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

June 1st, 2010 by El Ed Mom

“Ready To Learn Mom” with Stacey Kannenberg Radio Show at 10 CST/11 EST every Wednesday!  Join us on 06/02/10 with the Kidlutions Founder, Wendy Young, sharing solutions for kids because kids have problems, too!

http://www.kidlutions.com/about.html

For more information, please CLICK HERE.

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)

May 24th, 2010 by El Ed Mom

Please show support of teachers on May 26, 2010 for Speak Up for Education & Kids Campaign to support #EducationJobsFund. National Call-in Day 1-866-608-6355 please tell our national education leaders to stop cuts to education – http://bit.ly/9VNbuB

I was so honored to be selected as the Wisconsin Delegate at Mom Congress in DC earlier this month and invited to the Wisconsin Engagement Summit on Saturday to meet with the Governor, First Lady and Secretary of Education to empower parents, kids and teachers to be involved in education.

Our children’s quality education is under threat from budget cuts– music and arts programs, bus routes, sports, extracurricular activities, books, crossing guards, special needs, gifted and talented and foreign language programs are all on the cutting block–and teacher layoffs could mean perhaps as many as 35 or 45 students per classroom.  

This is not the answer!   Students need individual attention, not crowded classrooms and fewer educators, to succeed in the 21st century and help keep America competitive.  It’s not just failing schools that need our help!!  Gwen Samuel, the Mom Congress Delegate from Connecticut is fighting to keep a top 10 HIGH PERFORMANCE school OPEN.  It serves over 70% minority, 20% ESL, 10% disabilities and it is on the chopping block to close!  We need your help to get the message out to parents to get involved!! School should be replicated not closed!Their excuse the budget.SBCTA is convener of event

For more information on this important legislation visit: http://www.educationvotes.nea.org.

Here is a sample to share with your social networking sites: 

National Call-in Day 5/26/10 to Speak Up for Education & Kids to stop cuts! Yes to #EducationJobsFund 1-866-608-6355 http://bit.ly/9VNbuB

Thank you so much for your help and support!

Smiles – Stacey

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…

December 2nd, 2009 by El Ed Mom

In first grade, your child will have to interact with his classroom teacher as well as art, music, and physical education teachers. The school day will become longer. He’ll eat at school and go to and from school with limited assistance. He’ll also have some homework assignments. Find out what else your child will learn this year.

Click Here to read more…

November 20th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

Even the youngest elementary student can take part in service learning. Children can learn at a young age what it means to help people in their community, state, and even the world. This article highlights a few easy service learning projects you can implement in your classroom soon.

What is Service Learning? An example:

The definition of service learning is to involve students in a community service project that supplements and meets curriculum objectives. So, it is not just collecting can food for a can food drive. Students learn something during the service learning project.

Click Here to read more…