Education
Posted by: Janet Lin Lawson, April 25, 2010 in 10:36 am
Everybody seems to be talking about being bilingual these days. The world is changing – it’s cliché but true. Foreign trade is skyrocketing and the Internet knows no borders. Even in other areas, like the Vancouver Olympics, coaches, officials and athletes from different countries had to communicate in tons of different languages. It’s not surprising then that parents are rushing out to teach foreign languages to their children, as young as 3 years old.
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Posted by: Aviva Schwab M Ed, January 21, 2010 in 3:18 am
If you truly want your child to love learning and to be successful in life, then let school be his job.
Imagine this: you come home after a long day at work and your husband yells, “YOUR BOSS CALLED TO TELL ME THAT YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THAT PROJECT YET!!! I AM GOING TO SIT OVER YOU EVERY NIGHT UNTIL YOU GET IT DONE! AND YOU CAN FORGET ABOUT YOUR TENNIS GAME THIS WEEKEND!”
How would you feel about your spouse? Your boss? Your job? Would you want to go back to work the next morning?
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Posted by: , October 23, 2009 in 12:27 pm
Hello Readers! Hello? Helloooooooooooo? Drat. I was afraid this might have happened. You all jumped ship, didn’t you? Well, for the two or three of you (my relatives) who still stop in to read Musings of a Disobedient Mom, thank you! I really do have a legitimate reason for my gross lapse in posts. In fact, I could even provide you all with a real, illegible doctor’s excuse if you’d like… You see, I was diagnosed with breast cancer on August 17th. Shocking, right? Yea…you could have knocked me over with a feather. Let me briefly explain (and when I say briefly, I mean…thousands of words).
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Posted by: Jessica Rappaport, September 16, 2009 in 10:09 am
The countdown has begun…one year until our daughter heads off to kindergarten. This should be a joyous moment, a milestone, but more and more the thought of kindergarten sets off trepidation, anxiety, and competition. Unfortunately, kindergarten is not the way we experienced it. Standardized testing has expanded so much at the elementary school level that it has trickled down to kindergarten. There’s no longer a place of endless free time, milk cartons, and naps. In many suburban school districts across the country, children are expected to go into kindergarten with a certain skill set. For our generation, our parents dropped us off and took pictures the first day. There was no assessment done ahead of time.
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Posted by: Michael Sajkowicz, September 7, 2009 in 8:56 pm
The full text of President Barack Obama’s speech to school children across America:
The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
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Posted by: honestbaby, July 19, 2009 in 10:24 am
Baby Signs is?a book designed to teach specialized sign language used to communicate with infants and toddlers. ?While infants and toddlers have a desire to communicate their needs and wishes, they lack the ability to do so clearly because the production of speech lags behind cognitive ability in the first months and years of life.? Proponents of baby sign language say that this gap between desire to communicate and ability often leads to frustration and tantrums.? However, since?hand-eye coordination develops sooner than acquisition of verbal skills, infants can learn simple signs for common words such as “eat”, “sleep”, “more”, “hug”, “play”, “cookie”, “teddy bear”, before they are able to produce understandable speech.
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Posted by: Tamara Berry, June 17, 2009 in 10:43 pm
Summer break is one of those unmentionables in the parenting world. For three whole months, teachers are freed from the honorable duty of teaching your kids, leaving you playing not only the role of parent, but of general caregiver and instructor, as well. So, even though the sun is shining and you’re supposed to be basking in the glory of the season, it’s entirely possible that all you dream of is those crisp fall days when the kids are back where they belong
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Posted by: J Corbin, May 30, 2009 in 1:36 pm
Any parent of a child that does not fit within the “average” expectations for their age has probably considered the idea of postponing their child’s entrance into school. Perhaps they hope that if their child is given a bit more time than average children it can catch up and even excel in his or her class. All children develop at their own pace and the school systems are not always willing to accept that and work with the ones who need a little extra help. When a parent decides to postpone the enrollment of their school-age child into kindergarten it has come to be known as “redshirting.”
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Posted by: Tamara Berry, April 7, 2009 in 6:08 am
Green is the new black. Reusable grocery bags are cool. Driving a Prius is valued as much as a lifetime’s worth of recycling. These days, no matter where you turn, you’re confronted with ways to give back to the environment. Whether it’s using eco-friendly light bulbs or riding your bike to work, everyone has some tips for reducing the carbon footprint and possibly even saving a few bucks in the bargain.
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Posted by: Jessica Leigh Allen, March 16, 2009 in 9:32 am
…and a little bit rock & roll.
When I began homeschooling Benjamin, I unwittingly joined an online sub-community fueled by messageboards, forums and blogs. Homeschooling moms make up a huge portion of the Blogosphere, blogging about everything from dissecting a squirrel their son found dead in the backyard to the puzzle their three-year-old twins put together yesterday.
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