Recent ActivityGroup Announcements Help for a Healthy Family MealGetting children to eat anything green can be a challenge. Real Food for Healthy Kids features strategies on how to best to feed your children. Their philosophy stresses moderation and a healthy approach to eating. They believe in the importance of teaching kids how to love food–including vegetables!!!–and learn about portion control, balance, and love of all types of food. Their site includes recipes that were not published in their cookbook, Real Food for Healthy Kids, as well as tips, resources, videos, and links.
Another great resource is provided by the USDA. It is called the Healthy Meals Resource System and it is an on-line resource system for child nutrition. With a variety of subjects from recipe and menu planning to food safety, you will be able to find an interesting mix of valuable information for your family. Bon Appetit! The Sibling EffectLast spring we covered several chapters from Nurture Shock, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman, in our Pawprints. This book really resonates with many needs that parents address with us. Many of you requested the need for sibling rivalry resources in our school parent needs assessment. Nurture Schock has a great chapter,"The Sibling Effect”, that seems appropriate to share for just this need. The assumption has been made that children with siblings are more skilled at getting along than children with no siblings, but they aren’t, and in fact the opposite may even be true – children learn poor social skills from those interactions just as often as they learn good ones. Kids who have positive, reciprocal relationships with their friends are the ones who have good rapport with their siblings later on. Kramer believes that children learn with their friends first and then transfer those skills to their siblings. Kramer stated that a telling friendship factor that predicts better sibling social skills is the child's ability to engage in fantasy play with a friend. She believes that children have to be emotionally connected to each other in order for fantasy play to be successful. They have to articulate and negotiate in order to get the story right. As Maya Angelou says, “I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers. It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage. Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.” So, maybe arranging more play dates is a new incentive to helping our children form better relationships with their siblings, but providing opportunities for them to learn to appreciate each other will be priceless. Good Friends Are Hard To FindMany of you have asked for resources pertaining to friendships. One recent resource that was presented to me seems to fit just that need. Good Friends Are Hard To Find by Frank Frankel provides helpful information by combining the author's practical experience along with years of research. Frankel, a psychologist, helped develop the Social Skills Training Program at UCLA, where he teaches parenting workshops on helping kids make and keep friends. Based on that program, this volume gives a helpful overview and also allows parents to locate particular problems (e.g., how to find friends; how to deal with bullies). Frankel advocates one-on-one play-dates as the most effective way for children to form meaningful friendships, maintaining that organized activities like team sports aren't structured to lead to the development of close friendships. They are valuable arenas in which kids can touch base with peers, but the building of friendships is facilitated by following up with one-on-one play. Tips on hosting play-dates and suggestions for avoiding frustration, boredom and conflict (the three main stumbling blocks of play time) are included. Frankel advises that kids should rely on interactive games (jumping rope, playing catch, board games) and that parents should stay in the background during visits. He also offers concrete suggestions for organizing schedules to make time for friends and for limiting such solitary activities as video games and TV. Check out this great resource. I would love to hear your input as you reflect on this great read.
Paired ReadingIf you are looking for a new method to support your child’s reading, Paired Reading is a wonderful tool to use with your young reader. It is a practice strategy the helps children improve their reading skills. It is most successful with children who have moved through the beginning stages of reading and are now working on reading smoothly and focusing on meaning (mid first grade level or higher). For further information, please check out my Paired Reading Night power point below. Also, if you are like me and need a little reminder now and again, I have provided a Paired Reading Tutor Card. These will come in very handy as you begin this powerful reading practice with your child. Happy Reading! Homework TipsHomework can be an important tool to reinforce your child's learning. It can also provide opportunities for children to practice responsibility and good work habits. When parents get involved with their children’s homework, communication between the school and family can improve. It can clarify for parents what is expected of students, as well as give parents a firsthand idea of what students are learning and how well their child is doing in school. To assit you with managing your child's homework, please look for the Homework Tip Sheet posted below. Thank you for your support! Refrigerator CurriculumParents please check out this valuable tool. The Arkansas Department of Education's website has a ready to print curriculum for you to place on your refrigerator. The ADE has provided these great documents for grades K-8. Each grade level example will show you what is expected of your child to know and be able to do. This easy to read format and simple design will allow you to post it on your refrigerator or a high traffic area. It will also be a great tool in assisting you as you help your child achieve knowledge in the classroom. Please refer to the Refrigerator Curriculum link to your right.
Motivation To LearnMotivation to learn is a reoccurring theme I seem to be hearing from some of our parents. Motivation is what inspires us or moves us forward in accomplishing our goals. When a child is determining their goal plan, I'm sure that they often underestimate the large role their education plays in accomplishing their dreams. Most of their goals are still very short term. Through the Center for Effective Parenting I have found a resource that may be helpful (please see file below). My hope for you is that these ideas will support your efforts in improving your child's value of learning. Please share your stories. I would love to hear the fabulous conversations and ideas your family generates.
Technology AwarenessThey say our children are digital natives. They were born into a world of quickly changing media. Our aim is to understand and support young people as they grow up in a digital age.These kids are different. They study, work, write, and interact with each other in ways that are very different from the ways that you and I did growing up. As educators and parents our number one question is ...How does the concept of safety translate into an increasingly virtual world? The following website is a parent friendly site that I found (please see the Technology Awareness link to the right). It has many answers to aid us in our understanding of Internet safety as well as other forms of media that are available to our children. If you are primarily interested in Internet safety click on the Parent Advice tab. On the left hand side you will see a topic list that will have this and many other great areas of interest. Enjoy your cyber journey!
Group Files
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Group Links  Center for Effective ParentingPlease check out this site for great parent resources including handouts and links. Why Gender MattersThis is a great resource to learn more about the differences between boys and girls. Group Contacts
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