August 19th, 2010 by El Ed Mom

Now that summer is ending, many of us are thinking about the upcoming school year and how to create an atmosphere of success for our children. Regardless of age, a blank notebook, a fresh backpack, new pencils, pens, markers, and/or crayons should be joyful and yet, for many children, it elicits feelings of insecurity and fear of failure.  It is up to us, as parents and educators, to make certain that our kids are emotionally, socially, cognitively, and physically ready to meet new challenges.  Children need guidance, time, and reminders in order to successfully transition from the more carefree days of summer to the more rigorous routines of the school year. Proper manners should be reinforced, kindness acknowledged, reading, listening, and practicing skills encouraged and healthy eating and sleeping patterns enforced. Since children mimic our attitudes and behaviors, it is critical to speak in positive ways about the school year, teachers, school, and curriculum.  It is also important to set realistic expectations so that your child/children can tackle their new experiences and challenges with self confidence and with the knowledge that you will be both their cheerleader and confidant. Please note that I am not encouraging parents to make excuses for or to complete assignments for children, but rather, am advocating an environment of open dialogue, where discussions focus on both positive and negative emotions, behaviors, and experiences. 
Creating a solid foundation is critical to buildings constructed from brick and mortar as well as those more gentle structures made up of feelings, ideas, and knowledge.  Let’s work together towards building a foundation that supports a love for learning, a respect for self and others, and a dedication to excellence, diligence, and empathy.

I wish everyone a successful and lovely school year!!

Magical Educating!

Donna Mavrides
Magical Moments
www.magicalms.com

August 12th, 2010 by El Ed Mom

Choose A Character For Cynthia’s Attic: Book Five!

Want to choose a character to be in the next Cynthia’s Attic book? Here’s how!

Listed at http://cynthiasattic.blogspot.com/2010/07/choose-character-for-cynthias-attic.html are 10 Cynthia’s Attic characters the author, Mary Cunningham, is considering for a recurring role in Book Five. Leave a comment with your choice and an explanation as to why you think the character deserves to return. Mary choose one winner based on the most compelling reason.

What do you win? First is the Cynthia’s Attic book of your choice. You can wait for Book Five (title coming soon!) or you can choose one of the first four titles. Now for the really fun part. If your character and comment is chosen, you’ll also become a character in the book!

Click Here for More Information!

July 29th, 2010 by El Ed Mom

What a fabulous review from Amanda at www.MultiplesAndMore.blogspot.com for the “Let’s Get Ready” series of books! 

And guess what?  YOU can win a set of them!   Just click on the image above and follow the instructions for the giveaway.  Hope you win!

July 22nd, 2010 by El Ed Mom

Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! & Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!

Applauded and approved by parents, kids and educators for ages 2-8, these award-winning, state-approved books are perfect to get kids ready for Kindergarten and First Grade!

Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten!

Teachers at home and in schools love it! It’s not a storybook or a workbook; it’s a book that covers the curriculum: the alphabet and numbers in and out of sequence, left and right, shapes, colors, high frequency words, positional words, opposites, rhyming, let’s read a story and so much more. It’s all in one engaging book illustrated with Mrs. Good, the teacher and six adorable Cedar Valley Kids that you simply read to children to learn.

Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!

Follow along with Ms. Best and six new Cedar Valley Kids and Yodie the Coyote who makes learning vowels and consonants, vowel sounds, compound words, contractions, the solar system, counting money, measuring, fractions, adding and subtracting and more exciting for everyone!

To learn more visit these mom-created, 100% made in USA books, visit: www.cedarvalleypublishing.com

Prize: 1 set of books: Let’s Get Ready For Kindergarten! & Let’s Get Ready For First Grade!
Sponsor: Cedar Valley Publishing
# of Winners: 1
Start/End Dates: 7/14/2010 – 9/30/2010

Click Here to Submit Your Entry

May 25th, 2010 by El Ed Mom

“Mrs. B., I hope you have a daughter, because you have already raised a son.”  With tears in my eyes and a hand on my eight-month pregnant belly, I hugged my student as he got ready to walk the graduation line.  It is statements like those that make me glad I became a teacher.  The first day I set foot in a classroom, I knew that I was truly born to teach teens.  For the first time in my life, I felt …home. 

The young man who I quoted above came from a broken home.  Although he had a wonderful mom, she had to work around the clock to make ends meet.  When I first met him, he was so angry and had such a chip on his shoulders.  I realized that until we could break through his frustration, English Lit was about the last thing he would be learning.  So I became a mentor, a friend and a tough teacher.  I had high expectations, but made sure there was always a soft place to land.  He knew he could not get away with anything less than his very best, and he delivered.  All he asked for in return, was that I believe in him.  This relationship has forever changed my heart for the better, as have the relationships I have had with so many of my students.  I know that I had a small part in making them better citizens in this world.

Now I am afraid.  I am afraid for tomorrow’s children.  We are facing a National crisis in our education system.  Our funding is literally disappearing and as a result, so are our teachers and mentors.  With 35-45 students in my classroom, would I have time to connect with students like this?  Of course not… so who would?  We are in danger of losing over 150,000 of our teachers if action is not taken, and quickly.  If you are moved, even a little by this story…or have one of your own, don’t sit by and watch as we lose good teachers…or worse…we let kids miss an opportunity to have a mentor truly believe in them. 

So what can you do?  Learn and then Act!  To become more educated on the issues, please read http://www.educationvotes.nea.org.  If you are as concerned as I am, tell your elected officials; I did!  It is an easy process, just follow this link: http://bit.ly/8ZBh8M.  They will be voting soon on the Education Jobs Fund, which could release money to schools this summer and save the jobs of tens of thousands of teachers.  And if you are so inclined, Tweet your opinions with the hash tag #EducationJobsFund.  I have felt so helpless to make a difference lately, but I know we can speak as one voice and do what is right for our kids.  Join me…please.

Hilary

Live Your Brand!

TrademarkU – Leadership through Personal Branding

www.TrademarkU.org
715.326.1213 (m)
715.344.0295 (o)

December 16th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

Passports:  Promote multicultural awareness and self esteem with this early childhood education activity by Matina.

Materials: Paper and a camera.

Description: We made passports by stapling white paper to construction paper. Then from January until May we studied a different country. We studied Russia, Africa, Ireland, Israel, China, Antarctica, Australia, Mexico, Japan, France, Hawaii, and Saudi Arabia. Then for each country the youngsters wore a hat or a prop from that country (ex: France, beret). We took pictures of each child wearing his or her hat or prop. Then I glued the pictures into each child’s individual passport and gave it to them along with a world traveler certificate at the end of the year. They had lots of fun “dressing up!”

Click Here to read more…

November 2nd, 2009 by El Ed Mom

1. Visual Learners learn through seeing. These learners like to visualize things by thinking in pictures and learn best-from maps, charts and diagrams; they enjoy art and drawing. Visual learners are often fascinated with machines and inventions. They like mazes and puzzles.

What you can do: Use board and memory games to teach, offer lots of picture books. When reading aloud to your child give them coloured pencils so they can draw while listening.

Click Here to read more…

October 7th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

Falling for Leaves
When one thinks of autumn, the first thing that often comes to mind is leaves. “We like to go on a fall walk and find really big, colorful leaves,” says Melissa Durante, a mother of three from Bartlett, Ill. “My daughter likes to keep one of each color she finds.”

Rachel Del Rio, an early-childhood educator in Elgin, Ill., says that toddlers and preschoolers may like to take the treasures from their nature walk and glue them to construction paper, perhaps making a person by using an acorn for a head and leaves for the body. Here’s another fun idea: Collect some freshly fallen leaves. Place them on a board. Place a thin cloth (like a piece of sheet) over the leaves and have the child hammer the leaves. The leaf color and shape will imprint on the cloth.

Of course all those beautiful leaves need to end up somewhere – and many will undoubtedly be in your yard. While you toil to pick them up, let your child “work” alongside with a plastic rake or scamper around the yard with a dump truck (the bigger the better) to collect leaves to be deposited onto a main pile. Don’t be surprised, though, if a pile or two ends up a mess. Jumping and rolling in leaves is tempting fun for many toddlers (and some parents, too)!

Click Here to read more…

October 1st, 2009 by El Ed Mom

Children need to play. This observation might seem obvious, but lately, it is my rallying cry. It has to be. There is so much discussion among parents and educators about the relative benefits of academic versus developmentally appropriate preschools, and as testing rules the day, proponents of the academic model seem to be gaining ground.

But I am a parent, and I have been a preschool teacher for more than twenty years, and my experience and training tell me one thing loud and clear.

Children need to play.

They need to build with blocks, role-play with dolls and cooking tools, assemble tracks for trains, dabble in paint, jump up and down, ride tricycles, smush playdough, dig in sand, splash in water. They need to negotiate with ladders, slides, and each other. Take turns. Dress up. Cook.

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September 24th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

The physical education games that are described in this article can be played at the beginning of gym class as part of a warm exercise, during the period wholly or partially devoted to games or physical education activities or at the end of class as part of cool down exercises.

In addition to the obvious benefits of providing good exercise, combating obesity and developing motor skills, the other skills that I wanted my students to demonstrate when they play these games are co-operation, sportsmanship and enjoyment.

Here are 6 examples of physical education games that my students and I enjoyed.

Click Here to read more…