Helping Your Child Succeed in School - Ages 2 1/2 thru 6
You are your child’s first teacher. You have a great impact on how well your child learns in school. You have the power to foster the skills your child needs to be successful in school. The enjoyable learning experiences and environment you provide on a daily basis are what gives you the power. You have taught your child since birth. Your role as teacher doesn’t stop when you enroll him or her in school. When you talked to your baby and responded to his coos, throughout his growth, you have taught him the value of the spoken word. When you read aloud to your child when he was a baby, you have taught him the value of the written word.
Don’t stop reading to him. Rotate the books you have made available to your child thus far. A variety of picture books and stories made readily available for child to explore on his own, provide stimulation for learning. You assist your child in developing an awareness of printed language as encourage him to open a book, turn pages, and become involved in repeating or filling in sounds, words, or phrases.
There are things you can easily do to prepare your child for preschool.
1. Set boundaries and limits.
2. Be specific and be consistent. “Mean what you say and say what you mean.”
3. Explain your rules, teenager are in training to be adults sooner than you think, understanding “why” will make keeping your rules easier.
4. Clarify the rules and set consequences. It is imperative that you enforce these specified consequences if the need arises.
5. Focus on the positive, rather than punishment, offer rewards when your child does not break a rule and stays within the boundaries set.
6. Give teenagers some control over their own lives, within reason of course. Allow them to make decisions concerning school clothes, hairstyles, and friends.
7. It may cause you to cringe occasionally, but think about allowing your teenager to control the condition of their own room. Believe it or not, most teens grow out of having a messy bedroom especially when examples of ‘clean a & organized’ are surround them elsewhere in the house. Be advised that the some grow out of ‘messy’ sooner than others.
8. Allow them to earn a later curfew, use of the car, or an outing with friends (choosing from a list of approved places) .
9. Never hit your teenager when you are angry. If you choose this type of punishment, make sure you are calm and your mind is clear.
10. Listen to your child, many situations can be avoided if a parent had simply listened.
Though some of us did not ask for it, America belongs to all of us. For the sake of our children’s civil rights, we cannot continue to ignore the racism. For now, America is our home and just like all homes, America needs a good cleaning.
Sometimes just the little things we do and the small sacrifices we make are the most helpful. Here is a very small thing you can do to help. WARREN BALLENTINE “THE PEOPLE’S ATTORNEY” IS CALLING FOR ALL AFRICAN AMERICANS TO PARTICIPATE IN A NATIONAL BLACKOUT”
Friday, November 2, 2007 Plan Ahead, Don’t Spend Any Money on that Day. Be sure to plan ahead in order to ensure success. Get your children involved. This will be a good learning experience.
Many of the children at-risk of failure are junk food junkies. One of the major problems in which plagues our youth is their diets. Most of them don’t eat good healthy food. Many families eat out alot and cooking has become a thing of the past. Our children eat too much junk food. The kinds of food we feed our children has a tremendous impact on learning and behavior.
The most common member of the junk food family is soda, otherwise called pop. I have seen some parents feed their baby’s pop in their bottles and cringed. I have witness parents serve pop to their children at every meal, including breakfast. To provide you with a new look at soda, Click here and review write up on the dangers of soda. Soda contains a high content of caffeine, which is an addictive stimulant that makes the heart beat fast. It plays havoc with the heart and the nerves too. Dark sodas are filled with dark colored caramel brown tint proven to have genetic effects on the body and is suspected of causing cancer. Sodas also contain glycol, an oil solvent used in antifreeze for automobiles.
There is empowerment in identity. One way to spend time with your children is to discuss the meaning of their name. This is also a good time to discus identity, the family tree, and cultural heritage. Many children find it intriguing learning about the meaning of their names and familial identity.
Having knowledge about the meaning of their own names, is a prelude toward helping them to appreciate their own family heritage and culture. It helps to empower them by instilling a sense of self-pride. As they grow older this self-pride help them to understand on a deeper level the pride others have in their heritage. It helps them to learn to appreciate, support, and respect a diverse society. This appreciation and respect for others alleviates aggressions towards people who are different and towards the cultural backgrounds of others. Help your children take pride in your family’s heritage, and learn about family traditions. Learning the meaning of their own name is a good start.
The name Michelle was given to me at birth, my friends call me Amirah a name I adapted in 1977. However, Michelle is the female version of my father’s name, Mitchell. It originates from the French name Michael. My eldest sons’ name is Mikchayel in Hebrew is a derivative of Michael. Michelle means Who is like God.
Never taking the initiative to discover the origin of my birth name and being young and too easily influenced by outside sources. I joined my ex-husband and our peers in shedding our “slave names” and adapting
“cultural names” myself Amirah, also from a Hebrew origin meaning gentle speaker. We delighted in adapting Hebrew names, Arabic names, and African names from various tribes. It was our way of extending the “revolution” created in the Black Arts Movement of the 70’s and adapting ideals created by an unsupervised and irresponsible movement of so-called change, which had little benefit to our unborn children. The evidence is starring us in the face.
If my parents had taught me the origin of my birth name I would not have been so easily convinced to adapt the name Amirah. Unbeknown to me, I already had a Hebrew name!
This is further evidence that young people need to be able to talk to the elders in their family. They won’t fall prey to outside influences so readily when the lines of commuication is kept open between the generations. The generation gap is a misnomer, the publicity behind it has caused damaged to our family’s. For some it is irreparable.
My birth name actually declares my sole desire: To be one who is like God. There is empowerment in a name.
We are all products of our environment. Children learn what they live. . When a child lives in a household where hear shouting, profanity or see fighting and worse, that child will more than likely exhibit aggression. Even if the parents or the household are not the example, the growing number of children involved in agressive and violent acts is learned behavior. It is learned from some aspect of the child’s environment whether it is relatives, peers, or media sources. Very often it can even be diet related. Experts say it could very well be a chemical imbalance.
In some cases the outside help of a nutritionist, counselor, or even physician may be needed. A third party can on occasion work wonders if your child is able to openly discuss concerns with a nonbiased person. Other times you may be able to work toward a resolve with your child or teen yourself. However, more often than not, the good old fashion old school methods in which our parents and grandparents used are best. From my experience 90% of the children who are labeled at-risk simply need good old-fashioned parenting. However, there is the 10% who have influences outside of parental controls.
Each year our children are being taught about the democratic system in school. There comes a time when they have to experience it in action. It is our responsibility to teach our young people how government is supposed to work through our own efforts. Young Americans experienced democracy during the civil rights era.
Since that time, because things appeared to be better, citizens have been lackadaisical in our efforts. Situations and issues we face in society today should re-awakened us. It is time for the youngsters of this contemporary era to experience how citizens affect change in governmental policy. It is time for the things our children have read in their textbooks be put into practice. Talk to your children about the issues in question and actively participate in the Blackout as a family. We live in a time where our children don’t believe citizens have a real voice. It is time they learn differently.
“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manner 1 Corinthians 15:33.”
My mother paraphrased this scripture and embedded into our minds that, “you are know by the company you keep.” I can still hear those words ringing in my ears. It is a concept that I try to teach my children. It kept me out of trouble as a child, especially as a teenager. It keeps me focused on choosing good and positive people around me even today. Evil and negativity catches us off guard.
In Chicago recently a young man in his early 20’s was gunned down in front of White Castles late one night. A young man age 18 was arrested and is being charged with murder for the killing. He did not even pull the trigger. Yet he passed the gun to the shooter. He was there, in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong person, doing the wrong thing.
