Value Bookshop’s Reading Notes

One way to encourage your child to read and write is by giving certificates and awards. Here are links to some free printable certificates:

• First Time Reading A Book
• Reading Award
• “Bear-y” Good Reading Award
• First Time Writing Name

Keep track of your child’s reading with this reading chart. You can also award your children’s good works and give awards to show your appreciation.

Go ahead and start filling up your walls with these special certificates and awards. I’m sure your children will feel proud of themselves when they see all the achievements displayed and will want to do more.

What do you do when your child starts doing badly in school and frequently dishes out complaints such as:

“I hate school.”
“School is so boring.”
“My homework is too difficult.”
“There’s too much work to do.”
“I don’t like my teacher.”
“I feel sick; do I really have to go today?”
“I’m not going to do the work. I don’t care.”

At first glance, you might think your child is just whiny, lazy and having a bad attitude. However, if you take time to dig deeper into the problem, you might discover that such complaints are underlying signs of stress. It is a sad reality that study stress is now prevalent among children even as young as preschool age.

What are the contributing factors to study stress?

1. The times have changed and the world has become very competitive. Having straight A’s in school does not guarantee a place in a university anymore. The standards have been raised resulting in parents pushing their children to be better and smarter.

2. Exam oriented education systems. The education system now has increased workload and content compared to before. There is much to learn and much to do in so little time.

3. Overly hectic daily schedules. Parents enroll their children in countless tuition classes, enrichment classes, music classes, art classes, dance classes etc…. Children are chauffeured from one activity to another with hardly time to rest, to play or just to be with family.

4. Parents putting extremely high expectations on their children because they believe it reflects their parenting skills. Isn’t it true that society grants a higher status to parents with successful children?

5. Children are told to study hard but have not been taught effective study skills. Neither have they been equipped with the necessary skills to handle stress.

There are many ways study stress affects children. It is advised that parents pay attention to the signs of study stress that may emerge in the following three areas:

1. Physical.

Stress is known to weaken a person’s immune system. Therefore, the child may be more susceptible to falling sick. He may also frequently experience stomachaches and headaches.

2. Behavioral.

Be aware when there is increased anger, tantrums or aggressiveness. The child may also start to bite nails, stutter, or twitch. He may also become an antisocial. Some may even resort to smoking, drugs or alcohol.

3. Mental.

Stress may lead to the child having a mental burnout, depression or anxiety.

So how do we combat study stress? What can we do to help our children have a more positive educational experience?

1. Provide children an environment that is conducive to learning. Their study area needs to be well equipped with necessary materials and stationary and free of distraction such as toys, video games or television. The place should also have good ventilation.

2. Increase their fitness level through games, sports and exercise. Children will have a higher tolerance to stress and better concentration.

3. Teach them some stress management skills like physical relaxation techniques.

4. Encourage positive thinking and positive self talk. As parents you should also be more positive with the children. Be generous with praise, help boost their confidence, be encouraging and take time to listen and empathize.

5. Help them develop effective and efficient study skills. For example, teach them how to be effective note takers such as mind maps and flow charts. Teach them a revision method that goes along with their learning style.

6. A healthy balance of study and play. This would include teaching children to exercise time management skills. Parents need to accept that there are benefits to allowing children free time to play.

In a world that demands more of your children, may you be sensitive to their challenges. Do not add to their existing stress but adequately equip them to manage and adjust to it. Help them find the joy in learning and in so doing, bring out the potential that lies within them.

*Thanks to Marlon for the great photo.

* Click to enlarge image

Strawberry Shortcake: Peek-A-Boo in the Berry Patch
Lift-the-flaps & shiny mirror!

This has been one of my baby’s favourite lift-the-flap book. Every baby loves a good peek-a-boo session. My baby especially loves the end where he gets to see his own face in the mirror. Very difficult to find books that have mirrors. So this is a real gem. And Strawberry Shortcake is so very cute. I also love the red strawberry colours. It makes the book look bright and cheerful.

6 copies available today at my Malaysian Online Bookshop.
Click here to see more of Peek-A-Boo In The Berry Patch!

Is learning the alphabet song necessary in learning how to read? I don’t think so. But that doesn’t mean it is not important or not helpful. Recently I started encouraging my 7 year old to use the dictionary to look up the meaning of words she doesn’t understand. Searching for a particular word in the dictionary requires the child to know the sequence of the alphabets. You can point out other areas where your child can use their knowledge of alphabetical order such as telephone directories and libraries. Show them that listing words/things in alphabetical order makes searching for them easier.

My son has been doing some Dolch word worksheets from http://enchantedlearning.com and one of the exercises is to put the words in alphabetical order. Slowly I had to teach him to the technique of how to do it.

So, an activity you can do with your child that has mastered the “ABC” song is to rearrange a set of words into alphabetical order. You can start with something simple e.g cat, dog, elephant, mouse, tiger, lion.
Then go on to words with the same first letter e.g. ball, bat, bear, chair, cot.

They say wisdom is knowing how to apply the knowledge that you have. Therefore, a child that knows the ABC is clever but a child that knows how to use that knowledge is wise

Hmm… Talking about the alphabet song, my children really love this Chicka Chicka Boom Boom song.

Technology is a wonderful thing if you use it properly. I like using online videos to supplement lessons I do at home with my children. Just the other day we were learning about reptiles and amphibians. I printed the reptile/amphibian fact file from learningpage.com (sign up as a member for free) and went through each animal one-by-one with my daughter. But pictures on paper sometimes can’t fully describe the animal. And this is where online videos come in. For example, here is a short national geographic documentary on the bullfrog. Just watching this video, we observed how and what it ate, what a great jumper it is and other features.

And this is what the bullfrog sounds like.

How is it different from this frog called the Spring Peeper?

We also learned about the frilled lizard. Look at it run!

Okay, so I think you get my point. Don’t forget about online videos to bring some life to your homeschooling lessons. Nothing like some good visual aids to help make your lessons more interesting.