In a belated honor of Children’s book day, here are some early literacy skills builder activities. The first steps of reading begin at home, so practice with your child and help to share with them a love of language and books.

Here are some early literacy skills builder activities:

1. Sing with your child

Singing with your child an teach them a lot about language. It can help them learn the rhythm, vocabulary, as well as, greater understanding on specific topics.

2. Talk with your child

By simply including your child in conversation, you are encouraging their understanding of language. This will in turn encourage their literacy skills. At an early age, describe things to your child and ask them their opinions (even before they can share it). By including them, you are showing that their voice is important and the more practice they get the better they will be with language.

It is important to note research shows that children respond better to less confrontational language, so instead of getting frustrated with the sounds your child makes try to show excitement over what they do know and encourage them to keep practicing.

 3. Read together

Read with your child every day. Share with them a love for reading. Books can teach language as well as greater concepts. In our house we’ve used them not only to build on vocabulary but also to prepare for holidays and vacations by reading about similar experiences.

4. Writing Starts with Fine Motor Skills

Writing begins with scribbles and other fine motor developing skills. This means by simply encouraging your child to draw, pick up his own cheerios, and explore his world, you are encouraging their early writing skills.

5. Allow Time to Play

Imagination not only plays a huge role in reading but also in writing. This is something a child can start working on as a toddler. It will help them with reading comprehension and later on in writing their own stories.

 

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Finding Success with Picky Eaters

Here are sixteen steps to finding success with picky eaters. It is all about what works best for your family, your child’s personality, and giving the child confidence in food.

• Picky Eating often starts around age one
• Some days toddlers eat lots and other days it seems like almost nothing
• A child may need to experience a food 10-15 times before they like it
• The inconsistency of their environment as they are constantly changing may lead to them wanting to have consistency in their foods= toddlers eating the same items again and again
• Kids tend to like what their parents like. It all links back to experience either in the womb or opportunities outside the womb.
• Be a Good Role Model. Picky eaters learn it from somewhere.
• Have your child help prepare the meal. The excitement over being the chef just might lead to your child joining in and eating with you.
• Show enthusiasm over good foods. Your child will pick up on your ques and imitate your behavior.
• Think about what your child seems to avoid. Is there a similarity, like consistency, think about that and try to plan your meal accordingly.
• Your toddlers stomach is about the size of their clenched fist. Don’t expect them to eat the same amount of food as you
• As a parent, provide good snack options. Let your child pick when and how much they need to eat. This provides opportunities for your child to learn to control eating, as well as, a healthy love for food.
• Mix in new foods next to ones they already like. Encourage your child to fully explore this new food.
• Use healthy dips to encourage your child to get into the fun of eating their food
• Offer your child food they can feed themselves like finger foods
• Keep mealtimes short
• If need be, seek medical advice. There are children who need more help from a feeding specialist to find success.

As a parent, you always wonder at what point should I be concerned. As a parent, I spend so much time comparing my children to the other ones on the play ground, playgroup, or child care, but how do I know when to really seek out help for my child and what the real repercussions are for your child’s future.

• First pinpoint what your child’s specific needs are. For our son, he is a wiz at language and learning. You say something no matter how silly the word might be and he absorbs it, but give him a physical challenge and there’s a decent chance it will be a real struggle for him.  So gross motor is a need for him but…
• Is it something we really need more help for. Check your child’s development according to their age not their peers. Our son is actually not behind it just isn’t his strength, but considering both of his parents are far from athlete’s this is not really surprising.
• It is important to remember every child is different. There are children who do things like learn walking slower because they are focusing more on developing other areas, like fine motor or speech. See what your child’s next gross motor goals could be then work with them to achieve these. If you still have concerns, go ahead and check with your doctor for more information and a possible referral for an assessment.
• Seek Help. If your still unsure, talk to your doctor and if you still feel you might need more help, seek a development pediatrician. It’s your job to be your child’s advocate, so don’t leave any stone unturned.

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Is My Child Different

How to help your child get organized begins with effectively managing time. Learning time starts from the time they’re toddlers. I find myself constantly telling my toddler in just a second, or something similar, and that all relates to time. We try to instill in toddlers the ability to not only wait but also to anticipate. Then by the time they are in kindergarten, we try to teach them how to read time. It is all a process that will help them to become successful adults. Here are some useful ideas in using this concept of time to help your child get organized.

How to Help Your Child Get Organized:

• Family Calendar

Also encourage your child to use the monthly calendar in his working notebook. The child should transfer his personal events from the family calendar to the notebook calendar. He should also note upcoming tests, long-term assignment due dates (such as a book report due a week later), appointments with the school guidance counselor, and vacation days. Unless your child regularly refers to the calendar, its value will diminish.

• Daily Planner

Daily planners can be used to sketch out how homework, play time, club meetings, and the like can be worked into each day. This helps avoid the conflict that often occurs about when to do homework, since you will reach a decision together based on the available hours in a day. It also shows your child that his free time is valued and will also be scheduled.

• Make Sure They Understand Time

It’s important not to make assumptions about how well your child can tell time without a digital clock, can understand and follow class schedules, or can sense how time flows daily, weekly, and monthly. Students with learning disabilities often have difficulty with the simplest aspects of time and planning, and these deficits may not be readily apparent. It is easy for a teenager with a learning disabilities to think that “quarter after four” meant 4:25 (because a quarter is twenty-five cents), or that on March 30 they have a month to complete a report that was due on April 3 (because it was “next month”).

The following are some guides and ideas that might help your child be more successful at homework. These guides of homework help could really make a difference in your child’s success in the classroom. If your child seems to get overwhelmed or forget about certain assignments, these ideas are to help your child get on the right path toward being successful in school.

Organizing homework

A good assignment book is essential for completing homework successfully. While some students buy three- by five-inch spiral pads for recording assignments, the pages are too small, the lines are too thin, and there are not visual dividers to separate assignments for children that need more help. Instead a good assignment book is eight and a half by eleven inches, with three holes for inserting it into the working notebook, neatly divided sections, and plenty of room on each page.

To help your child organize homework, you can create a homework help checklist with the following items for each subject:

• I have the materials I need to do the assignment (book, notes, handouts).
• I completed the assignment.
• I checked the assignment to be sure it was correct.
• There was no homework in this subject tonight.

By making multiple copies of the checklist, your child can use one for each subject each night – independently or with your help.

Study space

Routines about when and where homework is completed are essential. While students will not usually admit to it, they all benefit from structure for completing homework. This is especially relevant for students with learning disabilities. The structure can be imposed by you, by teachers, or as a team.

Your child should have an identified study space in the home. Preferably, the space should be used solely for school work. It can be in your child’s room, a quiet area of the living room, or even a walk-in closet. The space should be free of visual and auditory distractions (including games, TV, radio, and other children). It should have a clear work surface, good light, and a comfortable yet well-structured chair. All necessary supplies should be on hand before the child starts, including a dictionary, pencils, paper, ruler, and calculator.

On the first day of school or as soon as possible, you should establish a routine with your child for completing homework. The routine needs to reflect your child’s individual learning style. For example, some students with attention weaknesses work best if they spend no more than fifteen minutes on a subject, move to another assignment for fifteen minutes, and then return to the original assignment (rather than work continuously on the same assignment). Some students do better if they spend a half-hour after school on homework, then take a break to play or eat dinner, then complete the homework.

While the best time for completing homework differs for each student it’s important to establish it and make it a routine in order to give them the best homework help.

Communicating with teachers

Too often, teachers say that parents are not involved enough with their children’s school work and parents say that teachers do not provide enough information for them to help their children. To avoid this situation, establish communication with your child’s teachers as soon as possible – preferably before the first day of school – and maintain it throughout the year.

Ask teachers what organization structures they provide, what they expect from students, and how you can help your child organize materials and study effectively. Ask the teacher to write homework assignments, with a lot of detail, on a blackboard for your child to copy so you will know what the homework is and how it’s to be completed. Be willing to check, sign, and return a homework sheet each night to maintain communications between you and the teacher. Ask the teacher to note how long each assignment should take to complete, then note back to the teacher how long it actually took. This is essential information for the teacher to make appropriate modifications to homework assignments.

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Department Education: Homework