There's a lot of discussion these days about fit kids. People who care (parents, doctors, teachers, and others) want to know how to help kids be more fit. Being fit is a way of saying a person eats well, gets a lot of physical activity (exercise), and has a healthy weight. If you're fit, your body works well, feels good, and can do all the things you want to do, like run around with your friends. Some steps only parents can take — such as serving healthy meals or deciding to take the family on a nature hike. But kids can take charge, too, when it comes to health.
What's your favorite way to exercise?
Here are five rules to live by, if you're a kid who wants to be fit. The trick is to follow these rules most of the time, knowing that some days (like your birthday) might call for cake and ice cream.
1. Eat a Variety of Foods
You may have a favorite food, but the best choice is to eat a variety. If you eat different foods, you're more likely to get the nutrients your body needs. Taste new foods and old ones you haven't tried for a while. Some foods, such as green veggies, are more pleasing the older you get. Shoot for at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day — two fruits and three vegetables.
Here's one combination that might work for you:
at breakfast: ½ cup (about 4 large) strawberries on your cereal
with lunch: 6 baby carrots
for a snack: an apple
with dinner: ½ cup broccoli (about 2 big spears) and 1 cup of salad
2. Drink Water & Milk
When you're really thirsty, cold water is the best thirst-quencher. Kids need calcium to build strong bones, and milk is a great source of this mineral. How much do kids need? If you are younger than 9 years old, drink 2 cups of milk a day, or its equivalent. If you're older than 9 years old, aim for 3 cups of milk per day, or its equivalent. You can mix it up by having milk and some other calcium-rich dairy foods. Here's one combination:
2 cups (about half a liter) of low-fat or nonfat milk
1 slice cheddar cheese
½ cup (small container) of yogurt
You probably will want something other than milk or water once in a while, so it's OK to have 100% juice, too. But try to limit sugary drinks, like sodas, juice cocktails, and fruit punches. They contain a lot of added sugar. Sugar just adds calories, not important nutrients.
3.Listen to Your Body
What does it feel like to be full? When you're eating, notice how your body feels and when your stomach feels comfortably full. Sometimes, people eat too much because they don't notice when they need to stop eating. Eating too much can make you feel uncomfortable and, over a period of time, can lead to unhealthy weight gain.
4. Limit Screen Time
What's screen time? It's the amount of time you spend watching TV or DVDs, playing video games (console systems or handheld games), and using a smart phone, tablet, or computer. The more time you spend on these sitting-down activities, the less time available for active stuff, like basketball, bike riding, and swimming. Try to spend no more than 2 hours a day on screen time, not counting computer use related to school and educational activities.
5. Be Active
One job you have as a kid — and it's a fun one — is that you get to figure out which activities you like best. Not everyone loves baseball or soccer. Maybe your passion is karate, or kickball, or dancing. Ask your parents to help you do your favorite activities regularly. Find ways to be active every day. You might even write down a list of fun stuff to do, so you can refer to it when your mom or dad says it's time to stop watching TV or playing computer games!
Speaking of parents, they can be a big help if you want to be a fit kid. For instance, they can stock the house with healthy foods and plan physical activities for the family.
Tell your parents about these five steps you want to take and maybe you can teach them a thing or two.
If you're a fit kid, why shouldn't you have a fit mom and a fit dad?
Evidence suggests that children who read for enjoyment every day not only perform better in reading tests than those who don’t, but also develop a broader vocabulary, increased general knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures.
In fact, there’s evidence to suggest that reading for pleasure is more likely to determine whether a child does well at school than their social or economic background.
What difference could I make as a parent?
The short answer is: a lot! Parents are by far the most important educators in a child’s life and it’s never too young for a child to start, even if you’re only reading with your child for a few minutes a day.
Before they're born, babies learn to recognize their parents' voices. Reading to your baby from the time they're born gives them the comfort of your voice and increases their exposure to language.
Building vocabulary and understanding
Learning to read is about listening and understanding as well as working out print. Through hearing stories, children are exposed to a rich and wide vocabulary. This helps them build their own vocabulary and improve their understanding when they listen, which is vital as they start to read. It’s important for them to understand how stories work as well. Even if your child doesn’t understand every word, they’ll hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they have heard.
As children start to learn to read at school, you can play an important role in helping to keep them interested in books, finding out what interests them and helping them to find books that will be engaging and fun for them. Give time to helping them practise reading the books they will bring home from school.
We all can develop resilience, and we can help our children develop it as well. It involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned over time. Following are tips to building resilience.
Make connections Teach your child how to make friends, including the skill of empathy, or feeling another's pain. Encourage your child to be a friend in order to get friends. Build a strong family network to support your child through his or her inevitable disappointments and hurts. At school, watch to make sure that one child is not being isolated. Connecting with people provides social support and strengthens resilience. Some find comfort in connecting with a higher power, whether through organized religion or privately and you may wish to introduce your child to your own traditions of worship.
Help your child by having him or her help others Children who may feel helpless can be empowered by helping others. Engage your child in age-appropriate volunteer work, or ask for assistance yourself with some task that he or she can master. At school, brainstorm with children about ways they can help others.
Maintain a daily routine Sticking to a routine can be comforting to children, especially younger children who crave structure in their lives. Encourage your child to develop his or her own routines.
Take a break While it is important to stick to routines, endlessly worrying can be counter-productive. Teach your child how to focus on something besides what's worrying him. Be aware of what your child is exposed to that can be troubling, whether it be news, the Internet or overheard conversations, and make sure your child takes a break from those things if they trouble her. Although schools are being held accountable for performance on standardized tests, build in unstructured time during the school day to allow children to be creative.
Teach your child self-care Make yourself a good example, and teach your child the importance of making time to eat properly, exercise and rest. Make sure your child has time to have fun, and make sure that your child hasn't scheduled every moment of his or her life with no "down time" to relax. Caring for oneself and even having fun will help your child stay balanced and better deal with stressful times.
Move toward your goals Teach your child to set reasonable goals and then to move toward them one step at a time. Moving toward that goal — even if it's a tiny step — and receiving praise for doing so will focus your child on what he or she has accomplished rather than on what hasn't been accomplished, and can help build the resilience to move forward in the face of challenges. At school, break down large assignments into small, achievable goals for younger children, and for older children, acknowledge accomplishments on the way to larger goals.
Nurture a positive self-view Help your child remember ways that he or she has successfully handled hardships in the past and then help him understand that these past challenges help him build the strength to handle future challenges. Help your child learn to trust himself to solve problems and make appropriate decisions. Teach your child to see the humor in life, and the ability to laugh at one's self. At school, help children see how their individual accomplishments contribute to the wellbeing of the class as a whole.
Keep things in perspective and maintain a hopeful outlook Even when your child is facing very painful events, help him look at the situation in a broader context and keep a long-term perspective. Although your child may be too young to consider a long-term look on his own, help him or her see that there is a future beyond the current situation and that the future can be good. An optimistic and positive outlook enables your child to see the good things in life and keep going even in the hardest times. In school, use history to show that life moves on after bad events.
Look for opportunities for self-discovery Tough times are often the times when children learn the most about themselves. Help your child take a look at how whatever he is facing can teach him "what he is made of." At school, consider leading discussions of what each student has learned after facing down a tough situation.
Accept that change is part of living Change often can be scary for children and teens. Help your child see that change is part of life and new goals can replace goals that have become unattainable. In school, point out how students have changed as they moved up in grade levels and discuss how that change has had an impact on the students.
Helpmykidlearn.ie
Launched Sept 2012. Includes audio and video content to support parents with literacy difficulties and links to others websites providing more detailed information on specific topics. The site is designed for parents, grandparents and carers of children aged 0 - 12 years and is searchable according to the child's age.
AskaboutIreland.ie Providing lots of information and activities on History, Geography & Science broken down into class levels.The AskaboutIreland website also hosts the Digital Archive of the Irish Time. However it can only be accessed online through schools or libraries. Every edition of the Irish Times since 29th March 1859 is available online in an easily searchable format.
Scoilnet.com Providing a range of resources, worksheets, and project information for all subjects within the Irish primary curriculum broken down by class levels.
PrimaryScience.ie Discover Primary Science is a flagship project run by the Discover Science & Engineering (DSE) awareness programme. The programme aims to show children how important and fun science can be!
Me and my Body Explore the human body with Ryan and Roisin. The site is designed to assist in the teaching of the Living Things strand of the primary curriculum
Focal.ie A database of Irish terms containing over 270,000 terms, searchable under both Irish and English versions.
Webwise.ie Webwise.ie educates on safer usage of the Internet. Aimed at students, teachers and parents it also promotes the positive aspects of using the Internet and informs on how to deal with the risks.
Comes from the ancient Celtic holiday of "Samhain."
Modern Halloween has become less about ghosts and ghouls and more about costumes and sweets.
The Celts used the day to mark the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, and also believed that this transition between the seasons was a bridge to the world of the dead.
Over the years the holiday changes from a pagan festival to a day of merriment, costumes, parades and sweet treats for children and adults.
NCSE Delivery for Students with Special Educational Needs
A National Council for Special Education (NCSE) working group has proposed a new and better way to allocate special education teachers to mainstream schools.
This booklet is to help parents and guardians to understand how the proposed
new model would work in schools. Please Google for a copy.
The Department of Education & Skills and the National Adult Literacy Agency are recommending that we encourage parents to use the "Help my kid learn" website (www.helpmykidlearn.ie). This website contains excellent suggestions and enjoyable activities in which parents and children can engage.
Since your child was born you have been teaching him or her to communicate. By speaking and listening to your child, by talking and reading to him or her, by pointing out words and notices at home or out and about, you have introduced your child to the world of language - spoken and written. Through playing with your child, he or she learns new words, and learns to think and to talk about his or her thoughts and feelings. For example, pretending to be a nurse or a shopkeeper, scribbling on re-cycled paper, or looking at and talking about picture books, all help your child to speak, to listen, to read and to write. Even when your child starts school, you continue to have a key role in helping him or her.
1. Read to your child
Teaching your child to read is truly a process that begins at infancy. (No, I am most certainly NOT advocating programs that claim to teach your baby to read using flashcards!) What I AM encouraging you to do is to begin reading with your newborn within days of welcoming her home! Not only is this a special bonding time for the two of you, it instills in her a love for books. Enjoyment while reading is one of the single greatest predictors of reading success in school-age children.
How much you read to your child is completely up to you and your family, but aim to read at least 3-4 books a day, even while your child is very young. As she gets a little older and can sit for longer stretches of time, make it a family goal to read together for at least 20-minutes each day.
Here are a few suggestions for the types of books to read to your child. But by all means, read whatever your child responds to and enjoys!
Birth-1 Year: Lullabies, Board Books (with real pictures), Cloth Books (with various textures), Song Books
1 Year-3 Years: Rhyming Books, Song Books, Short-Story Board Books
2. Ask questions
Asking questions while reading to your child is not only great for encouraging your child to interact with the book, but it is also extremely effective in developing his ability to comprehend what he is reading. You see, if our main objective in “reading” is getting our child to “sound out” words, we have missed the boat entirely. Even children who can decode words and “read” with great fluency still might not be able to comprehend what they are reading. If a child can’t comprehend what he is reading, there really is no point to reading at all!
While your child is a baby, ask him questions such as, “Do you see the cat?” while pointing at the picture of the cat. This will not only develop his vocabulary, it will also encourage him to interact with the book that he is reading. As he gets older, ask him to point to things in the book himself and make the noises of the animals he sees. Once your child is about 2 or 3-years of age, begin asking questions before, during, and after reading the book. Show your child the cover of the book and ask him what he thinks it is going to be about (predicting). While reading, ask him what he thinks is going to happen or why he thinks a character made a particular choice (inferring). If a character is depicting a strong emotion, identify that emotion and ask your child if he has ever felt that way (connecting). At the end of the book, ask if his prediction(s) came true. Afterwards, ask him to tell you what he remembered happening in the book (summarizing).
Modifying each of these techniques during read-alouds to meet the developmental stage of your child is a great way to promote and increase reading comprehension!
3. Be a good (reading) example
Even if your child is fascinated with books from an early age, her fascination will quickly dwindle if she does not see reading modeled in her home. If you are not an avid reader yourself, make a conscious effort to let your children see you reading for at least a few minutes each day! Read a magazine, a cookbook, a novel, your Bible…it’s up to you! But show your child that reading is something that even adults need to do. If you have a son, share this article with your husband. Sons need to see their fathers read, especially since it is not something that young energetic boys are naturally prone to doing.
As parents, we can sometimes get wrapped up with what exactly our children should be doing to be successful. But we often forget that children often learn by example. Grab a book and take a load off…for your child’s sake, of course!
4. Identify letters in natural settings Before our boys were born, we painted and hung large wooden letters spelling their name above the cribs as a decorative accent in their rooms. I would have never guessed that those wooden letters would have such a learning incentive for Big Brother! Around age 2.5, he began asking what letters were above his name. That’s honestly how he learned to spell his name…and he can spell his brother’s name too because he has taken an interest in his letters as well. In technical terms, this is called “environmental print” and includes all of the print we are surrounded by–fast food signs, labels, traffic signs, clothing, magazines, etc. Often times, we want to force our children to learn letter names by a certain age. We buy flashcards or DVDs claiming to teach our children their letters. We drill our 2-year old over and over for minutes on end. Don’t buy into this…allow your kid to be a kid and take advantage of the “teachable moments” as they come along! Children’s minds are like sponges and are certainly capable of memorizing the alphabet from drilling, but that’s not the most effective method that will produce the best long-term results. Your child will be curious about the print he sees around him and will ask questions. That’s your chance to jump in with a practical application that actually has real meaning and significance to your child. Don’t misunderstand me and think that I don’t think learning the alphabet is important. It is certainly important…but the method in which we teach them is even more important! Always keep in mind that our ultimate goal is to foster a lifelong learner who loves to read, not a child who has simply memorized without any significance. 5. Incorporate multiple domains of development Children learn best when multiple senses or areas of development are included. That’s why hands-on learning produces longer retention and more meaningful application. Once your child has shown an interest in letters and you have already begun to utilize natural settings for identifying those letters, begin implementing activities that incorporate as many senses as possible. Keep in mind that learning letter names isn’t nearly as important as learning their sounds! There are a plethora of ways to incorporate multiple domains of development in regards to letter recognition and early-reading skills. Alphabet crafts allow your child to learn the shape of a letter along with an association of the sound it makes all the while utilizing fine motor skills in the process of cutting, gluing, and creating! Playing games that involve gross motor skills (like tossing beanbags on the appropriate letter) are also wonderful ways to include movement. Of course, every child loves songs and rhymes! Take an inventory of your child’s strengths and areas of interest and target activities to fit them!
6. Classify the Genre Once your child is around 5 and can recognize the difference between real and make-believe, I would suggest starting to help your child understand various genres of books during your reading time together. This might seem complicated, but it’s really not. There are around 5 different genres of children’s books that I would encourage you to point out to your little one. Of course you can use the term “type” rather than “genre” if that is easier to remember.
Nonfiction (real stories or facts about animals, places, people, etc)
Fantasy (make-believe, can’t happen in real life because of magic, talking animals, etc)
Realistic Fiction (a made-up story, but it could technically happen in real life because the characters and situations arebelievable)
Alphabet Books
Song Books
When children classify a book into a certain genre, they have to first summarize the book in their head and recall details. Then they have to use that information to decide which type of genre that particular books fits into. Finally, your child will be recalling details from other books in the same genre, making connections between the two. This simple activity that might take 5-10 seconds of your time after reading a book but it certainly packs a punch of thought and processing in that young brain!
Also, it’s important to note that not all books will fit into one of these genres, especially books that are considered “phonics readers.” I would suggest that you do this exercise only with high-quality children’s literature, not with books that are attempting to get your child to “sound-out” on their own. Most picture books found in children’s libraries will fit into one of these genres.
Remember, our goal is for our children to learn to comprehend what they’re reading…otherwise reading will honestly do them little good. When we encourage our children to think about and process the book we’ve just read together, we are inadvertently modeling what we hope they’ll one day do independently!
7. Word Families
To put it simply, word families are words that rhyme. Teaching children word families is a phonemic awareness activity that helps children see patterns in reading. This is an important skill because it allows children to begin “reading” by grouping sets of letters within a word. The first part of a word is called the onset and the last part of the word is conveniently called the rime. Word families share a similar “rime” as the onset changes.
Once your child recognizes the word “mop”, he’ll then have an advantage to reading all of the other words that have the same rime (top, pop, stop, cop, hop) because only one letter is changing. Plus, recognizing rhyming words is a great language skill in and of itself!
8. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
“Phonemes” are the smallest sounds in the English language (go here for a complete list of phonemes). These sounds are made up of consonants, short vowels, long vowels, and digraphs. “Phonemic Awareness” consists of learning those sounds and how to manipulate them within a word. Digraphs are unique sounds comprised of individual letters like /th/, /sh/, /ch/, etc.
“Phonics” includes learning how to spell those sounds and the various rules that the English language follows. Phonics is an important components of reading/spelling, but it should never be the main focus. Again, we are looking to balance our literacy “program” with reading comprehension as the end result. Learning the rules of phonics is simply a tool that helps a child learn to decode and spell. I used the Pathways to Reading program in the classroom as my phonemic awareness and phonics program and loved it! It made learning all of the tricky spellings so much fun, but I wouldn’t recommend it until your child is in kindergarten or first grade.
9. Decoding
Decoding is often referred to as “sounding it out.” This is an important element in teaching your child to read, but it certainly isn’t the most important. Once your child knows the sounds each letter makes (which is taught in real, meaningful situations), she is ready to begin putting words together. When looking at a short word, encourage her to say each individual sound /b/, /a/, /t/, and then put them together “bat”.
As children decode words with more frequency, they will become more proficient at automatically identifying that word. Sometimes this task is tedious, though, so it’s important to find creative ways to make it fun. When I taught first grade, I used to buy little finger puppets that my students could use to point to the letters as they were decoding. This was a huge hit and made this process so much fun!
10. Sight Words
Sight words, also known as high-frequency words, are the most common words in our written language are are often difficult to decode phonetically because they don’t follow the rules of phonics. Because of this, they must be memorized. As I’ve shared with you before, I am not an advocate of rote memorization for optimal learning because I feel it only utilizes the lowest level of cognitive processes. However, sight words must be memorized in order for your child to become a fluent reader. There are a few popular lists of sight words that individual researchers have found beneficial, including the Dolch List and the Fry List. Don’t get overwhelmed when looking at this list…just start working on a few words at a time when you feel your child is ready.
Activities like Sight Word Bingo can help make memorizing sight words more fun!
As you’ve probably noticed, there is no “magic formula” for teaching your child how to read. The points we’ve discussed in previous posts have highlighted simple, effective strategies that are easy to modify for your child. After all, every child learns differently! This series is not to be used as a “checklist” and think that once you’ve covered all the strategies your child will be proficiently reading. Rather, this series provides valuable information to you so that you can guide your child while creating a print-rich, learning environment to foster his/her growth as a reader. Don’t rush and don’t stress! While it’s important to take advantage of the prime-learning time, it’s even more important to let your kid be a kid!
In summary, here are some practical suggestions you can implement every day based on the strategies shared with you in this post and previous posts. Obviously, you can’t implement all of these suggestions with children of all ages, so use your judgement about what is best for your child.
Read to your child every day!
Ask your child questions before, during, and after reading.
Let your child see you reading.
Look for letters while out and about and in the environment around you.
When teaching letters and letter sounds, incorporate as many senses as possible.
Read a variety of books and make a game out of guessing the genre.
Have fun rhyming!
Work on letter sounds and manipulating them within words (phonemic awareness)
Encourage your child to sound out short words (consonant, vowel, consonant).
My Role as a Learning support teacher is to focus on the provision of supplementary teaching to pupils who require additional help. I work with my pupils in a learning support room.
My work involves planning and implementing effective teaching strategies, liaising with parents, staff and other relevant professionals.
Work activities
Helping pupils to cope with and overcome problems that arise because of learning difficulties.
Developing and fostering the appropriate skills and social abilities to enable the optimum development of pupils.
Encouraging students to develop self-confidence and independence, and to reach their potential.
Adapting the Curriculum and conventional teaching methods to meet individual needs.
Using audio-visual materials and computers to stimulate interest and learning.
Panning and delivering lessons, setting and marking assignments.
Assessing and recording children’s progress.
Working as a team-member within the wider school staff and liaising with other relevant individuals such as educational psychologists and parents.
Emer, Noah, April and Di made a pumpkin face.
First Di cut the top off the pumpkin. Di used the knife because it is sharp.
Then we took out all the seeds and the flesh of the pumpkin. We scooped it out with a spoon.
Next we drew the eyes, nose and mouth.
After that Di carved out the eyes, nose and mouth.
The pumpkin was finished.
Emer and Di did a project about what things are made of. We made posters with pictures from magazines. One poster has pictures of metal things. Another poster has pictures of things made of wood. The last poster has pictures of plastic things.
Donnacha and Jonathan made a Powerpoint Presentation about magnets and showed it to their class.
They used magnets to make “Magnet Man” on the whiteboard.
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