Pointers to help your child

A child who is academically motivated wants to learn, likes learning-related activities, and believes school is important.

Children are naturally motivated to learn when they are infants. When children are not motivated to learn, it is because something has gotten in the way of their natural motivation. They believe that they cannot do well in school-related tasks and they stop trying or do not try hard enough because they don’t think it will make a difference. They become easily frustrated and give up when learning is difficult.

Why do children develop these negative beliefs? Sometimes it is because of things that affect their ability to learn. Learning disabilities, difficult temperament, developmental delay, depression, or chronic life stress may make it harder for a child to learn in school. Children who have failed in school before are also very likely to stop trying to learn because they develop the belief that they cannot do so.

The attitudes of adults can also influence children’s beliefs about their academic success. Parents who have standards that are unrealistic can discourage their children’s efforts. Competition in school (where someone always wins and someone always loses) can be very discouraging to children, especially those who may never be “the best” at school even though they can learn a lot. Children who don’t experience success or whose successes are not recognized may develop poor academic motivation. Children whose parents or peers do not think school is important or do not place importance on doing their best can also develop poor academic motivation.

Here are some ideas to help you increase your child’s motivation to learn:

Be firm and fair when you discipline your child.
Teach your child to be responsible at home.
Chores and expectations for proper behavior help develop self-discipline.
Work hard to have a good parent-child relationship. Take time to do fun things with your child.
Listen when your child talks to you, especially about school.
Do family activities that encourage learning, such as visits to the library, museums or parks.
Let your children know that you think learning is important.
Provide opportunities for successes. Children who are successful are more likely to try new things.
Talk with your children about your interests and likes.
Help your children identify things that they enjoy and what they do well.
Capitalize on their interests to build learning experiences.
Talk with your children about school and show interest in school activities.
Talk with your children about their career interests and how school is related to a career.
Be sure to praise your children for trying hard and for being successful.
Balance praise and punishment when you are helping your child.
liverpool.k12.ny.us

Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do homework.
Avoid having your child do homework with the television on or in places with other distractions, such as people coming and going.
Make sure the materials your child needs, such as paper, pencils and a dictionary, are available.
Ask your child if special materials will be needed for some projects and get them in advance.
Help your child with time management.
Establish a set time each day for doing homework. Don't let your child leave homework until just before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects, especially if the project involves getting together with classmates.
Be positive about homework.
Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about homework will be the attitude your child acquires.
When your child does homework, you do homework.
Show your child that the skills they are learning are related to things you do as an adult. If your child is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your checkbook.
When your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers.
Giving answers means your child will not learn the material. Too much help teaches your child that when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her.
When the teacher asks that you play a role in homework, do it.
Cooperate with the teacher. It shows your child that the school and home are a team. Follow the directions given by the teacher.
If homework is meant to be done by your child alone, stay away.
Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive effects. Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning skills.
Stay informed.
Talk with your child's teacher. Make sure you know the purpose of homework and what your child's class rules are.
Help your child figure out what is hard homework and what is easy homework.
Have your child do the hard work first. This will mean he will be most alert when facing the biggest challenges. Easy material will seem to go fast when fatigue begins to set in.
Watch your child for signs of failure and frustration.
Let your child take a short break if she is having trouble keeping her mind on an assignment.
Reward progress in homework.
If your child has been successful in homework completion and is working hard, celebrate that success with a special event (e.g., pizza, a walk, a trip to the park) to reinforce the positive effort.

www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/homework/part_pg2.html#2

BEDTIME GUIDELINES FOR PARENTS!

Parents often struggle with their children at bedtime. A lack of sleep can be the cause of behavior or attention problems in school. “Without enough sleep, kids are robbing themselves of the ability to concentrate at school,” according to Stanley Coren, sleep specialist and author of “Sleep Thieves.”

School-aged children should get between 9-11 hours of sleep. One reason children may be getting less than the recommended amount of sleep could be due to family schedules. Between after school activities, homework, social commitments, and work schedules kids may be getting to sleep late and have to get up early. Other children may be getting to bed early but are not able to fall asleep. In either case, sleep deprivation can lead to temporary loss in IQ levels, reasoning and memory skills, and even make kids a little hyper says Coren.

Most often with sleep-deprived children come sleep-deprived parents with the need to just GO TO SLEEP! It may be helpful for parents to take a look at what may be causing sleep problems.

Some questions for parents to consider may be:

Does your child have other problems outside of sleep (such as other health or school problems)?
Is there a power struggle over who is in charge?
Is the child's problem a problem for parents - and how(are bedtime struggles interfering with parent work or other routines)?
Is there too much (over 10 minutes) or too little (less then 1 minute) parent involvement with bedtime and sleep? (Note: the amount of appropriate time decreases as the child matures.)

In addition to these considerations, some guidelines that may be helpful for increasing sleep quality or time are:

Establish a routine:

Set your child's bedtime & wake time - have a cut off time for TV, video games, & computer.
Have them perform tasks in a sequence - take a bath, put on pajamas, brush teeth, & go to the bedroom.
Avoid drinks, especially caffienated, right before bed.

Give a bedtime prompt:

Remind them 15 minutes before their set bedtime to start their routine

Form good habits:

Encourage physical activity (so that they not only value fitness but are tired at the end of the day)

Foster positive coping:

Reassure nightime fears.
Provide nightlight and/or background noise (fan).

Prepare not to respond:

Set expectations and stick to them - if “one more story” or “five more minutes” works once, children will try it over & over to prolong bedtime
If child leaves their bed, return them with little attention

Give your children praise:

It is important to tell and show children what we want them specifically to do. For example, “I really like the way you went upstairs and did your bedtime routine right when I asked you.”

When to get help:
Always keep your child's safety in mind. Ongoing sleep problems tend to interfere with children's relationships with family & friends and their school performance. If you experience severe or ongoing bedtime problems with your children, contact your school psychologist, school nurse, or primary healthcare provider for assistance.

This article was adapted with permission from material supplied by
Helping Children at Home and School II, a publication of the
National Association of School Psychologist
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Never do for children what they can do for themselves. Take time to teach them how to do things independently. Assist with homework, but don't take over.
Give children household responsibilities. Assign simple tasks like taking out the garbage or clearing the dishes. Work up to more complex jobs like washing dishes. Make sure they—not you—pick up after themselves.
Post a weekly list of chores. Use pictures for young children, and have a place for each child to check off completed tasks. After you check your child's work, place a star or sticker on the chart.
Don't remind, nag, scold or complain when children don't do their chores. Explain what's expected and the consequences of not doing what's expected. Allow consequences to happen.
List activities that are allowed after work is done—a snack, outside play, television, and computer time. This will motivate your child to complete tasks quickly. It also keeps a balance between work and play.

Eight Reasons to Read with your child:

To share stories and ideas with one another.
To improve your child's listening skills and attention span.
To broaden your child's world. When you read together, children can understand and enjoy books written above their independent reading level.
To exchange ideas and opinions as you discuss the story together.
To present reading as a pleasurable experience your child will want to do alone.
To introduce your child to a variety of subjects, authors, and illustrators.
To build your child's vocabulary.
To increase your child's sense of security, safety, and confidence.

Play 'I Read, You Read'

If your child is just starting to read, play "I Read, You Read." Choose a book you are sure your child can read. Start by reading a sentence aloud. Have your child read the sentence back to you. Or read all but the last word in the sentence. Have your child supply the missing words. As your child improves, take turns reading. You read one page, your child reads the next page. Or assign roles. "I'll be the mean old ogre and you can be the fairy princess."

Source: Nancy Roser, Helping Your Child Become a Reader, 1991.

Some more ways to help your child learn to love to read

Have your child read aloud to you every night.
Choose a quiet place, free from distractions, for your child to do his nightly reading assignments.
As your child reads, point out spelling and sound patterns such as cat, pat, hat.
When your child reads aloud to you and makes a mistake, point out the words she has missed and help her to read the word correctly.
After your child has stopped to correct a word he has read, have him go back and reread the entire sentence from the beginning to make sure he understands what the sentence is saying.
Ask your child to tell you in her own words what happened in a story.
To check your child's understanding of what he is reading, occasionally pause and ask your child questions about the characters and events in the story.
Ask your child why she thinks a character acted in a certain way and ask your child to support her answer with information from the story.
Before getting to the end of a story, ask your child what he thinks will happen next and why.

www.ed.gov/parents/academic/involve/homework/part_pg3.html

Surround your child with language. Go to the library and check out lots of books. Write signs to label familiar objects. Repeat silly poems or sing songs with your child. And read, read, read.
Make reading a game. Buy a set of magnetic letters for your refrigerator and take turns spelling familiar words. Encourage your child to make an alphabet book by cutting pictures of words that start with various letters out of magazines.
Help your child hear the sounds different letters make. Clearly say the "k" sound at the beginning of the word "cat." That will help your child see how language is put together. If your child is starting to read, encourage her to try to figure out words on her own. Ask, "How could you figure out what that word says?" or "Does that word make sense here?"
Play phonics games. One night at dinner, serve only foods that start with the "B" sound—and then challenge family members to list all the words they can think of that start with that sound. Or play rhyming games—how many words can you think of that rhyme with "cat"?
Talk with your child's teacher. She may want you to set aside time each day for reading. Let her know you want to be a partner in helping your child learn this important school skill.

As a parent
you want your child to become a lifelong reader, one who reads for pleasure and for information. If children do not understand what they read and gain enjoyment from reading, they will read only when forced. Reading aloud to your child can help foster a love of literature and help develop comprehension.

Modeling
When reading aloud to your child, stop and verbalize the thinking that is happening in your mind. Verbalize your connections. For example you may be reading and something in the story reminds you of an experience you had as a child or even something you saw on TV. Share your thinking, or your connection, with your child. Or maybe as you're reading, a question pops into your mind about why something is happening in the story. Stop, verbalize your question, and read on to see if your question is answered. In doing so, you are modeling the comprehension strategies and their use. You can show your child that "thinking about their thinking" will help them remember and construct meaning from text.

ezwebsite.org

While teaching kindergarten a few years back I discovered, by accident, an easy way to detect colorblindness in children. Using food or manipulatives is the easiest way to teach math skills in kindergarten so on several occasions we would use M & M's, Froot Loops, or other items to count, sort, add or subtract. One day while we were sorting Froot Loops I noticed a little boy in my room was mixing up the red and green Froot Loops, yellow and orange, and blue and purple. I went over and explained how to sort them and he said he understood. He again mixed up the same colors. I mentioned this to his parents and they had never noticed anything. I felt they needed to carry him to the eye doctor and when they did, discovered he was colorblind. Children who are colorblind learn to distinguish the shades in bright colors and learn early to read the paper on the crayon to determine the color. Because the color of Froot Loops are pastel, the children can not differentiate between the shades as easily. Children are not aware they are colorblind or that they see colors differently. If you have noticed that colors are giving your child difficulty, give him/her the "Froot Loops" test to see if they can distinguish between all of the colors. You might also want to visit the following websites to take a colorblindness test:

http://colorvisiontesting.com/

http://home.sc.rr.com/mikebennett/colorblind.html

http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html

https://health.live.com/results.aspx?qu=Add+And+Adhd

http://www.add-adhd.org/ADHD_attention-deficit.html