Essentials

It is that time of year, when kids are working projects for school. It is getting close to the end and teachers and students see the light at the end of the tunnel. As kids work on final projects and writing pieces, we have some great strategies we have been using to help take the writing to the next level in the last few months of school. Listen in as we discuss how to merge grammar and style in your child's writing. We give you FIVE ways to make a difference in the writing right now.

Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Larson discuss the benefits of letting kids create their own Writer's Notebooks. They give parents practical tips on getting starting, encouraging kids, and making notebooks a fun place to generate new ideas for fun and for school.

With Common Core quickly approaching, you may see changes in your child's assignments and the expectations from the classroom. Kids will be working on writing that combine multiple genres and assignments will be addressing real audiences. Listen in as Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Larson discuss how to engage and encourage your child in their writing.

As parents and teachers, Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Spencer agree that homework can become burdensome and frustrating for families. After reading a few articles this week on this very topic, the girls talk about how they view homework as teachers and how they have handled some of the challenges of homework with their own children through the years. If you struggle or your child struggles with homework, listen in to some simple ideas on how to make doing homework a little less stressful. If you have strategies that have worked in your home, we would love to hear them as would our listeners. Post here for more dialogue on homework strategies.

With testing season coming up, Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Spencer share their thoughts and strategies on helping kids with the timed writing situation. They discuss focused strategies to help kids plan before and during the on demand writing situations kids will encounter through the months of March, April and May. Both teachers have worked with kids taking SAT, AP and CST tests over the course of the last 20 years. Listen in on how you might be able to help your child overcome the anxieties of this sometimes stressful testing time.

Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Larson discuss how writing can heal. The ladies talk about a variety of ways kids and adults can use journaling, blogging and drafting can heal. Listen in and if you know someone who may need to hear this, send them the link. If you have had an experience when writing helped you or someone you know through a tough situation, please share with us.

Last week, an announcement came out with changes to the SAT. Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Spencer respond to the writing section and discuss first thoughts on the news.

It's raining outside and the kids are bored. You don't want them playing more video games and watching more movies. You are trying to find some engaging activities to keep them busy and be a little more productive. Whether you are a parent with young children at home, or it's the weekend and the kids have had enough of the indoors, or you are a teacher looking for writing activities for kids stuck in the classroom all day, this one is for you! Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Spencer share six writing activities you can do with kids, including siblings working together, on a rainy or snowy day. Of course, you can do them anytime, but with the weather outside stormy, this is a good time to play with language and have some fun doing it.

Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Spencer take on annotating as a way to become a better reader, thinker and writer. The conversation looks at various strategies and ideas for parents to encourage their children to notice, question and summarize what they read.

It is the season of the expository paper, specifically, the research paper for elementary students. This week, Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Larson provide insight on helping your child understand the purpose of the research paper and instruct on specific strategies to help parents encourage their kids on finding research as a fun process for learning and thinking.