Attached is an article from USA Weekend by Allyson Dickman, talking about what you as parents and guardians can be doing to help your student be successful with homework.
End homework battles
Hating homework is usually the kid's job. But when keeping a child's focus on his books rather than the TV becomes a nightly struggle, parents can wind up hating homework, too.
"Most parents, especially those who work outside the home, dread all the homework and pressure that the school year brings," says Jamie Woolf, author of "Mom-in-Chief: How Wisdom From the Workplace Can Save Your Family From Chaos." She recommends using the following strategies to end homework battles.
Set big-picture goals together. Ask your child to write out homework goals, such as, "I will not turn on the TV until my homework is finished."
Assess your child. Decide whether she's struggling because she lacks motivation or just doesn't understand the work. Then decide the best approach to help her do better.
Make room. Encourage neatness and organization by giving your child a study area that he can use routinely and maintain on his own.
Teach accountability. Don't blame the teacher for what your child doesn't understand. Instead, teach your child how to get answers. For example, tell him to ask the teacher to explain any unclear assignments.
Don't give up if bad habits return. Refocus on those big-picture goals you set together, and remind your child to stick with his commitments.
Connect success with effort. Remind your child that effort and perseverance -- not just innate talent -- will lead to success.
-- Allyson Dickman
Click here to link to the article: http://www.usaweekend.com/09_issues/091004/091004thinksmart-parent-homework.html
Monday, October 5, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Welcome Back
August 2009
Welcome Leawood Families,
I am so excited to welcome our new families as well as our returning families to the 2009-2010 school year. This is my third year here at Leawood and I continue to be impressed with the students, families, and community members and how great they make this school. As always, my summer was filled by revealing various connections to Leawood through friends of friends, and random connections through other people. It really states how strong the Leawood community ties are beyond the neighborhood boundaries.
We started this year off great with our open-house and two assessment days. These assessment days really help our teachers get to know your kids before school starts, and they help us identify where the students are instructionally so that we can work to meet every child’s instructional need. Our welcome Back Carnival is Friday, August 28th and Back to School Night will be Thursday, September 3rd. Back to school night will be an opportunity for you as parents to get a brief picture of what the instructional day looks like and any other important information from the classroom teachers. In addition, this year we will be offering curriculum nights. These nights will allow you as parents to understand better the resources that we use at Leawood to support the expected learning of our students. In addition, you will get to sit through an actual lesson so that you can better understand what your students experience here at Leawood. Our first curriculum night will be in math and how we use Every Day Math as resource to teach math. This night is scheduled for Thursday, September 24th. We will do a night for our writing approach Every Child a Writer in October, Fundations and word-work in December, and reading with MONDO Reading in the spring. We look forward to helping parents better understand the resources that we use at Leawood.
Our school is filled with so many opportunities for your students and you as a family. As always, I want to personally invite you to attend our PTSA meetings which are scheduled the 3rd Wednesday of the month starting at 6:00pm. Our school accountability meetings will be the 3rd Monday of the month starting at 4:15pm. These are two great opportunities to support all of the great things that happen at Leawood. In addition, as many of you have experienced, before and after school get very busy and our number one priority is the safety of EVERY student. We are always looking for parents that are here before and after school to volunteer to help us at our cross walks and to ensure that we are all looking out for the safety of our children. Stop by the office if you are interested. We will always welcome parents to volunteer at various levels of interest, such as in the work room to do busy stuff for teachers, in the library to help our kids develop the love of books, and at all of our activities.
You may have heard or will hear the term 21st century learner. This is a common term used to describe our current students and the learning that they are surrounded by every day. We as parents have to remember that our world is so different for our kids as compared to when we grew up. Our kids are living in a digital era where communication, skill sets, and expectations are so drastically different from our expectations as a student, that we can no longer predict what our students’ future holds. We cannot predict what new jobs will be available, the technology that will be available, and the simple things that we most often take for granted. We live in an era of immediate communication, instant gratification, multiple opportunities, and technology and expectations that change daily. As you will experience at Leawood, we will do our very best to insure that we are supporting all students with these opportunities to be independent and lifelong 21st century learners. What we need from you as parents is to support the learning at home. Ask questions and be involved in helping your students understand what they are learning. This partnership will ensure our students to be successful.
And finally, a few reminders that Leawood does our best to be environmentally conscious as we try to keep a paperless trail whenever possible. This means that our website at www.leawoodlions.us is our central location for information and communication regarding Leawood information, class and teacher news, school events, the calendar, the lunch menu, and anything else we need to let you know about. In addition, we send out our newsletters and information via email. If you do not have internet access, make sure to fill out the attached form on this newsletter to let us know. And at last, remember to schedule a night out for our one and only fundraiser, the silent auction. This event will be on Friday, November 6th at the Columbine Country Club. Tickets will go on sale soon. We hope everyone can join us to help make this night a huge success!
Have a great Year Leawood Lions,
Ari Goldberg
Welcome Leawood Families,
I am so excited to welcome our new families as well as our returning families to the 2009-2010 school year. This is my third year here at Leawood and I continue to be impressed with the students, families, and community members and how great they make this school. As always, my summer was filled by revealing various connections to Leawood through friends of friends, and random connections through other people. It really states how strong the Leawood community ties are beyond the neighborhood boundaries.
We started this year off great with our open-house and two assessment days. These assessment days really help our teachers get to know your kids before school starts, and they help us identify where the students are instructionally so that we can work to meet every child’s instructional need. Our welcome Back Carnival is Friday, August 28th and Back to School Night will be Thursday, September 3rd. Back to school night will be an opportunity for you as parents to get a brief picture of what the instructional day looks like and any other important information from the classroom teachers. In addition, this year we will be offering curriculum nights. These nights will allow you as parents to understand better the resources that we use at Leawood to support the expected learning of our students. In addition, you will get to sit through an actual lesson so that you can better understand what your students experience here at Leawood. Our first curriculum night will be in math and how we use Every Day Math as resource to teach math. This night is scheduled for Thursday, September 24th. We will do a night for our writing approach Every Child a Writer in October, Fundations and word-work in December, and reading with MONDO Reading in the spring. We look forward to helping parents better understand the resources that we use at Leawood.
Our school is filled with so many opportunities for your students and you as a family. As always, I want to personally invite you to attend our PTSA meetings which are scheduled the 3rd Wednesday of the month starting at 6:00pm. Our school accountability meetings will be the 3rd Monday of the month starting at 4:15pm. These are two great opportunities to support all of the great things that happen at Leawood. In addition, as many of you have experienced, before and after school get very busy and our number one priority is the safety of EVERY student. We are always looking for parents that are here before and after school to volunteer to help us at our cross walks and to ensure that we are all looking out for the safety of our children. Stop by the office if you are interested. We will always welcome parents to volunteer at various levels of interest, such as in the work room to do busy stuff for teachers, in the library to help our kids develop the love of books, and at all of our activities.
You may have heard or will hear the term 21st century learner. This is a common term used to describe our current students and the learning that they are surrounded by every day. We as parents have to remember that our world is so different for our kids as compared to when we grew up. Our kids are living in a digital era where communication, skill sets, and expectations are so drastically different from our expectations as a student, that we can no longer predict what our students’ future holds. We cannot predict what new jobs will be available, the technology that will be available, and the simple things that we most often take for granted. We live in an era of immediate communication, instant gratification, multiple opportunities, and technology and expectations that change daily. As you will experience at Leawood, we will do our very best to insure that we are supporting all students with these opportunities to be independent and lifelong 21st century learners. What we need from you as parents is to support the learning at home. Ask questions and be involved in helping your students understand what they are learning. This partnership will ensure our students to be successful.
And finally, a few reminders that Leawood does our best to be environmentally conscious as we try to keep a paperless trail whenever possible. This means that our website at www.leawoodlions.us is our central location for information and communication regarding Leawood information, class and teacher news, school events, the calendar, the lunch menu, and anything else we need to let you know about. In addition, we send out our newsletters and information via email. If you do not have internet access, make sure to fill out the attached form on this newsletter to let us know. And at last, remember to schedule a night out for our one and only fundraiser, the silent auction. This event will be on Friday, November 6th at the Columbine Country Club. Tickets will go on sale soon. We hope everyone can join us to help make this night a huge success!
Have a great Year Leawood Lions,
Ari Goldberg
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Summertime Ideas for Parents
As summer approaches, kids are getting excited and parents are beginning to plan how to engage their kids during the break from school. We thought we would take this opportunity to share some ideas about how to keep this summer fun and relaxed, while giving your kids the gift of some routine and structure as well. We’d like to support your sanity, too!!
For the children that are able to be at home during these months, the freedom to choose their activities and types of play is a wonderful thing. Many parents find some common dilemmas such as the following:
“All I want to do is play video games or use the computer”
“I’m bored” (after the first week of break)
“Take me here, take me there, what are we going to do today?”
(as in, please schedule my every moment)
A well balanced summer day means that kids have choice in what they do, opportunities for down time, and independent time as well as time engaged in activities with parents and friends. Healthy children have the opportunity to spend time on the interests they love most, but are also exposed to other developmentally appropriate activities. For example, if your ten year old loves video games, he/she gets time to play, but is also expected to be outside (riding bikes, skateboarding, collecting bugs, or playing with friends, etc) or inside doing other activities (reading, chores, board games, listening to music, etc.).
Finding a balance between scheduled activities and free time is important as well. Kids who engage in free, unstructured play have more opportunities to use their imaginations and build independent skills. While providing this type of down time is important, maintaining some routines within a more relaxed day can help both you and your child enjoy the summer break. Examples of various routines might be:
Morning (watch TV., eat breakfast, morning chores, get ready, play)
Afternoon (lunch time, “quiet time in rooms”, arts and crafts)
Evening (dinner, play outside, family walk, read books, bedtime rituals)
As we mentioned in our February Blog, kids need and respond to structure. If your family is traveling, attempt to keep at least a couple of routines the same whether you’re at a hotel, camping, or visiting family or friends. If your child is at summer camp while you are working, they may need more “down time” when at home, as their day is scheduled from morning until afternoon already. Attempt to continue a few routines within this down time as well. Providing this structure is critical to your children being able to respond to the changing environments and schedules that may occur during any summertime event.
The following are just a few websites that offer summertime ideas for families and children:
www.Creativekidsathome.com/summeractivites2.html
http://www.familyfungo.com/
www.Kidsturncentral.com/summer/summerfun.htm
www.momswhothink.com/kids-crafts/summer-activities-for-kids.html
Please share your thoughts with us and other parents about what we’ve presented as well as any other ideas you may have to help families enjoy their summer breaks! Thank you for taking the time to visit our parenting blog. Your input is highly appreciated!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Age of the Millenials
Hi Leawood Families, I am attaching a clip from CBS News 60 Minutes. I think that it is worth viewing as we think about what it looks like to raise responsible kids. Please feel free to leave a comment after you view the clip.
Thanks and have a great day!
Click here to view the clip: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml
Thanks and have a great day!
Click here to view the clip: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml
Monday, March 2, 2009
Positive Behavior Support at Home
Positive Behavior Support is a nationwide, research based program that schools have adopted to increase positive behaviors in their schools. The goal of PBS is for adults to have a common set of behavioral expectations, simply stated in three to five rules. Within these sets of rules, teachers or parents teach, model, practice, and reinforce the specific behaviors that they are looking for in any environment. Instead of telling kids “don’t run in the hallway”, we say “we walk in the hallway”. We reinforce students with verbal praise, high fives, PRIDE bucks, and “thank you’s” when they show us these behaviors. If we notice that certain students or groups are not following the rules, we restate the expectations and practice the right way of showing the behaviors we want. For minor behaviors, we may say “let’s try this again” or “Show me the right way to …” If students continue to struggle with certain rules, we look more closely at their situation and put interventions into place to support their success in a positive way. Within PBS there is also a place for firm limits and consequences around unsafe or hurtful (disrespectful) behavior towards another child or adult. The most important component of PBS is CONSISTENCY. All adults need to agree on what the expectations are, how to practice and re-teach in a positive way, and how to reinforce as well as consequence.
Why do we have to keep teaching the same behavior?
· Kids don’t just “know” how to behave. It is our job to set the expectations, practice what this looks like, and reinforce them when their doing it. This helps kids internalize behavior, so that it becomes natural over time. If kids are not getting it, we need to figure out why and adjust what we’re doing so that they can get it.
How can I use PBS in my home?
It’s easy!! There are many levels of using PBS in your home.
· A basic level of PBS would be highlighting for your kids what your expectations are before a transition into a new routine or environment. You can determine how often this teaching needs to occur based on your child’s age and what types of behavior they currently display in any situation.
“We’re about to go into the grocery store. Remember, we walk. We ask before taking anything off of the shelf. We use our inside voices.” Praise or thank your kids as you see them showing these behaviors (sporadically or when you have left the store). The amount of times you say this depends on the age of your child and what their behavior looks like in the store.
“It’s almost bedtime. What’s the first thing we need to do? (Ask questions of kids to let them tell you what the expectations are). When we’re all done, then what?” Reinforce kids with your attention as they meet expectations at home.
A more involved way of using PBS would be to set up a structured matrix. Click HERE to see an example.
The following article "Getting Behavior in Shape At Home" by Laura Riffel and Ann Turnbull gives some great tips and ideas for implimenting PBS at home: http://www.come-over.to/FAS/BehaviorAtHome.htm
Why do we have to keep teaching the same behavior?
· Kids don’t just “know” how to behave. It is our job to set the expectations, practice what this looks like, and reinforce them when their doing it. This helps kids internalize behavior, so that it becomes natural over time. If kids are not getting it, we need to figure out why and adjust what we’re doing so that they can get it.
How can I use PBS in my home?
It’s easy!! There are many levels of using PBS in your home.
· A basic level of PBS would be highlighting for your kids what your expectations are before a transition into a new routine or environment. You can determine how often this teaching needs to occur based on your child’s age and what types of behavior they currently display in any situation.
“We’re about to go into the grocery store. Remember, we walk. We ask before taking anything off of the shelf. We use our inside voices.” Praise or thank your kids as you see them showing these behaviors (sporadically or when you have left the store). The amount of times you say this depends on the age of your child and what their behavior looks like in the store.
“It’s almost bedtime. What’s the first thing we need to do? (Ask questions of kids to let them tell you what the expectations are). When we’re all done, then what?” Reinforce kids with your attention as they meet expectations at home.
A more involved way of using PBS would be to set up a structured matrix. Click HERE to see an example.
The following article "Getting Behavior in Shape At Home" by Laura Riffel and Ann Turnbull gives some great tips and ideas for implimenting PBS at home: http://www.come-over.to/FAS/BehaviorAtHome.htm
Friday, February 6, 2009
Setting Healthy Limits
Setting healthy limits with our children takes a great deal of work! What we know about kids is that they crave routine, structure, attention, and consistent expectations from their parents and the adults that work with them. Despite this, we can all attest to the behaviors, choices, and verbal responses that kids show in their effort to push the limits we set for them. Whether it’s the whining for that toy that we just don’t think they need, the ignoring of requests to do their chores, or the statement “That’s not fair!!” parenting with consistent limits takes a lot of energy and time. But how do some parents make it look so easy?
According to parenting resources such as Love and Logic (Jim Fay and Foster Cline), Kids are Worth It (Barbara Coloroso), and Dr. Laura Riffel(Behavior Doctor), there are several strategies that parents use to make this constant effort less time consuming and more effective.
- Model the behavior we expect from our kids.
- Have clear expectations/rules and support them with reinforcement (praise, attention, “thank you’s”) and consequences (natural and logical).
- Find time to give kids our attention by playing with them, engaging them in conversation, listening to them, laughing with them, and encouraging them.
- Provide choices within a set of parameters. “It’s time for bed, do you want to read books first or brush your teeth first?”
Have you experienced success or stress with any of these strategies? What ideas can you share that have helped you in setting healthy limits with your kids?
Please take the time to read these articles. They really get you thinking about our role as parents, and how we can help our kids. Let us know what you think.
http://www.loveandlogic.com/pages/responsible.html
http://www.loveandlogic.com/pages/guidingchildren.html
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Raising Responsible Kids
I am excited to introduce the next series of blogs that I will be focusing on. After many discussions with teachers and parents, I would like to foster some on-line discussions on "Raising Responsible Kids." My plan is to introduce a series of parenting topics and resources to help raise responsible kids. I would like to spend about a month on each topic. I am hoping to create an open atmosphere that allows all of us to have an opinion about parenting, and to bring resources regarding raising responsible kids. This will be an opportunity for parents to have a voice, help one another with parenting issues, and create a resource for parents to gain insight into the role of a parent. I will be introducing our first topic early in February.
Please leave me a comment if this is something you are interested in or opposed to. I look forward to the conversations ahead. I will be posting more blogs very soon.
Please leave me a comment if this is something you are interested in or opposed to. I look forward to the conversations ahead. I will be posting more blogs very soon.
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