But Have You Tried Reading a Book?

If your students struggle to be kind to one another… have you tried reading them a picture book? 

If you have a student having a hard time sharing… have you tried reading them a book? 

A child in your classroom has a lot of anxiety around taking tests… but have you tried reading them a book? 

Books are magical. Books are incredible. Books can teach our students more than we will ever fully comprehend. Authors and illustrators have a talent for speaking directly to children in a way they understand. 

If you’re working on being a friend in the classroom, have you tried reading The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig? 

If you want to teach your class about leadership, have you read Sophia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty?

If you have particularly worrisome kids, have you tried reading Ruby Finds a Worry? By Tom Percival? 

When your students are struggling or need some extra love or help, can I offer some advice?

Read them a book.

Doing What is Best For the Child #TeacherMom

I was dead set on holding him back for kindergarten.

My “middle of August” baby born four years ago has forced me to have kindergarten on my mind since the day I knew his due date. I guess that’s a normal thought process after spending years working towards a teaching degree and years beyond that in multiple classrooms and schools. 

Knowing he was a boy with a very late summer birthday, I knew I wanted to hold him back. I’ve had this decision set in my mind for years now. 

But then his course of schooling took some unexpected turns.

We had the developmental preschool in our school district put him through their testing to see if he could qualify for their free preschool, which is an amazing resource to have! 

After three separate days of testing he was able to gain acceptance into their program under an IEP for speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy, all while under close observation for a pending ADHD diagnosis. 

Whew. We just went from a child with a few sensory issues that we were working through to a full-on IEP and in-school services weekly. 

It was a whirlwind taking it all in and seeing where he landed with all of his testing, while then sitting through my first-ever IEP meeting as a parent and going through each of his goals. 

And still, the kindergarten question loomed over me. 

Because legally, this is the last year he can attend this preschool and receive in-school therapies as a preschooler, since next year he will turn 5. Therapies and schooling can only continue if he is in kindergarten.

So without the ability of sending him to preschool again as a five-year-old like I was hoping for, it leaves us with two options. Send him to kindergarten as a very new five-year-old, or keep him home for a year so that we can send him back to public school as a very new six-year-old. 

I know in many cities there would be many other courses of action that can be taken, like charter schools or private preschools and therapies. 

But unfortunately for us in our small town, those are not options we have. Keeping him from kindergarten next year would mean a full-year lapse in therapies that he so desperately needs more than I realized. 

It means redoing all of his testing to place him back into these therapies when he does start school again because everything would lapse and we would be starting over from scratch. 

I was set on holding him back for kinder. I was ready to put him into the public school system as a six-year-old, more prepared and ready to take on the world with an extra year of playing outside in the sticks and mud instead of sitting at a desk. 

But what wins out over what I want, is what he needs. Yes, I want to hold him back a year and I can see the benefits tenfold of sending him to kindergarten later. But I can see the better, higher benefits of sending him earlier, despite my wishes. 

Because in the end, the best decision you can make is whatever is best for the child. Always. 

Cover Photo: Mallory Wilcox

Affirmations for Anxious Students

Going to school can be anxiety-ridden for some students for many different reasons. Some ways to help combat anxiety in situations include practicing affirmations and utilizing deep breathing techniques. Here are some of our favorite affirmations that parents and teachers can use and teach to those anxious littles. 

“I don’t know this… yet.” 

“I am smart and know the answers. But if I don’t, I can ask for help.” 

“My teacher is on my side.” 

“I can ask for help.” 

“I am successful.”

“I have worked hard.” 

“I belong here.”

“I can do my best.”

“I am safe here.”

“My best is enough.” 

“I am confident.”

“I am brave.”

“My teacher cares about me.”

“I am kind and helpful.” 

“I am here to learn and grow.” 

“I can learn through practice.” 

“My voice matters.”

Ways to Practice Spelling Words

We’ve been getting creative at our house working on spelling words each week and developing new ways to practice. Here are a few of our favorites: 

Type out the spelling words on the computer using fun fonts and different sizing.

Write out spelling words on sticky notes and hide them around the room. Have your child find the sticky notes, read the word, then spell the word. 

Use the sticky note method above, but this time create different sentences with the spelling words. The sillier the better! 

Play freeze dance, and when it’s time to freeze, choose a word to spell out loud. We love The Kiboomers Party Freeze Dance song, you can find it on most music streaming services. 

Write the spelling words on personal whiteboards (or a big whiteboard if you have one accessible!) Changing the medium that the words are being written can be helpful. 

Another change of medium is writing the spelling words on a mirror or window with a dry-erase marker. After the words are written, spell out loud a word for your child and have them erase the word you spelled out loud. 

Sit down together with the spelling word list and find repeating patterns within the words. Give words in different categories and organize them. Pulling apart and analyzing the words can help with spelling them later on. 

Another helpful post:

Chapter Books for Grades 10-12

Chapter books for high school aged! I love this question! 

It can be so tricky suggesting chapter books to this age range because it’s an age where reading gets a bad rap and required reading can take up a lot of time, leaving less for “fun reading.” (I put this in quotations because the texts that were required reading when I was in school were some of the best books I’ve ever read! But many dislike these stories simply because it was required.) 

Here are a few fun chapter books and series for the teenage reader in your life. 

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Also notable, To All The Boys I Loved Before by Jenny Han

Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling

The cool thing about the Harry Potter series is that the first few books are fantastic for late elementary/ early middle school, and then as the books go on they grow with the reader as the later books in the series are great for a high school reader.

Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card

If you’ve ever found a friend who has also read both books, I’m sure you had a deep discussion on which book was your favorite too! In my opinion, I think Ender’s Shadow was better than Ender’s Game. And if you have a reader that is really into this series, there are plenty of books and side stories that Card has written in this universe!

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin

It’ll make you laugh and cry within a matter of minutes.

The Rent Collector by Camron Wright

Also notable, The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright

What is the Literary Booker Prize?

This article is part of a blog series highlighting each book award to learn more about what each of them means. Check out more about this blog series and other posts included here.

What is the Booker Prize? This book award is for novels published explicitly in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The book must also be written in the English language but additionally has a sister award for books that have been translated into English. 

The Booker Prize was named after the company Booker, McConnell, who sponsored the prize. 

The prize trophy was made by artist Jan Pieńkowski, and as of March 2023, the trophy now has a name. The decided name is now Iris, but you can read more about naming the trophy in their article here. How beautiful would this trophy be to have in your home or office?!

The 2022 Booker Prize winner was The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author  Shehan Karunatilaka. The 2023 prize will be announced this November!

A Worked For Perfect Score- The Spelling Test #TeacherMom

My daughter brought home her first list of spelling words a few weeks ago. There was a quick note from the teacher- “Please practice these spelling words with your children so they can be prepared for the test at the end of the week.” 

The remainder of the week looked like us working together to practice the spelling words, she is the type of student and child who needed to take the reins on her own homework and decide how much work and effort she was going to put in. And in true fashion, she put in all of the effort and work possible. 

She set up a time to type out the words on a computer to practice and asked us to quiz her once she felt like she had them down better. She practiced spelling them out loud and on paper and took the time to notice patterns within the different words. She worked really hard and put in a lot of effort to learn this new skill, and I was proud of her for this! She even worked extra hard on her bonus words, one of them being the word school, which is a tricky word to spell! 

The day of the spelling test she was a ball of nerves, completely anxious about what was ahead of her. We practiced a few affirmations. 

“I am more than my spelling test.”

“I am a smart kid.”

“I worked hard on my spelling words.” 

“I will do my best and that is good enough.” 

I knew all of the emotions she was feeling as memories of my high school AP literature test, my college statistics final, and many, many more instances came flooding back. The feeling that you just spent a lot of time and effort studying and not doing well on the test would be absolutely devastating and heartbreaking. 

The spelling test came and went, she came home from school and said that she felt really good about it but was still nervous to see her final score the next Monday. Again, I felt the same feelings with her, knowing that it’s out of her hands but the score is yet to come with the fear of the unknown. 

On Monday she came home from school with a spelling test in her backpack… And of course, she received 100%! She even spelled both bonus words correctly. 

That feeling of working hard and having it pay off was felt equally between us. 

There was also a big sense of pride I had in her knowing that this perfect score wasn’t something she easily obtained by natural smarts. It was something she set a plan and a goal for and worked hard to get there. To me, an easy perfect score is one thing, but putting in the time and effort for a good score is next level. 

Mary’s experience and advice with spelling tests: