Helping Your Child Get Organized

Organization and strong study skills does not come naturally to everyone.  At sixth grade children often need assistance accomplishing these from both parents and teachers.  The following suggestions can help you encourage good organizational and study habits.

Ø      Provide a special place and time for study.

Ø      Make sure your child has all of the materials and supplies to complete their work.

Ø      Help your child develop a system for organizing and maintaining a notebook.

Ø      Help your child develop a system for recording assignments, quizzes, and test in their planner

Ø      Check their planner every day.

Ø      Check their backpacks for parent information sent home by the teacher or school.

Ø      Help your child make a daily or weekly schedule so they can see when they have time to do things and what needs to be done.

Ø      Encourage your child to find a study buddy (another student who they can call or work with if they have question).

Ø      Encourage group study.

Ø      Encourage your child to join a homework club.

Ø      Call the homework hotline at (206) 780-6545.

Ø      Expect that all homework will be done.

Ø      Don’t expect that all homework will be easy; disequilibrium is a sign of new learning.

Ø      Expect your child to take responsibility for their own learning.

Ø      If your child falls behind, help them create a plane of action to get caught up.

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Helping Your Child with Homework

You can help facilitate your child’s learning by assisting them in figuring out as much as they can for themselves.  Your child will learn more if you help by asking questions that guide them instead of telling them the answer or how to do a problem.  Good questioning and listening will help your child make sense of math and science, build self-confidence, and encourage mathematical and scientific thinking and communication.  Please remember that the process of doing the math and science is just as important then getting the right answer and that disequilibria is a sign of new learning.  Here are some questions you might try (none of these questions can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”). 

Ø      What do you need to find out?

Ø      What is the question you are trying to answer?

Ø      What do you need to know?

Ø      How can you get the information?

Ø      Where can you begin?

Ø      What were your first thoughts about . . . ?

Ø      What are your observations about?

Ø      What terms do you understand or not understand?

Ø      Have you solved similar problems that would help?

Ø      Lets look at your notes.  (I know this is not a question but, it is still a very useful prompt)

Ø      How can you organize the information?

Ø      Can you make a drawing or model to explain your thinking?

Ø      Are there other possibilities?

Ø      What would happen if . . . ?

Ø      Can you describe an approach or strategy you can use to solve this?

Ø      What do you need to do next?

Ø      Do you see any patterns or relationships that may help solve this?

Ø      How does this relate to . . . ?

Ø      Can you make a prediction?

Ø      What assumptions are you making?

Ø      How do you know that your solution/conclusions are reasonable?

Ø      How did you arrive at your answer?

Ø      How can you convince me that your answer makes sense?

Ø      How else do you think you could solve this problem?

Ø      What did you try that did not work?

Ø      Has the question been answered?

Ø      Can the explanation be made clearer?

Ø      Can you tell me more?

Ø      Can you explain it in a different way?

Ø      Is there another possibility or strategy that would work?

Ø      Can you help me understand this part?

Ø      What do you think?

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 Helping Your Child Develop Positive Attitudes About  Science

Most parents enjoy reading to their young children.  It sets an example, establishes a positive attitude towards reading, and develops a value that reading is both fun and important.  Similarly, your attitude and approach to science at home impacts the importance and value that your child places on learning math and science.

Ø      How do you feel about science?  Are your attitudes about math and science impacting your child’s attitude?

Ø      Value science.

Ø      Let your child know that you believe he/she can be successful.

Ø      Encourage your child by showing him or her that you believe that they can succeed if they try and work hard on the assignments.

Ø      Be ready to talk about science with your child and be ready to listen.

Ø      Model persistence and pleasure with mathematics and science.

Ø      Provide opportunities to increase interest in math and science.

Ø      Include enrichment recreational science (play games, go to the zoo, while traveling, etc.).

Ø      Do not use home work as a punishment.

Ø      Do not drill your child on science content in a way that creates hostilities.

Ø      Emphasize less television and more reading.

Ø      Read to your child.

Ø      Notice science all around you by pointing out math and science in your daily activities and around the house.

Ø      Discuss how science is used in careers and jobs.

Ø      Share your problem-solving strategies and techniques, mental computation strategies, and estimation strategies.  Have your child teach you some.  Work on the same problem, then compare strategies and answers.

Ø      Invite your child to explain what they learned in science class.

o       Have your child show you his or her  science noteb and explain what they have been doing in class.

o       Encourage your child to participate in class - - listen, discuss, question, take notes.

o       Look over your son or daughter’s homework and make sure all questions are answered and that explanations are clear.  If your child cannot answer the question, have them write what is confusing so he or she can ask questions in class the next day.

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Fun Activities to do at Home

Science is everywhere, yet many children do not see it.  Here are some ways to reinforce scientific skills at home.

Ø      Let your child participate in activities that use math and science skills like drawing and building scale models, cooking, planning trips, and playing logic games.

Ø      If your child has access to a computer look for software that reinforces math and science skills.

Ø      Practice making detailed observations. Questioning Details Game:  Through out the day ask your child any question about detail you can think of.  This will greatly increase your child’s skills of noticing and remembering details.  Here are some examples to give you an idea.

o       What color is the seat you are sitting on?

o       What was the eye color of the last person you talked to?

o       What was the first thing you noticed this morning?

o       What is the license plate of the car next to you?

o       How many people where in line with us at the grocery store?

o       What did your sister ware to school today?

Ø      Make inferences supported by observations.  (example:  I believe that it rained while we were in the store because the ground is wet and there are gray clouds in the sky.)

Ø      Beat the Beetle:  This game is an adaptation of hangman.  To play, it requires two people, paper, and pencils.  The first player makes up a secret equation (example: 142 + 48 = 190) and draws blanks to represent each digit and operation sign in the equation.  The second player begins to ask for digits and signs.  Player 1 puts the digit or sign in an appropriate blank if a guess is correct.  If the guess is incorrect, player 1 draws a part of a beetle: body, head, six legs (one at a time), and two eye (one at a time). 

Ø      Nim/Poison/Last Bean:  This game requires logical reasoning and either 13 objects or 13 dots on a piece of paper.  Each person takes turns removing one or two object (crossing off one or two dots).  Play until all of the objects have been taken (all of the dots crossed off).  Whoever removes the last object (crosses off the last dots) loses.  Play at least five games before asking if there is a strategy to guarantee winning.

Ø      Guess My Rule:  In this game, you sort numbers into two groups and invite your child to guess your rule for sorting them, such as all even numbers or all odd numbers, etc.  Then, your child can sort numbers and you guess his or her rule.

Ø      Logic Puzzles:  Logic problems are a great way to learn how to look at information or data, record it in an organized way, and make sense of it to develop logical thinking.

Ø      Make Zero:  You will need to make 45 cards (3x5 index cards work well)  On each card write a multiplication fact starting at 9x9 and working down to 1x1 (do not put the answer on the card).  Deal the cards face up, one at a time, into ten piles (usually two rows of five).  Think of the product of the numbers on the card (example: 9x4=36).  Pair (groups of two) the cards up.  If the value of two cards can be added to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, or 90, the pair can be removed from the game.  Cards that have a value that ends in zero without pairing (example: 2x5=10) can be automatically removed from the game.  If all the pairings are correct, the last card will have a value of 5, 15, 25, 35, or 45.  Try to complete the game faster each time.

Ø      Games: Play games that are appropriate in you family that involve mathematics, such as Monopoly, Life, Yahtzee, Tetris, Chess, Role Playing games (example: Dungeons and Dragons), Magic and Clue. 

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