Reading Archives

The Importance of Social Skills

December 11, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Research indicates that one of the most fundamental skills for success is social skills (i.e. communication, play skills, perspective-taking, empathy, self-control, confidence, and independence). Most children learn social skills through everyday interactions with peers and adults; however, some children require more specific instruction than others. If you begin to notice that your child’s social skills are not as strong as some of their peers, do not worry. Social skills can be acquired through direct instruction and additional support.

Here are a few helpful tips to improve your child’s social skills:

Make connections with school friends at home. Having play dates is a great way to encourage extra communication and interaction with peers.
Join extra-curricular school activities that are of interest to your child. For example, many sports help children practice and understand turn-taking, the perspectives of others, dealing with winning vs. losing, team work, good sportsmanship, and finding common interests with peers. Additionally, sports can improve self-confidence and foster a sense of belonging.
Create social stories! This is a great way to prepare your child for a situation that may be particularly challenging. Social stories work to improve the child’s understanding of a behavior or event by explaining it ahead of time and providing suggestions for appropriate responses to the situation. You can find many pre-made social stories online that can be modified or adjusted to suit the individual needs of your child.
Role-play scenarios that have occurred or will occur in your child’s life. Role-playing is a fun and effective way to make your child feel more comfortable with past or potential social situations in their life. For example, if your child is nervous about giving a speech in front of the class, s/he can practice multiple scenarios with you as the audience. Make sure to set up both positive and negative reactions from the audience to ensure that they are prepared. You may set up a scenario where the audience is disruptive and provide your child with helpful strategies to navigate the situation. You can even role-play scenarios that have occurred in the past and discuss ways that your child could have or should have handled the situation differently so that they are prepared in case a similar situation arises in the future. Many social groups offer this type of therapy!
Real Time Therapy– We created this term to reflect the idea of simply stopping a situation in its tracks and using it as a teachable moment. For example, if you witness a social situation in which your child did not act appropriately, you can bring it to their attention immediately after the incident occurs, and then provide the child with suggestions on how to better handle the situation. This tends to be most impactful for many children, but be sure not to embarrass them in front of others, as this could have a negative impact.

By Alexandra Spira and Tara Swed of Social City

8 Tips for Successful Museum Visits for Kids

November 29, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Museums are fantastic places for learning and exploring the world around us. Where else can you find a dinosaur soaring 100 feet and a starry night indoors? Often times, bringing young kids to museums can be daunting. Here are some tips to ensure successful museum visits for kids and their parents!

1. Seek Out Museums with Family Friendly Galleries

Many museums offer spaces especially designed for young children. The Discovery Room at the American Museum of Natural History and Family Labs at MOMA provide fun-filled, safe spaces for little one to explore the wonders of the museum. Some museums like the Cooper-Hewitt, Guggenheim, Noguchi Museum, and The Jewish Museum also offer drop-in art programming in the galleries on set days of the week so make sure to check the calendar in advance.

2. Attend a Family Program

Family programs are designed with kids in mind. These programs are offered during the week and on weekends. At the Museum at Eldridge Street, kids become preservation detectives and sleuth their way through history each Sunday. During Arty Facts at the Brooklyn Museum families make all sorts of exciting discoveries.

3. Don’t Try to See the Whole Museum

Avoid the temptation to see it all! Instead, pick one exhibit to explore. Check out what’s on view on museums’ websites to make a selection in advance. Leaving happily after an hour-long museum visit will make everyone want to come for another visit.

4. Plan the Practical

Make sure to research the museum’s stroller policy before your visit. Also find out about the location of entrances with ramps, restrooms equipped with changing tables, and places where snacks can be shared. Print maps in advance so that you know where to go upon arrival.

5. Pack an Activity Bag

Bring a sketchpad and colored pencils. Drawing and writing is a great way to engage with art. Encourage kids to draw that they see, write a story about the artwork or the people pictured. Some museums like the Met and MOMA also have exhibition activity guides online that you can print and bring along for extra fun.

6. Play

Games like “I Spy” are great to help young kids focus in on a work of art or exhibit. Take turns choosing an object, shape, or color in a gallery and describing it to other family members.

7. Get Curious

Look closely at a chosen work of art. Ask your kids questions such as, “What do you notice?” Deepen the conversation with follow-up questions like, “What do you see in the work that makes you say that?” Encourage kids to use their imagination and describe what it would be like to enter the work. What would you see, smell and hear?

8. Find the Free

Thanks to Target, many museums have a free day. On Sundays, visit the Studio Museum of Harlem, check this calendar to explore Wave Hill, on Thursdays head to The Museum of Chinese in America. Every Friday afternoon at 4pm MOMA is free and on the first Friday of the month you can play at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum and Super Sabado at El Museo del Barrio on the third Saturday are filled with family fun. Although there will be more crowds, you won’t have the pressure to spend the day. Stay as long as your little ones can handle and leave with a clear conscience and some good memories.

For guided museum visits and art instruction and enrichment, reach out to the Museum Specialists here at My Learning Springboard!

Written by: Editorial Team, My Learning Springboard, Inc.

What is the Montessori Method?

November 25, 2013 Brad Hoffman 1 Comment

Dr. Maria Montessori was an educational philosopher and innovator who helped pave an inspiring path for educators to follow. There is a common misconception that Montessori Schools allow children to roam free with no boundaries – this is far from the truth! There is freedom within structure of engaging, thoughtful and inspiring materials that allow children to learn at their own pace to become independent learners, whilst being observed and guided by the teacher. Through close observation, teachers are able to identify when a child is ready to acquire a new skill and the teacher can direct them to material, which will enable the child to build on new skills learnt.

Concepts of Montessori

One of Dr. Montessori’s key theories was about child development and the use of the senses to learn, grow and navigate the world, especially for the keen minds from birth to age six. This age time frame is extremely important, as it is the sensitive period where new information is absorbed at a rapid pace.

The key learning areas in the Montessori classroom are practical life, sensorial, math and language, as well as culture, geography, science and art (which may vary in different schools). The materials used in the learning areas stress the importance of gaining new skills through the senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and movement.

A prepared environment is imperative to facilitate learning. These classrooms are welcoming spaces reflecting the child’s eye and responding to their interests and needs. A prepared environment is tidy, orderly, beautiful and calm, promoting an atmosphere where learning is engaging and – this fosters social and intellectual growth.

The age range in a Pre-K classroom is from age 3 to 6 years old, and children are organized into multiage groups. This is a wonderful benefit to children, as there are a range of materials targeted at different stages of acquiring new knowledge and information. This means your child will always have materials that are appropriate to their level as well as more challenging materials if they are ready to progress onto harder work. The younger children learn from the older students through observation. The peer-to-peer learning is enriching as it gives children the ability to further concrete skills learnt and builds confidence in their learning. The younger or newer students have a goal that they see and want to work towards and achieve.

The Montessori teacher is responsive to all children’s strengths, abilities and interests. This enables educators to respectfully enter while a child is working to inspire, demonstrate and facilitate learning. Intentional teaching is deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful. Observation and documentation allows the teacher to assess the child’s learning. This is an ongoing process and refers to gathering and analyzing information as evidence about what children know, can do and understand.

Presentations of materials are when the teacher sees that the child is ready to learn a new skill and is presented a new work. Presentation of materials or works can be done in large or small groups or individually. Once the child(ren) have been presented with the new work, they may choose the work as many times as they please.

Respect. Grace and courtesy. Peacefulness! What wonderful and important themes and ideas to be taught and modeled to children. Respect is shown through examples of how children should respect themselves, others and the environment. Manners, respectful vocabulary, and conflict resolution are just a few of the concepts covered to help children understand social structures and to grow into happy, peaceful and respectful humans of this world.

By Cara Zelas, Private Tutor

Teachers College Reading and Writing Project

November 20, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Lucy Calkins is a leading expert in guided reading instruction and writing instruction who teaches at Teachers College of Columbia University. She founded the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, and is the author of books found in 65% of American K-5 classrooms, including The Art of Teaching Writing.

As a resource for both teachers and parents, this wonderful series of seven videos allows parents and educators to virtually attend a workshop at Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, providing relevant and useful information for literacy and language development.

The video below outlines the methods of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, and the other videos go into specifics covering Reading and Writing Skills, Teaching Education, Curriculum, Design of Writing Standards, Implementation, and Book Club.

Our faculty is well versed in Lucy Calkins teachings and using the Teachers College Reading Writing Project benchmark reading levels.

By Brad Hoffman, M.S.Ed.
Board Certified Educational Planner and Learning Specialist
My Learning Springboard, Inc.

Helping Elementary Students Develop Fine Motor Skills

November 19, 2013 Brad Hoffman Leave a Comment

Here are ten exercises to help elementary students with the development of fine motor skills and writing control.

Items needed: putty, 10 pennies, index cards, 10 paperclips, pencil, paper, margarine tub

1. Roll putty into a snake. Pull off 10 pieces. Roll each piece into a small ball using thumb and 2 fingers. No cheating by using the table or other hand!

2. Flatten all putty pieces and roll into a large ball. Rotate this ball in your fingertips (like the earth rotating on it’s axis – repeat for 30 seconds each direction).

3. Line up 10 pennies on the desktop. Flip them over quickly from left to right and return back to the left side.

4. Put away the 10 pennies by picking up 3 and storing them in your hand by trapping them with your little finger. A 3 1/2 year old can do this. Then rotate each coin singly out to your pinch and place the penny into the slot of the margarine tub. Repeat until all pennies are stored in the bank. If 3 are easy, try holding 4 at a time.

5. Write 10 letters or numbers along the borders of an index card. We want to challenge our student by having them quickly place a paperclip onto the correct letter or number, in sequence.

6. Make an “OK” sign with your thumb and index finger. Link your fingers with a partner and play 5 tug-of-war games.

7. Play dice games. Cupping the hand is very important to build the arches of the palm.

8. Fingerspell the alphabet, having students practice their name, as a motor planning activity.

9. Hold a pencil in your best writing grip and walk your tripod up and down the length of the pencil.

10. Place 10 dots across a piece of paper. Quickly make a circle around each dot. Check your work for ovals. We want to develop greater distal control to form circles quickly.

* For younger students that are struggling with directionality of letters, use a tracing method where the student goes over your printing with a changeable marker. This is usually motivating. For the older student, try using a yellow or blue highlighter and let the student trace with this pencil.

** For difficulty learning spacing, give a visual cue by underlining 4 spaces per writing line, with a yellow highlighter. You will give your student a concrete place to put the words. Fade the spaces after one month and reassess.