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Celebrate Martin Luther King’s Holiday by Promoting Peaceful Solutions

Celebrate Martin Luther King’s Holiday by Promoting Peaceful Solutions

Many schools and families celebrate the Martin Luther King Holiday by participating in community service activities to promote peaceful solutions. Our blogging team created a reflective writing activity for students at a local school. After reading an article about Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on nonviolent social change for freedom, students completed the following questions:

List 5 dreams you have for a more equitable and peaceful life in your classroom or at home. Draw a picture of 1 dream.

  1. _________________________________________________________________________________________
  2. _________________________________________________________________________________________
  3. _________________________________________________________________________________________
  4. _________________________________________________________________________________________
  5. _________________________________________________________________________________________

[Read more…]

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Helping Our Children Manage Their Feelings

Helping Our Children Manage Their Feelings

I just survived another challenging Monday morning in the classroom. My second-grade students were scheduled to attend an educational assembly early Monday morning until a series of power outages forced the staff to cancel the assembly. Then we returned to our classroom after completing a few exercises.

We started our classroom activities by talking about feelings for the day. We listened to a guided mediation where two children have built sand castles on the beach. After a couple of hours, the ocean surf washes away the sand castles. One child is happy while the other child is sad. [Read more…]

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Preparing for a New Year of Blogs

Preparing for a New Year of Blogs

I recently decided to return to the classroom to help second grade students learn basic subjects. I am also considering becoming a substitute or long-term part-time teacher for a local school. When I write the blogs and parenting articles for families, I need constant contact with kids and their parents. This challenge has been solved by:

  • Providing workshops on parent education topics for schools and nonprofits serving families and education
  • Distributing reading materials for families at workshops and community fairs
  • Reading to kids and families at local events
  • Demonstrating how kids learn when playing with toys at toy stores and through community presentations
  • Working with teachers and parents in classrooms and modeling how to differentiate learning strategies for children

[Read more…]

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Snuggle Time to Support our Kid’s Reading Skills

Snuggle Time to Support Our Kids’ Reading Skills

During the holiday season, it is important to take the time to snuggle with our children and reflect on all that is good in our lives. We can also help our children increase their reading readiness abilities by developing the following daily practices with each child: [Read more…]

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Giving Thanks for Our Families

Giving Thanks for Our Families

My grandson lives between two countries; the United States and Japan. His mom works full time in the United States while his dad works full time in Japan. The value of having parents in two countries is that my grandson is able to live and appreciate his cultural heritage as a descendent of the Japanese culture and a fifth generation American.

Favorite Activities in Japan

When my grandson visits his father in Japan, he enjoys:

  • going to baseball games
  • playing at amusement parks
  • visiting indoor children’s discovery museums
  • exercising at indoor gymnastics activity centers
  • attending entertainment centers

[Read more…]

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