How Can I Help My Child Do Better on Math Fact Tests?
Today we are talking about how your child is assessed on their math facts: This can be anything from division all the way down to addition, so it covers several grade levels. What will happen most of the time is your child’s teacher will give a little quiz. It may be once a week (you may have more time in between there) just to make sure that your child is on track with learning these facts. We know that knowing math facts will lay a great foundation in math for the future…
I want to volunteer in my child’s classroom, but I work full time!
Ok. So, you’ve seen your SAHM (“stay at home mom”) friends and their facebook posts about how they are helping in their child’s classroom. As a full time career mom, you know it’s not possible to be in your child's classroom helping, yet you still want your child to see that you are invested in his/her classroom. You want the teacher to know you are willing to help out, even if you can’t be there physically. Here are a few ideas that can work across the board, no matter your child's age or grade…
I’m Nervous About My Parent Teacher Conference!
It’s going to be ok.! It is quite normal for you to feel nervous about a parent teacher conference. This meeting might be your very first, it might be a special-called meeting for a specific issue, or there may be some baggage that comes with the present school year making you nervous. Bottom line: It’s your job as a parent to help your child. It’s your child’s teacher’s job to help your child.
Know that no matter the personality of the teacher, she ultimately would like your child to perform well.
There are a few things to consider that will make your parent teacher conference more than just a busy day for you. You want it to be the most effective and positively-impacting that it can be. Here’s how…
Help! My Child’s Teacher Won’t Communicate With Me
Have you ever been in that situation where you can’t get a straight answer from your child about what happened during the day or what is required homework to be completed, etc.? Have you ever had that teacher that doesn’t reply to your email, even after a couple of days? Read my plan of action for building a healthy relationship with the teacher to boost communication and find out the answers to your questions…
Does My Child Have Dyslexia?
The word dyslexia gets tossed around frequently, but do we have an understanding of what it is and who has it? Sometimes it’s best to define what it is not. Dyslexia is not simple reversing of letters (In fact, reversing letters can still be considered normal up to a certain point in young learners) Dyslexia is not lack of intelligence (Dyslexics can be very knowledgeable about many things and can have a solid vocabulary as well). What dyslexia is….
My Child is Still Below Grade Level and Now It's Summer!
So what do you do when it’s time for summer break and your child never did get “caught up?” Learning is a process, and children learn at their own speed. Just because your child is behind grade level does not mean that he will always be struggling. He needs you as his best advocate to provide those moments of growth, practice, and confidence-building. Months matter in the very early grades, so it can be expected that your child may need a few more months to get to where his peers are. Many students will have a summer regression from never having read during the summer nor picked up a pencil. Why not use that time for your child to catch up and close the gap? Here are some ideas that can get you on the right path to maximizing the time away from school…
How to Choose a Tutor for Your Child
Every child will benefit from one-on-one instruction (which is not the norm during the school day). Some parents seek tutoring for enrichment purposes, although most seek it for intervention purposes. If you feel intervention is needed by seeking tutoring for your academically struggling child, there are some things to consider so that you have a good fit…
Have a Middle School Child? Ask the Teacher these Helpful Questions!
It is often a nervous feeling parents get when their child finally moves from the comfort of their elementary school into a larger environment with multiple teachers and classrooms in middle school. Of course, we know middle school prepares students for the multitasking in high school. It is all part of growing and learning in education…
How to encourage your child to write (and keep a journal too!)
Writing is often a huge part of middle school, high school, and college. We want to teach our children to not be afraid of expressing themselves in written form and praise them for their work and small gains they make. Remember how it felt in school when your teacher bragged on your work, taped it to her desk, or your parent placed it prominently on the refrigerator at home? In our home, we’ve encouraged writing and drawing since our children were old enough to hold a pencil. Sometimes that’s drawing at a restaurant on the kids activity page, sometimes it’s having a notebook to doodle on quietly when we are at worship or an important meeting, and sometimes it’s sitting with the child and labeling the pictures with words to model writing and its purpose…