Aug 19 2008
ANNOUNCING the Spanish & English “Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten!”
BRAND NEW!!! Spanish & English “Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten!”
Click Here to Order Your Copy Today!
Aug 15 2008
Getting Parents Involved In School
Listed below are suggestions how to encourage and motivate parents to become more involved in school:
- Ask your child’s teacher how you can help.
- Offer to read to your child’s classroom.
- Sign up for field trips.
- Offer to bake snacks or volunteer to help for school parties: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine, the 100th Day of School, Easter, Last Day of School, etc.
- Volunteer to work the lunchroom.
- Volunteer to be a playground monitor.
- Join the Parent-Teach Association/Organization (PTA/PTO).
- Volunteer to write grants and raise money for your school.
- Ask if you can do work from home: trace projects; make copies; color posters; etc.
- Make it a point to know everyone’s name in your child’s class. If you know their name, they are less likely to be a bully to your child.
- Ask your child about their day and be prepared to actively listen.
- Make unloading the backpack and going through his/her folder a team effort to keep you all on top of daily activities.
- Make sure your child completes all homework and if you have questions, write a note together to the teacher and place it back in the folder.
- Attend school board meetings.
- Network among the parents of other children in your child’s class. If you become friends with the parents, it is easier for your child to develop long and lasting relationships too.
- Ask if your teacher is in need of extra supplies (i.e. cleaning supplies) for upcoming projects.
- Encourage your child to read by turning off the television and having mandatory reading time for the entire family.
- Make sure your child is getting 10-12 hours of sleep each night.
• Make sure your child is eating a nutritious breakfast to start the day. - Make sure your child understands that healthier choices at school mean more energy for play.
- Ask what you can do.
- Mingle and get to know other teachers or sit in a class to observe other teachers to help you and your child determine the teacher you would like your child to have for the next year.
- Ask if you can dress up as the Mad Scientist to help promote the Science Fair or dress up as a clown to help promote Fun Fair.
- Volunteer, volunteer, and volunteer!
Copyright 2008 Cedar Valley Publishing, Stacey Kannenberg; Author of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
Have a story about how you or someone one else got involved and it improved your child’s learning experience, or lit a fire under other parents? Please share it with us!
Aug 14 2008
Tips for First Grade Learning
As parents/caregivers, you can help your First Grader learn with ease and confidence by implementing these everyday tips:
- Communicate concerns and/or expectations with your child’s teacher.
- Foster independence by giving chores: setting the table, dusting, putting silverware away, etc.
- Follow a daily routine to help your child transition smoothly from school to home each day. For example, empty his/her backpack together and review its contents. Schedule homework, playtime, dinner/conversation, bathtime, shared reading time and bedtime.
- Write important home/school events on the calendar: teacher conference, picture day, vacation days, early release days, etc.
- Volunteer in your child’s class/schoolroom or ask how you can help from home.
- Support your child by attending school functions.
- Praise hard work when completing projects and learning.
- Read various types of books, and discuss the author, illustrator and its content.
- Nurture, motivate and instill self-esteem in your child by listening to him/her.
Take an active role in your child’s life and just watch him/her succeed at anything and everything he/she does!
Copyright 2008 Cedar Valley Publishing, Stacey Kannenberg; Author of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
What’s your favorite transition ritual that you perform with your child each day? Why?
Aug 12 2008
Tiny Tips for Kindergarten Lunch Time
Going to lunch with a class full of first time Kindergarten students was an eye opener for me. It was September of 2004 and I had not been in a school cafeteria setting since my own elementary school days many years ago. Once I reached middle school, I walked home for lunch every day, so to me it seemed like a brand new experience being in a school cafeteria again.
I met my daughter at her classroom on her first day of Kindergarten. We walked as a class with her teacher. Her teacher, Mrs. Neitzke was reminding the children of the school policies: no running in the hallways, to walk quietly, and no loud talking as other classes were in session. We walked in a single file line to the cafeteria with this new group of wide-eyed Kindergarten kids.
There was a buzz of excitement in the air. The children who had a bag lunch were carrying their shiny new lunch boxes and were told to follow Mrs. Neitzke to their lunchroom table. Each child who was taking hot lunch for the day followed Ms. Lunch Lady. They all had a nametag with their lunch number on it and were asked to punch in that number on the keypad with the help of Ms. Lunch Lady. Patiently, she helped hot lunch children enter their three-digit number. Then they were asked to take a tray and help themselves to their silverware.
I was not expecting those trays to be so heavy. I remember using them in college to slide down the hill after a snowfall, so if they were strong enough to hold my bottom down a hill; one would think it could hinder a Kindergarten student.
- Tip #1: Prepare your child that every day, somewhere in America a child drops his/her lunch by accident. It is loud. Everyone stares. Many people will laugh, and most likely the child who dropped it will cry. Unless, however you prepare your child that accidents happen. There’s no need to cry, try to smile and say “Opps!”, or better yet, laugh too—so the kids aren’t laughing at you but with you.
Silverware goes on the tray. Many times it is the first time a child actually has access to a butter knife; so, many kids were excited to be trusted with this huge honor. I observed two boys having a duel with their butter knives and it took less than a second for the sound of clanging silverware to draw the attention of Ms. Lunch Lady. She sternly reminded the boys that butter knifes are used to cut food only!
- Tip #2: Remind your child about how to handle and use butter knives safely.
Amazingly, there’s a milk carton color system to go along with all the milk options provided by the milk supplier. In our case, we had brown for chocolate, pink for skim fat free, blue for 2%, and red is strawberry.
My daughter was thrilled to be in charge of her milk choice every day. I reminded her that I would like her to rotate between white, chocolate and strawberry. She agreed. My daughter started saying that the she did not like her white milk at school, only at home. So, I decided to meet her for lunch to see how this could be true. I noticed she selected the pretty pink color carton. I grabbed the blue carton and while we were munching on our pizza and green beans, I asked if we could switch cartons. She said sure and I watched her take a tentative sip of my blue carton of 2% milk and then she sighed and drank the entire carton. She likes 2% in the blue carton over the skim fat free milk in the pink carton.
- Tip #3: As about your child’s lunch, the food and drinks itself. A simple change in the color of a milk carton could solve your problem.
Helpers help the children to the menu of the day items, and assist with carrying a heavy tray to the table. The teacher helps the children with bag lunches by opening fruit cups; yogurt tabs and opening milk cartons.
The teacher waits for the rest of her class to arrive and reminds the students that this is their opportunity to eat; and as soon as they are all finished eating, they will empty their lunches in the trash cans and deposit trays and silverware onto the conveyer belt.
The teacher introduces a team of older students waiting to help them along the way. She tells them that after they are done, they will go to the bathroom and wash their hands and then go outside for recess. She stresses that Kindergarten is so much fun, the children have to make sure they eat all of their food in order to have enough energy to play for the entire recess.
She explains that the Kindergarten class will be getting a small nutritious snack after lunch before they leave for the day, but she reminds the kids that a healthy lunch helps a growing body to function properly.
Many of the kids were too excited to really eat their food – including me! It was exciting watching them interact up and down the table. New kids meeting and becoming friends over lunch on their very first day of Kindergarten. It was loud and fun! I was so caught up in the excitement of the moment, that I was just as guilty as my daughter, who was too busy talking rather than eating.
- Tip #4: Reiterate the sound advice that my daughter’s teacher shares with your child because I, too, fell victim to the excitement and grossly under-ate!
At home, Heidi is rarely rushed to eat her food. At Kindergarten she would have to adjust to this new schedule. She would have to work hard to eat within 20 minutes and still hold multiple conversations with her school friends.
- Tip #5: If your child is coming home starving, you might want to make sure he/she is focusing on eating lunch at lunch time and not socializing too much.
Take it from me; it was hard for me not to get caught up in the excitement of “kid watching”. I was just as distracted as the rest of my new little friends.
Copyright 2008 – Stacey Kannenberg, Cedar Valley Publishing, Author of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
What are some additional tips Kindergarteners should know? How’d you learn about them?
Aug 05 2008
Pre-First Grade Skills
Now that your child graduated from Kindergarten, you may be curious what can you do over the summer months to prepare him/her for First Grade.
Listed below are the basic Pre-First Grade skills most schools will assume your child will know as he/she walks through the doors in the Fall:
- Write full name and phone number.
- Know upper and lower case in/out of sequence.
- Know colors and shapes.
- Know numbers 1-30.
- Count to 100.
- Recognize patterns.
- Skip count by 5s and 10s to 100.
- Know money (coins and dollars) and its value.
- Read basic sentences.
- Know days of the week and months of the year.
- Understand weather concepts.
Copyright 2008 – Stacey Kannenberg, Author of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
Do you have plans for integrating this list into your summer? What are your ideas?
Jul 31 2008
Thanking ALL Parents!
I would like to take this moment to thank all the parents…
- Who volunteer at school and help my child have a better day.
- Who smile and say, “been there” when it’s my child having a meltdown in the store.
- Who open the door when they see me struggling to carry multiple kids and an umbrella.
- Who offer to take a picture so the entire family to be in the shot.
- Who created the concept of drive thru services for pharmacy, dry cleaning, banking, car washes and food services.
- Who have invented products that only a parent could appreciate.
- Who coach our kids in sporting and club activities.
- Who drive our school bus and treat our children like their own.
- Who help at the cross walks to keep our kids safe.
- Who attend school board and Parent-Teach Associations/Organizations (PTA/PTO) meetings.
- Who make snacks and treats for the school bake sale.
- Who raise loving and responsible children.
Copyright 2008 Cedar Valley Publishing, Stacey Kannenberg; Author of Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! and Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
It really does take a village to raise a child. Have we forgotten something? What would you like to thank other parents for contributing?
Jul 30 2008
I’m SO Honored!
Wow, am I ever-so honored! The VirtualRadioNetwork has named ME (yes, lil’ ole’ me) as their businesswoman of the week!
Check out the interview here:
https://www.virtueradionetwork.com/Businesswoman_of_the_Week_5.htm
Jul 25 2008
God’s Peace be With You and Your Family, Randy Pausch
Eariler this week, I urged you to view Randy’s last lecture – and I hope you did, or plan to. Randy Pausch has died of pancreatic cancer, at the age of 47.
Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University computer science professor whose final lecture inspired millions, died early today in Virginia of pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Pausch, 47, who turned the lecture into a book, said that no one would have been interested in his words of wisdom were he not a man in his 40s with a terminal illness, leaving behind a wife and three young children.
According to Dr. Pausch’s Web site, a biopsy last week revealed that the cancer had progressed further than expected, based on recent PETscans.
“Since last week, Randy has also taken a step down and is much sicker than he had been,” the Web site said. “He’s now enrolled in hospice. He’s no longer able to post here so I’m a friend posting on his behalf because we know that many folks are watching this space for updates.”
Last fall, Dr. Pausch delivered the lecture at CMU, which still posts it on its Web site. The lecture has attracted more than six million viewers.
In the year preceding the lecture, he had gone through rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, but refused to give in to morbidity or self-pity. Instead of focusing on the cancer, he talked about how to fulfill childhood dreams and the lessons he learned on his life’s journey.
In his 10 years at CMU, he helped found the Entertainment Technology Center, established an annual virtual reality contest and helped start the Alice program, an animation-based curriculum for teaching high school and college students.
After the lecture, he moved to Chesapeake, Va., to spend his remaining time with his wife, children and family.
“Randy had an enormous and lasting impact on Carnegie Mellon,” said university President Jared L. Cohon. “He was a brilliant researcher and gifted teacher. His love of teaching, his sense of fun and his brilliance came together in the Alice project, which teaches students computer programming while enabling them to do something fun — making animated movies and games. Carnegie Mellon — and the world — are better places for having had Randy Pausch in them.”
With the help of Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow, Dr. Pausch wrote a book, “The Last Lecture,” which was published earlier this year and has now been translated into 30 languages. He elaborated on his lecture and emphasized the value he placed on hard work and learning from criticism. His words were intended as a legacy for his young children.
In May, Dr. Pausch spoke at the Carnegie Mellon University commencement. He said a friend recently told him he was “beating the [Grim] Reaper” because it’s now been nine months since his doctor told him he would die in six.
“But we don’t beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well,” said Dr. Pausch, who urged the graduates to find and pursue their passion. He put an exclamation point at the end of his remarks by kissing his wife, Jai, and carrying her off stage.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Pausch is survived by his children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe. Also surviving are his mother, Virginia Pausch of Columbia, Md., and a sister, Tamara Mason of Lynchburg, Va. The family plans a private burial in Virginia. A campus memorial service is being planned. Details will be announced at a later date. In September, Carnegie Mellon announced a plan to honor Dr. Pausch’s memory and his work as “a tireless advocate and enabler of collaboration between artistic and technical faculty members.” CMU is to build the Randy Pausch Memorial Footbridge, which will connect the Gates Center for Computer Science, now under construction, with an adjacent arts building.
The family requests that donations on his behalf be directed to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, Calif. 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon’s Randy Pausch Memorial Fund, which primarily supports the university’s continued work on the Alice project.
More details in tomorrow’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
First published on July 25, 2008 at 9:12 am
Jul 21 2008
Let’s Get Ready to Deal with Death
My grandmother and step-grandfather virtually raised me. Some of my most precious memories are of doing things with both grandparents – whom I miss dearly.
So, when the story of Randy Pausch began circulating, I took notice. It was about death – and recently, I’ve lost some very dear people in my life – including my beloved grandmother.
Stop what you’re doing and watch this re-creation of Randy’s last lecture. YOU deserve to take just a few minutes to deal with the death of someone very close to you – before it happens – or even to help you deal with a death that has already happened or to prepare your family for your future death:
Jul 16 2008
Clearing the Air on Education
Let’s clear the air: Here is my take on education. It was only five years ago that Kindergarten teachers were teaching everything you needed to know in Kindergarten, starting at day one.
Now, kids are expected to KNOW things, and are tested on the following within the first few months of Kindergarten:
- The upper case alphabet out of sequence or mixed up. Kids will be asked to name the letters listed, such as: B, D, X, K, J, M, O, etc.
- The numbers to 10, out of sequence or mixed up. Kids will be asked to name the letters, listed, such as: 2, 5, 9, 8, 1, 3, 4, etc.
- Kids will be asked to identify basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple
- Kids will be asked to identify basic shapes: circle, diamond, rectangle, triangle, oval and square
- Kids will be asked to identify basic coins: penny, nickel and dime
As the year progresses, Kindergartener’s will need to know both upper- and lower-case letters and numbers (up to 30), in- and out-of-sequence. More colors and shapes will be added including hexagon and octagon and more coins such as quarter and dollar.
Children need to know their name, address and phone number and be able to get dressed for outside play and use the bathroom independently, to make that first year a success!
So when the first parent teacher conference happens, your teacher gives you the results. Your child only knew 5 of 26 letters all mixed up, only recognized the number 1-5 mixed up to 10, could identify basic colors, correctly identified the circle, diamond and a square and was not able to identify the coins, penny, nickel or dime.
Many parents disengage with education at that point – at their first Kindergarten parent teacher conference!!!! In their mind, they are thinking—why did you not tell me before Kindergarten that this is what kid needs to know? Coins? I thought my kid would swallow coins—never thought I needed to teach them that before Kindergarten!
Sadly our early education teachers are not aware of how advantage the Kindergarten curriculum has become. I do presentations to early childhood teachers who, many times, are not part of a public school system and fall through the cracks. This is one of the problems with education today.
A parent’s first touch with education needs to be Public Service Announcements and teaching that education for their child(ren) should begin when they are toddlers.
My “Let’s Get Ready” books are what kids will be working on for the entire Kindergarten year, so the more they see it, the more it will make sense when they have that “aha moment”.
It’s like the seat belt law. If you teach a child to wear their seat belt, they will teach their parents, grandparents, older siblings and family friends to wear theirs.
With my books, the kids will teach their parents that they, too, need to be involved in the educational process for them to succeed! REMEMBER: Parents are our children’s FIRST TEACHERS!
And, did you know that there is no standard Kindergarten text book? Think about that. No text book for Kindergarten! How can you build a house without a blueprint? How can you not not use Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten?
