Dear parents,
April is a busy month, with most schools observing two special events — Earth Day and Screen-Free Week. You can make them more meaningful by tying them to family activities.
Earth Day is always celebrated on April 22. This year it will be on Tuesday — a day your children may be on spring break. Why don’t you have your family join the more than 1 billion people celebrating this day by improving the environment in some way? Join one of the many Earth Day events in your community. You could be part of a group working to improve city, state, or national parks. Other groups clean up streams, plant gardens at schools, and pick up street trash.
Here are some other activities your family could do on Earth Day as well as other days throughout the year to green our environment. Whatever you elect to do will be hands-on learning about the environment for your children.
• Recycling is always a good place to begin. Commit your family to separating recyclables from your trash every week.
• Plant a tree for every member of your family. They will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• Start turning lights out when you leave a room. Unplug appliances when they are not in use. When you use less electricity, less oil and gas are being used to create electricity.
• Build a compost pile. Find a section of your yard in a back corner and start putting all the leaves and grass cuttings from your yard in this pile. It will decompose, then you will be able to put it in the soil for other plants in your yard.
• Make bird feeders. This can be done by collecting pine cones and dipping them in peanut butter or honey and covering them with birdseed.
Your family should also think about observing Screen-Free Week, from April 28 to May 4. It is hard to believe that preschoolers average 32 hours a week of screen time from computers, TV, and other electronic devices. The time is even greater for older children. Screen media dominates too much of our children’s lives, even if they are watching good programming. Use this week to examine your family’s relationship with entertainment media and to rediscover the joys of screen-free living.
Introducing your children to music
Dear teacher,
I love music and want to share it with my young children. What are the benefits of doing this? And how should I introduce them to music?
Dear parent,
All parents should definitely be taking the time to enjoy music with their young children, as it is very beneficial to their literacy development. Plus, it is a great way for them to acquire new vocabulary and learn rhyming words.
Through music, children are also building their listening and memory skills. Start singing to them when they are infants, and always smile while you are doing it. Don’t worry if you don’t have a good voice, just lip-synch to songs. As the children get older, have sing-a-long tapes in the car for fun while you are driving.
Fit music into your children’s daily routine. Make up a pick-up song to sing as your child is tidying his toys with you. Have bedtime and bath time songs, too. As your child gets older, get instruments that he can shake or bang along with the music. The more senses that your children use with music, the more they will learn about it. Besides, you will be having fun together.
Ways to teach social skills to young children
Dear teacher,
I know having good social skills is important in many situations, including school. What social skills should I be teaching my young children?
Dear parent,
Both having and not having social skills can influence how well children do academically in school. You want your young children to be acquainted with sharing, waiting their turn, asking to use things, respecting other people, not interrupting, and managing both anger and frustration before they start school. Of course, they won’t learn all these skills at once. As they continue through the elementary school years, you will need to continue helping them acquire these behaviors.
You can and should reinforce good behavior by acknowledging your children’s behavior whenever they exhibit good social skills. Don’t overlook bad behavior in young children, saying they will grow out of it — this may not happen. The sooner younger children learn how to behave appropriately, the fewer problems they will have in school.
What you do can help your children acquire social skills. You can show that these skills are part of the way you behave. If they see you waiting patiently in line, not losing your temper to rude drivers, taking turns, and not interrupting when you talk to others, they will be learning social skills. And it’s absolutely necessary that you treat your children with respect by making polite requests, listening to them without interrupting, and avoiding any violence in your home.
Parents should send questions and comments to dearteacher@dearteacher.com or ask them on the columnists’ website at www.dearteacher.com.
© Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2013.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
