MSI Press Blog

  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 ele mentary-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 helpf

Back Story  of  365 Teachers Secrets for Parents: Fun Ways to Help Your Elementary Child Succeed in School  by Cindy McKinley Alder & Patti Trombly Nearly 30 years ago, I met Patti in the back row of a grad school classroom at Eastern Michigan University.  Our professor had us begin the class by writing out a “Bliss List”: all the things that made us happy.  When we compared lists, we were shocked to see they were almost identical! We were both due to have our first babies in a few months, both elementary school teachers, both working on a Masters in Reading, and both had a weakness for soft pretzels. We didn’t know it at the time, but that day sparked a decades-long friendship. Throughout the years, Patti taught upper elementary, and I taught the lower grades.  We met weekly with our four kids and, of course, always ended up talking about teaching and how eager the parents were to find ways to help their kids at home.  I eventually decided to stay home with my kids more and became

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: #144 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 su

What is a  book jewel ? A sometimes-overlooked book with remarkable insight and potential significance. Each month, we share near-daily, or as often as possible, reviews of the monthly book jewel - short, succinct reviews that can be read in 1-2 minutes with links to the reviewer by reviewers whose words are worthy of being heard and whose opinions are worthy of being considered. Sometimes a couple of minutes contains more impressive thought than ten times that many. We will let you decide that. This month's book jewel is  365 Teacher Secrets for Parents  by Alder & Trombly.  Description: This reference book, written by two experienced and successful (and, frankly, brilliant and talented) elementary school teachers, provides a day-by-day set of practical ideas and activities that parents can do at home with their elementary school-age children to help them become better students while also having fun. Review by Jessie on Amazon: Great for homeschoolers, too! I was so pleased to

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: #231 What’s the Matter? Matter is everywhere, but what exactly is it, anyway? Matter is something that is observable with some of our five senses. Matter has weight and takes up space. It is all around us. To help your child understand the concept of matter, as well as its various phases, here are some facts to share and activities you can try: (1) Discuss what is and is not matter. (For instance rocks, milk, and air are matter; ideas, words, and feelings are not.)  (2) Make a chart of what you come up with. Look around your home, even take a walk or a drive to find examples around you.  (3) Further

  We cannot tell the back story of 10 Quick Homework Tips without telling the story of is sister book, 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents . So, here is the link to that back story , which we shared last Sunday Back Story of  10 Quick Homework Tips by Cindy McKinley Alder & Patti Trombly [Please do read the back story for 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents to learn how Cindy and Patti met.] A few years ago, after listening to the frustrations of parents trying to find time for everything as well as struggling to work with their kids at home more during the pandemic, Patti and I decided to create a “quick tip” book to help. It seemed homework issues were especially overwhelming and challenging for busy parents.   So, we worked together again and wrote a short book on   easy ways parents could help ease the frustrations of homework battles.   10 Quick Homework Tips was not as time-consuming, but just as fun for us to write.   It feels great to share so many decades of our practical, h

  Books on discount through Kindle (Kindle Countdown) Books on discount through Kindle (Kindle Countdown) Creative Aging   (Vassiliadis & Romer) USA Best Books Awards finalist 11/6 - 11/13 El Poder de lo Transpersonal  (Ustman) 11/7 - 11/14 Healing from Incest  (Henderson & Emerton) Book of the Year Award finalist 11/9 - 11/15 How to Live from Your Heart  (Hucknall) Book of the Year Award finalist 11/10 - 11/17 Books on discount at  MSI Press webstore /books available while supplies last: 10 Quick Homework Tips  (McKinley-Alder & Trombly) 365 Teacher Secrets for Parents: Fun Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in Elementary School  (McKinley-Alder & Trombly) $5 book sale at  MSI Press webstore /books available while supplies last 100 Tips and Tools for Managing Chroni c Illness (Charnas) 108 Yoga and Self-Care Practices for Busy Mamas  (Gentile) For posts on any of these books or their authors, type in the name in the search bar; you will have plenty to read! Sign up for th