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:

Tips to Promote Literacy

Take the time to read with each child at night after they are ready for bed. This daily practice provides our children with quality time that is so important for their personal growth. It also gives you an opportunity to check-in on what is happening in their lives and how they may be feeling about various daily stresses.
Have your child select a book to read that may reflect an interest, a current challenge, or that he can easily read to you. You can also read a more challenging book to your child and have him read specific sentences or alternate reading each page in the book.
Stop to look at the pictures, subtitles, and discuss:

Who is in a story?
Where does the story take place?
When does the story happen?
What is the problem being addressed in story?
Why did it happen and what are the key events leading up to the problem?
How does the problem get solved?

Create flash cards of common words and define meanings of words.
Relate the story to your child’s daily life and activities.
Plan a family project or an activity that may reinforce significant learnings of favorite stories.
Have older children read to younger siblings to showcase their literacy talents.
Take your children to the library and have them pick out books that they are interested in even if beyond their reading abilities. Integrate these books into your nightly reading time.
For children with little attention span, limit your reading time together to 10 minutes and then enjoy talking with them about the story. For older kids, you may find that they are fully engaged in this activity for an hour. If time is limited, allow time for them to read or look at books on their own and try to give each child 20 minutes of quality reading time.
Make sure to incorporate new vocabulary words into your daily travels and discussions. Have your children practice their reading skills when reading traffic signs, menus, store advertisements, the newspaper headlines, etc.

Reflective Times with Each Child

Relish this wonderful bedtime ritual each day. You will nurture your children’s literacy skills, their passion to learn, and giving each child a loving moment when you can reflect and express gratitude for various challenges and growth opportunities.

Happy snuggle time with your children!

Danielle

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

Family Comes First

When I completed my first trip with my grandson in Japan, friends and family would ask about his favorite activity when visiting his dad. Without hesitation, my grandson responded that he loved just spending time with his dad. It did not matter what activity they were pursuing; he just valued the one-on-one time of being with his father.

As we enter the holiday season, we must consider how important our family members are when planning for holiday celebrations and the importance of time for sharing.

May you family have time to share in the beauty of the season!

Joyce

How to Develop Leadership Qualities in Your Child

When considering leadership qualities, admittedly, there are a lot of good qualities to name! How do you know what is the best quality to develop in your child? Where do you start? For young children, it is good to start developing foundational leadership skills within their circle of influence. Usually, this means starting with the self. Start developing internal qualities within your child in the context of your home. As children mature, they can add and build upon the qualities that they already possess.

1. Develop Self-Discipline

All great leaders possess this quality and it must be instilled in your child while they are young. One way to develop self-discipline is to assign chores or guidelines for keeping their personal space tidy. After playing with toys, do your kids have to make sure the space is cleaned up before dinner? What are your expectations for dirty clothes and clean laundry? Do you have a consistent routine for kids to do homework? Perfecting the skill of self-discipline takes time and repetition! Once this practice becomes a habit, your kids will be able to add other responsibilities with ease.

2. Take Ownership of Their Actions and Behavior

One great leadership quality we want for our children is for them to know that their words and actions make an impact on others around them. We all want our kids to do the right thing, and yet, sometimes they mess up. For example, our kids might lie to us. Toys get broken during play. Other times, mean words hurt a sibling’s or friend’s feelings. Mistakes are a part of life. However, it is the response to their mistake that makes a great leader. Here are some constructive ways to teach your child to take ownership of their actions and behavior:

Acknowledge their mistake

“I’m sorry I lied to you.”

“I’m sorry I broke the toy.”

Ask for forgiveness

“Will you forgive me?”

Make amends

“May I try that conversation again?”

“I should not have said that. What I should have said was…”

“Can I help fix that toy?”

3. Encourage Participation in Groups Outside the Home

Maybe your child likes to dance or play baseball? Maybe building robots or playing an instrument in the band is their “thing”? Having your child join a team is a great way to help them learn how to cooperate with others in the group. During practice, they will have exercises and drills to help them improve their individual skills. The performance or game will put their skills to the test. Participating in healthy competition will increase your child’s inner drive to improve in a really fun way!

Developing tomorrow’s leaders together,

Jaime

College Students Work to Explore Careers

Last summer EJ completed an incredible job of self-discovery as a camp counselor in a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (S.T.E.M.) summer program at Stanford University. He worked with middle and high school students who were guided to the program through their parents’ selection or were returning campers who were passionate about the program.

What Students Can Learn Through Career Jobs

EJ found that it was easier to work with the high school students who were focused on exploring a career in S.T.E.M. occupations. These students were more engaged in the program and had more confidence when participating in various activities. Through these wonderful and challenging experiences, my son learned the following:

He has incredible leadership skills.
As he became more engaged in the program, the students were excited about their learning.
It was amazing to observe the students’ performance and growth during the program.
As an employee, EJ was excited to receive his first formal performance evaluation that reflected his leadership successes.

Reflection

Now EJ is busy with a demanding college year of upper division science classes. The confidence he gained during his summer employment continues to inspire him in his current career path of study, discovery, and growth.

May your children value their many learning experiences!

Yvette

Giving Thanks This Holiday Season

During the start of the Thanksgiving week and other winter holidays, I typically help my kids and grandkids prepare for the season by:

Organizing a toy giveaway drive for local charities
Baking and preparing food for various family celebrations and community events
Preparing food and gift baskets for those in need
Helping in community service activities
Volunteering at local school holiday events
Participating in church and community celebrations

Gratitude Reflections

In addition to these events, I also focus on all that is good in my life and help my grandkids reflect on what they love most about the holidays and their daily lives. These reflections help them center themselves on appreciating the many activities that their families participate in each day. This focus helps the kids feel gratitude for all that is good in their lives. It also helps them to not become so demanding about wanting things for themselves. They can start to think of others first and foremost.

Play Dates with Family

When we celebrate Thanksgiving this week, family members can share all of the fun times we enjoy with each other and how we value each other. We can discuss plans for celebrating the upcoming holidays. I will schedule play dates with the grandkids to make gifts, cards, and food items for family members and those in need.

May your Thanksgiving celebration be full of gratitude for your family, friends, and all that you have been given in your daily life.

Much serenity and peace this holiday season!

Mary Ann