Back to School Shopping!

Okay, so many of us are trying to prepare our children for going back to school in a few weeks. Your school sends a list of supplies that your child must have...so where does a green parent find earth-friendly school supplies???

I use Red Apple School Supplies for most of my needs, but of course, you can do a quick Internet search to find things on your list, too. I like Red Apple because they have a Green Apple section for all their green products. Here is what is on our back-to-school list:

1. Wide Rule Paper


2. Pencils


3. Washable Markers


4. Recycled Pocket Folders


5. School Planner


6. Crayons or Colored Pencils

We already have glue, scissors, and a ruler, and we're using an old pencil box I have had for years for my son's desk, so we're set! Other options you'll find are dry erase markers (the Friendly brand is THE best ever!), binders, note cards - all the things you'll need for older students.

Some of the big retailers, such as Staples and Office Depot sell some earth-friendly products, too, so check around - you're bound to find green things for school that won't break your budget.

And how cool will your kid be, being an earth-steward and all!

Hazardous Wastes at Home

You may think you're pretty green - and perhaps you are. But have you considered the hazardous wastes in your home? I recently read that according to the Environmental Protection Agency, homes often have as much as 100 pounds of hazardous waste sitting in cupboards, closets, and the garage. Yikes!

Here is a list of home-hazards you may not realize you have, and suggested places to dispose of them:

Unused or unwanted medications - dispose at a medical center, regional sheriff's substation, and perhaps even your city hall! Check with your waste company; they should be able to tell you where to dispose of medications. Do NOT throw them in the trash or down the drain. Think of the fish on the other end that are eating a toxic mix of unwanted pills.

These items you can typically take to your local waste facility. Call first; if they do not accept some of these items, they should be able to tell you who will:

1. Personal care products - fingernail polish remover, hair color, shampoo, lotions, conditioner; if you are still unconvinced, check out www.cosmeticdatabase.com
2. Cleaning products - bleach, polishes, and any other household cleaning product
3. Antibacterial soaps - yes, they are harmful to the environment as they contain Triclosan, which is a toxic chemical that is harmful to aquatic life
4. Mercury-based thermometers and fluorescent light bulbs
5. Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers - lawn and garden care products often have ingredients in them that are poisonous, even when the label says "safe" or "safer." The truth is they contain pyrethrins, pyrethroids, or permethrin - not safe for any life form, except for cockroaches that seem to be impervious to everything!
6. Paints, paint products, and wood preservatives - even no-VOC paints and wood waxes that are better for the environment should be disposed of at a waste facility; traditional products contain dioxen, solvents, and pigments that are known carcinogens (read: cancer-causing agents)
7. Batteries - not only does your waste facility take these off your hands, so do many other stores these days, like IKEA, Home Depot, Lowes, and even some grocery stores!
8. Automotive products - gas, oil, antifreeze - they all need to go to the waste facility and NOT DOWN THE DRAIN - not even a little bit. I know of a family that has a truck that leaks oil like a sieve and their solution is to pour kitty litter over it to absorb the oil, and then hose that down the drain. That is NOT an environmentally sound solution!

So before you consider dumping your household toxic waste into the garbage can, down the drain, or in the toilet, consider this first:

• Your children's health
• Your home environment and surrounding areas
• The aquatic life on the receiving end of all the toxic waste
• The idea that we have one earth - let's not spoil it for others!

As an aside - I did recently hear that there is a major push in our space program to eventually start a colony on Mars - I'm not kidding! And sooner than you think! Sounds too much like WALL - E to me! Okay, so living on another planet may be cool, (I think there a lot of people already doing that, if you know what I mean!) but lets keep the home base clean. You'll never know when you get home sick and want to come back...down to Earth.

Tips for Getting Your Elementary Child Ready for School

For many families, a new school year is around the corner, and with that comes new school clothes and classroom supplies, visits to the doctor and dentist for check-ups, and maybe even a hair cut!

But, how many parents consider that their child might need to be prepared for school in other ways, too? Starting a new grade level can cause anxiety in some children and out right fear in others. Furthermore, if your child hasn't cracked open a book, kept up on her math skills, or written even a letter of the alphabet since June, she may have experienced a bit of the ol' Summer Slip! Honestly, Summer Slip is a teacher's worst nightmare - students can lose up to 2.6 months of growth over the summer. Yikes! Okay, do not fear if this sounds like your child...there are measures you can take to get your child ready and firing on all cylinders!

1. Sit down and have a brief, yes a brief talk with your child about school. Ask him if he has any concerns or fears, as well as things he might be excited about. From this conversation, you might discover that your child is worried about making friends, or that the new teacher will be much more challenging than the previous one. However your child feels, this is a great opportunity to set the stage for a positive school year! Talk through any issues or concerns and offer some positive thoughts about how exciting the year will be.

2. Get back in the habit of having your child read for at least 20 minutes a day. I strongly encourage that you alternate the ways in which you ask your child to read - have him read independently one day, the next day you read aloud to him, and on the third day you complete a partner read, for example. This way, the reading time will stay fresh and fun. Also, it will give you a good sense of how your child is doing.

3. Borrow from the library or buy leveled books. Leveled books are those in which a rating system has been applied based on the reading difficulty and cognitive demand required of the child. If your child is entering second grade and a 2.2 book is too difficult for him (you can quickly test this by having him read aloud a short paragraph from a leveled book - if he cannot decode or decipher 3-5 words on the page, the text is too difficult for independent reading), then choose one that has a 1.8 reading level and see how it goes. Before school starts, it is better to get your child back into reading, and LOVING it, rather than trying to make up for lost time over the summer. Remember, we're trying to get kids EXCITED about learning!

4. If you have a child entering kindergarten, review letter sounds with your child and help her practice her uppercase and lowercase letter identification. Also, practice some counting forward and backward activities (as high as your child is able), as well as creating sets of objects and comparing them by characteristics (quantity, color, shape, etc.).

Sample Activities:

Letter Sounds: To review letter sounds, you simply show your child a picture card and have her tell you what is the beginning sound of the word represented on the picture. For example, the picture might be of a cat, so your child's response would be "/k/" (this is how sounds are written). Conversely, you could go on a "Sound Scavenger Hunt" in your home. You might enter a room with your child and say, "I'm looking for something in this room that starts with a /t/ sound. Your child may say "table," "toothbrush," or even his stuffed "tiger."

Letter Identification: Practice letter identification. Do not mix upper- and lowercase letters together when working with you child, IF your child has little experience with them. Lowercase letters are much more difficult for children to identify, so start with uppercase letters. A quick game is to place 3 letter cards in front of your child. Two of the uppercase letters should be from your child's name, or a very familiar word. The third letter should be something your child may not know very well. Ask your child to identify the letters she knows. If she does not know the third letter, tell her what it is (this is called direct instruction). Next, take those same three letters and put multiple cards out in front of her, all with the same letters. Then, ask her to find all the cards that have the "P" on it, for example. Repeat this activity until she has sorted the letters into three piles. In this activity, she is learning to distinguish a specific uppercase letter among other ones, but in a very controlled environment. If she is able to identify all her uppercase letters with relative ease, then move on to lowercase letters! Note that there are a handful of letters that are similar in formation, and as such, children will REALLY struggle with them - b and d, c and o, q and p, for example. This is completely normal!

Counting: I'm talking your traditional rote counting here. This is just to make sure she can identify her numerals 0-10. If not, offer lots of counting opportunities, both with objects and with the numerals. You can make up silly songs ("1 little, 2 little 3 little flamingos..." have counting contests to see how many DIFFERENT things you can count - toes, forks, pictures hanging on walls in your home, days on a calendar, number strips, numbers on a computer key board, etc.

Making Sets: Give your child a group of objects, such as beads, buttons, coins - anything you can find around the house. Ask him to sort the objects into groups and then tell you what groups he made and why. Do not define the sorting criteria for your child at first. Based on his responses, you can adjust your questions to add some parameters. For example, you may ask your child to create one group with blue, round objects, a second group with long, rough objects, and a final group of smooth, green objects. If your child is struggling with sorting, keep the sorting criteria down to one variable until he masters it. Expand the making sets concept with counters (you can use poker chips, buttons, or other round objects - don't use coins as their quantity does not always equal their value). Have your child make a set with the counters (any number 2 - 10). Then, have her make a set of counters that is less than the first set. Finally, have her make a set that is greater than both the first and second sets. Have her touch count each counter to confirm that set 1 is larger than set 2, but smaller than set 3.

5. For upper elementary children (typically grades 4-6), have them dream up a math project to work on a little bit each day until school starts. Help your child pace herself throughout the project, and interact with her to make sure she has the support she needs to mathematize successfully. The project could be something simple, like planning a family budget for grocery shopping, or something more complex, like what is the most economical way to plan for building a deck. To make the project a family event, each member could create various math problems over several weeks time, with the end activity being a game of math jeopardy. The child creating the project can rate each question based on difficulty (e.g., if little sister who is entering 2nd grade made some math problems, the level of difficulty for those would be rated lower than that which older sister going into 4th grade would create - most likely), so that the questions are fair for younger siblings.

6. Eat right - get lots of sleep. Time to set up a weekly schedule - kids into bed at the same time every night, no more pizza and chips for dinner every night of the week, either. Basically, get back into your school-year routine! They say, you are what you eat - so do you really want your kids to be processed snacks with high fructose corn syrup, petroleum-based food coloring, and partially hydrogenated oil - or do you want them to be nutrient-packed, vegetables and fruits? Kids need brain food, and processed foods don't cut it!

Whatever steps you take for preparing for the new school year, have fun with your children, get them excited about all the new learning adventures they will have, and establish a routine so the last days of summer vacation are pleasant and productive.

Good Luck!

Reluctant Readers - Children Who Avoid Reading Like the Plague

I have worked with several families recently who have a reluctant reader. The child seems to have no interest in books or reading, and when the parent asks the child to work on reading skills--from letter sounds to attempting to read aloud--the child responds negatively.

The parents are at a loss as to what to do, and certainly, their child senses the anxiety and frustration the parents feel, leading the family into a vicious cycle--the parents know the child needs reading help, but all attempts make the child even more distant and less interested in reading.

What should a parent do? Well, first, try preventative measures when your child is an infant. Yes, an infant. While I am not promoting teaching phonics to your 3-week old child, setting the stage for a positive family reading environment is critical for a child's long-term success and it is fairly easy to do.

1. Read to your child daily. Don't just read before bedtime, as some children will create a negative association with reading because they do not want to go to bed, so when the books come out, a child will reason, "It must be bedtime and I DON'T want to do that!" Reading at various times of the day shows your child that reading is an integral part of daily life, and not just something we do at the end of the day.
2. Choose age-appropriate books. Your infant won't even be able to discern pictures in a book, but she will love hearing your voice and enjoy the special snuggle time with you. Toddlers may need shorter books, like board books and picture books with limited text because they have limited attention spans. If you notice your child losing interest in a book, it is okay to make up the story or cut out lengthy text. The point is that your child is being exposed to a wide variety of high-quality literature.
3. Take your child to the library. Give your child both structured and unstructured time at the library. Structured time includes Story Time (usually offered for free), book selection, and sitting down to read a book with your child. Unstructured time allows your child to wander freely in a designated area, to explore the books and activities that the library offers, and to be able to self-select books.
4. Establish a daily silent reading time. Turn off radios, TVs, computers, and video games. Allow your child to choose her books and then sit down, for at least 20 minutes each day and read. Children who do not yet read independently can do quite well "reading" picture books and stories that you have read over and over.
5. Tell stories. When you are driving from point A to B, or are on a long car trip, tell stories to your child and have her create her own.

While these ideas may be fantastic if you are just starting out or your child is still in preschool, what do you do when your child is entering first grade and she really seems to dislike anything related to reading?

Repair the "holes" in your family reading patterns first. This means that if you currently are not doing any of the above suggestions, you need to start, and not all at once. Begin by getting your child excited about the idea of having her very own library card - then take her to the library and explain that she can choose any five books that she wants and you will read aloud each one of them to her. No strings attached. Do not interfere if she chooses magazines, board books, or books all by the same author. Also, if she prefers only science-related non-fiction books, then those are the ones you borrow.

After you have created a reading environment in your home, then you can begin helping your child learn to love reading.

Here are some tips for helping your child learn to LOVE reading:

• Set up a reading center in your home. Purchase a CD player with headphones and borrow or buy "books on tape" for your child to listen to at his leisure; include a child-size book case in which your child can choose books to read at any time throughout the day. Put a small table and chairs, a bean bag, or pillows in the reading area to make it special and appealing to your child. Encourage as much input about the reading space as possible from your child.
• Subscribe to a children's magazine or get them for a discount at your library. Your child will delight in the idea that each month he gets something new, especially for him!
• Buy books as gifts and anytime you feel inclined. In our home, books are like food - they are vital for life, so anytime we are shopping, if my son asks for me to buy him a book, I will. I certainly have parameters, namely that it has to be high-quality literature or really aligned to his interests, but sky's the limit with books.
• Encourage your child to select books he reads. If he is a reluctant reader, don't put parameters on the kinds of books he is "allowed" to read - not just yet. If he wants to read a book version of a recent children's movie over and over again, go for it. The idea is to help your child establish a positive relationship with books and reading.
• Create a reading chart that lists a monthly reading goal. In the beginning, the goal should not be about quantity; rather, it should be about variety. For example, the goal for month 1 might be to read all of the Marc Brown books you can find. Or, the goal may be to find books about butterflies - from fiction tales to nonfiction science books. On poster paper, write the title of each book you and your child read together (i.e., you read aloud to him), and after you finish each one (remember, you can shorten the text, cut out lengthy sections, or even just look at the pictures and read the captions), have your child draw a picture below the title that represents what the book is mainly about. Aha, now you are doing comprehension activities with your child!
• Make a puppet theater out of cardboard scraps. You and your child can paint or decorate it in any manner you wish. I used old fabric for our theater curtains, and my child helped me hang them, set up the cardboard, and then, make puppets out of paper bags, old socks, and whatever fun treasures we could find. Retell familiar stories with the puppet theater, modeling for your child, how stories have a beginning, middle, and end, a problem and solution, a main character, and sometimes an antagonist. (Sometimes the antagonist is not a person, but rather a problem for the main character to solve.) Put on a show for other family members.
• Make reading cool. Invite friends over to hang out in your reading center or create puppet shows on the fly. No need to be formal - just make it special and fun!

If these suggestions still do not work, you may have a child who has a deep fear of reading - perhaps because she perceives it as too difficult, or she has had experiences in which she felt ashamed or inadequate compared to others. It is important for you to get at the heart of her emotions and determine why reading is so frustrating for her. Sometimes, children are reluctant to perform for their parents for fear of being corrected, criticized, or because they are not given any opportunities to make decisions about their learning. Initially, you may elect to have a close family member, like a grandparent, a friend, or even a reading tutor help break through to your child. Once she gets on board with reading, you can slowly integrate yourself into the reading relationship with the child.

Other tips for turning reluctant readers into passionate ones!

• Reduce or completely eliminate the amount of time your child watches TV and plays video games. Think about how much time could be shifted from these passive activities to more constructive, creative ones such as reading, free play, craft-making, etc.
• Go outdoors! Get your kids moving. They need at least 1 hour of active play each day - and ideally, it should be ill-structured, meaning that your child is creating the play. While sports teams, ballet classes, and the like are great for overall fitness, they don't help children learn to create their own structure. Recent research shows that children who are not connected to nature and who do not participate in ill-structured play have a higher incidence of ADHD, depression, learning disabilities, and you guessed it, obesity. Check out Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder
• Play sound and word games. You can make your own at home, or buy them at a teacher supply store (or online). Games that develop phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and vocabulary development are ideal. We started with picture cards with our son - before he was a year old, he would sit in my lap and I would place 3 picture cards in front of him. I would ask him to "Point to the picture of the bike" or ask him to do something like "Can you put the picture of the ball on top of the picture of the cat?" Once he started talking, I created cards that would help him develop language for things he needed, such as his blanket, a sippy with milk, his toothbrush, or his ball. As his interests changed and his language grew, we added more and more cards and continued to change the games we played with the cards. He reached a point where he would sit for hours going through the picture cards and naming them aloud to himself - if we tried to join or intervene, he would push us away, so we quickly learned that children often need to solidify their understandings on their own, and we needed to respect his space.

Is your child still not interested in reading at all? Might be time to seek out a reading specialist or child psychologist to rule out other factors that may be influencing his interest and abilities in reading.

And most of all....have fun!