Parents Guide to School

April 4, 2008 | By Kristen | In Resources, Reviews

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People often think that when it comes to kids, the “baby stage” is the one of the most challenging. While, I know I have only been a parent for 9 years now and I do have four kids that range from 9 yrs to 7 months I must disagree.

Yes, parts of the baby stage are challenging… lack of sleep… colic…diapers and formula, and more diapers and formula.. but overall I find the baby stage is the easiest for these reasons.

They stay where you put them, you don’t need to follow them wondering where they are and what they are getting into.
As long as they are fed, changed, and comfortable for the most part they are content just hanging with you and are thrilled just to exchange glances with you.
They are quiet..besides the occasional crying… they can’t scream “You are the worst mommy ever!”
OK, since this sentence usually follows “If you want a play date, please clean your room first” that brings me to the#4 since they are babies, you automatically clean up after them and don’t need to constantly tell them to clean their room or pick up their shoes

Those are just a few, any parent knows you can go on and on about the joys and challenges of babyhood.

However, I have found that once the kids move into the school age that is when you start to find the bigger challenges that aren’t as cut and dry. Answers aren’t as easy to find as opening a Dr.Spock book and see that Green Poop IS normal after they start cereal….

The Introduction of School

You start to leave them at school and have less control and knowledge of their day. You start to have teacher conferences and want to know if your child is meeting the same milestones as the rest of their classmates, or tips on teaching them to read at home, or what you can do to get them ready for Kindergarten.

That’s where a new website, http://www.education.com comes in and becomes a great one stop shop resource of information. It’s a new website that I expect due to the quality of information on the site now, will continue to grow. It covers topics related to all ages of the school process- from Preschool to High School and includes information on preparing your child for Kindergarten, the Parent-School connection, Activities, Life Skills, Special Needs and thinking about College.

I personally enjoyed the simple Guide to Phonics and Is my Child on Track articles. The Phonics guide was a quick read and a good refresher of some key points.

There is even an active forum that have several groups including parents on autism, parent/kid book clubs and one of my favorites, Tween Parenting.

What makes This Website Different?

There are a majority of articles that are submitted by Teachers. They also have a Free Trial of a phonics reading program that we found fun.

The program summary from the website states:

Headsprout grows young readers by guiding them through a series of Web-based, animated lessons. The Headsprout program captures kids’ imaginations, as they follow the adventures of a cast of animated characters through the far reaches of outer space, the wilds of the jungle, under the sea, or back to the time of the dinosaurs.

I enjoyed the “fun learning” factor of this online program especially since I have a 6 year old son that doesn’t always find learning “fun”.

Are Kids Being Pushed Too Far Too Fast?

While on the playground last summer I overheard a conversation between two teachers (they were at the playground with their own kids) and they were talking about a few of the negative effects they are seeing in their students since the curriculum’s are so reading/writing/math heavy now.

One teacher stated that she has third grade students that can’t properly cut and paste because they removed so many activities/crafts and focus on actually writing sentence after sentence in First Grade instead of the Activity Based Learning styles that used to be popular.

I, as a parent just getting into the school stage, never really thought about, I just thought this was the way it always was. Although I do admit, I don’t remember learning fractions in first grade.

The articles on Education.com, “Are Kids Getting Too Much Math and Reading?” and “Turn Your Street into a Classroom” struck a cord with me. I’m an avid walker, and the kids and I walk a great deal when it’s warm. I often play games with the kids like adding up the numbers on the mailboxes, or “I spy” for letters, numbers, colors, shapes and spelling games of “find something you can spell like TREE or CAR”.

I appreciate all the ways we can get lessons into our everyday activities and the kids are learning without being forced to sit at a desk and “come up with 7 sentences and write them” that leads to the heels digging in and fighting. At this early stage of the game, learning should be fun and interactive, not a chore- that comes soon enough!

Overall, every stage of kids is different and just when we think we’ve survived one, up comes the next. But with good resources and the ability to learn from other parents that have been there and done that, we can continue to make informed decisions, learn new lessons and do our best to figure it all out.

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