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Even if the thought of summer reading is daunting for your child, it doesn’t have to be painful, or the grounds for arguments at home. You can help your child create a plan for completing his or her summer reading list. Here are a few tips:

Make a Plan. Whether it’s in the morning, as an afternoon break or a way to wind down after dinner, try to set a structured reading time for your child every day.

Read Together. You can read aloud, or you can both read the same book silently, stopping to discuss as you go. When reading together, you can help make sure your child is grasping the basic storylines and plots and demonstrate that you enjoy reading too!

Compromise. Allow your child to take a break from “required reading” by selecting a book, magazine or journal of their own choosing.

Here are a few suggestions if your child needs a break from required reading:

Kindergarten: Mud Puddle by Robert Munsch

1^st Grade: S is for S’mores: A Camping Alphabet by Helen Foster James

2^nd Grade: See the Ocean by Estelle Condra

3^rd Grade: A Mirror to Nature: Poems About Reflection by Jane Yolen

4^th Grade: Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder

5^th Grade: A Week in the Woods by Andrew Clements

Middle School: The Ghost in Allie’s Pool by Sari Bodi

High School: Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson

Summer reading is an important part of wrapping up the school year and segueing into the next. So, encourage your children to keep reading this summer!

Sources: “Under the Sun: Best Books for Outdoor Summer Reading.”  and “Tackling School Reading Lists”

Did you know that music lessons can help improve the memory of children? When the guys from B&B Music World, a D.C. based, in-home music lesson service told me that – it was music to my ears!

That is why I am proud to announce that we have formed a special partnership with B&B Music World. Through our new friendship, we are going to encourage our students to work with B&B to learn awesome music and improve their memories (that will help them in school too). And, since their team is a lot like ours at Ashley Tutors – energetic, experienced and always looking to make learning more fun they will get to learn in a 1-1 setting, which is exactly the same successful experience they have at Ashley Tutors.

Go see and hear for yourself! Check out our new friends at their website. Be sure to watch their free music lessons, too! Don’t forget to read this great article all about music and memory.

In November, we are really going to begin rocking and rolling with B&B Music World. So, listen up because we have some terrific contests and prizes planned for our students!

Did you know that music lessons can help improve the memory of children? When the guys from B&B Music World, a D.C. based, in-home music lesson service told me that – it was music to my ears!

That is why I am proud to announce that we have formed a special partnership with B&B Music World. Through our new friendship, we are going to encourage our students to work with B&B to learn awesome music and improve their memories (that will help them in school too). And, since their team is a lot like ours at Ashley Tutors – energetic, experienced and always looking to make learning more fun they will get to learn in a 1-1 setting, which is exactly the same successful experience they have at Ashley Tutors.

Go see and hear for yourself! Check out our new friends at their website. Be sure to watch their free music lessons, too! Don’t forget to read this great article all about music and memory.

In November, we are really going to begin rocking and rolling with B&B Music World. So, listen up because we have some terrific contests and prizes planned for our students!

Hello all:

As much as we think our team can tutor the presidential candidates in a thing or two, we know that it might be too late to help Obama or McCain.  But, it is never too late for us to help students in the Washington, D.C. area in anything from reading, to writing, to SAT prep, and even college essays.

So, during this political season, we created a political spoof on the seemingly endless political ads to show students, and especially high school students, that we have tutors who are not too old or too inexperienced — but just the right age to understand any student’s work and any student’s world!

Check it out and please send the commerical around (who knows, maybe we will get it to McCain or Obama?)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfU8jb-Vths

I recently started reading a book called P.E.T., or Parent Effectiveness Training, which was recommended to us by our good friend Jared Wells at Wells Academic Solutions in California. Since the cornerstone of Ashley Tutors is communication between the tutor, student and parent — this book was a perfect read for me! P.E.T. teaches parents to communicate with their kids and offers game plans to resolving family conflicts. Read more about P.E.T.:

“This beloved classic is the most studied, highly praised, and proven parenting program in the world — and it will work for you. Using the timeless methods of P.E.T. will have immediate results: less fighting, fewer tantrums and lies, no need for punishment. Whether you have a toddler striking out for independence or a teenager who has already started rebelling, you’ll find P.E.T. a compassionate, effective way to instill responsibility and create a nurturing family environment in which your child will thrive.”

Parents, students and tutors all across Montgomery County, Md. and the Washington, D.C. area are having great success with our motto at Ashley Tutors — L.I.V.E. – Learning Is Very Entertaining. Before we can make learning fun though, everybody on our team, including parents and students, have to be excited to communicate. P.E.T. helped us, and now this book will help you communicate better with your “team” at home.

To read more about the book or get a copy for yourself, go to www.ashleytutors.com and click on A+ Shopping With Ashley. You can find this book and many other educational books for adults and children — plus some fun games!