From the category archives:
Education
 The debate continues: when should my son/daughter start kindergarten? A long piece from the New York Times weighs in on both sides of the argument.
Being the youngest kid in class often has a negative effect on a child’s performance and behavior. Kids age 5 are more likely to struggle to keep up. It’s not a sure thing, but it’s a trend. On the other hand, no matter how you cut it, someone is always going to be the youngest kid in class.
Parents who hold their children back say they’re worried about their emotional development. But the risk is also inverted. A six-year-old might be bored and restless in a class for 5-year-olds. And while no parent wants to think about it, there’s the financial component of sending their kid to school sooner rather than later to save on daycare costs. But that’s a very real and perfectly understandable reason.
While it’s still a question that every parent thinks about, every story or opinion about the kindergarten starting age seems to emphasize the same lesson: it depends on the child. The trick is just figuring out when he/she is ready.
From the NYTimes. Photo by woodleywonderworks.
 As the kids head back to school, it’s also time for you, the parent, to get involved in their education. Make the effort to form a strong parent-teacher relationship to ensure that your child is getting everything he/she needs in and outside of the classroom. So how do you nurture a strong parent-teacher relationship? Just follow these ten simple tips:
- Remember that the teacher wants the best for your child.
- Believe the teacher — the way your child acts at home may be different from how he/she acts the classroom.
- Don’t ever show up unannounced. Please schedule a time to meet.
- Don’t go over your teacher’s head, like to the principal without talking to the teacher first.
- Be involved. Read through children’s agendas and take-home folders every night.
- Review homework, but don’t do it for your kids.
- Make sure behavior issues are addressed at home.
- Attend open house nights and establish a good rapport with your son/daughter’s teacher.
- Establish a routine for getting ready — preparing backpacks the night before makes the morning much more manageable.
- Cut down on clutter at home, and set a good example of organization for your kids at school.
How do you encourage a strong parent-teacher relationship?
From CNN.
 There are a lot of people who believe that single-sex education produces better students, since their in a classroom that’s not distracted by those damn hormones. But this was a new argument: are all-girls schools better than all-boys schools? At MomLogic this morning, Yvette Manessis Corporon, said that a single-sex education was better for her daughter, but not for her son.
“I happen to feel that girls can benefit greatly from a single-sex learning environment, where they can focus more on their work and less on that cute football player in algebra,” she writes. “These schools help girls work together and bond, instead of inciting competition for that same cute football player’s attention. I feel it’s important for girls to be socialized outside of the classroom — just not in it.”
This, Yvette says, contrasts with all-boys schools, where she says boys can benefit from having girls around. She wants her son to respect women and see them as friends, not just things to talk about in the locker room.
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 Much ado about the dreaded “summer slide,” when kids typically lose up to two months of academic progress after a lazy, unengaged summer. So how do we prevent it? New research from the American Association of School Administrators has an answer: summer reading, and make it free.
Of course, with every school district in the country under huge financial pressure to slash budgets, how can they provide free books to students? The study showed that providing free books only cost about $50 per child, considerably less expensive than summer learning programs.
But the most surprising finding wasn’t that reading prevented the summer slide (I mean, duh), but that it didn’t matter what students read. In fact, kids were more likely to do better the following year if they were able to pick their own book. The most popular book in the study, which took place in Florida, was a biography of Britney Spears.
I don’t know how much I want kids reading biographies of Britney Spears, but hey, if it keeps them from suffering from the “summer slide,” then I guess I’d rather have them reading about pop stars than listening to them. (Also, then I won’t have to hear it from the other room.)
Should schools provide free books to students during the summer?
From the New York Times.
 Summer presents a lot of educational hurdles, especially when it comes to learning loss. But at Strollerderby, Madeline Holler has a solution: extend the school year.
Sure, it cuts down on the kids’ summer breaks, but think about the benefits: no summer learning slide, less money spent on daycare, and more pay for teachers.
“[It] would kill a lot of birds with one stone. It would raise the salaries of teachers, who would get paid for the additional work. It would solve childcare problems for families (I’m not calling schools daycare, just accepting the reality of school hours and work hours),” she writes. “It would save municipalities money — they’re often left with having to organize and fund summer programs that basically ARE daycare for kids with working parents. It would lessen the intensity with which the standards are being taught — all that cramming into a single year.”
I’m not sure if it would save schools money. Organizing and funding summer programs is a lot less expensive than extending the school year. In fact, a lot of schools are trying the four-day school week to cut down on costs! It’s a brave suggestion, but I’m not convinced it’s feasible.
Do you think we should extend the school year?
From Strollerderby. Photo by LizMarie.
 Earlier this week, Meghan talked about keeping your kids learning over the summer. MomLogic also has three other great websites to keep those brains thinking.
CarrotSticks
For 1st to 5th grade math skills, your kids can compete online with the fun, brightly colored CarrotSticks. They can even design their own character. They’ll be having so much fun they’ll forget they’re doing math.
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 Do you think your high schooler spends too much time socializing and not enough time studying? This may not be a bad thing, according to a new study from the University of California, Los Angeles. A survey of 629 12th graders revealed that students with the highest GPAs were the students with the most friends.
Actually, it wasn’t just “most friends” but “most friends that attended the same school.” “We found that within an adolescent’s friendship group, those with a higher proportion of friends who attended the same school received higher grades,” said Melissa R. Witkow, the study’s lead.
That doesn’t mean friends from outside school are harmful.
“These friendships are still important in terms of fulfilling adolescents’ social needs, and they are not necessarily always detrimental to achievement,” Witkow said. “For instance, friendships that form in academic settings outside of school, such as at an enrichment class, may very well promote achievement.”
We’ve been told (by television mostly) that high achievers are treated as outcasts in school, but really, maybe high-achieving students have the most friends because they do so well in school.
From USA Today.
 As the school year comes to and end and summer vacation gets into full swing, there is more on parents’ minds than just keeping the kids entertained for the summer. How do we keep them smart? Research shows that the concerns of “Summer Learning Loss” are valid. Most students lose about two months of grade-level equivalency in computation skills over the summer months.
Here is a list of activities and ideas for you to help keep your kids on the right track and maybe even ahead of the game for the next school year.
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 There’s much ado about the nationwide education crisis, and here’s one solution that’s picking up steam: the four-day school week. 120 school districts across the country are cutting out a day to alleviate cash-strapped schools. But how is this affecting academic performance?
In Peach County, Georgia, test scores are actually up! The graduation rate is up to 80% for the first time in years! Some say that students are less tired and more focused, and attendance is higher! Of course, experts say that these effects are anecdotal, and that it will take more time to study the four-day school week and its impact on academic performance.
Even with the money saved, Peach County is still viewing the four-day week as a short-term solution. They hope that next fall, the school can return to a full week.
How do you think a four-day school week would affect your child?
From the Brattleboro Reformer. Photo by Dean Terry.
 As a mom and a daycare provider, and now a substitute preschool teacher for our local parks & recreation department, I’ve almost always dealt with kids in the pre-K age range. And I have to say I’ve always had some hesitation at the age requirement for kindergarten. For many years here in California, a child must be five by December 2nd of that school year to start kindergarten. As most parents or adults who deal with kids in any way know, in many situations four year olds who are not quite ready for kindergarten, either academically or socially, start kindergarten anyway.
I was one of those kids myself. I started kindergarten at the age of 4, my birthday being in October. It didn’t leave a huge imprint on my life, but I did struggle socially throughout elementary school as a result. And these days with the expense of daycare and most households being families where both parents are working, parents have become less inclined to put off starting kindergarten if their child is not ready for the convenience of having them start school.
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