Building Reading Stamina

By: Reading Rockets

Reading stamina is a child's ability to focus and read independently for long-ish periods of time without being distracted or without distracting others. Find out how you can help your child develop reading stamina.

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Five powerful things to say to your kids

Here’s a sneak peek at five of those key phrases every parent should say.  Read more.

Education experts disagree on importance of school class size

Class size remains part of the debate over competing priorities at a time of fiscal constraint, increasing accountability and the ever-shifting shape of reform. Some reform advocates discount the impact of class size on student achievement in favor of focusing on what they consider a higher priority: teacher effectiveness.

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Praise a Child!

Homework Help

The Meaning of Memorial Day

This tradition, known as "flags in," has been conducted annually since The Old Guard was designated as the Army's official ceremonial unit in 1948. Every available soldier in the 3rd U.S. Infantry participates, placing small American flags one foot in front and centered before each grave marker.See the pictures. 

Protect your children tips

May 25 is National Missing Children's Day. We want to help you protect your children by teaching them to be safer and make smart decisions. read more

Tips for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Reading Together: Tips for Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

By: Reach Out and Read

Whether your child has mild or severe Autism Spectrum Disorder, making reading a fun activity can help your child's learning and social skills. You'll find sharing books together can be a good way to connect with your son or daughter. Reading also helps your child's language development and listening skills.

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Remedy Avoiding Summer Learning Loss

Remedy Avoiding Summer Learning Loss by Shannon Spence
		As the school year comes to and end, many parent’s start thinking about ways to keep their children occupied during the long summer months. Day camps, pool passes and neighborhood play dates are on everyone’s mind but what will happen to all the important information that children learned in school that year? What many parents don’t know is that kids experience a phenomenon called “Summer Learning Loss”.

Essentially, they forget a lot of what they learned in the previous school year over the summer months. In fact, studies have shown that kids lose more than two and a half months worth of math skills in the summertime. For kids that were already struggling in math, this means that they will start off the next school year even further disadvantaged. And it’s not just math. Overall, kids lose an average of 1 month of learning in other subjects during the summer.

Think of athletes… imagine if they stopped training for 2-3 months in the year. You would expect that when they return to their sport, they would experience a lag in performance. The brain is no different. It needs to be exercised.

So how can you keep your kids learning over the summer? Here are a few ideas.

• Read together - Visit a library. Find some books with topics that interest your child so that they are really engaged in reading.  Read the books when they do so you can discuss them together.
• Explore - Visit local museums, zoos and historical sites. Help your child learn about history and the world they live in.
• Menu Planning – plan your meal, write out recipes, ingredients/groceries, and send out invitations to family and friends.  Ask your guests to write a review of your fine cuisine and make sure to write a review of Mom and Dad’s next creation.  These activities can reinforce math, reading, writing and organizational skills.
• Tutoring - Studies find that a third party, objective source can be more effective with helping students with their homework than parents so enrolling in summer tutoring programs are beneficial. In addition to staying fresh, summer is a great time to rebuild any missing foundations, or get a jump start on the upcoming school year. Getting a head start on math, for example, gives them a leg up on the school year and helps greatly with confidence.  There’s a common misconception out there that tutoring is strictly for remedial help when in fact many families bring a tutor on board before grades start to drop to give their students the necessary tools and confidence necessary to succeed and get ahead.
• Play - Buy mind engaging games that focus on interactivity for your children.  Encourage them to invite friends over to play.  Some children are more responsive to positive reinforcement so build a reward system into a game that requires learning.

These ideas will help your children stay fresh over the summer, build up more confidence, and prepare them to start the new school year with a bang!

Summer learning-- video

Summer Learning

building high school math skills

High School Math: How Parents Can Help Build Skills

Some simple strategies and encouragement will benefit students who are struggling in math.

Helping Struggling Readers

Did you know that learning to read is a challenge for almost 40 percent of kids? The good news is that with early help, most reading problems can be prevented. The bad news is that 44 percent of parents who notice their child having trouble wait a year or more before getting help