This video is meant to be fun and is in NO way a slap or blow at homeschool families. I have great friends who homeschool their children. There are many reasons for homeschooling. Homeschooling can be very effective and beneficial and depends on the needs of each family.
Click on the link for the following video:
Many students have summer reading lists to complete during their summer break from school. Sometimes it is difficult to get them to even open up a book during the summer. After all, school is out. They don’t want to think about books, teachers, papers, or assignments. However, during those months or weeks off from school, students lose much of what they learned during the school year. Just like with any activity or learning process, we must practice to stay current and retain information.
I teach at an early childhood learning center that offers summer camp for school-agers. I often ask those students if they have been working on their summer reading assignments. While some of them will say yes, most of the answers are no. Reading is not one of their fun activities of the summer. They would much rather be running through the sprinkler or climbing on the playground.
At one summer camp where I worked, we had three 15-minute silent reading periods set aside in our daily schedule for the students to read. They could either read books provided by the school or they could bring their own books, preferably books on their summer reading lists. These reading times started off well at the beginning of summer camp but slowly lost their appeal as summer went on.
As an early childhood teacher of 3-4 year olds, I set aside reading times each day for the students. At this young age, obviously, there isn’t much reading going on, but they are encouraged to choose books from the bookshelf and look at the pictures. This time serves as down time between high energy activities as well as time to introduce books related to the theme of the week.
I sit down with the students and either read the books to them or have them tell me what they think is happening in the stories from the pictures. This activity encourages respect for books, a love for reading, and opens their imaginations to adventures occurring in the stories. It is important to switch books out and replace books on the bookshelves every week or every two weeks to prevent boredom.
Click on this link for a study completed on students and summer reading. Interesting!
It’s almost time for students to go back to school. Many of them will go to new schools. It can be stressful enough just going to a new class and a new teacher. It is even more stressful going to a completely new school and environment.
Start early talking about the transition with children. Talk about the expectations of a new grade and age group. Talk about the school. Talk about the teachers. Click here for tips and helps on going back to school.
Transitions not only happen at school. They also happen at church. Children promote to new classes at church as they grow older and move on to older classes at school. Preschool is a big time of transition and can be very stressful and overwhelming to young children. Click here for a helpful resource on transitioning preschoolers at church.
Here is an excerpt from Savannah Goes to Children’s Worship. Preschoolers grow up and are older and are ready to move on to bigger classes. However, those classes can be overwhelming to young children at first. They have been in a preschool class with only other children their ages. Now they are older and being promoted to school-age groups often with children of multiple ages.
Check out this picture of a young girl in her preschool classroom with toys on the floor and posters on the walls:
Now check out this picture of a young girl in a large group setting with many other children, loud music, and much more:
Click here to order your copy of Savannah Goes to Children’s Worship to help ease the tensions and stresses of transitioning to a new classroom or group.
