How to develop in a child a love for reading.

 A great educational experience starts with a good and solid foundation. A foundation is crucial in building a solid house, the same happens with a child's education, in order to have a solid love for learning it is crucial that every child learns how to read, and read well (this includes comprehension).
Once the children are taught to read and enjoy doing so,  they can explore the world around them.
The teacher Nancy Sorensen is an expert helping children to succeed in reading. All the children call her Mrs. Sorensen, with a lot of respect! She could have been retired, but her passion for teaching doesn't let her rest. Nancy Sorensen is a wife, mother of 7, beloved grandma and a passionate TEACHER. She is also the author of the program Succeeding with Reading.

She shares with us ways that will make your child awake or increase a love for reading. Here they are:

1. Enjoy reading with your child! Yep! Do it with them. Choose a comfy spot of your home, get your favorite blanket and start reading for or with your child. Reading isn't be only about stories, but about the connection between parent and children. Start building memories with your children through books. If you live in a tropical place or have a hot summer, try reading on a hammock with a cold juice! Establish a routine today!

2. Choose books that are fun and appropriate for the child's age.
 Pick books that have family stories, humor, and things that the child is going through this stage of life. For example. a book about a lose tooth or about a child that loves camping, etc. Children have a great imagination, and they love to see themselves in the books.

3. Choose books that are suited for their reading level.
This is VERY important (specially for those children learning how to read). Reading is not fun if it is too hard. Build upon on what they already know. Choose books that they can read most of it independently, they will feel proud and confident, and will want to learn more!

4. Turn off the TV or other eletrocnics.
 It's really hard to compete with things that don't need much thinking and are very entertaining. Set a limit time for television and games. If they have one hour of TV a day for example, read with them before that, so they won't feel that reading is a punishment right after you turn off the TV.

4. Get excited about reading and read to your child 5-7 times a day.
   When was the last time you devoured a book yourself? Give an example to them and read some of your own book out loud. Also, read cereal box, letters, notes, recipes and everything else is part of your day to your child.

5. Take trips to your local library.
Make this trip fun, and let them explore books. Let them CHOOSE books as well. If possible have a library bag for each child to carry. If you are an advocate of ebooks, let them choose as well. Whenever you decide, let your children be part of it.

I hope this will inspire your day and your children and always remember to have fun with the children!
Nancy Sorensen loves to help and has offered to answer any question that parents might have related to reading. This is her email address: sorensenreading@gmail.com.

Do you do anything that works really well with your children? Leave us a comment,  we would love to hear from you.

4 STEPS TO HELP A CHILD SOLVE A PROBLEM

Your child just got home from school. You notice right away something’s bothering him. He’s upset and quiet. ‘Tell me about school’ you prompt, but no reply. In a continuous attempt to figure the reason, you add ‘it seems you are sad’. Finally, he opens up and confides that a classmate kicked him multiple times during recess today, as a stream of mixed emotions runs through your entire body.

As a parent, what do you do? That is the question that Patricia Ellinger gave as an example (you can read more about her in my previous post). We all want our children to know what to do when they find themselves in difficult situations; it is a common desire and concern we share as parents.

After your children know how to recognize their emotions, Patricia Ellinger suggests that parents follow these 4 simple steps:

1. Reflect your feelings. When you notice something is not right, reflect what you observe. Use expressions such as ‘it seems you are sad’ (like in the situation above)

2. Listen. Asking open-ended questions (i.e., what, when, how or tell me) helps children to tell you what is going on in their lives.

3. Teach them how to channel those feelings. Help children to connect the feelings with a reason. Be sure you are understanding and show true empathy.

4. Help them build problem-solving skills (e.g., what is the best way to handle the situation next time). Don't solve the child's problem; let him or her try to solve it first. Only after that, you can come up with a good counsel or suggestion. Build CONFIDENCE inside them, this will take patience and practice.

In the bully situation above and all the others in life, there are 3 ways in which the problem can be handled. The child can either react PASSIVE, ASSERTIVE or AGGRESSIVE.

‘What would you do?’ Patricia asked. She then added ‘Do you want your child to be quiet and do nothing in front of a bully? Do you want your child to use physical confrontation ’ It is tempting to choose the second choice,  nonetheless there is a BETTER WAY. Teach your child to be assertive, to be confident, bold and with good posture look in the eyes of the bully. Teach him or her to speak up and tell the bully to stop! This is a peaceful, still good way to protect him or herself. And of course, teach your child to share his or her problems with you ( things can get out of control). Make sure your child knows that you are his or her ADVOCATE!

This next tip is one of the most valuable things we can do at home to prepare them: PLAY PRETEND with your little people. When they are not under stress, have FUN and PLAY pretend. Make up situations where you will be able to help them know what to do. Pretend you (mom or dad) are the bully, or a mean teacher, or the provoking sibling (make sure they know you are not the one insulting them) and help your children to pretend their responses and learn how to solve problems th

I hope these simple steps and tips help you in dealing with your children’s difficult situations and remember to have fun while building confidence!

Educate children to be emotionally happy!

We parents are the first ones that can be educated in ALL aspects of life to better help the little ones.

We all want our children to succeed and be happy, we all want them to achieve their potential. But for them to be successful in various areas of their lives and learn how to solve problems, it is important that they learn the skills to be emotionally happy, and this is a process that should start as early as possible.

Patricia Ellinger (our special guest), is a wife and mother of 6 children.  She worked at BYU in the College of Nursing and at Primary Children's Hospital. She is an expert on this subject and shared valuable information that can be applied immediately! I divided the interview in 2 posts, so it won't be too overwhelming.

When I first asked Patricia Ellinger, how to help children to be emotionally stable and happy, she shared that children love structure and that it is very important to teach them HOW TO EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS! They are not born knowing how to recognize feelings, and as children grow up and have different waves of emotions, they need to learn how to handle those emotions.

She says that most of the time when children don't know how to express themselves, they will ACT OUT. For example, if they are angry...they hit, if they are jealous...they can hit or fight, etc....

As a therapist, she would teach children how to express their feelings. At first, Patricia would teach the meaning of the feelings, little by little, so they can understand what it means, because feelings are very abstract. For example, it is very hard for a child to understand what jealously means ( a good example is a child that has to share attention with a new sibling...and she or he might not know why they are feeling angry or irritated).

For a child to learn the feelings, you can use a "how do you feel?"chart. There are many kinds available online or you could create your own with drawings or pictures. This is an example of the one she used, this is found at http://catalog.a2zschoolsupply.com

So... they have to LEARN those feelings, EXPRESS them and KNOW what to do with them.

To express them, Patricia Ellinger taught the Feeling Formula that she used when treating children. This is the formula to get those feelings OUT:

She draws a gingerbread man and explain that the gingerbread is "you"( say that to the child). Then explain: "sometimes things happen to us, and they are kind of negative or they are good. And all these feelings are inside of us, but we have to get the feelings out from inside. How do we do that?" See picture above.

Then draw a mouth and a ballon for what the "gingerbread man"is saying. Somethimes children can't figure out why they are feeling that way...so you have to attach a feeling to what had happened to them. (This is a great way to learn what happened in school!)

Next step: the gingerbread man speaks up. Ask the child to say what he feels and why. Here is a couple examples: I feel proud...because I got an A on my paper. Then erase the positive feeling he had talked about, so we don't keep them inside. 

Practice "getting those feeling out", then as a parent we have to problem solve WITH THEM. Patricia says that the most important thing to a parent is to empathize and resist the urge to ask "What did you do?" when they share something with us. We can destroy a child IF we do not let them express their feelings. When they do express them, don't be negative about their feelings... be compassionate. Let them TALK, but you can say empathic statement such as "That is so difficult..." or  "it is so sad..." (if is a negative situation that they are telling you)

The child will see that someone understands and listen to him or her!

It is nice to remember that a lot of times children don't verbalize how they feel inside, and then they reveal second feelings, they can be quiet or show anger, but they feel hurt in the first place.

Teaching the proper way to channel and deal with emotions can be the most important skill of a lifetime, otherwise they can look for extreme behaviors or things such as addiction or aggressiveness. 

I have a dream.

I have a dream... and we believe dreams are in our hearts for a reason. They have 

everything to do with our mission here on Earth. We believe that while people may 

have different interests in life, everyone has the capacity to contribute in his or her 

own way. 

There are feelings inside of us that are so clear and speak loud enough that can't be 

ignored... One of those feelings that we share is that every child should have a chance 

in life; every single child has a potential that needs to be nurtured. 

The world has so much to offer; yet we see inequality in almost every aspect of 

life. Most of the time, the cycle of poverty and ignorance continue for generations 

and generations uninterruptedly. We believe that one of the ways to break 

these inequalities and bring "more justice" is to awaken the desire and urgency 

of education and PROVIDE the tools to acquire quality learning for everyone, 

ESPECIALLY for children. So, here is our DREAM...

1. We dream that every child will receive education. A child's job should be to play and 

learn

2. We dream that parents and teachers will unite and cooperate even more than 

today

3. We dream that adults won’t give up on a child (if we believe in them, they will as well)

4. We dream that every child will be excited about education and learning

5. We dream that education will be knowledge into practice at the level of the 

apprentice

6. We dream that every child will learn to thirst books and knowledge

7. We dream that we as a community will take responsibility for the children around 

us

8. We dream that every teacher will teach with love and preparation

9. We dream that every child will have their basic needs met, so they can focus on 

learning

10. We dream every child will receive HUMAN individual mentoring and support for 

a bright future

We believe that education changes a person's world. We believe that education 

changes behavior, habits, words spoken and thoughts. We believe that filling minds 

with knowledge, respect and LOVE is more powerful than giving away gold. 

We hope that you and I can dream this together!