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As a parent, sometimes we ask our children how their day was at school only to be replied to with a monotone, “It was fine.” If you feel you are lacking a connection with the place you are sending them off to every day, there are several ways to get a more inside perspective. [Read more…] about Tips For Getting More Involved In Your Child’s School
Parents are the first teachers of their children. But as kids grow, parents need to entrust their kids to school teachers who are responsible for providing knowledge and developing the basic skills of children. Teachers are, therefore, recognized as second parents. And for this reason, parents and teachers need to establish a positive relationship as partners in education.
Experts have pointed out that a positive relationship between a parent and teacher is more likely to lead to the success of a child in school. When a school kid sees that his mom or dad get along well with the teacher, he or she is bound to feel good and inspired to do good in school. [Read more…] about Why Parents Need to Work Together With Teachers
If you have seen Jay Leno’s television segment titled Jaywalking, you know the purpose is to ask random people on the street basic questions. You have probably noticed that this segment tends to poke fun at people’s ignorance. On a recent episode, individuals were asked simple history questions such as, “What ship carried the Pilgrims to America?”. Sadly, there were far too many individuals who didn’t know the answers. Members of the audience find this lack of knowledge hysterical, leaving many to wonder if it’s comical because they also don’t know the correct answer. [Read more…] about Teaching History in Modern Day Elementary Schools
Students who are curious about the universe often jump at the chance to participate in science fairs. These events, typically held at least once a year in schools, provide an opportunity for a student to conduct research, plan for how to carry out the project and learn how to obtain the required materials.
Science fairs also give students a practical introduction to the scientific method, in which students must test their hypothesis and carefully record the data before reaching any conclusions. They also have to set up the project and document your procedures so that other people can test your results by repeating the work they did.
Participation in a science fair requires students to effectively communicate the results of their work through images and words, as well as the items used to make the project. Learning to communicate scientific information to the public by presenting data to teachers, fellow students and family members helps students become scientifically literate, because they must understand what the project is about before they can explain it to others.
Here are three science fair projects that can help students learn more about the physical world.
Building a simple generator for a science fair project is a great way for students to learn about electricity. To do it, you begin by making a box with one open end out of cardboard, and then you place a large nail through the center of the box. Next, you clamp magnets around the nail and spin them to verify that they can spin freely.
Remove wire from a solenoid valve’s core, tape one end to the side of the box and wrap the wire around the box for 250 turns. Connect both ends of the wire to a small light bulb to complete a circuit. When you spin the magnets inside the coiled wire, you generate electricity that will power the light bulb.
Students are familiar with seeds from different fruits, such as the black seeds that they spit out while eating watermelons or the tiny seeds that dot the exterior of a strawberry. But have they ever wondered how many seeds are produced by different fruits?
To make this science fair project, gather a variety of fruits and use a knife to cut them open (under appropriate supervision). You make a list of each fruit on a sheet of paper and note how many fruits you are using.
Counting all of the seeds found in each piece of fruit and dividing it by the number of fruits gives you a measure of each fruit’s average seed production. You can then think about the meaning of your results, noting whether similar fruits have similar amounts of seeds and seeing which fruits are the most productive.
The sun’s rays can damage the interior of a car on a hot day, so people often use sunshades to protect it. However, that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily effective.
For a science fair project, work with three identical cars and use two types of sunshades: one made with plastic air bubble insulating material and another that uses reflective foam. The third car has no shade and serves as the control.
After parking the cars in the sun and closing the windows and doors, you check the temperature on each dashboard using an infrared thermometer every two hours until the sun goes down. Recording the data enables you to see which car heats up the least, and therefore which sunshade is the most effective at blocking heat.
Science fair projects are a great way for students to learn about how the world works, as well as potentially gain some recognition from teachers and fellow classmates. They may even spark a life-long interest in science that could lead to a career and an opportunity to contribute to our collective knowledge.
Being able to help a charity or a worthy cause always brings a feeling of fulfillment. This is not only true for individuals but as well as for families and other organizations conscious of their social responsibility to their communities.
Parents with small kids are sometimes involved in fundraising activities in the schools of their children. They work together with the school administration to raise funds for a certain project. But there have been concerns about the unhealthy food choices in these events including those that involve sports clubs and dance events. Some parents say the popular use of chocolates, sausages and pies is not teaching kids the proper way to eat.
In Australia, there’s this group called Parents Jury that is advocating healthy fundraising ideas for kids and adults. It has started a Health Fundraising Campaign that encourages parents and groups to choose other alternatives and where food is involved, use only healthy food. Parents Jury believes that this will have a strong influence on kids and communities.
The Australian Government has also implemented a food supply strategy program which have had a great impact in schools. The program has successfully encouraged educational institutions to do away with the usual fundraising activities and conduct those that are beneficial to the health of kids and adults. Through the government’s efforts, the National Canteen Guidelines have been formulated and several states have carried out specific campaigns. New South Wales, for instance, has its Fresh Tastes program while Queensland has its Smart Choices.
[Read more…] about Healthy Fundraising Tips for Parents and Schools
Ever since my daughter started 1st grade, one thing that has been a constant battle is HOMEWORK. I can’t say that I blame her point of view. After a full day at school, then some club or sports afterwards, who wouldn’t just want to veg on the television when they got home? Add the fact that she has 2 little brothers making noise (and a mess) somewhere close by in our very “cozy” (read: small) house, or the new puppy is tugging at her heels….so it can’t be easy to get back in school mode and work when there are so much better things to do at home!
After another especially bad argument of “This is the 10th time I’ve told you to do your homework!” , my husband, who is always silently neutral when I am close to hysterical, said why not try this – LET HER FAIL. Hmmmm……. If she wont do her homework, she’ll have to deal with explaining to her teacher why, she’ll be made to do it at recess instead of the playground and she’ll probably not be happy at all with the consequences. So instead of Mom-the-Ogre banging her head against the wall, our 8-year-old will learn a valuable lesson on her own…….what a great idea!!!
So this is the plan starting tonight at our household. Will let you know what happens. In the meantime, here are a few useful homework tips I found:
Hot Homework Tips
Parents Homework Tips
Homework Tips According to Grade
Photo via Jessicizer
Children can feel a little overwhelmed when they start school for the first time – or even when they go back to school after having a break all summer. What they don’t often realize is that their parents can feel overwhelmed, as well.
School costs a lot of money. While public schools are free to attend, the school supply list just gets longer and longer. Each year it seems like it costs more. And for parents with more than one child that can mean hundreds of dollars just in supplies. Most children need at least some new clothing, too, because they’re growing so quickly.
Use the Internet to Find Deals
Fortunately, the Internet has allowed parents to have another way to get clothing and supplies for their children and save a little bit of money in the process. With discounts and special codes, like Overstock coupon codes, parents can save big.
If you’re a parent and you’re looking for ways to cut down on how much you’re spending for your child’s back-to-school items, don’t ignore the power of the Internet. If you look carefully, you can often find deals that give you free shipping. If you combine those deals with other offers (where that’s allowed) or use those deals when sales are running, you can get a lot of supplies for very little money.
Save All Year Long
Rather than wait until the last minute to get school supplies, make sure to plan for them all year. Put school supplies into your budget and save a little bit each month. That way, when school comes around you’ll already have the money available.
You won’t have to worry where the money for supplies is going to come from, get a loan from friends or family, or use your credit cards. It can be a great feeling to be able to pay for your children’s school supplies from savings that you’ve accumulated.
Less Stress After Shopping
Saving and planning all year long can also help your children feel more comfortable. They won’t see you stressed out and worried about how you’re going to pay for the things you’re buying. It’s good to be able to get your children what they need and not spend months afterward concerned about paying off the accumulated bills. If you want to save for back-to-school time, add up how much you spent last year and then add 10 to 20 percent to it.
Account for Inflation
When you do add in the extra percentage, you’ll account for inflation and rising prices. If you find great deals and use savings techniques, you might not spend as much money as you had set aside. That’s a great thing, though, because you’ll have some left over for a special treat for yourself or your children. You can also put that money back so you won’t have to save up as much over the course of the next year. That might free up some of your cash each month that you can use to pay down debt or spend on other things that you and your family need and want.
Photo via She Knows
The other day my husband and I went to the first PTC meeting with our daughter’s teacher, Ms. A. Report cards had just come out and I was eager to see how N had fared in the first term of first grade. It was a big adjustment for her as her preschool was tiny (8 kids on her class!), and her new “big school” was huge (almost 1,000 kids up to grade 12!). I knew that she was happy there, but as any parent knows, the way your kid is at home and at school can be two very different things.
Well, Ms. A told us that N was an enthusiastic learner, did well in all her subjects, especially p.e, art, computer and music. She then also said N was not really a “self starter” and needed some time (i.e. would play, draw or get distracted) before she could sit down and complete a task. In maths, she was very good with numbers, but often got confused with “problem solving” work. In reading, she had also improved vastly (she could hardly reading at the end of Kindergarten), but tended to rush through reading, using context clues to guess the words rather than going through them slowly.
Of course, I also had other questions- like the grading system, which was new to me, ranging from 4-1 (4 being the highest, and meant to be “super, super” not given lightly) and I was used to the old-fashioned ABC’s or 95, 85, 75 etc. N mostly got 3’s, a few 2’s, and two 4’s, but I can’t help but feel that she could have done better – that I could have done more to help her.
I think its up to us as parents to really know and understand our kids learning styles (again, think of the Animal School) as it could really help them not just in their school years, but for the rest of their lives.
Photo via AJC1
From the get go, Barack Obama made it known just how important his family is to him. Despite being the busy guy that he is, he always makes it a point to set aside time and resources for his wife and two girls. It looks to me that he is quite successful at what he is doing.
Recently, he was interviewed by Essence Magazine, and he talked at length about his stand on parent involvement in regard to raising children. Let me share with you some of the points that struck me the most.
Regulate TV time. So what does the first couple do? The president says that the girls are not allowed to watch TV during school nights. Instead, they have to do their homework first – as soon as they get home actually. When dinner time comes around and they’re still not done, then they continue after. Naturally, this requires diligence AND patience on everyone’s part. I understand this, though, as my parents did the same thing with us, and I’d like to think it worked out pretty well!
Set educational expectations. I think this is one thing that many parents need to work on. We have to draw the line regarding what is expected of the children and what we can do to help them. I have heard about (and seen) so many parents take on the school workload of their children just so things can get done. I can also recount a lot of stories about parents who set very high (often unrealistic) expectations. The trick is in finding the correct balance between giving the child responsibility AND supporting him when necessary. Unfortunately, this is a gray area. Who is to say what the balance is? Here’s a rough guide, according to the President: children must take responsibility for waking up and getting to school on time. They also must take responsibility for routine homework. When it comes to extra projects and other non-routine tasks, perhaps parents can lend a helping hand.
Communicate. This is a way of monitoring how your child is getting along in school. You need to make it a habit to spend time with your child regularly, if only to talk about mundane things. Even better, make it a point to set goals with your child, and then celebrate milestones together.
Isn’t that just a wonderful thing to hear from someone of such stature?