questioning

5 easy ways to raise earth-friendly kids

April 20, 2012

Really, nothing about raising kids is easy. I so know this to be true.   I think I’m pretty honest about my own on-the-job struggles, and most people I talk to are pretty open about how difficult a gig this parenting thing is. But I think that raising three earth-friendly kids has been relatively easy. [...]

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bullying: end it at home, school, everywhere

April 5, 2012

Thanks to The Bully Project for sponsoring my writing. Visit their website to join the movement and learn more.     Bullying is not okay. It’s not okay at home, at school, on the field–anywhere. And though a lot of families view ‘sibling issues’ as, ohhh, just a part of life–we do not. For us, [...]

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10 tips for read-aloud learning

March 6, 2012

Hip, hip HOORAY! This week has a little gem of a day hiding inside — World Read Aloud Day! March 7th is World Read Aloud Day, and I stand firmly behind the idea that every child, every person should be able to read.  And who wouldn’t, right? And I’m a huge fan of reading aloud–with [...]

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learning during read-alouds: making back-to-school connections

August 29, 2011

Today I sent the big O-man off to Kindergarten and Maddy off to second grade, and I absolutely cannot believe it. If I think about it too much, I seriously might burst into tears.  Weren’t they just in diapers? Crawling around on the floor?  Where’s the time going? Though Cora and I will soon adjust [...]

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how to teach kids to search the web: read, research, evaluate

July 20, 2011

We see the same beautiful apple tree every time we walk to or from the pool. And we often talk about how beautiful the tree is and how much we love it. We wonder if we can eat the apples and what they taste like.  Are they apples? Crabapples? Are they sweet? Are they safe [...]

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questioning and connecting during read-alouds

July 2, 2011

I’m not going to lie–some summer days, I really think that if it weren’t for the 15 minutes of Adult Swim, my kids wouldn’t stop moving all day long. Even the rest times that I once relied on as a definite break to our day, Maddy has renamed as ‘play time’.  (It’s still in their [...]

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quick, sneaky questioning to improve reading comprehension

February 17, 2011

It seems that Maddy’s leveled out a bit with her reading this year. She’s doing great with her spelling, she’s made huge strides with decoding, but she’s stuck on one particular level and needs to stretch her brain a bit as far as reading comprehension is concerned in order to move upward and onward. I’m [...]

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super-important inferring during read-alouds

October 7, 2010

Read-alouds are the perfect time to sneak in a little bit of learning, whether you’re talking simple reading comprehension strategies, concepts of print, or word recognition. Tonight, we rocked our nighttime read-aloud with a few more thought-provoking and difficult strategies than normal. We practiced inferring and drawing conclusions in only ten minutes.For the last week, [...]

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telling stories with norman rockwell paintings

August 13, 2010

I have always been intrigued by Norman Rockwell’s artwork. When I was young, his Girl at Mirror (1954) spoke to me so personally about the battle between growing up and embracing childhood. Looking at the girl with the picture of a model on her lap and her doll on the floor, I knew I wasn’t [...]

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non-fiction reading and real-life learning with fish

August 4, 2010

We’re pet sitting for the next few days, and Maddy, Owen and Cora are loving it. Nothing cuddly or furry, but these little guys are certainly entertaining if you ask my three kiddos. We’re fish-sitting, actually, for what may be close to 20 fish. Two separate ponds with a waterfall and lily pads. And a [...]

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asking the heart questions

January 13, 2010

This morning at breakfast, before we even had a chance to check out Maddy’s kindergarten calendar or talk about the weather, an article in The Kids Post had us practicing another super-easy (but incredibly important) reading comprehension strategy before we even knew it. We practiced questioning. The article lent itself to questioning, and my three [...]

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