As a follow-up to my Kindergarten Readiness workshop today, I wanted to post a few notes: Kindergarten teachers are not often as stressed as parents about an individual child’s readiness for Kindergarten. From the teacher’s standpoint, there are two main categories, academic readiness and social readiness. Across studies, social readiness ranks higher on teachers’ scales … Continue reading Kindergarten Readiness
I learned so much at our recent panel discussion on types of preschools, and am excited to share this with you. Each year we invite speakers from a variety of area preschools to speak about their philosophy and the importance of their approach. Each also talks a bit about what happens in the typical day … Continue reading Types of Preschools: From Our Panel Discussion
I had the pleasure this morning of talking to 220 home daycare providers. Most of them work with children birth through five years old. The topic was the importance of introducing math concepts and ways to best do this by age. Below are a few take-aways for parents from the workshop. Math is much wider … Continue reading Early Math Skills
Every year at parent-teacher conferences, Claire’s teachers describe her among other things as quiet. Every year, this makes me laugh. As long as I have known her, quiet is the last word in the English language I would use to describe her. They also describe her as helpful and on task, which doesn’t surprise me, … Continue reading They Can Be Very Different At School
This time of year, I provide a lot of teacher trainings at area preschools and grade schools. I have been listening the last two weeks and wanted to share some tips from these teachers for parents as we all start the school year. Know the school’s policies – This means, read the handbook. If you … Continue reading Parent Tips from Teachers
Something to keep in mind as the school year starts is the importance of being involved. Overall, you want to provide your child with a sense of a home-school connection. This means the child grows up feeling that my school values my parents and my parents appreciate my school. At the school, this can happen in big … Continue reading Parent Participation in School
Encourage using school skills in real life – If your child is learning about money, have them be the banker for the family. Have them count and pay for things and count change back every time. Talk about how important it is to learn what they are learning in the classroom as a follow-up. Help them … Continue reading Academic Motivation Tips
Whenever I have new children who have separation concerns in my programs, I give the parents two choices about how to move forward. While this is all flexible, I have found that some variation of the two plans seems to work well for all. Option 1 – The Parent Goes – Following this plan the … Continue reading Approaches to Separation Anxiety
As school starts back each year, many families struggle over how and when to schedule homework. Here are a few tips: Let your child help set the schedule – Think about and discuss the child’s needs first. Does your child need a few minutes to unwind and have a snack just after school, or are … Continue reading Managing Homework
Dear Dr. Rene, I am a mother of four, and am expecting a fifth. Our second to youngest child is throwing really bad tantrums in school. These tantrums are out of control and disrupt the entire class. The school is talking about suspension because this is interrupting the whole K, first and second grade hallway. … Continue reading Tantrums at School
Parenting by Dr. Rene 