and dance. No music? Who needs music. You’ve got the lyrics and the beats in your head. Come on, you remember Mr. Roger’s Happy Feeling Song, don’t you?!?! And when you can’t think of the lyrics, you can just mumble words together. I do it all the time.

So now you’re thinking, “Great, I’m taking advice from a crazy man who sings and dances no matter where he is. And this is supposed to help me?” Well first off, making my own fun does not make me crazy. And second, this will help you.

When you’re singing and dancing to music that you like you find happiness at a much more rapid pace than when you’re thinking about where the sugar is for your next cup of joe. So, give it a try. If it doesn’t work you at least know that you gave it your all.

But to be honest, I can’t tell you a single person that sings and dances at any given time and is NOT happy during and afterward.

That should tell you something. So, finish reading this and go give it a try. You don’t even have to thank me; just come back and keep reading.

Stay tuned for my next article about letting the kids join in the fun. Thank you.

Author Byline

logan

Logan Lindabury


This article was written by Logan Lindabury, the Happiness Coach from HappinessCanHelp.com. Do you want to enjoy your life? Do you want to find happiness no matter what happens? Then go to HappinessCanHelp.com and get started today.

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