How To Spot Math Learning Disabilities

According to another great article from http://findmathtutor.com/,  if you think maybe your child is struggling with math, but aren’t sure, here are some guidelines on identifying math learning disabilities..

Signs of Math Learning Disability By Age (adapted from the book The Mislabeled Child):.

1. -Children are unable to (or late) count 4 objects by the age of four and understand the quantity of four..

2. -Children are unable to count 15 objects and understand the quantity of 15 by the age of 5..

3. -Children still struggle to read and write three digit numbers at the age of 8..

4. -Children can’t do simple multiplication and division by the age of 9..

5. -Children can’t perform basic math operations (multiplication, division, add, subtract) by the age of 12..

Non Age Specific Signs of Math Learning Disabilities (if any one of these is present, your child likely has a learning difference):.

-Poor handwriting that contributes to errors. For example, a 3 is written to where it looks like a 5 which skews the entire math problem..

-Inability to tell when number is bigger than another along with reversals while reading numbers. E.g. 15 instead of 51. Or seeing 6 instead of 9. Or can’t tell the difference between the greater than or less than signs. Or often mixes up the + and x operators. Or can’t spot errors in their work. Basically, numbers are just one big blind spot..

-Poor memory. We call it ‘teflon head’ at our house. Information just bounces off, whether it’s remembering to put dirty dishes in the sink or how to divide fractions, the result is the same; a stubborn inability to accept and retain new information no matter how often it is repeated or explained or screamed at the top of mom’s lungs. Kids with learning disabilities don’t know their times tables and often can’t remember that 4+3 =7, they have to count it out every time, like they’ve never seen it before in their lives..

-Creative workarounds that are inefficient and often incorrect. Some kids will take 8 x8 and just go 8+8+8+8+8+8+8+8+8+8 and still get the wrong answer because their brains can’t keep track of so many numbers. If you check what I wrote, you’ll see 9 eights instead of 8–this kind of error is common..

However, I like to take the presence of creative workarounds as a positive sign because it means the child is still trying–kids who have given up don’t bother and are harder to help. Also, it demonstrates rudimentary critical thinking and problem solving skills. So I’m always happy to see convoluted pretzel math. Ideally, though, we want to get these kids up-to-speed on their math facts and well grounded in the basics of math theory..

-Inability to organize math operations and sequence steps correctly. These are the kids who take 2/3 x 3/4 and try to divide. They can’t orient themselves to the problem solving sequence and don’t know the first step from the middle step from the last step. Math is a maze and they are lost in the middle with the Failure Monster ready to eat them alive..

As a child, I exhibited all of these traits and it wasn’t until I became an adult that I mastered basic math. So there is hope! All is not lost!.

If your child fits one or more of the descriptions above, please contact their teacher as soon as possible to request a learning disability assessment and tutoring. Do not wait because the longer you wait, the worse the math disconnect gets. While you’re wading your way through the school bureaucracy, invest in some math games and fun activities for use at home. See findmathtutor.com for more information.

Tips For Helping Your Child Who Is Struggling in Math: Part 2

According to an article from http://findmathtutor.com/, someone was sharing how their child was beginning to struggle with more advanced elementary math. There were problems with keeping the numbers organized and keeping track of the math and the standard ‘use graph paper’ advice was given..

Below are 5 more tips for helping your child who may be struggling with math:

1. Work on math sense/number sense. Beef up math sense by going beyond the usual math facts. For example, most flashcards or math facts drills focus on single digits from 0-10–12 if the flashcard deck is really ambitious. Two digits and up, we often expect kids to just perform the steps of the operation as opposed to showing them (or letting them discover for themselves) the patterns for bigger numbers. So most kids get pretty good at simple math facts, but throw out 188-31 and they really have to stop and think. Go beyond the usual math facts and drill on double digits and even triple digits with various operations. This builds number sense for bigger numbers and reinforces understanding of place value..

Usually messy handwriting is a problem when kids have weak number sense and/or a poor sense of process. Kids with a strong grasp of fundamentals compensate for sloppy handwriting with their mental math skills and strong number sense..

2. Ask your child to predict the answer to a problem before they solve it. Their prediction may be (and really should be) a ballpark estimate, which is fine because what we want is a barometer for accuracy. Take 4500-1500 and ask questions like ‘do you think the answer will be less than 2000?’ and ‘what would you estimate the answer to be, just by looking?’ This kind of dialogue will tell you a lot about a child’s math sense or lack thereof. Further, it gets them using their math sense as a compass pointing toward the right answer. Eventually, they will almost instinctively know when an answer seems off..

And if their prediction is waaaaay off, be sure to dissect their thinking and show them where they took a wrong turn..

3. In the same vein as #2, be sure kids have strategies for checking their work and build that into any math work you do with them. Many times, kids aren’t asked to verify their work until later in their academic career and they often resist it because it’s a new step and outside their comfort zone. I have yet to meet a teenager who is thrilled about having to check their work. Most kids actively resist this step because it’s taught later, after the bulk of their math operation skills are learned. Get kids into the habit of checking their work and proving their answers early on to develop good habits for more challenging math..

4. Develop mental math skills to grow the areas of the brain that work on math. Challenge kids to do math in their heads. Ask them to count backwards from 100 by 2s, 3s, 7s etc… Also make a game out of how many numbers they can remember in a row–this will directly increase mental math capacity. Play FBI agent too by setting up a ‘crime scene’ or simply dumping out your purse and seeing how many objects they can remember after only 20-30 seconds. This is a fun exercise and is based on actual skills used in law enforcement (which might ignite their imaginations too!)..

5. Engage in activities that stretch complex thinking and problem solving skills. Some examples include the Rush Hour game which I’ve mentioned before (everyone loves that game!). Books such as You’re the Detective are good as well. Anything that involves a knot of a problem to unravel and requires multi-step strategic thinking. Plus, since it’s not directly math related, kids won’t associate this activity with math, but it builds important logic and pattern recognition skills..

Notice that none of these tips require doing worksheets (or using graph paper!) and that many of them address underlying more oblique skills. Sometimes the deficits we think are so obvious are really a weakness hidden somewhere else (e.g. logic or pattern recognition). A comprehensive approach, such as in the tips above, will cover all the bases.

Tips For Helping Your Child Who Is Struggling in Math: Part 1

According to an article from http://findmathtutor.com/, someone was sharing how their child was beginning to struggle with more advanced elementary math. There were problems with keeping the numbers organized and keeping track of the math and the standard ‘use graph paper’ advice was given..

While graph paper may be all that’s needed, in reality, things that are easy for kids aren’t hard to keep track of. Most of the time we take messy math as a sign that kids need help being neater, whereas I would argue that messy math doesn’t matter if kids know what they are doing. By all means, break out the graph paper, but don’t expect it to be a cure all..

Here are some ways, besides graph paper, you can help your child when they hit the wall in math..

1. Avoid frustration. People stop learning when they are frustrated so back off whenever you sense your child is at their limit. This is the most important rule when it comes to helping kids with math..

2.Explain what the real problem is. Many kids begin to self identify as stupid or dumb or not good at math when they ‘hit the wall’. In reality the issue is a lack of study skills and a need to expand their knowledge base. Be sure your child understands this and explain this is probably not the first time they will experience this..

3. Praise hard work and effort instead of results. This encourages kids to keep trying and de-emphasizes getting the right answer which reduces pressure and frustration (see #1)..

4. Go back to when your child was successful. Work on math they’ve mastered and carefully observe how their thought process works. Since math so often builds on what came before, there may be some hints as to what went wrong in an earlier skill. Also, this gets kids back into their comfort zone and back to being successful..

5.Break new skills into smaller pieces or micro steps and do fewer problems, but do them slowly and frequently. Kids don’t need to do 25 problems to master a math skill, but they do need to see exactly what the steps are and need time to digest the process. Especially for something new that is challenging.

Tomorrow will be 5 more tips from findmathtutor.com on how to help the child that is struggling in math.

Choosing The Right Math Program or Textbook

According to their website, The Ridgewood Public Schools in New Jersey,  has made a commitment to select an elementary mathematics textbook and/or program for use in all Ridgewood schools. A professional development and implementation roll-out is planned for 2009-2010.

Ridgewood Math is more of a Hot Button Topic than the Upcoming Obama-McCain Debate.

Just mentioning the words TERC , Everyday Math or Connected Math will surely illicit a strong opinion – either pro or con. There are not many Ridgewood Residents sitting on the fence when it comes to what has become known as the “Ridgewood Math Wars“. This new announcement seems to address what I see as a major issue and that is that there are several different Math programs being taught here in Ridgewood. Some elementary schools have a traditional program while others use different versions of Reform Math.

The Ridgewood Public Schools currently uses a variety of elementary mathematics textbooks and materials. In 2007, some parents expressed concern about this, with a portion of our parents feeling that mathematics materials and instructional methods needed to reflect a more traditional approach. Later that year, focus groups were conducted for the purpose of soliciting a broad range of parents’ perspectives. There were six meetings, and those unable to attend were provided with email access to the facilitator. Subsequent to that, the Ridgewood Public Schools made a commitment to select an elementary mathematics textbook or program for use in all schools.

There is no cookie cutter solution for teaching children math or for that matter any subject.  Children have different abilities and learning styles. So, it seems to me that Ridgewood Schools are moving in the right direction. Administrators, teachers, curriculum specialist, and parents must all be involved and informed whenever a new program or textbooks is going to be adopted. There a millions of dollars that go to textbook companies and programs, and it is extremely important to adopt the right one for your school system.  It is too late to complain after the fact and the textbooks are already in the classrooms.

Comprehension Activities for 3rd-Grade Readers

It is not enough for a third grader to read on grade level .  It is extremely important for children to understand what they are reading.  Below is an article by a second grade teacher on comprehension activities.
Comprehension Activities for 3rd-Grade Readers

Kimberlee BroaddusKimberlee Broaddus is a second grade teacher in California. She has always loved to write for pleasure and is excited to gain experience writing professionally with Demand Studios. She holds a master's degree in curriculum and instruction, with an emphasis on early elementary education.

By Kimberlee Broaddus, eHow Contributor

Third-grade readers can complete comprehension activities as they read new books.

The girl with books image by Maria Grin from Fotolia.com Third-grade readers are able to complete reading assignments independently. Teachers often use a reader's workshop format, where students read individual books and then complete a comprehension activity that goes with the book. Students are held accountable for completing their reading comprehension work, giving them the opportunity to become better readers.

1. Reading Responses

Making predictions about chapters during reading is one way that students can improve comprehension skills. When beginning a new book, students begin a prediction journal. Before beginning a new chapter, students write a prediction or two about what they think will happen in the next chapter. Students use the knowledge they have from previously read chapters to make an informed prediction.

2. Story Maps

Teachers use story maps to help students organize their thinking and understand what they have read. A story map is a graphic organizer that students can use to write a summary, demonstrate an understanding of character traits and show information about different parts of a story, such as the setting. After the class has read a book, teachers may have students work in teams to complete a story map before discussing the book together. Teachers can also use story maps to assess the comprehension of individual students who have read books independently.

3. Story Pyramid

The story pyramid focuses a student's thinking when remembering specifics from a story or book she has read. After a student has read a book, she completes the story pyramid template. The student writes the name of the main character at the apex of the pyramid, and writes two words that describe that character in the next section. Students write three words about the setting, four words about the story's problem and five words describing an event in the story. The bottom sections of the pyramid contain six words about another main story event, seven words about a third event and eight words describing how the story's main problem is solved. When finished, students have a pyramid highlighting the book they've read.

4. Make a Prediction

Making predictions about chapters during reading is one way that students can improve comprehension skills. When beginning a new book, students begin a prediction journal. Before beginning a new chapter, students will write a prediction or two about what they think will happen in the next chapter. Students will use the knowledge they have from previously read chapters to make an informed prediction. (See References 5)

Homeschool Worksheetswww.K12.com

Individualized Learning, Personal Attention, Monthly Start Dates

Comprehension Helpwww.LindamoodBell.com

Official site of Lindamood-Bell for reading and comprehension help

Upgrade to Kto8.comwww.kto8.com

600+ Integrated Online Lessons More Choices / MS Office 2007

Sight Words with Samsonwww.samsonsclassroom.com

Learn to read by mastering sight words!

Is It Safe To Eat Dyed Easter Eggs?

According to Susan Westmoreland, food director for Good Housekeeping, in the April 2010 issue, you can display your eggs and dish them up too, provided you follow these  guidelines:

1. Use food-grade dyes - egg-coloring kits, as well as liquid gel, and paste colors for cake decorating , are safe choices.
2. Don't color eggs that crack during cooking (they're safe to eat if immediately refigerated, but otherwise are easy targets for bacteria).
3. Whether you hide eggs for an Easter hunt or use them as centerpieces, if they have been out at room temperature for more than two hours, discard them.

Have a safe and wonderful Easter!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Best Education Possible, LLC

Blessings to everyone on this day, and I hope all the children in your reach recieve the "Best Education Possible".

Yours in Education,
Debra West

What's 3rd Grade Reading Level? Part 2

I want to continue on the topic of how important it is for a third grader to be successful in reading. Early intervention will make all the difference in the world for your child. Yesterday was the first part of the artilce by Andrew Phelps about "What a 3rd grade student's reading level should be. The second part of the article is below.

Hubbub Explainer: What's 3rd Grade Reading Level?

By Andrew Phelps

Jun 10, 2010, 6:23 PM Updated 9/22/10

One of these kids will probably graduate high school on time. The other may not. Can you guess which one will succeed?

How Is Readable Defined? What’s A “Third-Grade Reading Level?”

I called Bill Dubay, a man who has studied and written about readability for years. It turns out you can reduce any literary passage to a few mathematical formulas. The most famous is the Flesch-Kincaid readability test.

Rudolf Flesch was an Austrian immigrant who learned English as a second language. He was frustrated by the unnecessary complexity of English — in newspapers, textbooks, insurance policies, you name it.

Flesch devoted his professional life to campaigning for simpler, more readable language. His most celebrated book is “Why Johnny Can’t Read (And What You Can Do About It).”

In the midcentury, Flesch discovered that the average number of words per sentence, plus the average number of syllables per word, plus a bit of arithmetic, generates a number that equates to an elementary school grade level. And it’s wicked accurate.

(0.39 x Average Sentence Length) + (11.8 x Average Syllables Per Word) – 15.59

Try it on your own writing — it’s built into Microsoft Word (here’s how to do it).

1. Dubay says a more accurate (but less popular) method involves even less math: the Dale-Chall formula, which compares a text against a list of words that are simple and familiar to most fourth graders. The more familiar words, the easier the text is to read. (The original list contained about 1,000 words; it has been expanded and updated.)

2. The third well-respected gauge of readability is the Gunning fog index, which you can calculate on scratch paper (updated, thanks Bill):

3. Take 100 continuous words from a passage.

4. Grade level = 0.4 x (average sentence length in words + number of hard words)

5. Where hard words = all words in the sample of three or more syllables

Amazingly, all three of these methods are more than 60 years old, and despite modest improvements, they remain the gold standards for measuring readability.

Of course, if you’re writing a text for a third grader and those numbers come back too high, you can’t just slash syllables and add in monosyllabic words. It won’t work. That’s why, Dubay says, it’s much harder to make something readable than to figure out how readable something is.

What's 3rd Grade Reading Level? Part 1

I want to continue on the topic of how important it is for a third grader to be successful in reading.  Early intervention will make all the difference in the world for your child.  Below is an article about "What a 3rd grade student's reading level should be. The first part of the article is below.

Hubbub Explainer: What's 3rd Grade Reading Level?
By Andrew Phelps
Jun 10, 2010, 6:23 PM Updated 9/22/10

One of these kids will probably graduate high school on time. The other may not. Can you guess which one will succeed?

These are third graders at John Tobin Elementary in Cambridge, recorded in a story last year by WBUR’s Monica Brady-Myerov. And, OK, we don’t know for sure what will happen to either of them. But the data show, time and again, that a third grader’s reading skills are the best indicator of how he or she will perform in high school.

Third grade is a critical year. “When they leave third grade, there is a major shift — from learning to read, to reading to learn,” said Jaime Frost, a literacy coach, in Monica’s story.

A new study (PDF), commissioned by Boston nonprofit Strategies for Children and conducted by Harvard researchers, put a gloomy statistic in the spotlight: 43 percent of third graders in the state can’t read at the third-grade level. The numbers get even worse for minority students.

Researchers started by examining MCAS scores for every kid in Massachusetts. I asked the lead author, Nonie Lesaux, how a standardized test could possibly gauge a kid’s reading skills. Basically, she says, a student reads a passage and then has to answer questions about that passage.

If you’re not a proficient reader, Lesaux says: “You will have missed something. You won’t have picked up a certain amount of nuance. You won’t have made an inference that you were supposed to make. You might not have understood some figurative language that was in there, which hinders your ability to answer that question.

“You might just not have read it fast enough, so that you had the leftover energy to devote to making sense of it. The one thing is, if your reading is too slow, then you can’t remember what you read from the beginning to the end.”

Lesaux says three-quarters of children who fail the MCAS in third grade will struggle throughout their academic career.

But writing a test to be understood by the “average” third grader is really tricky. Millions of dollars and a lot of research goes into writing clear, culture-neutral, readable tests and textbooks.

Third grade: Helping your child with reading

According to an article written by the College Bound team from greatschools.com there is one simple secret for helping your third grader with reading. The article from the team is below: 

Third grade: Helping your child with reading

Third grade is the year kids are expected to go from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” It sounds so easy, doesn’t it? As if by spending enough days sitting at their desks, third graders will magically make the switch. For most kids, though, the change from learning how to read to reading to learn can be very difficult.

To help your child make this big change in reading, by all means, keep reading to him, and having him read aloud or by himself. But there’s one more way to help your child read to learn that may come as a surprise: Talk with him! Have conversations full of all kinds of words (he’s not a baby anymore, so don’t hold back on using big words conversations that build vocabulary than by focusing on decoding strategies.

So to make sure your child doesn’t fall behind when it comes to reading to learn:
1) Read challenging books aloud to him
2) Use words he doesn’t know
3) Talk about big topics like what’s going on in the world, history, or whatever he’s interested in, whether that’s sports or space rockets or animals.

Study: Third Grade Reading Predicts Later High School Graduation: Part 2

A wonderful "Reading Coach Trainer" from North Alabama sent me this article, and I felt like it was important enough to share with you. This is the second part of the article about a study on how a third grade students' reading ability will predict whether or not they will graduate from high school. Parents please pay attention.

By Sarah D. Sparks on April 8, 2011 9:36 AM

"Third grade is a kind of pivot point," said Donald J. Hernandez, the study's author and a sociology professor at Hunter College, at the City University of New York. "We teach reading for the first three grades and then after that children are not so much learning to read but using their reading skills to learn other topics. In that sense if you haven't succeeded by 3rd grade it's more difficult to [remediate] than it would have been if you started before then."

Mr. Hernandez analyzed the reading scores and later graduation rates of 3,975 students born between 1979 and 1989 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1979. He found 16 percent overall did not have a diploma by age 19, but students who struggled with reading in early elementary school grew up to comprise 88 percent of those who did not receive a diploma. That made low reading skills an even stronger predictor than spending at least a year in poverty, which affected 70 percent of the students who didn't graduate. In fact, 89 percent of students in poverty who did read on level by 3rd grade graduated on time, statistically no different from the students who never experienced poverty but did struggle with reading early on.

By contrast, more than one in four poor, struggling readers did not graduate, compared with only 2 percent of good readers from wealthier backgrounds. Mr. Hernandez found that gaps in graduation rates among white, black and Hispanic students closed once poverty and reading proficiency were taken into account. "If they are proficient in reading, they basically have the same rate of graduation" above 90 percent, Mr. Hernandez said. "If they did not reach proficiency, that's when you see these big gaps emerge."

For some children in the sample, Mr. Hernandez was able to track reading scores as early as 2nd grade, but not enough to do a separate analysis. It's interesting to me that since we don't do much testing before grade three, the first accountability point under NCLB, it's difficult to say exactly when these reading gaps emerge.

Mr. Hernandez is working on further studies on the nuances of these findings, including the effects of concentrated poverty—often associated with low-performing schools—and factors that make some students more resilient to poverty and early academic difficulty.

The study, "Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation," will be posted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Study: Third Grade Reading Predicts Later High School Graduation: Part 1

A wonderful Reading Coach Trainer from North Alabama sent me this article, and I felt like it was important enough to share with you.  It's about a study on how a third grade students' reading ability will predict whether or not they will graduate from high school.  Parents please pay attention.

By Sarah D. Sparks on April 8, 2011 9:36 AM

The disquieting side effect of our increasingly detailed longitudinal studies of students is we keep finding warning signs of a future graduation derailment earlier and earlier in a child's school years.

Robert Balfanz of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found those warning signs as early as 6th grade— chronic absences, poor behavior, failing math or language arts, which when put together lead to a 90 percent risk that a student won't graduate on time.

A study to be released this morning at the American Educational Research Association convention here in New Orleans presents an even earlier warning sign: A student who can't read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19 than a child who does read proficiently by that time. Add poverty to the mix, and a student is 13 times less likely to graduate on time than his or her proficient, wealthier peer.

"Third grade is a kind of pivot point," said Donald J. Hernandez, the study's author and a sociology professor at Hunter College, at the City University of New York. "We teach reading for the first three grades and then after that children are not so much learning to read but using their reading skills to learn other topics. In that sense if you haven't succeeded by 3rd grade it's more difficult to [remediate] than it would have been if you started before then."

Tomorrow will be the rest of the article on The Grade Reading Predicts Later High School Graduation.

Easter Egg Decorating Ideas

by Gayle Goodson Butler
Editor in Chief, Better Homes and Gardens

Easter Egg Decorating Ideas

Whether you are simply dyeing eggs or decorating them in creative ways, this classic Easter activity can go beyond egg hunts and into beautiful art. Wow your friends and family with our egg ideas! Below are the second six ideas in the article by Gayle:

1. Easter Egg Flower Pots

Dye eggshells to be pretty pastels using an egg-dyeing kit. Carefully cut an opening in the top of the eggshell and fill with soil and a flower in a complementing color.

2, Eraser Decorating

Pour paint onto a disposable plate. Dip just the end of a pencil eraser into the paint and dot the egg. Wash or wipe off the eraser to change colors. Make sure to dot one color at a time.

Tip: You can also use a cotton swab to make small dots on your egg.

3. Toothpick Decorating

Choose two colors of paint to decorate your egg and pour the paints on a disposable plate. To make the petals of the flower, dip about 1/4 inch of a toothpick into the paint, then lay the toothpick down onto the egg. Repeat to make petals, leaving a space in the middle for the flower center. Using a new toothpick and another color of paint, dip just the tip of the toothpick in paint and dot the center two or three times. Let the egg dry.

4. Tie-Dyed Easter Eggs

Decorate a basket of eggs using rubber bands, stickers, and dye. Simply press the stickers or wrap the rubber bands onto the egg before dipping the eggs in the dye.

5. Candy Dots

Little fingers will love transforming colored eggs into cute-as-a-button 3-D show-offs for Easter celebrations. All it takes is colorful candy dots that are attached to the eggshell with thick frosting. Make your own frosting paste by stirring together powdered sugar and a little bit of water. Be sure it's thick enough to stick. Purchased frosting from a can works, too. Be sure your eggs are cool before applying the dots.

6. Polka-Dot Eggs

The fun goes on after the dipping and dyeing is done. Make patterns on your Easter eggs using colorful stickers or by gluing on circles punched out of colored paper.

Editor's Tip: Cater to shorter attention spans by having the dyed eggs ready to go before little ones start to decorate.

Easter Egg Decorating Ideas: Part 1

by Gayle Goodson Butler
Editor in Chief, Better Homes and Gardens
Easter Egg Decorating Ideas

Easter Egg Decorating Ideas

Whether you are simply dyeing eggs or decorating them in creative ways, this classic Easter activity can go beyond egg hunts and into beautiful art. Wow your friends and family with our egg ideas!  Below are the first six ideas in the article by Gayle:

Sticker-and-Dye Egg Designs

1. To create these fun and funky designs, firmly adhere stickers around an undyed egg, pressing out any air bubbles. Dye the egg using an egg-dye kit. Allow to dry completely. Remove stickers to reveal your perfectly patterned egg!

Banded Egg Design

2. Create a bold look with graphic stripes on dyed eggs. Wrap eggs with wide rubber bands (the ones often found on broccoli at the supermarket) before dunking them in dye. Wash rubber bands well between uses to avoid transferring dye.

Scrapbook Notions

3. Impress your kids (and grown-ups as well) with gorgeous eggs decorated from your scrapbooking stash. Trims, stickers, rub-ons, and gems can give an ordinary dyed egg extraordinary flair. You can even use stickers as masks before you dip the eggs in dye. Make sure your eggs are dry before you try to embellish them.

Vibrant Dyed Eggs with Flowers

4. To get bright and colorful eggs, coat them multiple times using an egg-dye kit. Once dry, stick pretty floral stickers onto the eggs to create a simple and festive Easter decoration.

Quick-and-Easy Easter Egg Decorations

5. If Mother Nature dyed Easter eggs, they'd probably feature something like these beautifully subdued shades. The secret is natural dyes made with household ingredients such as strong coffee, grape juice, blueberries, orange peel, and beet juice. Follow the link below for recipes.

Pysanky Eggs

6.These eggs were decorated using Pysanky, the ancient Ukrainian folk art of wax-and-dye egg decorating. To create these designs, stick metal pins in pencil erasers, dip the pinheads in melted wax, and draw wax patterns on hard-boiled eggs before dyeing them.

Choosing a School From a Distance: Part 3

According to an article on great schools.com by Connie Mathiessen , if you are moving, how can you find the best school from a distance? Mathiessen can help you choose the best school for your child. Whether going across the state or cross country, if you’re facing a move, you’re probably stressed out and no wonder: Moving means turning your life upside down and making an endless number of decisions. And one of the biggest stressors that can send a parent over the edge? Yesterday was part two, below is the third part of Connie's article:

1. Seek out local resources

Real estate agents are often an excellent source of school information, so if you have one, be sure to ask your agent. As well, look on the website of the local newspaper or city magazine for articles about the schools on your list. And if you already have a new job in place before your move, put an email blast out to your future colleagues asking for their recommendations on the best (and worst!) local schools - and even tips on how to get in.

2. Contact the schools
Once you’ve narrowed your search to a few schools, contact each one directly. Have a list of questions ready for the school principal or administrator. This is your chance to get a sense of the school environment, so don’t hesitate to ask questions about not strictly academic issues, for example, "How does your school handle bullying?" or "Which after-school clubs are most popular?" Ask school administrators to recommend a parent or two who could talk with you about the school.

3. Have a back-up plan
Be sure to have a back-up plan in case the school you choose doesn’t work out. Narrow your list to two or three schools and enroll your child in your top-choice school, if you can. But also find out if there are slots available and what enrollment procedures are at your back-up schools. That way, if things don't go well for your child at her new school, you can move her quickly without starting the process all over again. "Don't be afraid to change schools if it isn’t working," Milne advises. "If your kid is really unhappy, be prepared to try again at another school."

4. Final details
If you have a school lined up, check with the school and ask what paperwork they'll need in advance of your arrival, such as school transcripts and current immunization records. (See other tips for helping your child adjust to her new school.)

Choosing a School From a Distance: Part 2

According to an article on great schools.com by Connie Mathiessen , if you are moving, how can you find the best school from a distance? Mathiessen can help you choose the best school for your child. Whether going across the state or cross country, if you’re facing a move, you’re probably stressed out and no wonder: Moving means turning your life upside down and making an endless number of decisions. And one of the biggest stressors that can send a parent over the edge? Yesterday was part one, below is the second part of Connie's article:


Finding a new school for your child.

One sobering reality check: Whether it's a public or private school you have your eye on, you're not assured a spot. So make sure you have a few fall-back schools if you can't get into the school of your dreams.


1. Coordinate your school and housing decisions
Some people find a school they like and then find an apartment or house in the vicinity. Others do it the other way around. (Although keep in mind: If you're applying to public school, in almost any district in the country you'll need proof of residency before you can apply.) What you don’t want to do is enroll your child in your dream school and then discover that housing in the area is way out of your price range. It also makes no sense to rent a fabulous apartment in an area with no schools nearby. While it may seem viable from a distance, schlepping across town twice a day for school drop-offs and pick-ups will get old really fast. It will also make it harder for your child to connect with new friends outside of school.

2. Connect with other parents
Every parent knows that other parents are the best source of school information, so put the word out about your move as soon as you can. That worked for Catherine Milne’s son, and she wishes she’d done the same for her daughter. In her son’s case, Milne got lucky: She knew a family who’d recently spent a year in San Francisco, and had a great experience at a K-8 school. But she enrolled her teenage daughter in a charter without knowing anyone who was familiar with the high school. Even though she’d corresponded with the administration and the school sounded great, "I knew it was a bad fit the minute we walked in, and [my daughter] left two days later," she says. "There are things you just can’t figure out over the phone or from a website."

Milne recommends telling everyone you know about your move. It could turn out that your best friend’s cousin or your son’s piano teacher’s college roommate lives in your new town, and can give you honest information about the school — not just website hype. Remember, too, to tell friends on Facebook and Twitter about your move.

3. Use online school resources
• GreatSchools.org Your first stop – of course! Our site will give you information and test scores for public (including charter) and private schools in your new town or city. You’ll also see how parents rate schools in terms of teacher quality, principal leadership, and parent involvement. Just as insightful: You can read parent reviews. You can even look for homes for sale near the schools on your list. GreatSchools has a community section where you can ask other parents for advice. You can also browse by city (see tab to the right on the community page).

• District and school websites If you’re considering public schools, start with the school district website. Sites vary district to district in terms of how comprehensive and helpful they are, but most will provide a list of district schools, contact details, enrollment procedures, school schedules, and information about after-school programs. You may find that you have fewer choices than you expected, depending on the school district and its enrollment criteria. Some districts require students to attend their neighborhood school. Others may work by lottery and you might be assigned a school on the other end of town. Whatever the case, make sure you are clear about the application and school assignment process which, district-depending, can be complicated.

Whether you're considering public, private, or parochial, browse individual school websites. Some sites include contact information for Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) officers, so you can contact parents directly to talk about the school. You might even find photo slide shows or videos, which will give you a virtual tour of the school - the second-best thing to being there.

• Other online resources Many schools now have Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, and if you "like" the school on Facebook, you’ll automatically receive updates about events and other school news. Do a Google search on the school and consider setting up a Google news feed, so you’ll get news about the schools you’re considering. Look on YouTube as well. Many schools post videos by students, parents, or the school itself. Parents For Public Schools helps parents navigate the public school system and has chapters in many cities. Check to see if there is one in your new town.

Choosing a School From a Distance: Part 1

According to an article on great schools.com by Connie Mathiessen , if you are moving, how can you find the best school from a distance?  Mathiessen can help you choose the best school for your child. Whether going across the state or cross country, if you’re facing a move, you’re probably stressed out and no wonder: Moving means turning your life upside down and making an endless number of decisions. And one of the biggest stressors that can send a parent over the edge?

Finding a new school for your child.

In an ideal world, in advance of moving you can visit potential schools, meet teachers, and get a good sense of the school environment. But what if there isn’t time, or cost or distance make a scouting trip prohibitive?

This was the case for Catherine Milne and her family, who moved from Sydney, Australia to San Francisco last year. She had to find schools for her two children, who were 10 and 15 at the time, and she says it was by far the toughest part of the moving process. "It was much harder than finding a suitable house to rent," Milne says. "There's just so much angst and upheaval for kids in terms of leaving friends and changing schools. If you can find them a school where they have a good chance of being happy, then you're well on the way to having a happy family."

The following steps will help you make the best long distance choice:

1. Make your wish list:  Clarify the kind of school you – and your child – are looking for (see our work sheet to help you imagine your ideal school). You probably have "must-haves" that will help narrow your search. For example, if your child requires support for learning differences or you want her to attend a language immersion school. Consider your child’s abilities, interests, and learning style. Then seek advice from her current teachers about what type of school environment they think will suit her best.

a. Would she do better in a small school or a large one?

b. Will a strong sports or theatre program make all the difference for your child?

c. Does she like a structured learning environment, or does she thrive when she has some independence? (For more ideas on making the best school choice, go to Choosing a school: An overview.) One sobering reality check: Whether it's a public or private school you have your eye on, you're not assured a spot. So make sure you have a few fall-back schools if you can't get into the school of your dreams.

Tips From the 2010 State Teachers of the Year

Jae Goodwin, a fifth-grade teacher at Charlotte a. Dunning School in Massachusetts states, many parents just can’t volunteer their time in schools anymore. But, they can be effective teachers outside of school. Read to your kids. Show them how math and measuring can be done while refueling the car or cooking dinner. Ask your children what they think and really listen to the answers.

Susanne F. Mitko, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Bernard Campbell Middle School in Missouri states, with the best of intentions, this generation is often overscheduled and over-entertained, but research shows that it’s during downtime that the brain processes new learning. Children of all ages need unstructured time to learn and develop the skills they will need as adults.

I am not the Alabama state teacher of the year, but my advice to parents is to make sure their children understand the importance of a good education and always doing their best work. Make sure your child understands self control and respect for adults and peers. If you don’t stress the importance of giving their best in their school work and behavior, children don’t understand the need to excel, compete in a global society, and boundries for social behavior. Never accept anything other than their best efforts, and have realistic expectations for your children.

No More Sick Days

According to an article in the September 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, classroom germs have real consequences for kids. Earlier, a research team from the University of Arizona in Tucson evaluated six elementary school classrooms; half had surfaces swabbed daily with a disinfectant, half didn’t. Kids assigned to the unsanitized classrooms were 2.3 times more likely to miss school due to illness and were absent longer than students who sat in squeaky-clean rooms. Fortunately, a few simple tools can reduce your child’s risk.
1. Mechanical pencils: Hand-cranked pencil sharpeners are often used but rarely cleaned, making them a top source of infectious microbes says the UA team. Stock up on “clicky” pencils.

2. Clip-on Cleaner: Alcohol-based sanitizer is an effective fallback if kids can’t leave class to wash up. But they’ll never use it if it’s at the bottom of their backpacks.

3. Exact lunch money: Studies show that the flu virus (among other pathogens) can survive at least an hour on bills and coins. Insulate your child from “cash flow cooties” with exact change for lunch.

Car-Free Carpool

I remember growing up in the 1950s and 60s, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Abington Township.   We all went to neighborhood elementary schools that were between a half a mile to 3/4 of a mile on average .  The children walked to school (no matter what the weather), and many walked home for lunch, and walked home in the afternoon.  Most of the time there was no adult supervision except for the crossing guards.  We played outside until around 5:00 when the firehouse whistle would go off and you rushed home to make it before dinner was served.  Times have changed, but the article below made me think about how our children get to schools today.

According to an article in the April 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, about half of kids ages 6 to 12 who live a quarter to a  half mile from school travel there via car, says the Department of Transportation.  These mini trips can add up, especially when vehicles idle in pickup/drop-off lanes.  So if your family lives near school, round up parents to supervise group walks or bike rides. If half the students at an average-size elementary school made car-less commutes, it could save over 39 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year, or the carbon-removing abilities of 1,000 trees.

Orange Aid

According to an article in the September 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, researchers at State University of Buffalo, if you grab a fast-food breakfast with the works every now and then, don’t beat yourself up. The juice can decrease the meal’s harmful effects. When you eat a fatty fast-food-style meal, it causes your levels of free radicals to rise sharply. These harmful molecules ricochet through your body, damaging cells and setting the stage fro heart problems, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases. The Buffalo study looked at healthy people who ate a 900-calorie, high-fat breakfast with water, sugar water, or orange juice. The plain and sugar water group experienced free-radical increases of up to 63 percent, but those who drank OJ saw increases of just 47 percent. Moreover, the harmful blood components known as tool-like receptors, (TLRs), rose in all groups but the OJ drinkers. TLRs are thought to play a role in heart disease, obesity, and insulin resistance. Still, OJ is no anti-fat elixir. While it can help limit the unhealthy effects o0f one fat-laden meal, don’t make the drive-through a habit.

10 Tips for Heart-Healthy Cooking

According to an article in the April 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine, below are a few tips to help ensure a cardio-conscious recipe.  First rule of thumb: Use fresh, natural ingredients whenever possible. For other ingredients:

1. Choose low-fat, fat-free, reduced-fat, or light dairy products.

2. Canned goods are often loaded with salt.  Use no-salt-added canned products and lower-, reduced-, or no-sodium jarred goods, such as sauces.

3. Use high-sodium ingredients, like cheese and olives, sparingly.

4. Make recipes or egg dishes with egg whites instead of with egg yolks.  Substitute two egg whites for each egg yolk.

5. Use cuts of red meat and pork labeled "loin" and "round," as they usually have the least fat.  To cut fat and cholesterol even further, make veggies or legumes the star of a meal and use meat sparingly in a "supporting role."

6. Avoid adding sugar by incorporating naturally sweet ingredients, like fresh fruit.

7. Avoid prepared products, such as pie crusts, refrigerated doughs, and cake mixes, as they tend to be high in fat and sodium.

8. Replace salt with fresh or dried herbs, spices, or salt-free seasoning mixes. Experiment with flavorful additions, like lemon juice, citrus zest or hot chilies.

9. Avoid butter and stick margarine.

10. Choose whole grain for part of your ingredients instead of highly refined products.  Whole-wheat flour can be substituted for up to half of all-purpose flour.

How to Start an Anti-Bullying Campagin: Part 3

How to start an antibullying program and want to nip bullying in the bud? Start a program that stops the torment before it starts.
By Connie Matthiessen

This is the 3rd part of Connie's article on starting an anti-bullying campaign.  This is a very important issue in schools and parents can help so something about bullying. 
 
Never too early to start


Despite Newman's success, the new program came too late for her own son. "It's crucial to stop bullying early, or it can become embedded in the culture of a school and a kid will become a permanent target," she says. "He gave it another try last fall, and the bullying started up again on the first day of school." Still, Newman's story has a happy ending: Her son is doing well at a new school, and has lots of friends. "Now that he's in a healthy environment, he's thriving," she says.

Even though her son won't directly benefit from her work, Newman has no regrets. She knows the program she worked so hard to establish is going to help other children and families like hers. She and DiMarco’s experience even culminated in a book about what they've learned. When Your Child is Being Bullied: Real Solutions for Families will be published in August 2011.

How to Start an Anti-Bullying Campagin: Part 2

Is your child safe at school from bullying? 

A parent's child was cyber bullied and taunted at school. Yet when she complained, the school had no official policy for dealing with bullies. One mom made sure it wouldn't happen again. Could your school be the same? Yesterday we looked the article from greatschools.com on how to at build a team and making your case for bullying.  Today we are looking at building a case and how to do your research.

Build your case

Next, gather as much evidence as you can to support the need for an anti-bullying program at your school. Newman and her group put the word out at school functions, and sent e-mails asking parents to contact them if their child had been bullied or knew anyone else who had.

“Bullying is a problem no one wants to talk about," Newman says. "But once word gets out, the floodgates seem to open. Soon people were calling us.” She cautions that it’s crucial to assure anonymity, since most parents fear that their child will be retaliated against if he or she is identified as a snitch.

“Our findings weren’t scientific,” Newman is quick to say. “Still, we gathered enough information from enough parents that we could make the case that bullying was a problem throughout the school district.”

Do your research

Newman’s committee also did research to find out what a school anti-bullying program should look like. Newman drew on her background as a business and marketing consultant to tap every possible resource: “I did internet research, made cold calls, and called school districts that had existing programs," she says.

Today, there are many excellent anti-bullying organizations, and some have programs specifically designed to be used by schools, including: Olweus, Community Matters, Educators for Social Responsibility, and PFLAG's Safe Schools program.

For more information on bullying and bullying prevention, see the new government website, Stop Bullying.gov.

In the end, Glen Ellyn school district officials decided not to go with a pre-packaged program, but to develop one of their own. Still, Newman's research paid off since it educated everyone involved about different approaches, what works, and what does not. Newman and other anti-bullying experts agree that, whatever approach you take, it's important to make sure to adapt any program to the specific needs of your individual school.

Your research should also include possible sources of funding to support an anti-bullying program. The Community Matters and Olweus websites both include funding advice and sources.

Newman emphasizes the importance of doing as much legwork as possible so school officials won't have to. “Most school administrators aren’t against the idea," she says. "They just don’t have the resources to make it happen. The more you can do ahead of time, the more likely you are to succeed."

Tomorrow will conclude the article from greatschools.com with " It's never to early to start".

How to Start an Anti-Bullying Campagin: Part 1

Start an Anti Bullying Campain

According to an article from greatschools.com bullying can happen to anyone from President Obama to tween idol Miranda Cosgrove (iCarly) there is growing awareness of bullying and the toll it's taking on young lives.

That's the good news. The bad news is that bullying is still alive and well at many schools around the country, as Marie Newman discovered when her son started fifth grade in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, an affluent Chicago suburb. The boy was cyberbullied by classmates and taunted at school. When Newman spoke to school officials, she discovered that the school didn’t have an official anti-bullying policy, nor did administrators seem clear about how to tackle the problem.

"It wasn't that they didn't care," says Newman. "But principals and teachers these days have so much coming at them that they're overwhelmed." So Newman decided to do it herself. She teamed up with another parent, Jacqui DiMarco, and the two mothers launched an anti-bullying program at their childrens' school.

Recruit a team

The first step? Seek as many allies as possible. Before approaching school district officials, Newman created a committee to explore the issue and gather information. “You want as many people in your corner as possible," Newman says. She recommends including bullying experts -- the YMCA is a good place to find contacts -- as well as teachers, child development experts, parents whose kids have been bullied -- even parents whose kids were bullies themselves. "Parents of kids who've bullied are like reformed smokers," she says. "They’ve become educated and are all about making it good.”

Newman also included high-end attorneys on her anti-bullying team. “We don't advocate suing anyone," she says. "But it's important for the parents to know their rights, and many can't afford to hire lawyers."

Tomorrow we will continue the article from greatschools.com and look at "Building the Case" and "Do Your Research".

A Heart of Service

Teach your children to have a heart of service for those less fortunate.  According to an article in the December 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, parents must get their kids off of the couch and into helping their community by steering them to generation.org.  This new site is part of the Points of Light Institute, which earned four out of four stars from Charity Navigator.  GenerationOn is the largest youth volunteer service organization in nation and they've got the resources, ideas, and directions to get every child interested and involved.  Some top picks for family service projects, from generationOn vice president of family and youth Kathy Saulitis:

1. Give Hope: Have your kids imagine a children like themselves (say, a 9-year-old boy) who is less materially blessed, and then brainstrom what small gifts might make him happy.  Fill up a hope chest with somw of these items.  Instructions on building, filling, and distributing chest are on the site,as are ideas on finding deserving recipients.

2. Share Comfort: Ask your children to think about the things that they use dailyto stay clean and healthy (like a toothbrush, shampoo, soap, etc.), and have them to imagine being homeless and doing without them. Use generationOn's online gide to assemble a nd distribute Healthy Kids Kits to homeless kids.  Not only will the recipients benefit, but so will your children as they build empathyand is able to take pride in helping others throughout the year.

Autism: What You Need to Know

According to Annie Daly, autism diagnosis rates are raising rapidly: About one in 110 children has an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a developmental disability that can cause significant social, communication, and behavioral challenges. That’s up from one in 150 children in just four years. Why the big leap? “There’s not one single answer,” explains Catherine Rice , Ph.D., a behavioral scientist fro the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but there’s “an increase in the genetic or environmental factors that may cause it, such as adults having kids later in life or the increase survival of preemie babies.” While scientist are still searching for answers, they do know this much: Although autism can’t be fully cured, people with it can improve and lead fuller lives with intervention. Here, key resources it you want to get involved:

For more information on autism:

1. Log on to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s autism page at cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism. You can also call them 24 hours a day at 800-232-4636.

2. If you think your child may have ASD, contact their doctor and ask for a referral to a specialist if necessary.

3. To find out if your child qualifies for free intervention services, call the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities at 800-695-0285 for details

4. If you would like to raise funds for the cause: Log on to autismspeaks.org and click on “donate now.” Or, to learn additional ways you can help support the cause, like participating in an autism walk, click on “Other Ways to Give.”

Chew On This

According to an article in the April 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, when you need a quick fix for bad breath, there’s no need to spring for pricey breath-sweetening gum. In a head-to-head competition, an ordinary sugary brand reduced smelly sulfur-containing compounds just as well as gum containing xylitol and zinc (and marketed as a breath freshener), say Brazilian researchers. But the clear winner for your wallet is the non-specialty gum: it’s less than 10 cents per piece, compared with about 25 cents for the fancy kind. “All gums whether regular, sugar-free, or breath-freshening work by stimulating saliva production,” says Howard S. Glazer, D.D.S., past president of the Academy of General Dentistry.

Sit Up for Success

According to an article in the April 2010 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine, if you want to increase your confidence, try improving your posture. People who keep their spines straight and chest lifted not only project more self-assurance, but actually feel it, too and Ohio State study found. Students (who thought they were investigating how actors maintain different postures) were instructed to write down pros and cons about themselves as job candidates. Those told to maintain good posture while making their lists were more secure about their assessments than those instructed to slump. Just be sure to focus on your best qualities (“I’m punctual, creative…”), since better posture also reinforced participants’ negative entries (“I procrastinate, don’t speak up enough…”).

So, maybe there was something to it when you mother or grandmother always told you to stand and sit up straight.

Building a Playground: Part 4

According to an article written by Valle Dwight, every school can have a fun and safe playground. Is your school's play structure worn out, even dangerous? This is day four of the instructions on getting that playground up and going. By following this step-by-step guide, you can create a play space so dazzling that even the coolest fifth graders will come out and play.  

Time to play!

The beauty of a playground project is that all your work has tangible results. The Monday after the renovation, Stowe and other volunteers spent the morning at the playground watching the kids enjoy their new structure. According to Stowe, even the most jaded fifth-graders were playing like little kids again. "It was an amazing thing we did,” she says proudly.

Don't forget to say thanks

You'll probably want to collapse when the project is finished, but Stowe says that sending out thank-you cards (made from kids' drawings of the playground) to donors and volunteers was well worth the effort. Saying thanks will earn you a sandbox full of goodwill for the next time your school is looking to fund a project – maybe to buy those flying pigs!