Dealing with Teenagers is challenging for many parents. However, there are many steps parents can take to make the teenage years a lot easier to navigate. Consider starting the process when they are two.

When children are young, they depend on you for everything. That also includes teaching them to become confident, thriving adults. To do this effectively, start when they are two. Sometimes it isn’t easy to guide them, but if you instill fundamentals when they are young, teaching them as teenagers become infinitely more manageable.

The best thing you can do is find a balance because you don’t want to allow your child too much independence too early. A hands-off approach often ends in disaster.

Consider these tips for dealing with teenagers and preparing them for an independent life:

Teach them how to make choices

Start with the little things that, for a two-year-old, are not life-threatening.

For Example:

• Allow them to pick what PJs they want to wear to bed. (Never ask them if they want to go to bed – it’s not a choice. Suggestion: Do you want to go to bed now with your green PJs or your blue ones?
• Let them pick out some of the family board games. Suggestion: Pull three different games and let them choose one.
• Let them choose toys and pursue activities they enjoy.
• Allow them to dress or at least pick out their clothes the night before. (Remember: Wearing stripes and polka dots is not life-threatening. You may have fashion sense but let them be.)

Work on social skills

A large part of functioning independently is learning to communicate their wants, ideas, and desires effectively. Unfortunately, poor communication skills can hold your child back. However, children of all ages can develop better social skills, especially now in the age of electronic distractions.

• Reinforce the idea of sharing and caring with young children.
• Teach your children appropriate ways to make friends.
• Teach them how to be polite and to use good manners.
• Teaching them the art of conversation will serve them for a lifetime.

Life lessons

Always work on life lessons, and it is never too early to start. Assign age-appropriate chores to your children.

For example:

• When my children were young, this is what we did. When you turned two years of age,
  you were gifted a quilt and were now allowed to make your bed; when you turned four,
  you got to help load the dishwasher; when you were six, you got to use the vacuum
  cleaner. By the time they reached age eight, they thought they had been had, but it
  was too late; it had already become a habit.
• Provide them with rewards for a job well done. Rewards do not have to be monetary.
  (No one paid me to clean the bathroom. It is part of an effective family unit.)
• Teach your children time management, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.

Follow these tips, and you’ll be rewarded with an easier transition as your children move on to their teens. With guidance and trust on both sides of the fence, children grow into capable, confident adults.

At UP Academy, we realize every child is a unique individual. We love and honour that! Up Academy considers these differences in all programming by meeting kids at their skill level and taking them to where they need to go in the way that serves them best.

Whether you’re looking for a free reading assessment, one-on-one tutoring or the benefits of a 100% independent private school, we have you covered.

Let’s connect!

A Guide for busy parents to help to get your child to wind down from summer routines and gear up for the new school year

In this parent’s guide to getting ready for the new school year, we dive deep.  With the school year gearing up, going back to a routine can be difficult. Now is the time to ease them back into routines, and that includes sleep. Sleep is the time the brain rejuvenates. Helping your child to fall asleep and stay asleep is a challenge for most parents. With COVID-19 completely changing the landscape of school days, helping your child wind down may be more challenging than ever.  

Every child is different, so it requires some flexibility to find the patterns that will work for your family. Experiment with a combination of these techniques as you put together your formula for success.

Parents’ Guide for Steps to Take During the Day

Seek out natural light.

Even though we’re surrounded by electric lights, our bodies are still attuned to the sun.

Open the curtains to give your child exposure to morning light and spend at least a half-hour outdoors each day.

Admittedly, this is more of a challenge in Canada during the winter months.

Engage in physical activity.

Regular exercise promotes restful sleep at any age. Encourage sports, games, and playtime. Ride bikes or throw a ball around in the backyard. (This is likely already an ingrained routine during the summer break.)

Maintain a sensible schedule.

It’s harder to come to a complete stop when you’ve been rushing around all day. Pace yourselves. Regular eating times will also help create a routine.  Parents guide getting ready for the new school year.

Parents’ Guide for Steps to Take at Night

Set a consistent bedtime.

After a busy summer, gradually getting back to a normal bedtime takes some time, so shift bedtimes by 10 minutes a day.  Aim to have your child go to bed and rise at the same time every day. Stick to a similar schedule on weekends and holidays.  (This is also a good practice for successful adults.)

Provide advance notice.

Older children will understand a warning that it’s 10 minutes until the lights out. Younger ones will start responding to cues like running bath water and putting on pyjamas.

Turn off the TV.

Artificial light stimulates our brains. Give your kids a curfew to turn off all devices a couple of hours before bed.

Read bedtime stories.

Storytime creates a great transition for sleep and a lot of happy memories. It will also instill a love of story and a desire to learn.

Develop other bedtime rituals.

For younger kids, warm baths and soft music add up to a soothing atmosphere. Throw in a teddy bear or stuffed bunny for overnight company.

Play white noise. 

Any monotonous sound hastens sleep. Turn on a fan or play a recording of the ocean.

Warm-up.

Warmth is also conducive to happy dreams. Give your child flannel sheets to snuggle in the cold weather. Bedroom temperatures of about 70 degrees with 50% humidity are usually ideal. (Although this can be difficult in the dry prairies.)

Get your child off to an early start with good sleep habits and a positive attitude about bedtime. Your whole family will enjoy better rest and better health not to mention the students in your house enjoying better grades. This is such a great Parents’ guide getting ready for the new school year.

Five Strategies to Help Your Child Succeed in School

Are you wondering how can I help my child succeed in school? 

Kids are a full-time job! But among the seemingly never-ending list of important tasks, one of the best things you can do for your child is to ensure their schooling experience is successful and worthwhile. Given these unusual times, this is a task is even more demanding. COVID 19 has certainly changed the face of what school will look like come September.

The following strategies have been proven to help many parents turn their children into victorious scholars! Read on to discover these successful techniques:

1. Spend time discussing school. Kids are generally happy-go-lucky people and it’s sometimes hard for parents to figure out that something isn’t going right at school. Their classes will look much different this year than last September.  They may have concerns, even safety issues regarding going back to the classroom. This is why having casual discussions about school with your child is very important. Asking the following questions can help ensure there’s nothing affecting your child negatively at school:

• Do you have any questions about going back to school?              
• Do you have any concerns about school?
• What do you think school will look like when you return?
• Are you excited to see your classmates again?

Once they are back in the classroom

• Are you getting along well with other kids?
• Are there things that bother you about the way school is this year?
• Do you enjoy answering questions in class?
• What’s your favorite subject?
• Do you want to participate in any extra-curricular activities? (Should there be any.)

1. Check regularly for homework. In most cases, kids get homework every day, even if the assignments are small. The likelihood of homework with a new hybrid school year is high as teachers try to make up for lost “in-class” time.  However, students don’t always remember to do the assignments and end up losing marks. To help that situation, you can:

• Ask your child every day what was done in class and whether the teachers asked students to bring in any assignments the next day.
• Do an occasional scan through your child’s school notebooks and agendas looking for assignments and upcoming tests.

• Check your child’s agenda (or electronic boards if your school uses one) for homework and due dates.
• Make periodic calls or visits to the schools if you notice your child hasn’t been doing any homework assignments. A quick phone call or email can solve a lot of problems before they become overwhelming.  Communication is one of the best ways on how can I help my child succeed in school. 

1. Keep an open relationship with teachers. Many kids don’t feel comfortable telling their parents when school isn’t going well. Perhaps it’s out of fear, embarrassment, or shame. Developing a close relationship with the teachers can help you keep track of what’s happening at school.

• Provide them with your contact numbers and let them know you’re available anytime.
• Make sporadic visits (or during COVID likely and email to the teacher) to keep communication open.
• Make random “gifts” of appreciation to the teachers for the help they’re giving your child; even verbally expressed gratitude can go a long way!

1. Ensure proper nutrition. If your child isn’t getting the grades you hoped, maybe something is affecting his or her ability to adapt, concentrate, and grasp what’s being taught. Proper nutrition plays a big part in enabling your child to succeed. As a parent, you could:

• Pack their lunch box with healthy snacks like fruit and veggies, instead of chips and cookies.
• Investigate the lunch options at school to ensure they’re nutritious. (During COVID this may not be an option.)
• Take your child to the doctor for a check-up to be sure they’re not being affected by any vitamin deficiencies.

1. Balance work and playtime. If you leave it up to kids, they’ll want to play all the time and work very little or none at all! Help your child learn to balance work and playtime. Overdoing playtime could be contributing to those not-so-good grades at schools. Always endeavor to:

• Check for homework and make sure it’s done before the TV gets turned on.
• Restrict playtime to earlier evening hours so your child’s rest isn’t affected.
• Check with teachers to find out if your child plays around a lot in class.

While you may feel overwhelmed at times when it comes to raising your child, you can help them succeed if you focus on these simple strategies.

If you are looking for help with homeschooling check out our other articles on homeschooling and on private school 

Take the guesswork out of lunch preparation and design a four-week schedule to follow. This will ensure a nutritional variety for your kids all while leaving the guesswork out for grocery shopping and lunch preparation.

TIP: Try preparing everything on Sundays. If the budget allows, buy five days worth of reusable containers and stack them in the fridge for a grab and go option. If space is at a premium in your fridge, like mine, try chopping up all veggies and fruits on Sundays so you can easily grab the necessary quantities in the mornings. Make your life as easy as possible is the first step to keeping your lunches on track.

OPTION 1

Jam/Sandwich Sushi Rolls + Carrots + Apple Slices + Yoghurt + Something Fun

OPTION 2

Pasta Salad + Celery & Dip + Strawberries + Yoghurt + Something Fun

OPTION 3

Pita + Hummus + Cucumber + Baby Tomatoes + Cheese Strings + Something Fun

OPTION 4

Cheese Quesadilla + Berries + Peppers + Egg + Something Fun

OPTION 5

Make Your Own Pizza + Something Fun

INJECTING FUN

There are copious ways to inject fun into your kids lunches. Add a little treat. Stick a funny post-it note on their lunch kit. Use cookie cutters to make fun shapes. The list is endless and I highly recommend you Google this topic as well.

OTHER INGREDIENT IDEAS

Bagels, crackers, tortillas, tacos, make your own sandwich, pretzel-based trail mixes, spaghetti, meat slices, chicken caesar wraps, salads, popcorn-based trail mixes

The speed at which a student can convert words, from either text or speech, into meaning will determine how much and how quickly they comprehend. Knowing this can become incredibly helpful. Parents can give their children a huge advantage in school by helping them increase their “working” vocabulary.

The dictionary defines “vocabulary” as: A body of words known to an individual.
It has been documented, 70% of comprehension is based on vocabulary. Having a large vocabulary allows children to have a greater depth of understanding in both what they hear and what they read.

Get them racing down the proverbial “vocabulary” highway.

There are lots of ways to help your children build their vocabulary. The best time to begin helping them build vocabulary was last month. The next best time to assist them is now. There are lots of ways to assist in building strong and diverse vocabularies and it is easier than you think.

Most parents will read their children a bedtime story or perhaps you have family story time at the end of the day. Encourage children to ask about words they do not understand. Give them appropriate definitions (younger kids need simpler terms) and then ask them to tell you what the word means so you can check for accuracy. You can then ask them to use it in a sentence.

If you do not have story time every night perhaps you have a movie night where the family watches a movie together. Encourage children to ask about words or phrases they do not understand. Simply stop the show and clarify meaning. Remember to keep track of words so you can use them during the week.

Ensure there is no flag on the play!

It is a lot easier to help your child build vocabulary when it is a game and not an arduous, drill type activity. Make it fun!

University of Michigan Education Professor, Nell Duke, recommends the, “Goldilocks Principle”. When helping your children build their vocabulary don’t overdo it. Too many words causes overwhelm and too few is not challenging enough. You have to find the sweet spot or the “just right”.

A rule of thumb is to choose 5 unfamiliar words to work on each week. Science tells us a child needs to be exposed to a word 4 – 12 times before it becomes part of their vocabulary, so five words a week is plenty. Challenge the entire family to utilize those words throughout the week in conversation.

When kids are little, you can teach them the vocabulary around the house by labeling items in the house. Employing this strategy allows your child to see the printed word and this assists them in their word recognition skills.

The Finish Line

When our children were little, in addition to vocabulary words, we would have a weekly, “just fun to say word”. We would choose a word which is fun to say and challenge the children to work that word into the family dinner time conversation before the end of the week.

For example: The word, fortuitous. We would give them the word, give them a kid friendly definition and a kid friendly sentence and let them go to it. It was always a great way to build bigger words into their vocabulary. You could also post the “fun to say word” on the refrigerator for the week as a reminder.

Building vocabulary is a lifelong endeavor. If you make it fun when they are little, it will become a lifelong habit and they will learn to have fun playing with words.

From K to three you learn to read, from grade four and for the rest of your life you read to learn. What if you miss the window?

Most of our school systems are set up in a certain way. They assume that by the time a child reaches grade four, he or she will not only know how to read but will be proficient enough to be able to read in order to learn. For a large portion of school-age children, this is simply not the case.

Missing the window does not mean there is anything wrong with the child, it simply means that the school system failed to teach the child to read properly and read effectively. For those children who do miss the window, they often face the tyranny of time.

As time passes the gap between their skill level in reading and those of their peers becomes increasingly wider. A student who is lacking in proficient reading skills will find it difficult to function within the confines of a regular classroom. As more classroom instructions are given in print, it becomes increasingly difficult for those children who have missed the window to follow what is going on within the lessons. If assignments are not being completed at school, homework begins to pile up and frustrations begin to take their toll on the whole family. School eventually becomes a place that is associated with negative feelings and a negative outcome is the result.

Children outgrow shoes, clothes and when they are young even their teeth -children almost never outgrow a reading difficulty. If children struggle in grades one and two, they may still have the inner drive that tells them next year will be better. If reading difficulties are not corrected before the end of grade three their spirit begins to break and their self-belief of being a capable learner begins to fade.

It is, therefore, vital that parents keep a close eye on what is going on with their child’s’ progress at school. A family may have more than one child, but teachers will have a great deal more to keep track of, so it is the parent that must make sure their child has not missed the window.

Research shows that early one on one remediation, which focuses on phonological awareness and perception of speech, is fast and effective. It will usually allow a child to get back on track with their peers in the shortest amount of time.

Lani Donaldson