6 Week Parent Check-Up: 4 Areas Not to Miss for School Success
Last updated on May 24th, 2018 at 05:21 pm
Four crucial–and sometimes overlooked–areas that affect learning and how to check them to see how your child is doing. Parenting advice and simple tips I shared on the TODAY show to help your child have a more successful school year
The honeymoon period is over and the school year is in full swing. At this point most parents have a good idea about how their children get along with the teacher and which subjects are hard or easy. But school success is more than just our kids’ opinions about homework, and in our fast-paced lives we can overlook other important areas that affect our children’s learning.
Checking up on those four crucial areas could identify any issues, resolve any problems, and even make the rest of your child’s school year go far smoother. Think of it like your child’s regular doctor check-up, except this one is no cost, doesn’t take as much times, you never have to leave your home and involves your child’s education. There’s no better time than right now to check-up and check-in with your child’s school progress. Here are the four core areas of your child’s education you should assess for school success.
Four-Part Parent Back-to-School Check-Up
Part 1. ACADEMICS: How is your child handling the school load?
Don’t wait to be shocked on that first report card! Now is the time to zero in and find out if your child needs a tutor, a class change, or just needs to hit those books harder.
Grades: Most school’s have a website service parents where parents can review their child’s grades, test scores and absences. Register for that service (it’s free), and then use it at least once a week. And let your child know you’re checking up (you just may see a sudden change in his motivation). If you see a dip in grades or test scores, it’s time for a serious chat with your child. If the problem continues, set up a conference with the teacher to see if this is a learning problem, inappropriate class not at the child’s ability, a tutor is needed or your child needs to study more.
Missing school notes: Being involved in your child’s education is essential, but to do so you have to make sure you’re receiving all school correspondences. Important notes about upcoming conferences, open houses or school projects often end up at the bottom of those backpacks, so now is a great time to have your child to empty his backpack and clean it. If you find missing forms, then set aside “Note Catcher Box” (a basket, tin) in a convenient spot near the front door. Then set a new rule: the minute your kid walks in the door, he opens his backpack and puts any school correspondence in the box. You can check it later, sign it, and then put it back that backpack.
Part 2. SOCIAL: How is your child getting along with others?
Pals play an enormous part of our kids’ self-esteem, and research finds that who our kids befriend can affect their study habits and their overall academic success and feelings of security. While kids don’t need lots of friends they do need at least one loyal buddy. A lack of friends, rejection or bullying makes concentrating on those school assignments a lot harder.
Friend problems: The two places where kids are most likely to be excluded are in the cafeteria or school playground. A quick way to find out if your child has a pal is to ask him to draw a map of the cafeteria or playground, and then mark where he usually sits or plays. Next ask him to mark where the other kids sit or play. Does he have pals? Worry if your child has no friends. If you see a pattern, dig further and then contact the teacher for his or her perspective.
Cyber-bullying: Electronic bullying via internet, cell, text, email or web is escalating. A quick way to find out your child’s online presence is to Google your child’s first and last name and determine how many hits come up. If you see a growing presence it could be a sign of cyber-bullying. Watch especially when your child receives a text or email. If he looks jumpy, worried or covers up the computer, monitor closer. And regardless, now is a great time to review Internet safety rules and change your child’s password.
Bullying: Peer cruelty is a growing problem and usually happens where there is least adult supervision. Hot spots include bathrooms, cafeterias, the corners of the playground, the back of the bus, lockers, and hallways. So ask: “Where are places you or the other kids try to stay away from because you don’t feel as safe?” Is your child avoiding certain spots? Does he run home to use the bathroom? (Forty-three percent of students are afraid to use the school restroom). Heading to fridge famished might be because his lunch money is stolen. If so, develop a safety plan for your child, monitor daily and report your concerns to the school.
Part 3. EMOTIONAL: How is your child handling stress and that activity load?
According to a new poll from the University of Michigan, childhood stress is now a top-5 concern for parents, and 56% of parents believe it’s getting worse. Stress affects our kids’ learning and their ability to concentrate.
Activity overload: A survey published by KidsHealth.org found that 41 percent of children aged nine to thirteen said they feel stressed most or all of the time because they have too much to do. Nearly 80 percent wished they had more free time. Watch out! Overscheduled kids run the risk of stress-related illnesses. Now is the time to sit down with your child and look at her weekly schedule and all those extra activities. Is there one thing that could be cut to free up time and give your child a chance to decompress? Cutting just one thing can make a difference.
Stress: Have you seen a marked change since school began from your child’s “normal” behavior that lasts everyday for at least two weeks. For instance: Is your child more irritable or withdrawn lately? Have trouble concentrating or have more headaches? Is he quicker to frustrate? If so, could it be stress related? Identify your child’s stress triggers. Reduce those triggers that you can (like that scary shows or too difficult of a math class). Watch also conflict at home, which can spill over into kids’ school life. Find ways to de-stress with your kids and help him learn to decompress.
Part 4. PHYSICAL: How is your child’s health?
Don’t overlook your child’s physical health, which is critical to learning and overall school success. Reoccurring headaches or illnesses are often school related.
Sleep deprived: A lack of sleep can have a serious impact on children’s abilities to learn and perform at school. Missing just one hour of sleep can be enough to reduce a child’s cognitive abilities by almost two years the next day. Is your child waking up refreshed and ready to go or are you playing Big Ben to try and get him out of bed. If the later, make sure bedtimes are kept to a routine schedule. Turn off the computer and television at least 30 minutes prior to bedtime. Take away the cell phones during nighttime hours (62% of kids admit they use it after the lights go out and their parents are clueless). Avoid caffeinated sleep stealers like cold medications, chocolate, or energy-drinks.
Skipped breakfasts: Tune into those breakfasts dishes to check what your child is eating –or not eating. A healthy breakfast is important for concentrating and keeping up with the stamina. If mornings are rushed and your kid is missing that crucial first meal, think of healthy simple options that your kids can grab on the run like ready-to-go bottles of orange juice or milk, low-fat yogurt, apples and whole-grain English muffins.
The secret is to identify one thing that may affect your child’s learning success. Then find a simple solution that works for your family and commit to implementing it until you reap positive change. And make sure you get to your child’s school Open House!
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Dr Borba’s book The Big Book of Parenting Solutions: 101 Answers to Your Everyday Challenges and Wildest Worries, is one of the most comprehensive parenting book for kids 3 to 13. This down-to-earth guide offers advice for dealing with children’s difficult behavior and hot button issues including biting, tantrums, cheating, bad friends, inappropriate clothing, sex, drugs, peer pressure and much more. Each of the 101 challenging parenting issues includes specific step-by-step solutions and practical advice that is age appropriate based on the latest research. The Big Book of Parenting Solutions has recently been released and is now available at amazon.com
Build Kitchen Skills, Memories with a Kids’ At-Home Cooking Camp
Last updated on September 12th, 2015 at 10:24 pm
We all want to raise our kids to be healthy eaters. Right? We also want meal times to be pleasant. Don’t we? And, we surely want to raise our kids to be competent, able adults. Of course we do.
An in-home cooking camp does all of those things and builds lasting memories together as a family.
Not much of a cook yourself? No problem. Explore with your kids. And if you love cooking, relinquish control. This is not about perfection, and there should be no high expectations for the finished product. It’s about exploring as a family – in the kitchen – and hopefully having your kids learn at least one skill each time you do an in-home cooking camp.
For this adventure, you will need:
1. Kids (Exhibit A):
My silly children, Hannah age 9, and Evan, age 6.
2. At least one parent, but both parents are best. If you do this as a family, it will have maximum impact. Good emotion (fun times with family) surrounding a learning experience will be sure to solidify in their minds for years to come.
3. A recipe or task to create.
Follow along with our family as we do a Dinner Helpers Camp by making Vitamix’s bacon cheddar potato soup (linked!) with a mixed green salad. We also started making some homemade ice cream that we finished making the next evening.
You will soon learn that this is less about the recipe that you are creating than it is the experience together. Let’s practice some kitchen skills and have some fun!
Before you get started with anything in the kitchen, reinforce your hand washing rule in your home.
Make it fun. Have them sing the Happy Birthday song while washing their hands with warm soapy water.
SKILL: HAND WASHING
After Hannah washed her hands, she started helping my husband Jeff start the ice cream preparation.
SKILL: MIXING
SKILL: POURING
While we have Hannah working on the ice cream, we start Evan on the chopping of onions for the potato bacon soup. A veggie chopper like this one from Pampered Chef is a wonderful tool that allows kids to chop food without the risk of getting cut. And it’s fun for them!
SKILL: CHOPPING
Hannah is managing the bacon on the stove. Since she is now 9 years old and has been helping me since toddlerhood, we allowed her to cook the bacon with close supervision.
SKILL: COOKING WITH HEAT
After the bacon was cooked, we had Hannah break the bacon up into small piece before it went into the Vitamix.
SKILL: HAND PREPARATION
The soup calls for shredded cheddar cheese. Evan practiced his measuring skills by measuring out some cheese.
SKILL: MEASURING
Now it’s time to put all the components of the bacon cheddar soup into the Vitamix. Hannah’s turn is up! In these photos – what you don’t see – is that Hannah spilled the milk all over the place when she was pouring it into the blender. She was pretty upset with herself, but we said that it was part of cooking. Messes happen!
SKILL: COMBINING
We got the Vitamix on the soup setting, and we’re ready to get the table set!
Kids love to be helpful and part of the team! And our team is Family Lemond.
SKILL: SETTING THE TABLE
Family Lemond was thrilled at the finished product, and the kids loved the fact that they helped make the soup.
Challenge: Tell your kids that the family is doing a cooking camp together and do it. Make being in the kitchen an event that they see as fun. Even if you are just making dinner, each experience is something they will cherish for years to come. Family memories + kitchen skills = divine.
From our home to yours.
Africans Are the Best Swimmers…At ANY Age
Last updated on August 30th, 2015 at 05:27 pm
For many years, conventional wisdom has held that blacks can not swim. (I use the term ‘black’ to apply to anyone of African descent. The term is meant with respect to encompass the broad range of cultures descending from the African continent) A widely discredited academic report years ago stated that the physiology of a black person leads to their sinking which explained why blacks couldn’t swim. Prejudice dressed up with academic credentials to support entrenched beliefs, accepted as fact, all real evidence to the contrary. Such is the insidious nature of prejudice.
I had the great pleasure of meeting with Bruce Wigo, President of the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We discussed how cultural norms have kept African-Americans out of swimming lessons. The ISHOF, well worth a visit, has an excellent exhibit which explains how history really worked. The exhibit begins as: “In 1451, Europeans began their explorations of the west coast of sub-Saharan Africa and discovered that African people were by all accounts expert watermen and “the best swimmers in the world”. The Europeans attributed these extraordinary swimming skills to constant exercise and “from being brought up, both men and women from infancy, to swim like fishes.” The exhibit goes on to explain how valued Africans were in the Navy and on fishing fleets. During the period of slavery in the U.S., in the 18th century it was estimated that 80% of blacks could swim and only 20% of whites could swim, until it was determined that swimming allowed slaves to escape and was banned, relegating an entire cultural group to a higher risk of drowning deaths for many generations. If you’d like the full text, just e-mail me at rebeccalioness@gmail.com
Indigenous people and minorities consistently drown at higher rates than whites in virtually every country, and yet many of these groups come from a rich heritage that understood and respected water. Native Americans. Maori. Aboriginals. Inuits. And Africans. There is no rational reason. Please tell your kids this…and then teach them to swim.
Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it – and die.
Camping Tips for Safe and Fun Family Bonding Experiences
Last updated on September 12th, 2015 at 10:29 pm
Why on earth would any parent go camping with their kids? Between the packing, the hauling and the dirt, it’s enough to send you running to the Holiday Inn. But it’s these very same rustic realities that make a weekend or even a week in the woods the perfect glue for a great family bonding experience.
“Unlike other types of vacations, you aren’t led around, signs don’t tell you what to do or where to go, there aren’t lines to wait on,” says Rick McClintock, executive director for the National Association for Therapeutic Wilderness Camping. “As a family, you have to depend on each other to create the activities and the structure for the day and to provide the necessities you all need for living.”
Camping isn’t just about working together as a family, of course. It’s about having a blast in a world where the regular rules don’t always apply. Things that may be taboo back at home — starting campfires, skinny-dipping in the moonlight or sliding in the mud — may be perfectly OK in the woods. “My daughter Zoe and I fight so much less when we’re camping, because I’m no longer “the enforcer” that I am at home. She’s more relaxed, I’m more relaxed, and we can both enjoy bending the rules together,” says Jamie Scurletis, 49, of Rumson, N.J. Sound interesting? Here are some tips to get you started:
Cut your teeth with car camping. Hiking into the woods with kids and setting up a backcountry camp is a recipe for stress if you’ve never done it before. Find a campground that allows you to park your car right next to the spot where you’ll pitch your tent. That means your supplies — and your quick escape — are seconds away.
Start short and stay close. Think in terms of two nights away and two hours from home. There’s less at stake and less to pack. Save big, long trips for when you’re more confident campers.
Choose a campsite with care. Campgrounds range from pastoral and peaceful to downright dreadful. Ask friends and family who camp what campgrounds and campsites they suggest. You can also find campground reviews online.
Borrow what you can. There’s no sense in investing big bucks in all the gear only to find out camping isn’t for you. Ask friends or relatives if you can borrow the basic stuff. Check out The Coleman Company for a laundry list of basics (as well as other good beginner camping tips).
Do your homework. Find out ahead of time what facilities your campground does and doesn’t have. It’s no fun showing up, for example, and finding out that everyone else has bikes because the woods are laced with great backcountry carriage roads. Do some research about local attractions, such as hiking trails and white-water rafting, as well as rainy-day bailouts like movie theaters and bowling alleys.
Stage a backyard dress rehearsal. A dry run just a handful of yards from the house can help everyone get comfortable with the idea of camping. It’ll also give you a chance to get acquainted with the tent and other equipment. Now’s the time to discover that the air mattress your neighbor loaned you is flat as a pancake a mere 10 minutes after you blow it up.
Even with careful planning, camping can present real challenges: drenching rains, mosquito swarms or fishhooks in the hand can test even the heartiest camping clans. “There are definitely times that you’ll be sitting under a tarp playing cards as the rain pours down, and thinking, ‘wow, this really stinks,’” says McClintock. “But when you think about it, when’s the last time you and the kids actually played cards together?”
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Editor’s Note: As a true Canadian, I grew up camping every summer for extended periods and we have been passing that tradition on to our son. It is a great way to bond doing things you don’t normally get to do – like figuring out where to string a clothesline and making s’mores and popcorn over a fire. But as the article says, do check out online camping supply lists and make sure you plan for excessive sun and heat as well as rainy days. After record heat during our camping trip in Kentucky last week we were very grateful for the canopies we brought and the opportunity to do local underground cave tours in cool temperatures. Also make sure you have a complete first aid kit that is stocked for camping – including burn creams and sunburn treatments. We found ourselves in need of these but were far from any well-stocked shop or pharmacy. Hope you have safe and enjoyable camping experiences – they can provide memories to last a lifetime! Cheers, Audra.
New Brain Beats CD Brings Learning and Music Together
Last updated on August 31st, 2015 at 01:32 am
Calling all alternative learners, auditory learners, music lovers and anyone who is afraid of summer brain drain – now you can pop some catchy music into your nearest player and learn some really useful info thanks to Brain Beats, a fun mnemonic collection of songs. Covering everything from geography, science, history, math, grammar and more you can slip in a little lesson during your next car ride, workout or even let it play poolside.
Our memory loves music, so instead of committing the latest drivel by a bubblegum popstar to memory, feed your brain the words to the preamble of the constitution! Back in the day School House Rock got me through some of my classes, and now Brain Beats brings educational music to a new generation.
Check out Brain Beats Tour of the States music video and follow the link to the album for more info. Brain Beats is available at all Marbles The Brain Store locations and on their website.
New Font Helps Kids with Dyslexia Read More Accurately
Last updated on March 3rd, 2018 at 11:22 am
Christian Boer, a graphic designer from the Netherlands, put his artistic talent to work to solve his own struggles with dyslexia. He designed a new font that gives the brain extra help recognizing letters, words and punctuation. The changes to the letters are subtle but may make all the difference to a child or adult with the condition. The font was his Masters thesis and now Dyslexie is available for purchase on his website at http://www.studiostudio.nl/project-dyslexie/ and payment is accepted via Paypal in euros. There are business and personal versions as well as a school version for kids.
Here is a video demonstration of the dyslexie font:
