Education | The Whole Kitten Kaboodle

Teach Your Kids to Love Learning

When it comes to kids and school, it can be difficult to get your kids to enjoy certain subjects. Some children enjoy subjects like math and science, while others are more into art and reading and writing.

One subject that most children have a love/hate relationship with throughout school is science. Why? Because it can either be a lot of fun or downright boring. If you have a child who is handling science class in this way, know there’s a simple solution to the problem.

Make learning fun. There are many ways you can do this, and the best way, especially if you can’t spend much money, is to create activities around the house and yard. Your backyard can offer many different science activities for kids. Over the past ten years, the availability of science-related items has exploded, with many different toys that let kids explore science. From growing a terrarium to growing crystals and building your own butterfly habitat, the possibilities can be endless. Some of these items may even work well with backyard science exploration.

The backyard can be explored with simple objects like magnifying glasses, allowing kids to see seedlings, sprouts, and numerous bugs up close. You and your children can bird watch with or without binoculars and keep track of the birds you see. You can even make a collage from items in the backyard. Leaves, blades of grass, flowers, and even a preserved but or two–all can make a beautiful collage of nature. With these items available outside, your child is sure to find something of interest.

Filed Under: Education, Elementary, Parents Tagged With: Educational Resources, Learning, Science education

3 Reasons Why You Should Buy Your Child a Laptop

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There is no end to the benefits your child can receive by having a laptop. You don’t have to wait till they’re in college to invest in a portable computer either. High school students and even junior high students have laptops that they use strictly for homework. While there are the common safety concerns to be aware of, the uses a child can receive with a laptop outweigh the cons.

Homework is always centralized on one unit. There is no need to worry about where their homework is, or scrambling at the last minute to find it. Younger students can benefit from understanding how to structure folders on their laptop for specific classes and studies. It will also teach them about personal responsibility for their work.

Portability is another great benefit of a laptop. If your student has trouble studying in a certain area of your home, they can move to another area that may be suitable for them. Some classes require students make a presentation to the class. This can be done all on their laptops without the fear of having lost their work. A student can bring their laptop if it’s needed during class, especially when it’s time to download new material from the school’s virtual computer labs.

Using the virtual computer labs with their laptop is another benefit. With a school making use of a computer lab online, your student has the ability to share their homework with their teacher, ask questions related to their work and download new work through this lab. They don’t have to be physically present all the time either. And, they can access these labs from anywhere they have an internet connection.

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Filed Under: Education, Parents Tagged With: Class (education), Homework, Laptop

How much does the transcript count for?

While aspects of the college application process is debatable, many educators and admissions counselors will agree that the high school transcript is the most important portion of the college application. While colleges look at extracurricular activities and personal statements when admitting students to various programs, the high school transcript provides insight into the academic performance of the student. A transcript essentially tells admissions committees how much a student values education.

When evaluating a student, admissions officers closely analyze which classes the student has previously taken. While rigorous course schedules are typically favored over easy schedules, advisors do not favorably view applicants who do not excel in honors and advanced placement classes. When choosing between regular and advanced placement courses, students should choose classes that are both manageable and challenging; otherwise, acceptance to prestigious colleges and universities may be denied.

In addition to being careful about course selection, students should be certain to take classes required by their desired college or university. The average college requires four years of English, three years of Math, two years of Social Science or history, and two years of a foreign language along with a lab science. Students who fail to take these courses will certainly be denied entry into some colleges and universities.

Although many high school students choose the bare minimum when it comes to course selection, those desiring to be accepted into prestigious colleges and universities should be highly selective of the classes that they choose in high school. Remember, most college admission decisions are based on the transcript.

Filed Under: Education, High School Tagged With: College application, High school, University and college admissions

No Bullying Zone

Bullying is an ever present problem in secondary education. While many students come to school to learn, some come to intimidate and terrorize students. Although the percentage of students attending school to learn far exceeds the number of students who come to intimidate, the minority makes it dfficult for the majority to obtain a good education. In order to address this problem, the Obama administration has partnered with the NASSP to prevent and even stop bullying in school and workplace sectors. A conference, scheduled to take place in the near future, will discuss the effects of bullying and prevention methods that parents, students, and teachers can take. In addition to the conference, the White House has established a Facebook page and website that addresses bullying. Individuals will most likely find a definition and prevention methods at these sites as well.

Bullying is a real problem in public and private schools that carries detrimental effects for parents, teachers, and students. While parents do not want their children terrorized at school, teachers have to be on constant watch for potential instances of bullying. Sometimes teachers are so caught up in the act of prevention, that they forget to properly educate children. In addition, students who are constantly bullied in school suffer mental and emotional effects. Even bullies suffer because they take such practices to the workforce and sometimes miss out on work opportunities along with promotions.

While school is home to many activities and practices, bullying should not be one of them.

Filed Under: Education, High School Tagged With: Bully, Student, Teacher, White House

Is Johnny Ready for School?

When determining a child’s ability to make it through a school day, most parents take into account a number of factors. First, the type of school is taken into account. Although some parents do not have the option of sending their children to private schools, those who do must decide if a private education is right for their child. In addition, if the private sector is chosen parents must find a school that carries a desirable philosophy, which usually requires some research about the beliefs and practices of the potential institution. After choosing the right school for the child, parents must shop for school supplies and be prepared to explain the transition to the child. While all of these steps seem necessary to the parent, educators and experts believe that only one factor determines school readiness; brain development.

In past decades, children have been denied the right to education because of age and physical appearance. Many schools did not allow children under the age of five years old to attend Kindergarten because administrators believed that individuals younger than this age were not mature enough to handle the setting and curriculum. Some schools, in past times of course, have even denied children admittance because of their height. While there were few instances of such denial because a child was too tall, there were some instances of a child deemed too short for Kindergarten having to wait until they reached an acceptable height.

While some practices of education are still biased, these practices are now obsolete in developed countries. In the science age, children entering Kindergarten are administered tests. Such tests carry the primary purpose of determining if a child’s brain is ready for a Kindergarten classroom.

Filed Under: Education, Elementary Tagged With: Child, Home, Kindergarten, Parent

K-12 Online: How do they measure up?

Every since its debut, parents and educators alike have been skeptical of the online alternative to public school education. Although the programs offer specialization at little to no cost, many parents do not want their children educated by a computer. Well, these parents may have a change in heart after hearing of the changes being made in the online public education sector.

In a rubric recently released by the Quality Matters Program, online education for grades K-12 gives the appearance of being just as good or even better than a traditional public school education. Contrary to the physical classroom where some students are disruptive and teachers fail to address the needs of each student, virtual classrooms offer one-on-one time for students and teachers without interruptions. Students attending virtual academies do not have to be concerned with the student who is competing for attention, and teachers have more time to convey key points in the lesson plan. In addition to specialized time, the teachers of online schools are credentialed like the average educator in the traditional public school sector. Online schools also offer visuals and other resources that are progressively being taken out of the traditional sector. The online school is the perfect alternative for parents who want their children to obtain a good education without financial restrains and behavioral interruption.

Although the online track for K-12th grade is an excellent source for learning, it is not a good place to look for social interaction. While students interact with teachers via web videos, children do not have the opportunity to make new friends on the playground or in the hallways of a virtual school; primarily because there is no such thing. Parents should stick with the traditional educational scheme of things if they want their children to enjoy school in its entirety.

Filed Under: Education, Higher Education Tagged With: E-learning, Education, State school

When Your Child Doesn’t Want to Go to School

Parents know that children go through many phases in their lifetimes. Some children go through a picky phase where they eat very little for awhile. Some children go through a phase where they must dress themselves every day in the clothes of their choosing. The possibilities are endless. Sometimes though, the phases are a less benign. When your child does not want to go to school, no ampount of bartering or persuading can get them there in a peaceful manner. This is especially true with young children.

While most teachers would not agree, parents who know that this is a rare occurance in their child may want to let the child stay home for a day or two. This is not a major issue in preschool or kindergarden as school is still not considered compulsary at that age in most states. Older students may have trouble without proper school clearance. If you choose to give in for a day, you must make it clear that you feel they need an emotion health day, so they do not believe they can skip school at will in the future.

If your child resists school, start by trying to find out why. Any number of reasons could be the cause. Bullies, problems in a certain subject, boredom, or a fight with a friend are some examples of what could be the problem. If this is the case, work together to come up with a solution so that your child wants to go back.

Sometimes however, the phase is just a test of wills for the child who has no good reason except to see what they can get away with. If a parent is sure that this is the case, then there are some things that can be done. First, explaining to a young child that school is not a choice and that they will be going even if you have to carry them into the school into their pajamas usually does the trick. Older children will usually decide to go back to school after a quick chat with a truancy officer.

Filed Under: Education, Elementary Tagged With: Back to School, Child

Property Management and the School System

If you have a child that’s school aged – or that’s about to be school aged – make sure that you find that child a good school district to attend. It’s very important that the city you’re in take care to create a good, working school system that does what it should in educating children. A lot of cities, unfortunately, didn’t plan very well and now the people who live there are being forced to deal with that.

The property management that should have taken place really didn’t, so urban sprawl and schools that are largely segregated and sometimes poorly laid out are becoming the norm in a lot of cities. With good property management, schools are laid out in the right areas of town to be accessible to all students, and there are plenty of activities for students and others to get involved in.

The more people head out to the suburbs, the more complicated finding a good school becomes. The districts are much larger and more spread out, and the schools might be far different in what they have to offer, even though they should all offer basically the same experience. Long Beach property management companies have worked to make sure that the kids in the schools there get what they need in order to be safe and learn lessons they’ll need for life. That’s the way that schools should do things, even if all of them don’t.

How well a school does is often related to the geographic location that it is in, and that’s why it’s so very important to manage the property well. That way, more people are close to the school and can send their children there. The school gets funding from taxes that are paid on the property near it, and that can help the school provide a lot of great things for the students.

Filed Under: Education, High School Tagged With: Management, Property management

Reading and Writing are Intertwined

Reading and writing are two of the most important things your child will learn in school. You can not have one without the other. They are intertwined in a way that learning one can help your child improve their work in another.

One of the best ways to help a struggling reader in school is to help that student learn to write. When they are making the connections between what is on the page and what is in their head, it can make a big difference. A creative student, who likes to write down his or her stories, will eventually become more receptive to the stories that others have written down. Showing the student how to read other stories for ideas about their own is a great way to get them interested in reading as well.

If you have a student who is struggling with writing, let them read more. It is a case of giving them the chance to learn by example. The author’s work is actually modeling for the student which way is the best way to write things. The more a struggling student reads, the more confident he or she will become in their ability to write. Explaining to the child that perfection is not expected at their age, but that the more they read and write the better they will get at both may help motivate someone who is struggling and wants to quit.

Some children have significant, undiagnosed reading disorders. Pushing a child who has issues that they can not control does not help anyone. If you suspect that your child has a reading disorder or a learning disorder of some sort, it is best to have them tested so that different teaching methods can be used with them before they begin to get discouraged.

Filed Under: Education, High School Tagged With: Learning, Literacy

Helping Kids Learn Service

Many people think that kids just aren’t interested in philanthropy, but really when it comes down to it, it’s not about whether they’re interested— it’s about whether they have been given the opportunity to provide service. Most kids would love to help their communities, but feel limited in what they can do because they’re “only kids.” The best that you can do to help these kids is to show them how much power they really have.

There are many ways that kids can help in the community. One way is through organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and Girl Scouts. These organizations not only teach self reliance skills, they also teach how to serve others. Typically for the Eagle Scout award, scouts will organize things in their communities to do things such as provide a place to collect recycling, collect items for those who are in need, or organize a community cleanup of a local park or beach.

With the creation of the Internet, there are even more ways to help in the community. For example, if a group of kids see a need in their community— such as people needing help repairing their homes after a tornado came through the area— they could create an online charity to raise money for those families. There are websites that provide a way to solicit money from people all over the world. In the case of a disaster, the kids, along with the supervision of adults, can buy materials that are needed for the repairs and can then help to repair the homes themselves. Not only will the kids feel good about raising the money, but they’ll learn that service is about doing all you can to help. They’ll feel very confident in their abilities to help others, which will lead to a life built on love and service.

Filed Under: Education, Higher Education Tagged With: Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout