Need a Little Help? Tips to Keep a Happy Academic Home
Try to keep a place where books and homework can be placed daily to help your student stay organized. Please make sure your child has his/her homework folder nightly. A special homework place makes it seem more important. This should be a quiet place with good lighting.
Make sure your child knows his/her address for safety reasons.
Reading and discussing the beginning, middle and end of the story helps your child better understand story structure. Reread when comprehension is a problem. Make inferences about the characters and setting. Try predicting what the story will be about before reading and then have them generate questions as they read.
Practice writing complete sentences with interesting (adjectives) words, using beginning capitalization and ending punctuation will reinforce what your child is learning at school. Also, have your child say the beginning and ending sounds of words. Make it fun by playing "I Spy" games using rhyming words. Have them think of new words, even nonsense words, using different beginning sounds. (hay, nay, way, vay, etc.)
To practice spelling words have your child say the letters as they write them three times. Then, cover the word to see if they can spell them without looking and have them check for correctness. This is a very effective way to remember words. If they can spell them, they can read them.
When reading, ask your child to tell you the difference between letters, words and sentences. Use an index card to cover and uncover letters, then words and next sentences.
Use reading strategies to help them monitor their reading. Ask, "Does that makes sense?" Have them use the illustrations to read unfamiliar words and look for context clues.
Dry beans like pinto and black eye peas make wonderful counters for math practice. Having your child count change in your pocket will help them learn a difficult concept. Ask them often what time it is. A quarter after and a quarter to are difficult concepts since digital clocks are the norm now. An analog wrist watch makes a great birthday present. The main thing right now is to practice, practice and practice.
This is a large teacher's resource site. Here you will find free printables, blogs, and links to teachers' websites that are listed by grade level.
