In our zeal to ensure that our children are competitive with their peers, we tend to forget one essential element of learning: play. To help our kids develop into well-rounded adults, we need to better understand their needs at each age level, and provide appropriate materials, opportunities and encouragement for a variety of play activities.

Babies and toddlers learn about themselves and their place in the world through non-competitive play and repetitive activities. Toddlers generally engage in parallel play (alongside others, but not with them) focusing on their own needs. They are developing physical skills, their attention span, and their intellects.

By preschool, children begin to play with other children. They may imitate rules, but they are more intent on building and creating things than on winning. Through play, they develop and refine motor skills and basic academic skills such as counting, reading, and writing.

During elementary school, children improve their physical coordination and social skills through formal games and those they create on their own. They develop an understanding of word meanings, letter meanings, and numbers through games and riddles.

In late childhood and early adolescence, children are ready for structured games with established rules. They become more socially aware and their focus shifts to their peer groups. As they play and develop their roles in organized activities and groups, they learn how they fit into the social structure.

Playing with information allows children to learn concepts and develop skills in a variety of ways, and take ownership of that information. Events and information that have personal relevance create neural connections that embed information and skills into long-term memory.

We can support our children’s physical, intellectual and emotional growth by providing age-appropriate toys and activities: puzzles and blocks to help with spatial concepts, manipulative substances like clay to explore changes in form, costumes and equipment for imitative play, musical instruments and art materials for creative expression, and equipment for outdoor play. Brain research has shown that physical activity enhances learning, while promoting physical development and coordination.

When we respect the value of play and encourage it in balance with work, we provide fertile ground for education.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206 or studypros.com.

Parents frequently tell me that they can’t help their children with their homework. It may be that they don’t understand the current approach to the subject, but most often it seems the issue is the resistance they face from their son or daughter when they offer help. The child’s hesitancy may be a demonstration of self-sufficiency or it could be a signal that communications have broken down.

Children will argue with their parents. It’s part of growing up. But constant battles erode the relationship and make parent and child perpetual adversaries. We may find ourselves responding emotionally, rather than rationally, and falling into the trap of proving ourselves right rather than teaching the child how to behave in a responsible manner. The latter takes time and patience.

We can establish better communication with our children by scheduling a regular time each day, under calm circumstances, to talk with and listen to them. By putting aside other demands and fully focusing on the child, we demonstrate respect.

Respect is at the heart of a proactive approach to communication called responsive listening, which requires that we approach conversations with a sense of curiosity and a desire to learn. When a statement is made, according to this technique, we respond by restating the comment to show that we’ve understood the intent. We then invite correction or further exploration of the topic, and finally allow time for reflection. We have to be willing to really hear what the other person is saying, and resist the urge to dispute or defend a position.

We should encourage our children to take the lead in initiating a dialogue and watch for non-verbal clues through their body language and facial expressions that can tell us what their words don’t convey. Children don’t always know the underlying reasons for their feelings or actions, but by inviting discussion and remembering that we are their first teachers, we can help them begin to define themselves and find solutions to their problems.

Diane Trautman can be reached at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, 661-296-9206 or studypros.com.

When children enter junior high school, they often seem to slip off track. They start out well, but their grades decline with each report card. Their backpacks fall into disarray. They forget assignments or fail to turn them in on time. They goof off in class instead of taking notes. Each time you start to discuss grades, your child promises she’ll work harder. They just seem to be lost.

We parents are left wondering how the boy who was an ‘A’ student in primary grades is struggling to maintain ‘C’s in 7th grade. How is it that our daughter is scoring so poorly on her tests when she spends four hours everyday doing homework?

There might be issues with the teacher, or laziness could be part of the problem. Nascent adolescence certainly complicates things. But a recurring theme with junior high students is the lack of effective study skills, including time management, organization, note taking, and test-taking.

What can parents do to help their sons and daughters find their way through the junior high years?

Set aside study time each day regardless of the homework load. Daily review and practice help to reinforce lessons. Even brief periods of study will pay off when the essay is assigned and the tests roll around.

Read books or articles together. Talk about the message, the characters, and the story structure. They’ll be better prepared to organize their own writing and pick out key elements.

Teach your child to assume responsibility for her work and behavior. Resist the urge to do their work for them or rescue them. They need to experience consequences and learn from their mistakes.

Encourage your children to speak with trusted adults about things that are troubling them.  Students need to learn how to ask for help when they need it and feel comfortable doing so.

Recognize that poor performance or bad behavior may mean your child is overwhelmed. Don’t assume that it’s a phase they’ll grow out of. Instead, seek timely help from the teacher or a professional tutor. Before you know it, your child will find their way successfully to high school and beyond.

Diane Trautman owns and operates StudyPros In-Home Tutoring at 661-296-9206 and studypros.com.

Many parents call me about tutoring as their children’s mid-term or final exams loom on the horizon. “I wish I’d called you earlier, but I just didn’t see this coming,” they’ll say. The pleas typically apply to students at the junior and senior high levels who’ve assured their parents that they could raise their grades by themselves. Frequently, a lack of organization, time management, and study skills are at the root of their problems.

Let’s review some tips to help your child start the school year right and continue on that path. Younger children may still face challenges as they progress to middle school and beyond, but if you establish good habits early, the transitions will be easier. 

Routines are helpful for us all, starting with a regular bedtime schedule. Children need plenty of sleep to help them focus during the day. Healthy foods at regular meal and snack times provide them with the brainpower and energy they need to function well at school and at home. Setting consistent times for study and recreation allows children to concentrate on their homework with the understanding that they’ll have time for fun when they’ve completed their work.

Organizing work will become increasingly important as your child advances. When our sons were in elementary school, I would go through their backpacks with them each day and we would organize their work. Though not perfectly maintained, they did manage to keep their papers and binders fairly neat throughout high school. Likewise, having younger students maintain a log of assignments and due dates will prepare them to better manage the “binder-reminder” books they might use when they get to junior high.

Create a productive workspace with your child’s input. The ideal setting includes a comfortable chair at an uncluttered desk or table with good lighting and minimal distractions. Some children need a quiet atmosphere, while others seem to perform better with music (ideally non-vocal) in the background. Make sure necessary pencils, paper and other supplies are organized and readily available.

Communicate your interest in your child and the importance of education by discussing their schoolwork with them regularly. In fast-paced classes, students can fail to see the value of what they’re learning. When you help them connect their studies to practical applications and encourage enthusiasm for learning, school becomes a training-ground for life, not just daily endurance test.

For more information, contact Diane at dianetrautman@studypros.com

Much has been written lately about bullying in schools, and one item in particular has caught my attention. It talks not just about the bullies and their targets, but about the bystanders as well.

Citing numerous sources, the authors of an article in the latest issue of the journal of the Association for Childhood Education International argue for heightened awareness of bullying and intervention programs on school campuses. Such programs should involve faculty, staff, parents, and students. Adults need to recognize the indicators of bullying, and develop techniques for intervention with the bully, the target, and the bystander. Supervision and discipline must be consistent among all the adults on the campus.

However, most bullying occurs out of view of adults, and in the presence of the target’s peers. When bullying incidents occur, the student bystander has three choices: (1) side with the bully and become an accomplice; (2) support the target and risk becoming a target himself; or, (3) remain silent and live with the shame and guilt. Obviously, none of these choices is acceptable. Bystanders and targets alike need to be taught how to handle bullying.

Targeted students need to express their feelings and receive support. They need to learn how to avoid exposing themselves to bullies by walking to school with a friend, avoiding unsupervised areas, and leaving expensive belongings at home, among other techniques. Such a child should also be taught how to neutralize a bully through confident and assertive behavior and humor.

Student bystanders can be trained to intervene on behalf of the target either during an incident or by reporting it to an adult. They could talk to the bully privately to intervene on behalf of their friend or anonymously report the problem to authorities.

Given the increases in childhood violence, substance abuse, high school dropout rates and suicides in our society, we need to take bullying much more seriously. It isn’t a harmless rite of passage or a passing phase that adults should ignore. It is a physical and emotional assault akin to child abuse, and it disrupts a child’s growth and learning.

For more information, contact Diane Trautman at StudyPros In-Home Tutoring at (661) 296-9206 or studypros.com.

There are several reasons you may seek tutoring for your child.  Whether it is one need or a combination, it is important to know why you are seeking tutoring in order to maximize your chance of identifying the best tutor for your child.  You may choose a tutor for:

• Remediation — Often when a surprising report card comes home or after a parent teacher conference, you are faced with the realization that your child is not doing well in school, and you want to help.  Remedial sessions most often focus on filling gaps in specific skills in specific subjects, usually in math, reading or writing.  As more basic skills are mastered, then tutoring sessions can be spent teaching more grade level skills, thereby increasing achievement and self-esteem.
• Maintenance — Perhaps your student is beginning a new school or moving from elementary to middle school and suddenly the work is different—more time consuming and demanding. Although the work is not so difficult, the new routines or teacher expectations quickly overwhelm your student. More often, the goals of these tutoring sessions are devoted to helping the student learn more effective time management skills, understand the new academic expectations, complete homework, and help your child transition into an independent learner.
• Remediation / Maintenance (also called support tutoring)—A popular approach, this is particularly useful for older students who are working below grade level. This approach allows approximately half of the session to be devoted to remediation and deficient skill areas. The remaining half is devoted to assisting the student with completion of current assignments.
• Enrichment — If it is clear that your child is functioning successfully at grade level, and they are comfortable with more challenges, it may appropriate to see a tutor to help accelerate skills development in certain subjects or skill area.
• Test Prep — The SAT/ACTs have never been more misunderstood or caused so much anxiety among high school age students trying to get into the college of their choice.  You may choose a tutor who has a strong background in test taking strategies and who understands the newest content of the SAT and ACT. Skills development/support is often an integral part of a test-prep course or tutoring program.  Providing this type of assistance frequently alleviates test-taking anxiety and promotes confidence in tackling this important assessment.

By the way, StudyPros In-Home Tutoring tutors offer all types of support: remediation, maintenance, enrichment and test prep. We can make specific recommendations for your child.

There are several signs that will indicate to parents that your child needs a tutor. Edward Gordon, a tutoring consultant for the federal and state governments and author of  “Tutor Quest” gives these signs:

• Continued failing grades in school.
• Your child is constantly making excuses as to why he or she is not doing homework.
• The student is unhappy in school or having problems in general.
• The teacher sends notes home to you and you have to go to school because there is disruptive behavior, a pattern that goes on for at least a full school year.

To this list, I would add some warning signs which I hear repeatedly from my StudyPros clients:

• Grades were OK last semester or last year, but now there is a sudden plunge in the grades of one or two classes.
• Your child is transitioning, from elementary to junior high, or to high school, and they’ve never been particularly studious, or never had to work very hard. They may need tutoring to improve their overall organizational or study skills.
• The student begins the study of a new subject that is far removed from their previous experience, and feels lost. This happens frequently, for example, with geometry and chemistry.
• You home-school your child, and you begin to feel lost with certain subject material.

Gordon says there is no such thing as a lazy child. “That is a symptom. It’s a question of motivation or if the child is having a problem processing the information or if there is a problem at home, such as parents going through a divorce.” So if your child is falling behind, Gordon recommends getting a tutor to help him or her catch up. “The purpose of tutoring is to speed up the learning process, make up the skills the child has lost and get them back up to the instructional level so the teacher in the classroom can continue the learning process with the child,” he says.

Parents should keep in mind that subjects, math in particular, are taught cumulatively. That is, each lesson serves as a foundation for the next. In addition, learning often requires repetition, which takes time. In order to ensure that your child is prepared for testing throughout the year, tutoring at the first sign of trouble will be much more effective than waiting until just before finals.

If you think your child might benefit from tutoring, and you live in the Santa Clarita Valley, call StudyPros In-Home Tutoring for a free consultation.

This past spring, Newhall Elementary School conducted their annual Science Fair. I once again served as a judge for this exhibit, which has been lovingly organized for many years by teacher Ethel Carleton.

The students who presented to us seemed genuinely happy to participate in the fair. Some prepared elaborate displays with carefully kept journals, while others offered more basic exhibits. All projects were clearly created by the students with only minimal assistance from parents. The differences were mainly in the depth of the scientific questions posed and the degree to which each student pursued the scientific basis for the answers that were revealed in the process. Some students were obviously more curious than others, more willing to ask deeper questions.

Children are naturally inquisitive, but that tendency can be subdued or eliminated if we tell them not to ask questions or we don’t encourage them to think critically and formulate appropriate questions about the world around them. This lack of curiosity was demonstrated in their projects when a student would ask simple cause and effect questions (e.g., What happens to x when I do y?) instead of posing hypotheses that can be tested to reveal the reasoning behind the answer.

We hope you had time this summer to encourage that curiosity in your children, and that you continue to do so throughout the school year. Weekends and school holidays are good times to take your children to the Museum of Science and Industry, the Los Angeles Arboretum, the Getty Museum, the Aquarium of the Pacific, or just into your own backyard. Follow the guidebook, but ask your children questions about the exhibits. Talk about the historical context in which an artist produced their works. Watch an episode of Nova and do some additional research on the Internet. Take and test soil samples in your yard, then find out which plants would work best for your garden and why.

As I’ve written before, I believe our teachers, by and large, do a wonderful job in our classrooms; but they’re working to meet a barrage of requirements and testing deadlines and they simply don’t have the time to light a fire under every student. We parents need to spark their interest in learning and fan that desire until they become inspired and self-directed.

Diane is Education Director for StudyPros In-Home Tutoring in Santa Clarita, California.

I used to wonder aloud why we seem to be running faster and faster and barely keeping up with daily demands. Then a friend told me that her mother had the answer. We’re busy working to cover bills for services that our parents never had and managing  technology systems (computers, cell phones, blackberries, etc.) that weren’t available a generation ago. Our lives changed but we haven’t stopped to acknowledge the impact.

LIfe has changed at school as well. In order to meet state standards, teachers need to cover an expanding amount of information using textbooks that may lack detail and depth. In order to compete with students around the globe (without increasing school days, instructional hours, or financial investment), the curriculum is being driven down to lower grades. Our children are being asked to wrap their heads around concepts in algebra, geometry and sciences that we didn’t face until our freshman year in high school. Kindergarten is “the new first grade.” And now parents are looking to give their children a competitive edge for pre-school. I agree with child development specialists and educators who say that we are pushing kids to do things that are developmentally inappropriate and detrimental to the long-term well-being of our children.

Another change has occured in our schools that I believe has been equally damaging. In our quest for stronger academic performance, industrial arts classes have been reduced or eliminated. This pushes every student, regardless of their skills and abilities, onto an academic track, limits the student’s ability to explore career oppportunities, and sets up many kids for failure. Too many students are turned off of education because they don’t see the practical applications of their school lessons or because, despite their best efforts, they can’t compete with their classmates. These children need other options.

I recently spoke with Ron Rudzinski who is responsible for the Career Visions program in the Hart District. Ron is a strong advocate for a broadened approach to education and increased opportunities for hands-on learning. He told me that the Hart District and College of the Canyons have partnered to support state legislation that would increase vocational education. Developing new options would give students with practical talents the recognition and support they need to become productive citizens. It would also create a new generation of skilled craftsmen who are vital to our society.

At StudyPros In-Home Tutoring, we support a multifacited education system that respects and supports the unique qualities of every child.