Daily Excerpt: 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents (McKinley-Alder & Trombly)

 

Excerpt from 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents by Cindy Alder-McKinley & Patti Trombly. 

Introduction

How To Make This Book Work for Your Family:

Congratulations! You have just taken the first step in helping your child improve not only his academics in elementary school but also his attitude toward school this year and for years to come. 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents is jam-packed with fun ways to work with and help your child. No longer does school have to be tough. Who says practicing things at home can’t be fun?

We have written this book after years of teaching elementary school and many more years working closely with individual elementary-aged children. We’ve spent over ten years collecting 365 of the very best ideas and the most helpful activities that we have ever used successfully to help remediate and/ or enrich young children’s learning experiences, and now we are sharing them with you. We’ve spent over ten years collecting 365 of the very best ideas, the most helpful activities, and, yes, some secrets teachers have been using successfully for years, to help remediate and/ or enrich young children, so that we could share them with you.

Some of the ideas in this book cover the major subjects in school: reading, writing, math, spelling, science, and social studies. We also have included ideas for getting started, developing critical thinking skills, increasing self-esteem and self-reliance, and creating school-year success.

The elementary school years are very important. They set the tone for your child’s entire school career and beyond. On one hand, too many struggles early on can turn kids off to learning, damage self-confidence, and make it difficult to ever catch up. On the other hand, a great, successful experience can help children develop a love of learning and help them do well during all of their schooling years.

So, how can you be sure your child’s experience is a good one? Start by creating good habits at home, knowing what is going on in his classroom, keeping up on his progress, and practicing anything that needs work. Inside this book are ways to do all of that!

 

Website:

You will find 365 terrific ideas inside this book. In addition, we’ve also created a website, www.365TeacherSecrets.com, to accompany the book. There you will find a workbook you can purchase, full of original worksheets we’ve created to accompany over 100 of the book’s ideas and activities.  (Check the end of each activity to see if there is an accompanying workbook page.)

 

The workbook is full of

·       organizers for games;

·       detailed explanations of concepts mentioned;

·       creative pages on which to compose ideas, plans, etc.;

·       poetry frames;

·       writing organizers;

·       explanations and how-to’s of reading, writing, and math concepts;

·       book lists;

·       word lists;

·       science experiments;

·       puzzles;

·       and more!

All of the activities in the book stand alone, and the pages in the workbook are not necessary. However, they do a lot of the work for you and give you additional opportunities to practice with your child the many concepts in the book. We think you will find them very helpful. 

 

How to use this book

We have created this book in a busy-parent-friendly way by offering you one simple idea or activity per day. (There are also variations so you can tailor the activity to meet your child’s specific needs.) We hope that one idea per day will be easy to stick with and that- one year from now you will have learned many important ways to work with your child and to make learning fun.

Parts 1 and 2 introduce small ways to get you started down the right track both at home and at school. Parts 3-10 each focus on one area of the elementary school curriculum. The last two chapters concentrate on critical thinking and self-esteem/ self-reliance.

The ideas in this book are not cumulative. In other words, you do not have to read every idea in order to understand a later one. If we do reference something we have discussed at length earlier, we let you know where you can look to find out more. Many ideas also come with original, ready-made worksheets we’ve created and placed on our website (www.teachersecrets.com) to help you get started or to see an example.

 

●      One way to use this book would be to begin at the beginning with Part 1, Idea #1. Just commit to one brief idea/activity per day. Maybe your whole family can read it together. Maybe just you and your child will work together. Either way, if the idea seems to fit what your child needs, give it a try. If it doesn’t seem applicable to your child at this time, skip it. You can always come back to it later.

●      Another way to use this book would be to jump right to a particular chapter if your child is having trouble in one or more areas. You can browse the whole chapter for ideas you want to try or go one day at a time there as well. (Note: Part 1 is full of ways to help get ready and organized at home, so it may be a good idea to read it early on even if you are skipping around.)

●      Of course, you can do both. Begin with Idea #1, but also jump ahead to a chapter if your child needs help in a particular subject.

●      When the year is over, and you have read all 365 ideas, you do not have to stop there. Going through the book again the next year can help refresh your memory and remind you of things you may have passed over the first time. If you have more than one child, reviewing the ideas one day at a time may help you see things in a new light; what might not have seemed a good fit for one child may be perfect for another!

●      We’ve provided a blank page at the end of each chapter for you to write notes on, record what ideas worked the best, jot down your modifications ... anything!

 

Whether your child is behind and needs some extra help or is right on target, this book will offer you and your family one fun, helpful, easy idea each day for a year. There is something for every child, whether just beginning elementary school and needing to get off to a good start or in middle or upper elementary.

You are your child’s first and most important teacher. By buying this book, you have shown your commitment to helping her improve. We hope that you will enjoy all of the ideas, activities and expert secrets inside its cover. Soon you may realize that these ideas really aren't so “secret,” after all—they seem commonsense once you become aware of them. So, congratulations on beginning an exciting journey of helping your child grow, learn, and find success in elementary school! We hope you learn a lot and, of course, have fun. 

For more posts about Cindy and Patti and their books, click HERE.

For excerpts from more books, click HERE.

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