Excerpt from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents: Steal the Beat (McKinley & Trombly)

Exceptional teachers Cindy McKinley and Patti Trombly have put together a book that can help any parent through this extended period of sheltering in place. Packed with home activities for learning, readers can pick any number that appeal to them or fit their personal family circumstances.

Here is one example that is bound to make the time spent in lockdown more fun:

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Steal the Beat

From a very young age, parents and teachers use song and rhyme to teach children information. From teaching the different sounds animals make in “Old McDonald” to learning the letters of the alphabet in the “Alphabet Song,” children grasp concepts and information easier when it’s presented in rhyme or song or both! Keep that in mind when you see your child struggling with a difficult task or concept. Try brainstorming with your child a rhyme that might help her spell a certain word or remember a definition. 

It is usually easiest to utilize a song that everyone is familiar with. Songs such as “Mary had a Little Lamb,” “Row Your Boat” and so forth are so well known that your child need only concentrate on the new lyrics and not the beat of the song. For example, many teachers like to reinforce the stages of the water cycle by singing this song to the tune of “She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain:” Water travels in a cycle; yes it does. Water travels in a cycle; yes, it does. It goes up as evaporation, Forms clouds as condensation, Then falls down as precipitation. Yes, it does! 

Encourage your child to write the words of the song she creates. This will be especially helpful when using a song to help her remember something long such as a summary of a book. She can add to the song as she remembers more information or change a verse or two around so the information in the song is in the proper sequence.  Your child will enjoy sharing her finished song with family and friends. Let her teach it to your family, and sing it together! You will be increasing her self-esteem as well as helping her remember the important information in the lyrics. 

For another example, check our earlier blog post: Thinking Out Loud as a Teaching Technique.

Meet Cindy

Cindy McKinley is a parent, a teacher, and a writer.  She grew up in Milford, Michigan, and has lived there for about 40 years, attending Huron Valley Schools.  Cindy has a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s degree in the Teaching of Reading from Eastern Michigan University.  She taught lower elementary for seven years, also in Huron Valley Schools, both at Kurtz Elementary and Country Oaks Elementary.  Her children attended the very same elementary, middle school, and high school as she did!
She now tutors children of all ages in the community and teaches English at Oakland Community College in Royal Oak.  She’s been teaching for over 25 years.

In 2002 her first book, a children’s book called One Smile, was published.  It won the Benjamin Franklin award that year.  In 2013 her second children’s book, One Voice, came out. It immediately won the Preferred Choice Award and the Carol Reiser Award.  Both books show how simple random acts of kindness can change the world.

That same year, 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents: Fun Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary School came out, a book she co-wrote with teacher and long-time friend Patti Trombly.  This book is full of fun and easy ways parents can work with their young kids on all academic subjects and more!

Visit her website.

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Meet Patti

Patti Trombly has a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s Degree in the Teaching of Reading.  Even after 20 years of teaching in elementary school, middle school and college, she still looks for teachable moments in everyday life and for new ways to help children learn. She is a parent of two, a teacher and a business owner — and the co-author of 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents: Fun Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary School.


Other posts about and by these authors and this book can be found by clicking here -- helpful posts for parents.