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!”

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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.

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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.

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November 5th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

Packing your kids’ lunches for school is a great way to monitor the nutritional content of their meals. Sometimes kids don’t want to bring their own lunch to school because their friends don’t bring theirs, or they would prefer to eat the lunch the school serves. One fun thing to do is to put a note in your child’s lunch. The note can be an encouragement for an upcoming test, congratulations for doing well on a project, a cute little drawing, or simply “I Love You.”

Another idea is to buy some plain bags, and use stamps, markers and crayons to have your kids decorate their own lunch bags, or they can personalize their siblings’ lunch bags.

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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.

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October 26th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

Teaching children to write is very important in today’s world. Kids are not required to write very much in school anymore. They can receive a high school diploma with only a minimal amount of writing education. Here are 6 steps for teaching your children to write.

1. Inspire them. Show your children that writing can be very fun and exciting. Show them letters you have written. If you keep a journal show your children how rewarding and exciting it is to look back through the years in your journal.

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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 30th, 2009 by El Ed Mom

Elementary education is usually thought of as the first section of compulsory education that children undergo. Depending upon how the school district or state defines this, the elementary education period is Kindergarten through fifth grade usually followed by middle school or junior high which is grades 6 – 8. Some systems call for junior high to be 7 – 9 with the elementary grades being K – 6. The school is considered as the children’s second home and their teachers are secondary parents. It is very vital to acknowledge the importance of elementary education. This time children start to learn about the basic ideas that initially come out their mind.

There is a necessity to universalize elementary education. If before, parents do not give much importance to the education of their children, it is of a different thing nowadays. We are living in a world of competition. To give better opportunities for everybody, illiteracy should be eradicated in the society. The challenge for the government today is to make the needed reforms and promote local planning as regards the strategies of motivating the leaders on how to expound and improve primary education in particular. However, several predicaments get higher especially when it deals about the impact of the continuously increasing tuition fees and textbook prices. This is a major reason why parents are discouraged to send their children to school. Their parents at home cannot provide the learning that the students can get from their school.

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