As mild weather moves in, so does the opportunity to take advantage of nature’s classroom as a real-life education for young children. Grab a bucket or a paper bag, and take off for a learning activity that can integrate several academic disciplines.
One thing today’s parents are never short on is a never-ending stream of directions on how to raise our children. Hit from every angle with sage advice, ancient words of wisdom and the latest breaking research, it’s a wonder any of us have the guts to even pull our kids out of their cribs in the morning! The Government of Alberta has its own take on all this early education information, and has created a provincial initiative known as ECMap or the “Early Child Development Mapping Project". This commission aims to map how prepared for school all Kindergartners are by the time they start class.
When Travis Cohn Royce (now a teenager), was in grade school, his most faithful homework buddy was his mom, Lisa Cohn. At the time, Travis was enrolled in a challenging public school program that often required several hours of extra work. Lisa sat next to him at the kitchen table each night and helped him with his schoolwork. Over time, she got more involved - volunteering time in Travis’ classroom and regularly staying up past midnight to help her son finish projects. “I admit, I even did some of his homework for him on occasion,” says Lisa. “Sometimes he had so much work he couldn’t get to bed at night.”
The symptoms of a school slump are easy to spot. Your child trudges home with a sagging backpack after school, and discards it by the door until the next morning. Any questions you ask about school are met with an eye roll and/or a shrug. The process of getting your child out of bed in the morning is growing longer and more painful with each passing day. You know something is wrong, but what should you do? Luckily, slumps like these are not permanent. All most kids need is a little energy boost, and a couple of teacher’s tricks of the trade. Read on to find out how you can help your child bust out of the slump.
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