Practice Homework Help – Tips for Writing Assignments

Practical Homework Help – Tips for Writing Assignments

Being a former language arts teacher, I found it difficult to help my children with their writing assignments. I saw lots of spelling mistakes, punctuation errors, and poorly developed ideas. The truth is, I was looking at their assignment with adult eyes when I should have been approaching their writing at their level. These three tips help keep things in perspective when I review their writing.

I Am Their Cheerleader

When I review my child’s writing, I ask for permission to read it out loud. This gives them an opportunity to hear what it sounds like to the reader when in fact, it may sound very different to them in their head as they are writing. As I read, I cheer good work by verbally saying, “I love this detail” or “You make an excellent argument.” Giving them verbal praise validates their hard work and efforts.

I Pretend I Am an Alien

I let my kids know that aliens have no knowledge or experience of life on earth, so it is only through reading their writing that I will understand what they are talking about. If your kids say they went to the movie theater over the weekend, then their writing needs to detail ordering tickets through the buzzing intercom, smelling buttery popcorn, waiting in long lines, reclining in the movie seat, being immersed in surround sound, etc. The same is true for non-fiction or argumentative writing – aliens do not know how humans think, so background information or persuasive reasoning needs to be articulated clearly.

I Ask Them to Read Their Writing Out Loud

Humor me for a while and read this paragraph out loud:

To help your child self-identify common mistakes. Like run-on or fragment sentences. Ask them to read their sentence out loud and only pause to take a breath where there is a period and this is how they will see their mistakes and learn how to fix them because otherwise they will only write like how they talk and write like it’s a stream of consciousness.

Do you see my point? If they sound robot-like or run out of breath while reading out loud, chances are, their punctuation is not used correctly. They will soon learn how to use a comma for a pause and a period for a full stop. Before you know it, they will master the semi-colon!

Go be your child’s cheerleader!

Jaime

Copyright © 2019 by GenParenting




How Can We Support Families Living Through Disasters?

How Can We Support Families Living Through Disasters?

Happy new year! Each year I reflect on all that is good in the world. I also ponder on what I can improve upon and how I can approach each day with integrity that contributes to improving the lives around me. As an educator, I find that I am most happy when I am helping a child learn a new skill. A child’s look of satisfaction and achievement is all I need as the payoff for teaching and nurturing success.

Coping with Community Disasters

As a community member, I am challenged on how I can best respond to the multitude of disasters surrounding our communities. As a California resident, we have suffered through horrific wild fires. Other parts of our country have struggled with tornadoes, hurricanes, and flooding. Our communities continue to be challenged with poverty, homelessness, and various injustices.

How Can We Support Children and Families in Disasters?

With the start of a new year as an educator and responsible community member, I want to refocus my efforts on how I can best serve my students, their families, and the larger community as my time and energies are limited. Today, I am reflecting on the following questions:

  1. What are the most important insights that I can impart on students and their families this coming year so that they feel safe and secure in a world that is challenged with disasters and injustices?
  2. How do I live my best life daily with my family, students, and my community?
  3. What should I change in my life so I can live simply?
  4. Are there areas in my life I need to prioritize?
  5. Which service projects or volunteer activities would best serve my community?
  6. What special skills do I have that would best benefit the needs in my community?
  7. Should the GenParenting bloggers refocus the parenting blogs and workshops to support different needs?
  8. What are the most important values I want to share with students and families?
  9. At the end of the day, what is my primary purpose in life?
  10. How can I best help my community with limited time and resources?
  11. Is there something I have not thought about that would benefit you through our trainings, blogs, and services?

Give Us Feedback for Disaster Support

As I ponder these questions, I encourage you to write to us in the comments section with your ideas and suggestions. What we can do to support your own personal growth and the healthy development of your family and community? What is working and what can we do differently? Thank you for your ongoing support of this blog and best wishes for a fulfilling and serene 2019!

With love and care,

Mary Ann




How to Help Kids Schedule Due Dates for School Projects

How to Help Kids Schedule Due Dates for School Projects

Kids live so much in the present that it is difficult for them to understand what it means for a project to be due in a month. Until they get the hang of it, kids would benefit from charting out their assignments on a calendar. Here’s a quick tip:

Timeline for School Projects

  1. Start by marking the due date on the calendar.
  2. Note the start date and calculate how much time the child will have to complete the project.
  3. List how many different components there are to the project. Say it’s a science fair project and students need to submit a project proposal, data from their experiment, and a display board.
  4. Assign a mini-due date to indicate how much time it will take to complete each component. For example, one week to complete the project proposal, two weeks to conduct the experiment and collect data, and one week to compile the display board.
  5. Adjust these mini-due dates to reflect other commitments and life events. Make sure the child has enough time to complete each component by the final due date.
  6. Have your child work on a small aspect of the project regularly. For some kids, this means working on a small portion every day. For others, this may be every other day. You want to avoid the last minute rush and panic!

Wishing you stress-free school projects!

Jaime

Copyright (c) 2018 by GenParenting

 




Encouraging Reluctant Readers with a Growth Mindset

Encouraging Reluctant Readers with a Growth Mindset

When my children were toddlers, they used to love story time. We’d pull out their favorite board book, they’d sit on my lap or snuggle on the couch, we’d make all the animal sounds as they pointed to the pictures and we’d retell the story using puppets. It was so much fun!

Of course, they couldn’t get enough of story time at home, so we brought them to the library for story time with the librarian. There, my children sat enthralled with the magical world unfolding before them in the story. Their eyes grew large, taking in the rows and rows of books with endless possibilities! They’d stuff their library book bag full of adventures, new worlds to explore, and new characters to befriend. They literally dragged their book bags to the check-out kiosk.

Encouaging Reading Development

Then, the inevitable happened. They ran out of books to read. They said there was nothing interesting. Even worse, they said the library was boring. So what can you do if you have a reluctant reader? Here are some suggestions for encouraging reading development at home using a growth mindset:

  1. Keep up the habit of going to the library. You might consider moderating the frequency of your library visits so reading and going to the library doesn’t feel like a chore.
  2. It’s possible that your child is changing interests as they mature. Remind your child that maybe they just haven’t found the right book yet. Encourage your child to explore different genres.
  3. It’s also possible that your child’s maturity level and reading level isn’t synced up. Again, remind your child that maybe they just haven’t found the right book yet.
  4. Try reading graphic novels and graphic novel adaptations of classic books. The text may be abridged, but they are still reading nonetheless! Pictures help kids visualize what’s going on in the story and kids are still “reading” context clues on characters’ facial expressions.
  5. Since borrowing books at the library is free, let your kids know that it’s ok to borrow books they think they might like, explore a chapter or two, and decide not to read the rest of the book.
  6. Allow your kids to keep reading similar books or books in a series, even though the series may make you cringe. By reading books in the same series, they are becoming a fan of a particular author or style. This helps them further identify their likes and dislikes. Before you know it, they would have read all the books in the series and will need to look for a new series to explore.
  7. Ask your kids to look for non-fiction books to enhance their hobbies or interests. There’s a wide range of kid-friendly books covering everything from cooking to sewing, drawing animals to playing basketball. If you’re brave, you can even let your kids borrow a book about the current trend – how to make slime!

Becoming Library Patrons

After several years of repeating these different strategies, my children have come out on the other side as enthusiastic library patrons! These days, the library is their third favorite place in the whole world (after home and their grandparents’ house). That’s saying a lot about their love of reading!

Happy book hunting,

Jaime

Copyright (c) 2018 by GenParenting




Talking About Death and Difficult Subjects Play Activities

Talking About Death and Difficult Subjects Play Activities 

 Children love to watch the evolution of life in their daily play. They witness the growth, life, and death weeds, plants, flowers, trees, insects, animals, pets, and family members. They hear family members talk about sickness, the old age decline of family members, and eventual deaths of older relatives. Television, movies, and video games can overwhelm children with messages about death and dying. Listed below are a few thought provoking activities that you can share with your children in memory of a loved pet or family member.

Play Activities Materials:

  • A story or age appropriate book on death and dying
  • Journaling with art supplies
  • A plant or tree to plant in the garden with gardening soil and garden tools
  • Large rocks and paint
  • Scrapbook and pictures of happy times with a deceased pet or family member
  • Puzzles or games that were shared with a deceased family member

Play Activities:

  1. After reading a story about death ask relevant questions about the story while playing with your children.
  2. Illustrate the story that you have read in your journal. Write a story about the death of a loved pet or family member.
    • Children can draw delightful pictures of fun times with a deceased pet or family member and create a series of stories with illustrations.
    • If the child is young, they can draw pictures of stories that are transcribed by the parent.
    • Brainstorm how you would want to remember a relative by going to a special place or planting a tree, plant, or flowers in memory of this person.
  3. Go to a nursery and select a tree, plant of flower that best commemorates happy memories of a pet or person.
    • It may be relevant to a favorite fragrance, color, or type of tree, plant, or flower.
    • It may represent a favorite memory of this pet or person (i.e. where a dog would hide a bone, where a cat loved to sleep outside in the sun, where a child would read a book with a relative under a particular type of tree).
    • It can represent a special outing or trip with that animal or family member.
  4. After planting the tree, plant, or flower, paint a large rock with a decoration and dedication to the loved pet or family member. The child may want to decorate the rock and older children may write the date of death or other memorable information about the loved one.
  5. Create a scrapbook with your child of happy times share with the pet or family member. Over time, you and your child can revisit the photo album and discuss these happy memories as the child becomes older, the memories are different and far more thought provoking.
  6. Select a game or puzzle that brings back memories of the loved one. If a pet, you can purchase of puzzle of similar dogs or places your child liked to play with the dog. For a family member, select puzzles that represent happy memories. Selected games that you can play may include the types of activities your child may have played with the relative. It may have been a card game or a match game or even a preschool board game.

Relevant Common Core Standards

Listed below are California Common Core Standards in Mathematics relevant to some of these activities:

  • Kindergarten Geometry: Model shapes in the world by building shapes from components (e.g. sticks and clay balls) and drawing shapes.
  • First Grade Geometry: Distinguish defining attributes (e.g. triangles are closed and three sided) verses non-defining attributes (e.g. color, orientation, overall size; build and draw shapes to possess defining attributes.
  • Second Grade Geometry: Reason with shapes and attributes. Recognize and draw shapes having specified attributes, such as a given number of angles or a given number of equal faces. Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes.

Copyright © 2018 by GenParenting