5 Ways to Keep Your Child Focused During the Holidays

We all know that it's pretty tempting to lie around the house, munch on leftovers and watch old movies during the entire Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks.  Oh wait...those things are tempting to us adults, but probably not to our children!

For them, there are a ton of age-appropriate (and sometimes not) distractions over the holidays that can negatively impact academic performance when it's time to return to the classroom in January.  Here are 5 things that you can do to counter the distractions and help boost your child's brain power and productivity at the same time:

Make a Plan of Action
1.  Many of IST's students are assigned a winter packet from their teachers.  You can assist your child by helping to create a plan of action to work on the packet each day of the break rather than waiting until the last minute.  The beauty of having time off is that s/he can put in an hour or two of work and then do something fun later to strike a balance between daily work and play.

Keep Reading in the Mix
2.  If your child is not assigned a book (or books) to read during the break, you should create a short reading list together.  Often, it's much more enjoyable for the student if the topic is on something that s/he likes.

Finish Applications Early
3. If your child is applying to private schools or colleges with application deadlines in early January, you should plan to have everything finished before Christmas break, so ideally you're aiming for somewhere between Thanksgiving and the middle of December at the latest. 

Catch Up on Current Events
4.  Help your child understand what's happening in the world around him/her.  There are various media, of course, but we find that reading the newspaper is a great way to catch up and learn new SAT-level vocabulary words in context. 

Get a Jump on Summer Plans
5.  Make a plan now for how to make the most of your child's summer.  Many of the more popular and competitive summer programs and internships open the application process in January.  You can help your child take advantage of these opportunities by researching programs together and making a chart of important dates and application components.

5 Ways Parents Can Bring History Alive

Over the weekend, I went to see "Red Tails," the new George Lucas film about the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African-American military aviators in the US armed forces.    There were several children in the audience (including one of my students) watching the movie with their parents.  For many students, history, like science, is one just one of those subjects that you can't just read in a book--you have to experience it in order to really appreciate it.  Here are five ways to bring history to life for your children:

1. Visit a museum

This one's pretty obvious, but I'm still surprised by the number of people who don't take advantage of all the great things that museums, particularly local ones, have to offer.  If you can't get there physically, take a tour of a virtual museum like those offered by the Smithsonian.  To see a list of virtual museums from around the world, click here.

2.  Get some popcorn and watch a movie
If you have a family full of movie buffs like mine, check out a documentary about a particular event or period in history and watch it together.  When I was growing up, I learned so much about the Civil Rights Movement that wasn't taught in school just by watching the "Eyes on the Prize" series on PBS.  PBS has an array of other well-made, interesting documentaries to choose from here.
If documentaries aren't your thing, a great alternative is the historical fiction genre.  In these works, you get a "twofer"--your children can learn about history and be entertained through a work of fiction that grabs their attention, such as a favorite among my students, "The Count of Monte Cristo."  To see a list of the 100 best historical fiction films of all time (most of these are more suitable for older children), click here.

3.  Download an app
An iPad app like Virtual Roma takes the user back in time to visit Ancient Rome, which has been reconstructed in a virtual form that allows you to have a “full-immersion” panoramic experience.  You can see aerial views of the city, statues, monuments and more as you if were right there.  How cool is that?!  To see more history apps, click here.

4. Go on a scavenger hunt
Family scavenger hunts allow you to learn about history and have a little friendly competition at the same time.  At the "The Museum of Natural Hysteria Scavenger Hunt" inside the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, families can "hunt for dinosaurs, stuffed tigers and giraffes, a camping a flossing bison, live insects, the Hope Diamond and other jewels, mummies, and a charred-bone from a real murder mystery."  Watson Adventures offers hunts like this all over the country; to see locations, click here.  If you can't find anything close to you, check out this list of internet scavenger hunts at Education World to go on your own scavenger hunt at home.

5. Take a field trip

When you're planning your next vacation, incorporate a visit to a historic site as part of your trip.  When I was a child, I loved going to visit Colonial Williamsburg, VA.  In the same trip, we could see reenactments of what it was like to live during the American Revolution and  head over to Busch Gardens, where we could get a taste of old-world Europe and ride roller coasters.  To see a list of the "10 Best Historic U.S. Sites for Kids," click here.  Again, if you can't physically visit, consider taking a virtual field trip from the comforts of your own home.  To see a list of some pretty cool virtual trips, click here and here.

*This post was originally published at RicheHolmesGrant.com

Get your middle school student ready for college...RIGHT NOW

We work with students in grades 2-12 (and beyond), and trust me, it's never too early to start preparing them for college.  Washington Post writer, Jay Matthews, offers "8 subtle ways to prepare middle schoolers for college" below.  To read the entire article, including full descriptions and anecdotes that accompany each tip, click here.

1. Notice what they enjoy doing, and help them do more of it.
2. Make sure your child knows that B’s are fine in middle school and that fun is important.
3. Enroll them in Algebra I in the eighth grade.
4. Insist they develop some practical housework skills.
5. Flavor family trips with a bit of college atmosphere.
6. Encourage children who are curious about the world to take a foreign language.
8. Do everything you can to encourage reading.

[Source: washingtonpost.com]

This Month's Teachable Moment

How do you know when to use "I" vs. "me"?
Many people incorrectly assume that "I" is always correct because it sounds "proper." Not true! The simple way to determine which to use when there are other people in a sentence is to take out the other people and see which makes more sense between I" or "me." 

Example:  My mother took my sister and me/I to the store.

Take out "my sister" and you're left with "My mother took me to the store" or  "My mother took I to the store."  In this sentence the "me" makes more sense. Of course there is a more technical way to explain this, but we've found that this way is much easier to remember!

Now, go TEACH it!

Managing ADHD Without Medication

If you are a parent with a child who has ADD or ADHD, I'm sure you've thought about (or at least been approached about) putting them on medication at least since the initial diagnosis.   If so, I'd also like you to think strongly about viable alternatives.  Read more here, where AOL Health explores seven med-free strategies that might help kids with ADHD gain focus and control.

What do The Washington Post and SpongeBob Have in Common?

SAT words!  In my never-ending quest to find vocabulary words in everyday life, I did another little experiment: I read one article of The Washington Post and watched one episode of SpongeBob Squarepants to see how many "SAT" words I could find in each.  Here are the results (in order of appearance):


The Washington Post
Article: "How Adrian Fenty Lost His Reelection Bid for DC Mayor"
by Nikita Stewart and Paul Schwartzman (9/15/10)

1. oblivious
2. constituent(s)
3. remorse
4. unrelenting
5. hone(d)
6. incumbent
7. aloof
8. catapult(ed)
9. confidant
10. electorate

Time Magazine & The Case Against Summer Vacation

This month, Time Magazine argues the case against summer vacation, given the detrimental effects a lack of summer learning can have on students, particularly in low-income households. Read the entire article here: The Case Against Summer Vacation.

[Source: time.com]

Three Fun Summer Learning Activities

This following ideas were featured in a newsletter I receive from BrainWare/Learning Enhancement Corporation and I thought I'd share them with all of our summer savvy parents.  The author is Betsy Hill and the full article is accessible here.  

Happy learning, everyone!

1.  The “Think and Listen" – A parent and child agree to “think out loud” about a topic of mutual interest:  the menu, the weather, world peace, etc.  Each person agrees to speak for the same length of time, the listener never interrupting.  The “Think and Listen” gives the thinker good practice identifying thoughts and articulating them.  Just a few "Think and Listens" can make children more articulate and confident. They are more likely to do well in class discussions and to express ideas that are important to them.

2.  The “Restaurant Review” – Give summer vacations more “mental meat” by writing restaurant reviews with your children after dining out. This is a good way to work cognitive skills such as memory, sustained attention, creativity and prioritizing of values. Those skills will come in handy next fall, when it comes to reviewing for an exam.  

3.   The “Visual Scavenger Hunt” – When planning a summer trip, develop a list of things you might see along the road – the kids can help with the research – and give each child a list to check off as they find the items. Include a mixture of common objects, like a stop sign or a gas station, and rarer objects … like a jewelry store, a cemetery, a cactus, a purple flower, a black squirrel …. The mixture of objects will help sustain interest and balance the difficulty of finding one with the feeling of discovering a treasure when something rare is spotted.  This simple game strengthens focus, visual discrimination and memory skills.

Children's board games help reinforce lessons learned in the classroom

"Disconnect the Xbox, uninstall the computer game software and close the laptop.  You want your child to have fun but learn at the same time, at a fraction of the cost? Play a board game, experts say."  Read the entire article here.

[SOURCE:  washingtonpost.com]

Etymology is Everywhere!

et⋅y⋅mol⋅o⋅gy  [et-uh-mol-uh-jee]

1. the derivation of a word.
2. an account of the history of a particular word or element of a word.
3. the study of historical linguistic change, esp. as manifested in individual words.

Parents often ask me what is the best way to teach their children new vocabulary before they come to IST. I am convinced now, after only a few short hours of a completely non-scientific experiment, that the first step in effectively learning new words is to simply open your ears and eyes throughout the day.

Tonight, I was sitting in church when I heard a man next to me repeat one of the words the pastor said, as if to ask, "What does that mean?" The word was "chasm." It was then that I realized that I had been subconsciously creating a list of the SAT-type words that I heard during the past two sermons.

Later, after I got home, I watched two hours of prime time TV (this is a lot for me!) to see how many more SAT words I could add to the list.  Click the link below to see the results...