Tips to Getting your Kids to School on Time

Statefarm

All parents struggle to get back into their morning routines after the long summer holidays, but if every morning is a struggle for you, it may be time to take action and beat that bell. Don’t’ have chaotic mornings that see frenzied searches for missing items, nagging to get kids moving or siblings fighting for bathroom time. Here are a few tips to keep your mornings calm.

Learning Styles

Just as we need to change information to suit the child’s learning style if we want them to absorb information in class, we also have to adapt the way we communicate in the mornings. If your child is an auditory learner, asking them to get up, telling them to brush their teeth and wash their faces will be easy for them to comprehend.

Visual learners, however, may be left wondering what you just said or daydreaming about their day. For these students, making charts with all their morning tasks on it which they can tick off as they go through them may be just the ticket.

Every child is different so try a few strategies like games, rewards and incentives and songs to get them through their morning routines. Find the formula that works for your family and stick to it until it becomes a habit.

Planning is Everything

School days always start the night before, especially for students who have trouble getting ready. Decide on outfits and lay them out, pack school bags and consult diaries to ensure that there are no forgotten assignments or tests.

Review the day ahead and ensure that all books are packed. What afterschool activities are happening? Do you need musical instruments, sports uniforms and field trip permission slips?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The worst way to start your day is getting into a battle of wills with your child. It takes up time, it stresses everyone out and it makes for a really bad start to the day. While we are not always our best in the mornings, we must try to be respectful of each other.

When parents treat children with respect and ask them to do things nicely, it can diffuse some of the morning tension. If fighting is a big part of every morning, either between you and your kids or between siblings, it’s time to change the morning routine.

Start by asking them what they don’t like about mornings and really listen to their answers. You may be surprised about what sets them off. Knowing what makes them upset can help you to mitigate the irritation.

Talking about morning routines and ways to get things to flow smoothly will help your family to work together to make waking up and getting to school a happy and healthy process.
 

What to Do When you Don’t Like your Child’s New Teacher

Filip Pticek

Teachers are professionals who are often under-appreciated and overworked and they should be respected at every turn. But, we are all human and sooner or later you will meet a teacher that you can’t get along with. Perhaps your differences are simple incompatibility or perhaps you disagree on discipline or strategy; whatever your issue, be respectful and kind so your child continues to benefit from their expertise.

The first step is to try to look at the situation calmly and impartially. This may mean admitting that your little angel isn’t perfect, or that you dealt poorly with a situation, but remember that it’s your child’s academic future that you need to support, not your own interests.

Be respectful

Always be respectful when talking to teachers and about them. Negative comments about teachers which your child overhears can cause them to lose respect for that teacher. This will negatively affect their relationship with their teacher whom they still have to see on a daily basis.

Be Professional

Keep the channels of communication open. Ensure that your child’s teacher knows who you are and is able to reach you when they need to discuss issues or concerns. Always keep a professional tone and avoid dealing with issues when you are emotional or angry. Instead, wait until you can calmly and rationally discuss problems. Always talk to the teacher first before consulting a higher authority. Giving them the opportunity to resolve issues themselves will prevent resentment.

Be a Good Listener

When students aren’t performing as well as they should, it’s very easy for them to blame the teacher. If there has been an incident or your child is not getting the grades you would like them to get, give the teacher an opportunity to share their side of the story. They have insight to how your child behaves in class that you don’t. Children often behave very differently in a classroom situation when they are around their peers. Teachers have more experience in dealing with behavioral and academic issues and they have some valuable insights into your student’s behavior. Always endeavor to get the teacher’s side of the story and treat them with the trust and respect they deserve.

Dealing with Issues

Every parent wants their child to have the best possible academic opportunity and if you have exhausted every other option, you may need to move your child to another class. Dealing with difficulty is also a good life lesson. When dealing with teachers and issues, be an excellent example for your children and don’t be too quick to move them. Remember that they will have to deal with people they don’t get along with in other situations; perhaps there are bullies in their school or one day they will have a manager they don’t like. Learning how to deal with conflict and with people they don’t get along with is a great life lesson. 

5 Back to School Habits for a Happier Home

Department of Education

It’s almost time to get back to the books so start a few new habits that will create a happier, healthier home for you and your children. Habits take only a couple of weeks and a little discipline to start, but they will ease the tension in your home, mean less nagging for you and better grades for your students.Mellow MorningsEver have to wake your kids thirteen times while searching for missing text books? Do you find them scrambling to do last minute homework first thing in the morning, conduct daily wardrobe wars or have arguments about what to make for breakfast? If your mornings are messy, there are things you can do to help ease the family into the day.Start by listening. Ask your kids what their five least favorite things are about mornings. You may be surprised! Perhaps they need more bathroom time, or they want to be woken up differently; whatever their issues, get them to write a list for you.When everyone has made their lists, call a family meeting and find ways to overcome the issues. If bathroom time is a problem, set limits, make a schedule or move hair and makeup to a different area to free up some bathroom time.Avoid the morning rush and wardrobe dilemmas by insisting that bags be packed the night before and outfits chosen for the next day.If your children have trouble getting up, institute earlier bedtimes, alarm clocks and other regimens that mean you don’t have to nag.Set Academic GoalsWork with your tutors, teachers and children to set reasonable goals for the coming academic year. When kids know where they are headed, they have more motivation and direction. You can augment motivation by offering rewards for when academic goals are achieved.Extra Mural ActivitiesEncourage after-school activities that help your child to stay healthy, active and creative. Sports and artistic pursuits help students to make friends, learn social skills and become more well-rounded individuals. Support and encourage their interests and hobbies which are sure to add to their lives.Family MealsMake a commitment to eating together at least twice a week. Family meals keep the family connected and foster good communication between family members. Studies show that families who enjoy regular meals together have better relationships.Family Play DatesStart an activity together that gets your family outside and involves being active. This may be as simple as taking a walk, biking or gardening together or a more adventurous family activity like kayaking, hiking or camping. Sharing time in nature and being active is a positive way for the whole family to enjoy each other’s company.
Starting new family traditions is a wonderful way to reconnect with each other and stay connected through the busy academic year.

The Incredible Learning Power of Music

Steve Snodgrass

A great way to improve learning at every age is through the magic of music. You see, certain kinds of music can actually stimulate your child’s higher cognitive functioning and help their development. 

In a phenomenon known as the "Mozart effect", listening to music creates a positive emotional response which, in turn, improves cognitive functioning. Research tells us that listening to certain classics, like Mozart, helps to improve spatial-temporal reasoning in the short term. If Mozart isn’t your cup of tea, you have many other options to choose from. Any kind of baroque music like Teleman or Vivaldi and ambient music that has a tempo of 60 beats per second will help.

Later studies showed that any music with an energetic beat or positive emotional qualities had the potential to stimulate the spatial-temporal functioning.

This is the part of the brain that helps you to understand complex concepts or solve difficult problems. For example, a study by Rauscher, Shaw and Ky (1993) discovered that those subjects who listened to Mozart prior to completing an IQ test scored higher than those who did not listen to music.

Another study in rats found that pregnant rats exposed to Mozart produced offspring that were better at maze learning.

While these changes are temporary, learning music from an early age can have tangible, long-lasting improvements in brain functioning: “It’s very clear from a number of experiments that if you do musical training, you find changes in brain structures attributable to that training. There are experiments that show that changes are greater if you begin musical training by about the age of seven. They’re still there if you begin later, but smaller in magnitude,” says neuropsychologist Robert Zatorre from McGill University.

Neuroscientists from Boston Children’s Hospital found a link between the introduction of musical instruments at an early age and improved cognitive functioning. "Since executive functioning is a strong predictor of academic achievement, even more than IQ, we think our findings have strong educational implications.While many schools are cutting music programs and spending more and more time on test preparation, our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future,” said head researcher, Nadine Gaab.

The greatest impact of music on cognitive functioning occurs when music is introduced before the child turns seven as it creates more extensive connectivity between different parts of the brain and also improves the ability to integrate sensory input.

If your child finds music distracting, try ambient sounds such as whale songs, waterfalls, ocean waves and other natural sounds. Eno's "Music for airports" is specifically designed to relax and calm tired travellers in airports. Eno's background music heightens your mood and occupies those parts of your brain that may cause distractions while you are studying.

Best Tips for Choosing a Tutor

US Department of Education

If your child is struggling a little to keep up, or if you want to give them a boost to get to the head of the class, summer tutoring will not only give them the help they need, it also prevents the summer slide. During the summer, students can lose up to 30% of the math and reading gains they made over the previous year. Just a couple of hours a week can really make a difference, but how do you go about choosing a tutor that will really make a difference.

Learning Centers

There are many options to choose from, the first being a learning center. Here your child will attend a session in a classroom setting with other children. There are usually fewer children than in a school class and these options can be much cheaper.

There are drawbacks though as you have to drive your children there and then pick them up again. More importantly, a classroom setting is obviously not ideal for them, especially if they are struggling at school. They don’t get as much attention as they need and they may not be asking questions or speaking up when they don’t understand something for fear of being embarrassed.

Private Tutors

This is a good option if you want the tutor to come to your home or if you are looking for someone who lives in your area. They are usually cheaper than tutors from tutoring companies and are more flexible than learning centers.

Private tutors aren’t vetted so you don’t know if they are qualified or safe to have around your family. They may not be available when you need them and they can be unreliable too.

Tutor Doctor Tutors

We come to you home, at a time that is convenient for you, and teach your children in the comfort of your home. Our one-on-one tutors are vetted and have the experience they need to help your child.

The process starts with a free education consultation which will assess the needs and abilities of your child. We then search for the perfect tutor to suit your child’s needs and personality in a process we call the ‘magic match’.

Once your tutor has been found, they work with your child’s teacher to establish where they require assistance and how best to help. They don’t pile on more work, but work with your child’s curriculum and homework to find the missing building blocks and fill them in.

For most students, it’s their learning skills that need honing. That means that they need to work on their executive skills like organization, task initiation, concentration and memory, task prioritization etc. so that they can become accomplished independent learners.

Under our Academic Game Plan, we teach your child the executive skills they need to succeed in learning and in life. We help your child to set goals and then give them the individual attention they need to reach them.

Our caring tutors are there when your child needs them most and we even have a TD 24x7 online curriculum tool to help your child when they are studying for tests and exams.

After every session, your tutor will give you feedback on your child’s progress so you are always in the loop. Simply put; the Tutor Doctor difference is that we really care and are invested in seeing your children succeed.

Do Our Children Get Too Much Homework?

Any parent who has watched their child stay up way past their bedtime toiling over their books or wasting a weekend working on projects and assignments knows how tough it can be. Teenagers are especially burdened with work that leaves them tired, stressed and with no time for social engagements, sport or family events.

Overloaded children suffer from anxiety and fatigue that many think is counterproductive and bad for their health and well being. Unfortunately, an increasingly competitive academic culture and jobs market mean children have to push themselves further to succeed.

Guidelines for Homework

The National PTA and the National Education Association have set guidelines for homework which should increase by 10 minutes for each grade. That means that in the first grade your child will be doing 10 minutes of homework a day, 20 minutes in the second grade and so on. What this means is that by the 12^th grade, they will be doing two hours of homework a day. Some experts say two hours a day is way too much and doesn’t leave enough time for the sleep, rest, social time and the exercise healthy teens need.

More Homework doesn’t Mean Brighter Stars

Studies show that students who did more than two hours of homework did not fare any better than those who did two or less. While this is counter-intuitive, it seems like assigning less homework that is focused on areas the student needs to improve on is far more effective. Unfortunately, most teachers have no time to give students individual homework that help them work through the issues they have.

Here one-on-one tutors provide the most effective solution as tutors are able to help students to get through their homework and cover areas that they are having problems with.

While studies show that a reasonable amount of homework did improve test scores for students in high school, it seemed to make little difference to those in elementary school.

Better Learning, Better Life

The trick seems to be a finding a balance. Parents often don’t complain to teachers when their children have too much homework but if you see a negative impact on the performance or happiness of your child or if your child is experiencing anxiety, you need to work with teachers to find an amicable solution.

If homework is a daily struggle, speak with teachers and tutors on how you can motivate your child. Some children have real issues with executive skills like task initiation, time management, organization or staying focused. This can mean that your child actually has a reasonable amount of homework, but they take forever to do it.

If this is the case, find an in-home tutor who teaches executive skills so that your child learns to organize their time, prioritize tasks and stay organized. Being able to focus for long periods of time to finish tasks is a great life skill to learn, so persevere and you will soon have an independent learner and no homework hassles!

Best Apps for Game-based Learning

 Lucélia Ribeiro

What’s the best way to get your kids excited about learning? Turn it into a game. With more and more technology available, you can download apps that will have your kids learning without even realizing it. Over the summer holidays, kids can lose up to 30% of the academic gains they made in the previous year. Put an end to the summer slide by encouraging learning through play with these incredible apps.

Gen i Revolution: Teach personal finance to middle and high school students with this fun app. The players will be faced with sixteen missions to help people in financial trouble. With Gen i Revolution, earning is learning as they select their operatives, earn points as they gather information and complete tasks which teach them about general finance, financial concepts and terminology.

SpellingCity.com: We all know just how difficult spelling can be, but a spelling mistake on a CV or job application letter or on a college entrance exam could mean a missed opportunity for your child. Not only will this be a great life skill to learn, but being able to effectively communicate ideas and concepts with a healthy vocabulary will help your child to excel on exams and tests. With over 50,000 words and 60,000 sentences, SpellCity.com offers K-12 students a fun way to learn to spell while improving their vocabulary.

Duolingo: Learning a foreign language? Duolingo was voted best Apple app in 2013 and will help your child to memorize words in a foreign language. You can also lean on other language apps to help your child master a second language. Some of the better ones include MindSnacks, Babbel and Cat Academy for all those LOL cat fans out there.

Galxyz: This great app helps kids to master basic scientific concepts and scientific reasoning. This app follows school curriculums to augment what students learn in class in a fun and engaging way. On a quest to save the natural curiosity of children from the evil King Dullard, students are taken through the Next Generation Scientific Standard in the proper sequence as outlined by the US government.

Cosmic Reactor Arithmetic: A fun game for both parents and kids who want to hone their math skills. With seven different games and variable difficulty, you can set the parameters to fit your child’s abilities and grade. Best for students aged 5-12. You can also turn to Math Ninja or Mathemagics to practice your math skills while learning basic principles.

Tutor Doctor also works to prevent the summer slide and keep young minds active over the summer with the Academic Game Plan. Here students can take just a couple of hours a week to catch up and forge ahead while having fun. Contact your local tutor Doctor office for a free consultation.

This summer, you can use screen time constructively to keep your kids learning and growing while they are having fun. Remember to limit screen time and set a timer with a shut-off so you don’t always have to be the bad guy.