May 10, 2008
Chico Preschool Fun
For me all workshops are fun, but some are special. Thursday evening’s workshop at the Chico Community Children’s Center was one of those fun and special ones. 
I could tell you it was special because it was close to home and driving 20 miles instead of 200 made it easier. I could say it was special because I could bring more items to share, work and play with since I wasn’t flying somewhere on an airplane and trying to keep the weight of my suitcase within a reasonable amount. When I’m flying my questions are sometimes: Do I bring an extra suit to wear or bring a child’s book, 2 games, and a set of dinosaurs for the parents to try out. I’m sure most people don’t have to ask themselves questions like that, but I do. I usually opt for the parent/kid items and fit in an extra top to wear with the suit I already have. Going to Chico I didn’t have those questions. I could take all kinds of activities to do since I only had to drive a few minutes.
But those weren’t the reasons for it being special. It was special because it was a preschool. I find preschools to be the most exciting, supportive places. They’re filled with color, games, toys, and wonder. Children are so excited every day to come and explore this new world they’re discovering. Parents are supportive and full of questions about how to help and what to do. Teachers interact with the children from the moment they arrive until the second they leave. And the feelings are contagious. That wonder and excitement rubs off. Anyone arriving at the gate feels it. This preschool setting was no exception.
Special too was the enjoyment of the company of no less than four babies at the workshop. I’m sure George at the ripe old age of eight months might not consider himself much of a baby, and in an infant preschool program, he’s right. Having babies, toddlers, and children in a workshop is sometimes a bit chaotic for sure, but it’s real for parents who are trying to juggle two or three small children, the laundry and how to get dinner on the table. We managed to talk, share, play games and do a couple activities while learning some new ideas about how to their babies and preschoolers be successful in the next few years of school.
One of the questions I always ask is: “Now that you’ve been to a workshop on how to help your child with learning, what do you plan to do with your child this week?” From the parents of preschoolers I heard answers like read a story, play Go Fish, play games outside, and go to the park. From the preschool teachers I heard make a dream book and read more stories. All of those activities directly relate to and reinforce what they are learning at Chico Community Children’s Center.
The one question on everyone’s mind was asked at the end by a curious parent, “What can we expect in first grade?”
My answer is in next week’s blog…
Posted by Dr Joni at 10:20 AM
April 17, 2008
The Game Group
Anyone a little math phobic? That was a question asked last night of twenty parents of third through fifth graders. To overcome any phobias we played games-dominos, crazy eights, cards, Sudoku, and some we made up. It was math night for the Fowler Unified School District parents. The night before the same number of parents of kindergarten through second grade parents played similar games. The idea was to learn as much about math as possible in the most non-threatening way.
I’m a big fan of games. They’re such a fun way for parents and kids to interact all the while they’re learning something. The parents in both of these groups laughed, won or lost, played again, and learned some math activities in the process.
Both evenings I asked a group to help me evaluate a game I had created. The game is designed to have a player’s pawn land on a square in the outside or Learning Circle. The square matches to a learning activity the parent can do with their child. If they can tell how they will do the activity at home they get two chips
Once they’ve gone around the board and “graduated” they can move their pawn to the center or Future Circle. In the Future Circle are things like job, promotion, wedding, children, and any number of adult kinds of fun events. Landing on a square in the center circle means you have to match one of the activities you did in the Learning Circle. Since we had been playing mostly math games during the evening, what math activity matched with a future event? Perhaps the math activity you planned in the Learning Circle will help with the future wedding by figuring out the catering bills or get you through the taxes you need to pay by April 15. Four chips to each person who can make the match.
The winner is the one with the most chips after someone matches all their Learning Circle activities with a future event.
Two sets of parents tried out the game and made suggestions. I decided it must have been a hit because there was a great deal of laughter from their direction. I got some good suggestions to make it easier to play, but both evenings the comments were good.
If games work, I hope this one helps parents and kids see how their learning in school and at home really does make a difference in their adult life. Maybe I should have included things like what would help when your car breaks down or the price of gas goes up to $4.00 a gallon. It’s math, but nahhhh. Why bring up ALL the stuff they get to deal with as adults. I think we’ll wait and let them figure those things out when they get there.
My thanks to the game players at Fowler: Inderjit Bopoarai, Gus Del Toro, Nirmaljit Gill, Adrian Ruiz, Christina Ruiz, Karmjit Ball, Maria Garcia, and Idalia Peña. And a special thanks to Magdalena Zorita who attended all six of the workshops for her two children.
Posted by Dr Joni at 04:16 PM
April 01, 2008
Quicker Than Dad
Carmen Rose age, a 16-month-old half-back, tried outflanking her Dad to get to the glass cups sitting on the shelf at Barnes and Noble. A fake to the left and a quick shift to the right failed to move Dad from her path. Not to be deterred she tried the next opening, running through his legs.
David laughed as he scooped her up and put her back in her high chair, but even bit of a muffin couldn’t keep her from exploring. It wasn’t five minutes before she wanted down to explore again. Jessica, her mom, explained that she was the youngest of four and the one most likely to keep on trying even when the other kids would have given up. Mom and Dad both mentioned that Carmen had quite a vocabulary for her age and just that morning had very clearly said, “I love you.” I heard the words or at least the utterances most children at this age hear most “uh-uh.” In case you haven’t been around almost two-year-olds lately, that’s the early form of NO.
Children have few words available at this age, but don’t sell them short on what they are learning. Carmen touched everything in her reach; the table, chair, and the handcart for the books. The cups on the shelf continued to be on her list even if she couldn’t get around Dad fast enough to get to them.
Learning comes through two major modes, experience and words. Carmen needs the experience of what she touches, hears and sees. For example, she needs to touch the book cart, feel it, look at it, watch someone use it, and try it herself. She needs to experience all parts of it. Then she needs to have words to go with it. “Carmen, this is called a cart. It’s a green color. The cart carries the books or things that are heavy. See the girls carrying the books on the cart…”
No, she won’t get all of the words, but she will get some this time. When she hears them again, she’ll get more. The third and fourth time she sees a cart and hears the words, she’ll get more. It won’t be long before she will say the word cart when she sees it and because she’s had experience with it, she’ll know what it does.
Carmen is 16 months old and just beginning the process of building a working vocabulary. Watch out, it won’t be long before she’ll be talking her Dad out of the car keys and her Mom into a new dress for the prom.
Posted by Dr Joni at 06:33 PM
March 28, 2008
Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing Made Fun for Parents
Parents stopped to talk with the interpreter and to sign in as they came into the classroom for the evening’s session. The workshop was the second in a three part series for this mostly non-English speaking group. Lucy, our interpreter, was a huge help.
Elio and his wife were back to hear more. Two English speaking moms were back in the front row. A couple of new faces joined us. Three babies held the best seats on moms’ laps as kids ran in and out from the playground outside.
What looked a bit like chaos turned into a great session on language arts. My job, as it has been for the last year, is to make learning a fun thing parents can do at home with their kids.
For this session we made a booklet. I laid out a variety of magazines and asked the parents to find a picture they liked. They were to cut it out and put it somewhere on their booklet—the front cover or inside on the front page. Pictures they chose included a family outing, kids and mom tickling each other, a flower arbor, a garden and a whole lot more. Everyone had a different idea of what appealed to them.
Then we got busy. Each parent asked someone else to tell them a story about their picture. The idea was for them to just listen—listening being the first of the four parts of language arts. The next stage was for them to tell their own story about their picture. This is the speaking or oral language part.
Before I could even get to directions about reading, they were writing stories. They wanted to put their stories on paper. English and Spanish stories were coming from all directions. One mom who said she didn’t know how to write was connected with the interpreter so she could tell her story and have it written down. No one gets left out when it comes to reading and writing your story. Some were simple and some went on for a page or two, but each story was unique.
We finished with a flourish as each person read their story aloud to someone else. Spouses laughed over the stories they wrote, friends teased each other about their choices, and babies and children listened as their parents told stories they’d never heard before.
When I first started these workshops with parents, I would try to tell them about activities they could do. These days I find it easier to do a little showing and let them do it. Everything I wanted to say about language arts got said in a four page booklet with magazine pictures pasted on the front cover and their own story inside.
Posted by Dr Joni at 08:21 AM
March 14, 2008
Support Counts
“I never went to school a day in my life,” said Elio Galarza through an interpreter last night at a parent workshop at Fremont Elementary School in Fowler, California. “I work two jobs, 16 hours a day. I want my children to be good students. I want my children to get a good job and to work an eight hour day.”
Elio and his wife have four children. One is already in college and a second in high school. They attended the third-fifth grade workshop for their third child. They are very serious about having their children succeed far beyond what they have been able to do.
So were the 30 or so other parents who attended the workshop. Magdalena Zurita, a mom who attended both last night and the night before at the K-2 workshop, said, “I want my child to study. I didn’t study. He wants to be a doctor.”
My message is always about helping and supporting a child’s learning, but in many ways last night I was preaching to the choir. I often am. Most parents really want to help their children do well, learn, get good grades, and succeed in life. I don’t have to work too much with a group like this on motivation. I only need to give them a few tips on how they might focus their efforts.
I usually provide activities parents can do at home to help. I’ve even written books about the topic with all kinds of fun activities to do. Everywhere I go I pick up new ones. No surprise from this group of parents, but last night I heard another one to share.
Josefina Lopez suggested a game she played with her child when she was learning the alphabet. She says they’d pick a letter then they’d have to come up with a first name of someone whose name started with the letter, then a last name with the same letter, a city, a flower, and as she put it “cual cosa,” another thing, that started with the letter. Josefina’s alphabet game could be a good one for driving to the store, folding laundry or doing the dishes. If you have a child just learning the alphabe try out this activity and let me know how it goes. I'm sure Josefina would like to know too.
Elio and Josefina have plans for their children. Their children know the importance of an education because their parents tell them and support them in making sure they learn. These are tomorrow’s adults and their skills are the ones we’ll depend on.
Posted by Dr Joni at 08:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 09, 2008
Theres Always a Way to Solve a Problem
Saturdays in March are busy mornings and fun afternoons. When I had four children at home, that’s the way it was. Last Saturday I watched four children, not my own, having a busy late Saturday morning and preparing for a fun afternoon.
The morning's chorea including finishing a cement sidewalk project at a new house and planting trees made the busy morning, but the fun came with a drive, several drives, on the four wheel mule. Mules aren’t like they used to be. Equipped with engines, steering wheels, and a cart, they can take children into fields and along creek beds. These days a mule can help sow flower seeds or sit quietly by while children watch beavers build a dam.
On this particular afternoon, three of the four were collecting flowers. The girls came up with a bouquet of yellow-gold, purples, and reds. Who know what the names were, but the colors were delicate and bold at the same time.
The only boy in the group brought in a few flowers as well. He wasn’t going to be outdone by his sisters. Perhaps no one would notice how much he needed the mule to take him to the farthest reaches of beyond for just the right one.
On one of his last trips into the wilds he brought back only one lone flower, a poppy, the only one in his bouquet. As he handed to me he said, “The stem cracked.”
I could indeed see where the stem had broken almost in half. The poor little flower wasn’t going to be able to stand up with the rest of the flowers he carefully arranged. He looked disappointed, but his face lit up with an idea.
“Do you have any tape?” he asked. When I hesitated he turned to his Dad, “Dad, where’s the duct tape.”
He was out the door in a second without waiting for an answer. He came back with three rolls of blue tape. “Can I use this?” he asked.
I went to find scissors. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but I loved the problem solving. In less than a minute he had bandaged the stem with a very small piece of blue tape. The flower stood tall among its relatives and gave his array a great flair.
I chuckled all the way home commenting on men’s and boy’s propensity to find more uses for duct tape than there are bricks in the sidewalk they’d been working on earlier in the day, but what I most enjoyed was the way he figured out what to do in his own way. What a fun Saturday afternoon
Posted by Dr Joni at 06:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 20, 2008
Testing One, Two
I took a test last night. It was a grammar test. I don’t believe I’ve had a grammar test since high school. Did you know modifiers can dangle and commas can have splices? I’m sure I learned this all when I was 12, but it’s been a while since I was 12.
Last night, though, I had all the feelings of a 12-year-old facing the “big test.” It was crunch time. Did I study enough? Do I know all the parts of speech? Will I pass?
I wasn’t the only one who was dealing with these feelings. There are nine of us taking a university class on improving writing. My guess is the average age in the class is 45+. We’re people who are working or retired. We have lives. We aren’t students trying to decide which career to go into. We’re professional folks trying to improve our writing. So why were we so up tight over a grammar test?
One man joked about not passing this test might ruin his chances for graduate school. Another said she knew she hadn’t studied enough. All of us were concerned about how much time he’d give us to complete the questions. None of us needs the units. We’re all taking this for content not grades. So why the anxiety?
Because we’re all 12-years-old again facing the big exam. That last sentence was a fragment, by the way, and it needs revising. I know that because my class taught me to notice sentence fragments and because my computer told me the same thing. I’m going to leave it alone. That’s the nice thing about taking a writing class; you can know when it’s wrong and leave it anyway.
Back to class-we were all feeling those old anxiety feelings about test taking. I couldn’t help but wish I had known different feelings in grade school. What if I’d been able to take a test just to see what I knew? What if the test was diagnostic and would show what the teacher could stop going over because I had it, but it also showed what areas I needed more work on? What if tests hadn’t been competitive and based on a curve? What if it tests were more about what and how to teach than about how much I didn’t know compared to the smart kid in class?
Hm…I’ve been in education for a long time. Where I haven’t been for a long time is on the other end of the test taking. This is going to mean some rethinking for me about all the tests we give and why we give them. I don’t have answers today. I have questions. I was supposed to answer questions last night. It seems I raised more than I answered.
I rarely solicit comments in my blog because I usually end up with ads for Viagra or reducing my mortgage so I send most of them to spam mail, but I’m open for this one. How do you feel about testing? What do you think of the testing we do in school? What would you do to make it better? Any comments?
Posted by Dr Joni at 08:32 AM | Comments (0)
February 15, 2008
PreSchool Foundations in "Parent-Ease"
Four and five-year-olds go to school just like the big kids. Those who don’t go to school are learning faster than you can figure out how to use you new ipod. What are they learning? Anything they see, hear, taste, or touch. If you don’t believe me, listen to their conversation with their favorite pet or their baby brother. “Go sit in the corner, you’ve been bad,” tells you they’ve been listening to you even when you think they haven’t.
So have you figured out what you’d like them to know and remember? If you haven’t, the California Department of Ed Child Development Division is here to help you. They started working several years ago to identify what preschools need to learn and what would be helpful for them to know when they start to school-big kid school. Two weeks ago the Learning Foundations, identifying learning skills for social/emotion skills, language and literacy, math and English language development, were approved and released.
Now you know. Well, you sort of know. The foundations are on the CDE website and available for use. Who’s using them? Probably not many folks yet. It takes a while for word to get out. It takes a while for the administrators and staff to be trained and held accountable for what’s being taught. It just takes a while.
How about you, Mom or Dad? Are you ready to help your child? I haven’t found many parents who don’t want to help, especially preschoolers. Here are a couple ideas for you that will give you some direction and are parent friendly. I’ll include the foundations, but, I’m taking the prerogative of rewording them a bit. We educators sometimes have a tendency to use more complex words than are needed. I want to make it easier for all of us.
Science Walk: Take a walk in your backyard. Say the words for what you see. “There’s a yellow flower. That plant is green. Fido is running across the yard. Here he comes. Throw the ball for him. There is a bird on the fence.” Plants and animals are all part of science and in this case are a part of language development.
Foundation: 1.0 Language Use and conventions
1.1 Use language to communicate with others in familiar social situations for a variety of basic purposes, including describing, requesting, commenting, acknowledging, greeting, and rejecting.
In “Parent Ease”-Kids learn to talk by listening to you and other people talk.
So the bottom line is talk about everything you’re doing with them. Oh, and enjoy the walk. The weather’s been great for it.
Posted by Dr Joni at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
February 02, 2008
New Books for Old Brings More than Expected
Last week a diverse group of parents in the Live Oak School District came in dripping from the rain to the cafeteria at Luther Elementary School to hear about the new California Social Studies textbook adoption and to find out how they could help their children learn the subject. It wasn’t difficult to demonstrate some of the first grade learning standards. First graders learn about their neighborhood and their heritage. In the workshop were at least four different backgrounds making up the neighborhood of the school. Some parents shared they were born and raised in Live Oak or in nearby parts of California, others were from Mexico, still others were from India, and one family was from Pakistan. Three interpreters translated in order for us to talk with one another.
Family history, heritage, culture and language were all in evidence in the group. Parveen Bains, the Luther Vice-Principal, was born in the area while her family is from India. She speaks Punjabi and, although she didn’t say so, I imagine her first grade son, Arjun, speaks Punjabi as well. Nicki Llerenas, one of the workshop teachers demonstrating activities parents can do at home, spoke in both English and Spanish for the parents. She would occasionally forget to let the translator give her information in Punjabi as well.
In my part of the workshop on the second grade learning standards about famous people, I included George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The parents added Benito Juarez and Gandhi to the list.
Geography, especially the study of maps, took on a different meaning as we moved into looking at the upper grade curricula. For the early grades we talked about maps of the neighborhood and town where the children live. By third and fourth grade we were talking about the state of California as something they know, but for fifth grade and up, if we were to stay in line with heritage and family history, we couldn’t just talk about the United States map. We had to move to the world map to show the rest of North American, South America, Asia, and Europe. These are the backgrounds of the children at Live Oak and the parents in the workshop. That’s their history. That’s their world.
In school the subject of Social Studies is the heart of our family, community, nation, and the world. You can take a vital role in helping your child understand social studies, by sharing the stories of your family, your background, your traditions and culture while encouraging your child to know and understand the background of their friends in the neighborhood.
Posted by Dr Joni at 10:17 AM
January 18, 2008
No and Why
Yesterday I stopped into a bookstore and met Gavin and his Gram. Sharon, Gavin’s grandmother, was the bookstore owner. She was holding Gavin when I walked in and they were having a typical young child’s conversation.
“Gavin, did you have fun at the beach today,” asked Gram.
“Yes,” said Gavin.
“What did you do,” asked Gram.
“Wet,” said Gavin. “Water, fishing.”
“Are you ready to go home now?” asked Gram.
“No, down,” said Gavin as he clamored out of her lap to explore the items on lower shelves of the bookcases.
His size was my first clue about his age, my second was the “no.” “Is he about two?” I asked.
“Just,” said Gram. “His favorite words are no and why.”
My education brain clicked into gear. It usually shows up when I’m around children, especially littler ones.
Gram asked Gavin if he knew where books were in the shop. “Can you find a storybook?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Can you bring me a cookbook?” she then asked. She’d figured out he wasn’t going to do anything but say yes or no unless she asked him to do something. He ran down an aisle looking for the cookbook section. She smiled at me and watched him search. I watched too. He touched and looked and explored until he found a book he liked. It wasn't a cookbook, but it would hold his attention. Well, it would hold it for a few seconds. He was two afterall.
Not all of us have bookstores from which to have relatives to hold children on their laps, pick storybooks to read, and give directions to two-year-olds to find things, but Gram had the right idea.
Natural and normal conversations make such a huge difference for children in language development. Oral language development makes a huge difference in a child’s ability to read. Giving directions and letting a child follow those directions is great language development as well as development of a child’s self-concept and skills.
You can do the same in your kitchen while you’re fixing dinner or in your garage fixing the car. Just ask questions. Talk and explain what you’re doing pointing out the words you are using-cup, spoon, screwdriver. Ask them to hand you the spoon or the screwdriver. None of it has to be fancy or costly. It just means talking.
You’ll get a “no” or “why” now and then. Ignore the “no” and answer the “why,” but just keep talking.
Posted by Dr Joni at 08:53 AM