Back to School

How to Avoid the Swiss Cheese in Your Child's Education.

As our children head back to school we are often just as excited and anxious as they are. There is abundant advice for parents and children on how to transition back to school available; back to achieving academic, social and emotion developmental markers. Well, children all develop at different rates, that is what's so wonderful and frustrating about children and schools. Our children must achieve academic markers within a fairly prescriptive time line to move on. The IQ taking precedence over the EQ.

Many of us have heard at one time or another that little Aisha or Andy may be achieving well in some areas and still developing in others. This is when Swiss cheese in academic development begins to form. Many a mother and father wonder what to do with this information. Most of us take a wait and see approach. Some times the wait and see approach works, but when it doesn't, the Swiss cheese in academic development begins to firment. When there are holes in academic development, it can effect a child's true learning curve. So, the question remains, what to do with little Aisha or Andy?

The answer is play. Yes, play! The old saying, 'Work is child's play' is absolutely true!

Reading delays

Read to your child, every day! Reading aloud doesn't stop when a child begins to read. Beside the emotional warmth and comfort of cuddling up and reading, the academic benefits begin before going to school. Teachers can tell on the first day of school who is read to. By reading with your child it sends the message early on that literacy is important. In the United States, jail space allocation is directly correlated to 3rd grade reading scores. That's shocking!

When reading to the very young child, pick books full of color and animation. Look for award winners and those tried a true books that have been around for years. Pick books of all seasons, subjects and genres. Invest in books, give or ask for books as gifts or share with friends. The larger the kiddie library to more exposure your child has to the wonderful world of literacy. Always make books accessible to children. Pick books to read together and take a picture walk though the book. Look at the details, expressions and where the story takes place. Read the book stopping to discuss vocabulary, feelings, characters and the setting. Talk about the book and try to relate personal experiences to the book. Read, read, read! It is that important to a child's reading and language development!

Hate writing?

There are several reasons a child avoids writing. Language development, letter knowledge and the physical act of writing. By reading to your child and talking about everyday subjects, it develops language; read, read, read~talk, talk, talk! Some children do have natural language delays due to left brain preference or a learning delay. If you suspect a true learning discrepancy, see a speech therapist. No parent has ever said a speech evaluation has hurt a child! The physical act of writing can be very difficult for some children due to physical maturity. Fine motor skills take time to develop for most everyone. Dancing helps handwriting. The theory is the the two skills lay almost on top of each other on the brain. By dancing, the area for hand writing is stimulated as well. Kneading dough for bread, cutting anything with scissors, building Lego, dressing and undressing dolls and themselves. Anything that requires small motor usage helps! If you feel that your child's motor development just isn't improving, an occupational therapist can offer a lot of specific advice. Most children don't really develop their handwriting skills until middle school when to hormones kick in and the muscles of the body fine tune.

Trouble with math?

What to do depends on the age of the child. It is not unusual for a child to struggle in math at sometime during their schooling. My son, in high school is just now struggling to grasp trigonometry. The best advice is to introduce math to children before startIng school. Playing memory, simple addition and subtraction games along with logical reasoning and physical-spacial games with children goes a long way. By introducing math games, physical math games are even better, children will have been exposed to math and have a warm familiarity to math. If your child is already in school, there are lots of math games, particularly in elementary school available to help reduce the anxiety associated with doing math. The most important thing is for the child to feel successful when doing math. Lets face it, flash cards are boring. There are plenty of multiplication games for kids to teach the facts. Games also help create a fluency in core numeration skills. The hidden gem to playing math games is the social benefits too!

For other subjects such as science, social studies, art, music and physical education, exposing any of these subjects to your children in a relaxed setting makes all the difference. The best thing is to find out the core subjects will covered, in very general terms, in the coming year of the grade level your child will enter. Use the holidays to expose them to a science museum, experimental science kits, and art or music classes. For social studies taking a trip that takes the child to the subject area is far more meaningful than what is in the textbooks! A couple years ago my eldest child was going to be studying the Native Americans. We took a road trip to see the Navaho and Hopi Indians. Knowing we could not see and meet most of the tribes, I bought Native American story books and read them allowed to my son. He reported back that he enjoyed the subject more, could make better connections and felt he had something authentic to report. Physical development is a life long commitment. Children don't have to join a team to be fit. Lots of kids either prefer team andor individual sport. The most important thing is to get and stay active!

The final important factor to a successful year and to avoid the Swiss cheese effect is to see teachers as partners in your child's eduction. Working together with open communication sends a message to your child that their strengths and weaknesses are equally important at home and at school.

So where does all the play come from? Google key words on the internet and include the word 'games'. Ask your child's teacher for suggestions and/or go to Journey Toys for games. We are happy to listen to your child's needs as resource support or offer specialized games for your child's individual developmental needs. Keep the Swiss cheese for a sandwich!

Written by Alicia Suwaina, M.Ed, a former teacher, now the managing director of Journey Toys, a company dedicated to offering educational supply with a twist of play! Call a toy specialist at 050.622.6105!