Category Archives: Creative Activites for Kids

 

Raising An Independent Math Learner

 

Posted on by Gwynne

In celebration of Mathematics Awareness Month in April, Sylvan Darien offers tips that parents can use to help students succeed in math

Every student studies mathematics, and it has always been an important component in education. It is a tool that helps us make sense of the world around us, and it is particularly important because success in mathematics has been linked to success in college and future careers. Simply stated, math counts when it comes to a bright future.

In celebration of Mathematics Awareness Month in April 2012, Sylvan Learning located in Darien is offering tips that families can use to help their student excel in mathematics education and become an independent learner.
 
The theme of this year’s Mathematics Awareness Month is “Mathematics, Statistics, and the Data Deluge,” to demonstrate how mathematics and statistics provide the tools to understand data collected every day from various devices, networks and other sources. Continue reading →

Set Your Academic Resolutions For School Success

 

Posted on by Gwynne

 

The Third Quarter is fast approaching. Many of us will help make all kinds of well-intentioned improvements for our children during the second half of the year. . This is also an opportunity to encourage our children to make some resolutions of their own.  

Academic resolutions can be a good start for many school-aged children.  Similar to other New Year pledges, an academic resolution is aimed at dealing with areas that need improvement.  And just like those other resolutions, now is always the best time to start.

Sylvan Learning Center of Darien  offers parents and families the following tips to kick-start a successful New Year:

Work as a family.  Develop the goals together, encourage your child to involve a trusted teacher or friend, but remember the goals are ultimately his. Talk over general ideas – an improved algebra grade, better study habits, making sports editor for the school paper – and help him set priorities, but let him make the final decisions.  Setting his own goals increases his motivation and self-sufficiency. 

Keep the goals simple, clear, and easy to understand.  For young children, short-term goals are the best because they’re, well, short and result in higher rates of achievement.   Daily goals are the best – “What shall we do today in the park?”  “What book shall we check out of the library?”  Older students in late elementary and middle school can be introduced to longer-term goals.  This teaches planning.

Set up helpful routines.  Give your children the consistency of fairly regular routines (weekends and holidays can be breaks).  Bedtime, wake-up, study, homework, play, family time–children rely on these routines, and the structure helps them to feel safe, to know what’s expected of them, and to be successful.

Help them organize.  Organized students do better in school. Help them to set up their planners (written or electronic; it doesn’t matter), to keep their notebooks and backpacks neat and orderly, to break up large assignments into smaller ones so they don’t seem overwhelming, to maintain a work space at home that’s actually workable and not a disaster area, and to stick to the goals you’ve set together.

Maintain healthy habits.  Healthy students are better learners.  Help your children by monitoring their screen-time (TV, video games, cell phones, etc.), making sure they’re getting enough sleep, insisting on their good eating habits, making sure they’re involved in regular and aerobic exercise, and sticking to those goals and routines you’ve established.

Be a good role model.  Children learn from parents.  If they see that you’re organized, focused on what’s important to you and your family, staying healthy, and being true to your values, they’ll pick up some pretty important life lessons.  Stay positive and diligent – they’ll test your patience often.  When you or your family slips a little, pick yourself up and start over with renewed determination.  That’s an important lesson in itself.

Don’t give up.  Academic resolutions are every bit as important – maybe more so – than social or personal ones.  Let your children know that you’re serious about these goals and that their school success is as critical to you as it is to them.

Get help early if you need it.  When your children show that they’re having trouble despite your best efforts, get help early.  Ask a teacher or guidance counselor for help.  Get a tutor.  Find a “study buddy” for your child.  Just get help now, before the little problem grows into a big one.

Wishing you and your child a successful academic New Year!

 

Sylvan – Darien Suggests Creative and Memorable Summer Activities for Kids; Now Enrolling for Summer

 

Posted on by Gwynne

Sylvan – Darien Suggests Creative and Memorable Summer Activities for Kids

Come summertime, kids are always looking for something fun, lucrative, or rewarding to do. After all, there are only so many TV reruns to watch and video games to play before their cries of “I’m bored!” begin. With summer just around the corner, parents still have time to encourage their kids to do something special—and maybe even a little different—this year.

Gwynne Campbell of Sylvan Learning located in Darien suggests ways to inspire some memorable fun this summer and keep children learning in the process. Sylvan Learning is North America’s leading provider of in-center and live, online tutoring at home to students of all ages, grades, and skill levels.

Put on a play or concert and enhance creativity. Kids love to show off their talents. If you have an aspiring actor or musician in the family, suggest she get together with other performer-friends to entertain families or neighbors. Kids can write their own short plays from their favorite books—Amelia Bedelia books make for fun, silly plots—or Google “short plays for kids” for other ideas. If your kids are musicians, they can choose their favorite selections or write their own songs. If they’re really lucky, they can do both, and put on a musical!

Help a neighbor and develop caring and responsible values. Many neighbors in your community would greatly appreciate some help around the house, in the yard, with the shopping, walking pets, washing cars, or with errands. An hour or two a week allows your child to be helpful and gives your neighbor some assistance and company.

Start a book club and sharpen reading skills. If your kids have been given a summer reading list, they’ll have an easier time of it if they work with study buddies. Invite their friends over for reading and discussion followed by pizza, swimming, or a movie. For a list of recommended summer reading, visit www.SylvanLearning.com.

Start a new sports team and learn research skills. Kids are always interested in the new and unusual. Find a safe sport that isn’t on your school’s physical education curriculum—windsurfing, sailing, bocce—and help your kids learn about it, try it, and have fun with it.    Hike a hundred miles and teach perseverance and writing skills. What says summer more than trekking through the woods? Set a distance goal, and go for it! Even if you’re not near nature trails or green forests, measure a few routes around your neighborhood and hike away a couple of times a week. An inexpensive pedometer and a “hiking journal” let you keep track of your progress. Include descriptions of new things you discovered, whom you walked with, what you talked about, what songs you sang, and maybe even some clever drawings.

Make a movie and sharpen writing and leadership skills. It’s easier to become a “junior filmmaker” these days, thanks to inexpensive cameras and computer programs that help develop creativity and imagination. Kids can write their own scripts, rewrite scenes from favorite movies, create new endings for those films, or dramatize episodes from favorite books.

Do some gardening and learn geometry, botany, and working within a budget.   Organize a small plot of yard for flowers, plants, or vegetables. At the library or online, help kids research gardens and gardening techniques.   Give them an allowance for seeds. Help them design the plot, nurture it, and reap the benefits.

Exhibit paintings or photographs and boost creativity, writing and social skills. Every child has an artistic streak. Encourage kids to draw, use pastels, watercolor, or paint. Or take photos of friends, games, pets, flowers, neighbors, events, or hikes. Put the photos in a hard-copy album or post online to share with others. Add captions: “My friends and I had a great time at the pool on the Fourth of July. Here we are swimming, having a barbecue, and watching the fireworks. It was awesome!”

Play marathon board games and encourage logical thinking. Once or twice a summer, it’s fun to have a game marathon. Choose your game: Monopoly®, Scrabble®, Clue®, cribbage. Invite friends over, serve snacks, laugh a lot. Take a few pictures for the summer journal.

There are so many other ideas, adds Campbell. Your main purpose, of course, is to keep your kids’ minds and bodies active, their social skills keen, and their summer enjoyment high. Memories are made this way!

For more information contact Gwynne Campbell at (203) 655-3276 or gmcsylvan@aol.com. Parents looking for additional resources can visit the Parent Resources section at www.SylvanLearning.com