Spring and summer are the perfect seasons for involving your children in gardening. Children love the outdoors and have a natural curiosity for insects, mud, flowers, plants, snails, and wildlife. Gardening can teach children about the earth, nature, and healthy foods. You can even start plants indoors and move them outside later. There is something to learn from gardening for children of all ages. In addition to planting and watering activities can include creating plant markers, reading and interpreting seed packages, distinguishing seeds and plants, distinguishing edible plants, insects, and creating a compost pile.

Gardening with kids encourages their interest our earth, conservation, and preservation. You can teach children how the world’s eco-system works from a garden. Preschoolers can catch insects, blow the seeds off dandelions, and create planting holes, water, and plant seeds. For younger children, the seeds, insects, and water are interesting. Science, math, and spelling can all be incorporated into garden learning.

This is a simple hands-on project that presents many learning opportunities.  Planning your outdoor garden includes subjects such as considering each plant’s needs, soil type, sunlight exposure, drainage, and water access.  Let your child choose what they would like to grow.

You can teach respect for nature and how growing plants provides oxygen and recycling helps earth. You can choose to plant flowers, fruits, vegetables, or a tree. Teach kids how each insect plays a part in nature. Older children might be interested in farming technology, horticulture, or plant biology.

Education is much more than sitting in a classroom all day. You can teach your children how to learn outside the classroom and form a bond with them as a teacher. Gardening can be a fun and educational activity. You can instill an enthusiasm for nature in them that will carry on for a life time.

by David McLeod

Owner School-Supply-List.com and Elementary School Teacher

David has been teaching elementary school in Central Texas for over 7 years and has over 15 years of experience in online education related websites and blogs.

Some educators call this the summer brain drain and evidence shows students do lose reading, math computational, and other skills over summer break.  The ten things many elementary children tend to forget over summer include:

1. Math skills they learned the previous year. Simply spending a few hours a week during the summer practicing the equations they learned can help increase their retention.

2. Reading skills learned in the previous school year. Also reading only a few hours a week during the summer can help elementary students maintain reading skills.

3. Spelling skills can fall behind during summer break.

4. Kindergarten and first graders often forget their addresses and phone numbers during summer break. This is information they often do not need over summer vacation. Because adults use this information regularly parents often assume that their children will remember this simple knowledge.

5. Because history involves memorizing dates, many students fall behind in history over the summer because they forget the dates associated with events. A periodic review of what they learned in the previous grade can help them retain this information.

6. As is common with most people, if you don’t use it you lose it. Such is the case with younger children and telling time and tracking calendar dates over the summer. They lose track of days without their routine of attending school and can lose their ability to track days.

7. Elementary children often forget their listening skills developed in the classroom environment. After all they have usually not had to raise their hands to speak all summer. While these will be reinforced by a new teacher, the first few weeks after returning from summer break can result in disciplinary challenges.

8. Elementary age children can forget their manners if the same standards are not practiced in the home consistently.

9. Many students forget the school routine and what things they need to take to school each day such as books, lunch money, back packs, jackets, umbrellas, and so on.

10. Younger children often forget school and safety rules. Do not assume your child knows all the safety precautions from the previous school year especially when their health and life might depend on it.

by David McLeod

Owner School-Supply-List.com and Elementary School Teacher

David has been teaching elementary school in Central Texas for over 7 years and has over 15 years of experience in online education related websites and blogs.

While school educational requirements and teachers vary most will agree the following skills are a good foundation for starting first grade. Check with your child’s first grade teacher or the school the year before to find out if they have a checklist of requirements or educational criteria level for first grade.

Your first grader should be able to do the following:
Recognize and identify colors
Count to 100
Read basic words
Recite the alphabet correctly
Recognize upper and lower case letters
Understand and identify the value of money (coins)
Tell time at least by the hour
Write the numbers to 100
Write the letters of the alphabet
No longer need daily naps
Write his or her name
Identify basic shapes
Follow two directions in one sentence Example: Set the cup on the counter and bring me the spoon.
Understand opposites
Understand the calendar and identify the days of the week
Count by twos
Know the vowels and their sounds
Understand simple addition and subtraction
Indentify rhyming words

If your child is deficient in any of the needed skills the sooner you can begin working with him or her than the better off your child will be. No student likes to start off behind the other children. Encouragement and praise with emphasis on the skills your child has mastered will help build confidence for developing the skills your child is having difficulty with.

There are many teaching aids available including games for children of this age. If your child is not capable of mastering most of these skills before first grade, meet with his or her teacher. If your child has vision, hearing, or a learning challenge identifying that as early as possible will allow you to make the needed accommodations to get him or her on track.

by David McLeod

Owner School-Supply-List.com and Elementary School Teacher

David has been teaching elementary school in Central Texas for over 7 years and has over 15 years of experience in online education related websites and blogs.

Because kindergarten is the beginning of official education for many children and will often be the start of a new routine, children and parents need to prepare. For some children kindergarten will be the first time they are separated from a parent or home environment for such an extended period each day.

Parents can lay a solid foundation by preparing the year before the student is to begin school.

If your child has no siblings or is the oldest and first to attend school, this experience can be overwhelming. Children with older siblings who are in school usually have had more exposure to the routine and expectations. They see their older brothers or sisters return each day none worse for the wear! However, depending on the older sibling’s attitude toward school this can also be an obstacle.

Visit the school with your child before the first day. If possible meet the teacher and introduce your child. You will want to collect the following information from the school:

• Enrollment forms and requirements including medical records, immunizations, documentation, and emergency numbers
• Transportation information (bus routes and schedules, drop off and pick up times and location)
• Meal arrangements
• Registration dates and a school year calendar
• After school programs
• Contact information of other staff members, the principal, other parents

Preparing your child for learning in kindergarten is also important. Help your child learn:

• the alphabet
• learn the letters of his or her name
• write letters
• count to 10 or 20
• to memorize your address
• to memorize your phone number
• how to make the sounds of letters
• how to hold books right side up and identify pictures

Reading to your child each day will help develop reading skills. Read your child’s favorite books and talk about the stories and the characters. Ask your child what is happening in the pictures. Preparing your child for learning includes developing enthusiasm for school. Getting a child started on the right foot with the skills they need and a level of comfort about school and excitement for learning can develop attitudes and habits that will carry him or her through their education.

by David McLeod

Owner School-Supply-List.com and Elementary School Teacher

David has been teaching elementary school in Central Texas for over 7 years and has over 15 years of experience in online education related websites and blogs.