Reading Tips The most important thing you can do to help your children be good readers is to read or tell stories aloud with them every day. Ask them to talk about what they read or what you read to them. Get your child his or her own library card and visit the library regularly. Writing Tips Is your child to young to build writing skills? Definitely, not. Even babies can learn skills that help with writing. The following activities will help your child become the best writer he can be: Talk a lot. Talking to children of all ages, including babies, builds vocabulary. A large vocabulary will help your child write everything from school reports to personal letters.

Read to your child – even if he’s an infant. With older children, point out words you’re reading. This emphasizes the connection between reading and writing. Make up stories with your child, then write them down. Let your child illustrate them. Encourage your child to “write” even if he can’t make letters. Give him plenty of things to write with, such as, crayons, pencils, paintbrushes, and chalk. Scribbling and drawing are great practice for writing. Make letters with different material, such as, paint, cookie dough, and clay. Practice spelling familiary things such as your child's name or "Mom." Don't worry if you can't tell what your child has written. Learning to write takes lots of time, practice, and encouragement.

Source: Parenting Magazine

Self-Esteem Having responsibilities is a great self-esteem builder for all children. Offer them encouragement and praise their efforts. Discipline In developing effective discipline for your child, what you do is much more important than what you say. Listed below are some suggestions for helping parents’ actions match their words: Quickly plan how you will back up your words with actions. As soon as you tell your children what you want them to do, ask yourself, “What do I do if they don’t listen?” Decide on consequences that will be effective. Make sure your child understands that he can choose whether to receive the consequence or not. “If you don’t clean your room after I asked you to do it, you are choosing to be disciplined.” Forgive and forget. Don’t carry grudges, especially with your children. Once you have disciplined your child, the incident is over. Don’t be bullied. Children may cry, whine or yell when they get disciplined. The calmer you remain, the less likely they are to try those tactics again. Plan how to catch your children being good. Most children want to do things that will please their parents. Using praise is a great way to keep children doing the right things.

Source: Assertive Discipline for Parents

More than ever, families rely on group programs in centers and family child care homes to provide care and education for their infant, toddler, and preschool children before they enter school.

Consider these facts:

Most early childhood programs operate on very limited budgets. Parent fees - the largest source of income for many programs are insufficient to fully cover the cost of high quality. Many early childhood programs cannot afford to pay staff decent wages and benefits. Nationally, centers are experiencing a 40% turnover is staff each year. Turnover hurts children and families. When staff turnover is high, children’s language and social development suffer. Both are critical areas for children’s school success and emotional adjustment. Parents whose children attend programs with high staff turnover worry more about their children. They feel less adequate as parents and miss their children more while at work.

To provide a high quality program there must be:

A good relationship between children and adults.. A good learning environment for children and a good working environment for adults. Knowledgeable teacher - caregivers who understand how children grow and learn and how to work effectively with families. Adequate staff compensation to attract and keep good staff.

Source: Child Our Concern Magazine

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