BLOG

There’s a lot of focus on specific subjects that younger students struggle with, from math, to grammar and reading, but one topic that doesn’t receive much attention is handwriting. In the course of an average school day, students can spend a great deal of their time, in almost all classes, engaged in handwriting. If your child struggles with this, it can make their whole day seem difficult and overwhelming.
A few signs of handwriting troubles include:

–Your child reverses some letters, such as “b” and “d” or makes backwards “s” letters.

–Your child has no sense of direction-left to right, across the page-when writing.

–Your child’s writing is messy and illegible.

–The teacher reports that your child has difficulty completing his or her work within the given time frame.

The majority of the time these problems are not serious; they just need a little bit of extra attention and they resolve themselves. Students who particularly struggle with handwriting can benefit from some extra time spent practicing their letters and developing better motor control, whether with the support of a tutor or under the guidance of their parents.

Source: Joseph, Angela. “Handwriting Helpers: When Your Child Struggles with Penmanship,” www.education.com.

New research is looking more closely at the benefits of parents reading with their children and finding that it’s not only important that we read with our children, but also how we read with them.

Researchers at Temple University College of Education, point to the concept of warmth (acts of affection and positive reinforcemen) and responsivity (understanding what individual kids need and providing that for them ) as an important ones.

 “There is an emerging body of evidence to suggest that warm and responsive home and classroom settings help to support kids’ social development, which in turn supports kids’ cognitive development,” researchers say.

How can you read with more warmth and responsivity?

• Share story time. Share the reading experience with children-let your child turn the pages, or have a chance to pick out a book. Talk about what is happening in the plot and let your child make guesses as to what might happen next.
• Patience is key. It’s not a matter of quantity over quality. If your child wants to take his or her time reading a story, let them.
• Engage in your own dialogue. Don’t be afraid to stop and ask or answer questions. This is an important part of the learning process, and helps cultivate curiosity.
• Let them know asking for help is okay. Make sure your child knows that it’s okay to ask for help with reading problems. If they don’t know or understand a word, or got lost in the plot of the story somehow, don’t be afraid to stop and go over it with them. If you feel your child needs help with these kinds of activities, tutoring sessions that focus on literacy development can be beneficial for them.

Source: Hoffman, Todd. “Literacy Learning: It’s Not What You Read, But How You Read It,” www.education.com.

Many students are resistant to the back-to-school days of September. Summer starts to fade away, and the excitement of the first weeks of school dissipates as students realize it’s time to get back down to business. Here are a few tips for helping your child get back into a weekly school schedule, homework and all.

A Change of Voice

Experts recommend ditching the dreaded “homework” word in favor of the more general term “study.” This way when you tell your child it’s time to hit the books, they can’t answer with “But I don’t have any homework!” Study time is about brushing up on the current lessons and reading material, whether there’s assigned homework or not.

Keep it Fun

Back to school can be fun with just a little creativity. Instead of making the back-to-school transition seem serious and all about textbooks and stocking up on supplies, try to gently ease their schedule away from summer and into the school year. It’s hard for students to immediately switch over to study mode. Allow your student to still have some playtime, just not as much as he or she did in summer.

Study Corner

Not everyone feels inspired sitting at a desk. There are other ways to create a quiet and comfortable study area, whether it’s in a big comfy chair or a cozy corner with a laptop tray doubling as a desk. It’s important for students to be comfortable and relaxed when they is working, so homework seems like less of a chore.

Setting an Example

Got your own work to take care of? Find a spot near your child to work on your own things, whether it’s catching up on reading or balancing your checkbook. Showing your child that you too have a project to finish with a deadline makes it harder for them to find excuses. And you’re right there if they need some extra help.

Teaching Time

Have your child pretend to be your teacher and give you a weekly lesson on the topics he or she is covering in class. You can use props to make this fun and exciting. Often, teaching someone else what they are learning helps students improve their own memory retention and helps them better understand concepts or recognize areas where they are still unclear.

These are just a few ideas to help your child transition into a successful school year. Give your child time to ease back into schoolwork, and if you find that they need additional help with certain subjects, it’s never to early to work tutoring sessions into their new schedules.

Source: Lucas, Cheri. “Back to School Homework: Getting Kids into the Swing of Studying,” www.education.com.