This first step is to lay a strong foundation on which to build your children's education.
These sections are organized by age level, but the information is not confined to that age group. Articles are updated frequently. Consider looking at other age ranges as well. Also, make sure to check out the Archives.
These sections are organized by age level, but the information is not confined to that age group. Articles are updated frequently. Consider looking at other age ranges as well. Also, make sure to check out the Archives.
GIFTS TO GIVE YOUR CHILDREN FOR CHRISTMAS
Are you staying up nights wondering how to purchase all the gifts in your children's letters to Santa or how to pay for them? Would you consider giving gifts that promote the values you need in your family and that our society so sorely needs? Values are decency, fairness, empathy, consideration of others,respnsibility, loyalty, honesty, self-control, courage, self-reliance, dependability, respect, unselfishnss and mercy, kindness and compassion. Some combination of these are chosen by families as the most important gifts they can give their children. You can use them as a checklist for the ones you have already instilled in your youn children and those you still need to work on.
From a young age, children can be taught how to be good people and treat people the way they want to be treated. Encouraging and teaching children to respect others, how to solve conflict in a healthy way, and that any form of anger or violence is not acceptable may help in preventing violence later in their lives. Of course, parents need to model the values they want their children to have. Children watch how parents handle things.
Behaving well can lead students {children} on a more successful path -- children can even educate parents about love, generosity and good manners. Roger Moore
Do not have your children teach you about these things, but let them learn from you.
Perhaps your children would rather have the gift of spending time with you alone or going someplace with you only. Maybe you can share an activity that you would both enjoy.
These kinds of gifts may mean more to your children and help them build more memories than the most expensive gift.
Family Reads – Alternate to Screen
One of the greatest gifts adults can give -- to their offspring and to their society – is to read to children. Carl Sagan
Tired of watching TV with all its commercials, “educational” videos, even playing video games?
Try reading chapter books out loud, maybe one chapter each evening with everyone assembled in your family or living room. Children can be lounging on the floor or assembling lego figures. The only requirement is listening because human beings acquire better language skills by listening.
According to readingeggs.com, reading out loud as a family builds connections within your family. It provides a safe way of exploring strong feelings as children of all ages learn to accept and understand their own feelings and learn ways to handle them through the characters’ ways to do so. Reading out loud provides a time of peace and enjoyment for the whole family. It promotes bonding with all members of the family. Sharing what they have heard and wondering what will happen next promotes communication and encourages conversation.
Reading out loud connects the spoken word with the written word. It strengthens basic knowledge and increases attention span. It develops a strong vocabulary so that when children see the word in their own reading, they recognize and understand its meaning from hearing it in your family read-aloud sessions. Hearing books read out loud makes it easier to remember and develops long-term memory. Additional memory pathways are formed because of the unique experiences provided by hearing stories. By hearing reading out loud, children can “see” events and ideas unfolding more slowly than on TV or videos; they use their imagination as they watch the unfolding of the story and learn of its different locales (city, village, desert, mountains.)
You can make time disappear. You can bring us to places we have never dreamed of. You can make us feel sorrow and joy and peace. You have great magic. Grace Lin
Chapter books you might try are classics: Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, even Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder; Wayside School by Louis Sachar.
Other books your family might enjoy The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne; James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl; Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater; Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson.
To receive many blessings, read to your children from the womb to the tomb. Joyce Herzog
Your family might even like stories by a certain author and want to read more of those.
If any of these suggestions work for you and your family, please let me know by sending an email to bettemroz@gmail.com. Other comments, suggestions or questions are always welcome.
Helping Your Young Children Read
Are you disappointed that your young children still cannot read? Your children may not have had the foundation they need to develop reading skill. They may have missed an important lesson. They may not have had enough practice. Some children need repeated practice to put necessary concepts in their brain to keep for them to use in the future. They may not have realized the sounding of letters and words was a step to learn to read. They may not have been able to hear the sounds of the letters (phonics) or been able to hear the differences in words or how the sounds make words we hear (phonemic awareness). There may have been trauma or upset in your family that your children did not understand which blocked their ability to learn to read.
We must use our children’s formative years to give them the tools they can use to survive and provide for their own families...creating a positive future for generations to come.
Reading is so fundamental to their lives that we must do all we can to help them learn to read
Children learn best when more of their senses are involved. Becky Spence (https://www.thereadingmama.com) says the brain is a highway system with on and off ramps. Children struggling to read run into traffic jams. As you would look for another route or way to leave the highway, we need to find other “routes” in a child’s brain to help learners make meaningful connections. Help them write letters on a board or sidewalk to make words as they say one sound or blend sounds to begin words. Maybe use magnetic letters to build words. Maybe write words in jello or pudding powder that they can lick their fingers when they write and say the words successfully. Even sing the sounds.
Mix concepts they already know with new concepts. For instance, see if your child knows the sounds of these letters—M, A, S, P, T, N—and can use them to make words such as pat, sat, mat, map. tap, nap, tan, pan, man. If the child knows the sounds of the individual letters, try saying pa-t, sa-t, etc. which is blending sounds. Forming words with just these six letters could be a step to give children confidence that “I can.” Repeat using other vowels: e,i,o,u in place of “a.”
You can help children visualize the words by closing their eyes or maybe drawing a picture of the word. When you read a book to your children, let them point out words they know in the text. If the word is a new one, point out the “easy part” and what parts may be harder. If you are reading a selection that your children can mark, let them highlight green for the easy part and yellow for the harder or tricky part.
As the adult, you can think out loud about how to figure out words and have your children practice.
Most of the above methods for beginning to read come from a podcast by Anna Geiger which you can access on her website (https://themeasuredmom.com).
Are you staying up nights wondering how to purchase all the gifts in your children's letters to Santa or how to pay for them? Would you consider giving gifts that promote the values you need in your family and that our society so sorely needs? Values are decency, fairness, empathy, consideration of others,respnsibility, loyalty, honesty, self-control, courage, self-reliance, dependability, respect, unselfishnss and mercy, kindness and compassion. Some combination of these are chosen by families as the most important gifts they can give their children. You can use them as a checklist for the ones you have already instilled in your youn children and those you still need to work on.
From a young age, children can be taught how to be good people and treat people the way they want to be treated. Encouraging and teaching children to respect others, how to solve conflict in a healthy way, and that any form of anger or violence is not acceptable may help in preventing violence later in their lives. Of course, parents need to model the values they want their children to have. Children watch how parents handle things.
Behaving well can lead students {children} on a more successful path -- children can even educate parents about love, generosity and good manners. Roger Moore
Do not have your children teach you about these things, but let them learn from you.
Perhaps your children would rather have the gift of spending time with you alone or going someplace with you only. Maybe you can share an activity that you would both enjoy.
These kinds of gifts may mean more to your children and help them build more memories than the most expensive gift.
Family Reads – Alternate to Screen
One of the greatest gifts adults can give -- to their offspring and to their society – is to read to children. Carl Sagan
Tired of watching TV with all its commercials, “educational” videos, even playing video games?
Try reading chapter books out loud, maybe one chapter each evening with everyone assembled in your family or living room. Children can be lounging on the floor or assembling lego figures. The only requirement is listening because human beings acquire better language skills by listening.
According to readingeggs.com, reading out loud as a family builds connections within your family. It provides a safe way of exploring strong feelings as children of all ages learn to accept and understand their own feelings and learn ways to handle them through the characters’ ways to do so. Reading out loud provides a time of peace and enjoyment for the whole family. It promotes bonding with all members of the family. Sharing what they have heard and wondering what will happen next promotes communication and encourages conversation.
Reading out loud connects the spoken word with the written word. It strengthens basic knowledge and increases attention span. It develops a strong vocabulary so that when children see the word in their own reading, they recognize and understand its meaning from hearing it in your family read-aloud sessions. Hearing books read out loud makes it easier to remember and develops long-term memory. Additional memory pathways are formed because of the unique experiences provided by hearing stories. By hearing reading out loud, children can “see” events and ideas unfolding more slowly than on TV or videos; they use their imagination as they watch the unfolding of the story and learn of its different locales (city, village, desert, mountains.)
You can make time disappear. You can bring us to places we have never dreamed of. You can make us feel sorrow and joy and peace. You have great magic. Grace Lin
Chapter books you might try are classics: Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, even Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder; Wayside School by Louis Sachar.
Other books your family might enjoy The Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne; James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl; Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater; Hank the Cowdog by John R. Erickson.
To receive many blessings, read to your children from the womb to the tomb. Joyce Herzog
Your family might even like stories by a certain author and want to read more of those.
If any of these suggestions work for you and your family, please let me know by sending an email to bettemroz@gmail.com. Other comments, suggestions or questions are always welcome.
Helping Your Young Children Read
Are you disappointed that your young children still cannot read? Your children may not have had the foundation they need to develop reading skill. They may have missed an important lesson. They may not have had enough practice. Some children need repeated practice to put necessary concepts in their brain to keep for them to use in the future. They may not have realized the sounding of letters and words was a step to learn to read. They may not have been able to hear the sounds of the letters (phonics) or been able to hear the differences in words or how the sounds make words we hear (phonemic awareness). There may have been trauma or upset in your family that your children did not understand which blocked their ability to learn to read.
We must use our children’s formative years to give them the tools they can use to survive and provide for their own families...creating a positive future for generations to come.
Reading is so fundamental to their lives that we must do all we can to help them learn to read
Children learn best when more of their senses are involved. Becky Spence (https://www.thereadingmama.com) says the brain is a highway system with on and off ramps. Children struggling to read run into traffic jams. As you would look for another route or way to leave the highway, we need to find other “routes” in a child’s brain to help learners make meaningful connections. Help them write letters on a board or sidewalk to make words as they say one sound or blend sounds to begin words. Maybe use magnetic letters to build words. Maybe write words in jello or pudding powder that they can lick their fingers when they write and say the words successfully. Even sing the sounds.
Mix concepts they already know with new concepts. For instance, see if your child knows the sounds of these letters—M, A, S, P, T, N—and can use them to make words such as pat, sat, mat, map. tap, nap, tan, pan, man. If the child knows the sounds of the individual letters, try saying pa-t, sa-t, etc. which is blending sounds. Forming words with just these six letters could be a step to give children confidence that “I can.” Repeat using other vowels: e,i,o,u in place of “a.”
You can help children visualize the words by closing their eyes or maybe drawing a picture of the word. When you read a book to your children, let them point out words they know in the text. If the word is a new one, point out the “easy part” and what parts may be harder. If you are reading a selection that your children can mark, let them highlight green for the easy part and yellow for the harder or tricky part.
As the adult, you can think out loud about how to figure out words and have your children practice.
Most of the above methods for beginning to read come from a podcast by Anna Geiger which you can access on her website (https://themeasuredmom.com).