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Teaching

Life lessons from teaching that made me a better mom

Middle schoolers and toddlers aren’t so different after all. Here are a few life lessons from teaching that apply to parenting, too.

Life lessons from teaching that make me a better mom - Middle schoolers and toddlers aren't so different after all. Here are a few life lessons from teaching that apply to parenting, too.

Every year as August wanes I start to get nostalgic. I feel drawn to all those back-to-school displays in the stores, I have a desire to start decorating bulletin boards, and I day-dream about all the students meeting their new teachers and embarking on new adventures.

It’s been four years since I have actually stepped foot in a classroom on the first day of school, but I’m still a teacher at heart….

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Changing what it means to be “smart”

Parents want their kids to succeed, but did you know that telling your child that he or she is a smart kid can actually have negative results?  Here’s what I learned in six years of teaching about how to help every child understand that their ability to be “smart” is within their control.
Parents want their kids to succeed, but did you know that telling your child that he or she is a smart kid can actually have negative results? Here's what I learned in six years of teaching about how to help every child understand that their ability to be "smart" is within their control.During my six years of teaching, I regularly heard kids talk about how they were “smart” or “dumb”, or “good” at reading or “bad” at writing. These sorts of comments always bothered me, because my students often discussed their ability as if it was something that they had no control over–as if you’re just born smart, the way you’re born with brown or blonde hair.

I found myself trying over and over to help my students understand the deeply held belief I have that no one is inherently dumb or smart. Sure, there are natural aptitudes for certain things, but that doesn’t mean we can’t develop skills in other areas. Ultimately, we choose the things that we care about most, we put time and effort into those things, and we get better as we practice.…

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Growing Character: Teaching Life Lessons through Gardening

Gardening with kids is a fun way to help them develop qualities and learn skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.  

Gardening with kids is certainly an adventure, but it's so worth it to let them be a part of the experience of growing a garden. Here are 5 essential life lessons kids can learn through gardening.

Have you started planting a garden this year yet? We’ve got some little seedlings indoors, and I’m planning to head outside this week with Little Man to plant the garden in earnest. I figure digging into the earth and starting our garden for the year is a good way to celebrate Earth Day this week….

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Teaching kids to rhyme: rhyming match game (free printable)

Teaching kids to rhyme is not only an essential literacy skill–it can be fun, too! This free printable matching game based on the popular song, “Down by the Bay” is a great way to introduce preschoolers to the concept of rhyme.

Teaching kids to rhyme is a great way to improve reading skills. Here’s a fun preschool learning activity and FREE printable game based on the popular kids’ song “Down By the Bay”.

Did you know that April is National Poetry month?

I love poetry, and when I taught middle school, I loved teaching my students that poetry is about a lot more than weird words strung together by a whole bunch of depressed dead guys. One of my favorite ways to teach them that they liked poetry, even if they didn’t realize it, was through music. And since I don’t think Little Man is quite ready to appreciate most of Wordsworth and Dickinson just yet, I’ve taken the same approach with him….

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Practical Guide: How to do preschool at home with your child (with free printable planner!)

Teaching your child preschool can be simple if you stick to what matters most. This practical guide will give you all the basics you need to know to get started, including a FREE weekly brainstorming and planning sheet.

I love being a mom, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. But I have to admit, there are days that I miss my career as a teacher in the public school system. So I was really excited when Little Man got old enough to be interested in doing more structured learning activities with me in a home preschool setting….

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Speaking to kids: watching what we say & how we say it

As parents, the words we speak to our children have power to shape their actions and their perceptions of themselves. Here are 3 essential things to know about how to communicate with kids effectively.

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I’ve always known that words have power. Power to weave vivid stories that set my imagination afire, to cut my soul deeper than any knife, to bring hope when I sit in darkness. As a writer, I’m always seeking for the most accurate words, the ones that really communicate the abstract ideas swimming in my mind.

As a mother, I’ve found that the words I speak to my children have power to shape their actions and their perceptions of themselves. Both what I say and how I phrase things make a difference in how my children respond.

…

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Save the world and get kids to clean…a win-win scenario

Cleaning Up & Save the World 2 (720)Kids love to play. Play = messes. And that’s okay with me. Messes mean that my boys are busy exploring, building, growing, and otherwise doing exactly what I want them to be doing. But they also seem to be naturally much better at getting everything out than they are at putting it away again….

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How to Raise Kids who Love to Learn: Create a Culture of Learning at Home

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One of the best gifts my mother gave me, and I hope to pass on, is a love for learning. I grew up in a house with bookshelves in every room and was raised by a mother who dedicated a lot of time and energy to my learning. She created in our home something I call a culture of learning. And, I think it rubbed off. All of her children graduated from college, and we all went into some form of education.

Not that everyone in the world needs to be a teacher, but I admire the atmosphere my mother was able to create in our home growing up. Now that I have kiddos of my own to teach, I’m trying to create a culture of learning in my own home. I hope that by encouraging their curiosity at a young age, they’ll hang onto it when they’re older and not get swallowed whole by video games and texting.

So, how do you create a culture of learning?

  1. Read to your children daily, whether it’s picture books or novels. I remember snuggling up to my mom, listening to her read the final chapters of The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis and mourning the end of my time in Narnia. She read to me, she let me read to her, and as I got older we discussed (and we still do) books we were reading. Now I love reading to my boys. If I’m busy and they want attention, they know a sure-fire way to get Mom to take a break is to bring me a book to read with them. I can’t resist. We go to the library at least weekly, and we check out all sorts of books.
  2. Make knowledge accessible. Hang maps, leave books out to be explored, have a dictionary, etc. We have a giant map of the world on the wall of our home library. I decorate with books. I tape up the letters of the alphabet we’re practicing. My goal is to have knowledge secretly attack my children everywhere they look.
  3. Learn together. Little Man is in the “WHY” stage. As much as it drives me nuts when he asks why we are driving to the store, and then why we need milk, and then why milk is good for us, and why, why, WHY all the time, I love that he wants so badly to understand the world around him. I really try to answer his questions (at least the first three levels of why on any one topic), and if I don’t know, we look it up together! I think it’s really good for him to see what Mom does when she has a question, too.
  4. Take field trips. The brain learns new information by attaching it to prior knowledge. So, when my kids see a real live elephant at the zoo, it helps them understand elephants they’ll read about in a book. We love going to the library, zoo, plays, museums, hiking, factory tours, dad’s work, botanical gardens, farms, etc. Anything that can expand their real-world experience helps book learning make sense.
  5. Let kids see you excited about learning. Talk about the things you are learning on your own (and make sure you are taking time to learn). Whether it’s researching photography online, reading a novel, calling someone with a question about taxes, or just looking up a recipe for dinner, it’s important for kids to know that learning exists outside of school.

I wonder so often if all my efforts are really getting results. And then, I turn around and see Little Man sitting in the laundry basket looking at a book. And my heart is happy.056

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