Author Archives: Julie Meyers Pron

About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron is a parenting and education writer, who relies on her experiences as a teacher and parent for inspiration. A mother of three children (ages two, six, and eight), PTO Director, former MOMS Club President and Vice President, and a (non-practicing) elementary school teacher, Julie has both experience and knowledge about parental involvement in education. Blogging at a variety of Websites since 2005, including her personal blog, Just Precious, Julie is also a founding partner of Just Centsible Consulting and a Principal of Splash Creative Media.

Comprehension, Understanding, Internalizing and Making Connections in Reading

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

Reading is much more than reciting words that one sees on paper. Even before one achieves phonemic awareness and phonics, he’s learning to comprehend, understand, internalize and make connections.

While a child learns to read the letters and sounds, he continues to practice his comprehension skills. While so much time is spent teaching students that symbols that are called letters make sounds and these sounds push together to make words, it’s often forgotten that those word-sounds won’t make very much of a difference if a child doesn’t comprehend what he’s reading,

Last week, I met with our school principal. As we discussed my son’s progress in school and his reading abilities, I was reminded of some very basic questions regarding reading,

The Modus Operandi* of the reading process

Is he able to read?
Is he comprehending?
Does he internalize the stories?
How does he express connections?

Is he able to read?

Reading is a several-step process Parents of a budding readers, no matter their child’s skill or quickness to pick up the process, recognize that students reach an independent reading level at different times. This question, while it seems simple to answer, is quite and in depth one. Reading isn’t only the sounds, it’s recognizing that the sounds make words which together make a story, and truly understanding the story that he reads or listens to. Only when a child can read and understand, is he truly able to read.

Is he comprehending?

Comprehension and understanding go hand-in-hand. A child who listens to what others say, or what he reads and acts on that knowledge is showing signs of comprehending.

Does he internalize the stories he reads?

The next step in reading is when a child takes the story or knowledge and applies it internally. Think back to a time that your dreams revolved around a story that you’ve read or imagined or you began imagining yourself as a part of the story. When a story becomes a part of a reader and lives within, he internalized the reading.

How does he express his connections to the story?

The final step in the modus operandi is reached when a reader takes the story and makes a connection to his own life or surroundings. A child who is reading a story of Greek Mythology may begin explaining that a seed is sprouting with the help of Persephone or a bolt of lightening represents the anger of Zeus. In these cases, the reader is connecting his life and his surroundings to something that he read.

How can parents assist children to progress through the Modus Operandi of reading?

It’s important to remember that reading comprehension is much more than learning letter sounds or even reading the words in a book out loud. Continue to read to your child to help them improve their listening comprehension skills which will, in turn, strengthen their reading skills. Have conversations about what they are reading. Challenge children often with new stories, rather than repeating old favorites again and again. (There’s nothing wrong with repeating old favorites, but throw in some new stories to assess their skills.)

*Modus Operandi is a latin term meaning mode of operating or working. (dictionary.com). For the purpose of teaching reading skills and talking with parents, I created the term “Modus Operandi of reading.”

Image: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Reading Rivalry

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

Anyone with a sibling knows all about sibling rivalry, it’s a natural struggle in homes and always has been. Children are so competitive with each other because they, just as adults do, need something and someone to judge themselves against, a sort of mile-marker in life. With a sibling who’s always around, it’s natural to compare.

This makes it excessively difficult for parents who see children learning to read at different paces. When one child so clearly outshines another in any area, we struggle to compensate for the child’s needs. In sports we can recommend different activities or place our children on different teams. In areas like the arts, it’s often easy to just say “that’s okay… clarinet isn’t your thing.” But when it comes to reading, something children do every day and a skill everyone needs in life, the struggles are more difficult.

Our older daughter is getting reading help at school, which she was fine with – until her younger sister started reading at a higher level then her. Now it bothers her. Its so hard – they are really close in age, so the gap isn’t that big even if they were both on grade level. We’ve been encouraging them to read books together – or with us – so we can all read and no one feels left out. I’m almost glad that the younger is struggling in math now – so at least there is something she finds hard so she can relate to her sister.–Melissa Angert, Girlymama

It’s difficult to explain the differences to children when their abilities are so different. While it’s true that everyone will, eventually, learn to read, there’s no set program that will work for every child, and no length of training time it will take for all children to “catch up” with another.

When our 2nd grader passed the 4th grader’s reading abilities we had a lot of conversation around how everyone learns differently. It helped to point out the things that our 4th grader finds easy-like science. We also encouraged her to read more with her sister, and at times had to remind our 2nd grader that pointing out their differences could cause hurt feelings. –Kelly Whalen, The Centsible Life

Suggestions to help families work together when children read differently

Life is a balance

Make other things just as important as reading. Teach your children that we all excel differently at different things. Remind them that the world would be rather boring if everyone was good at only one thing, and so would your family! Teach them to appreciate their strengths.

Compare politely

Encourage your children to compare, nicely. Teach them that while Mallory is great at reading, Simone is excellent at handwriting. Help them recognize other strengths.

Teach each other

Help your children to teach each other. Robby has an excellent tennis serve, and William always finishes his math quickly and timely. While working together, observing and teaching, each child will become better at their own talents and learn from the strengths of their siblings.

Don’t label

Be careful how you refer to your children. Try not to call Joey “The Reader” or “My Reader” as this assumes that Aaron will never be a reader.

Inspire a love of reading

Read with your children, all of them. Whether your child is an avid reader, a struggling reader or a non-reader, read to him and encourage him to join in when he’s comfortable. There’s a difference between reading the words on a page and enjoying the words on a page. By helping your family to learn the difference, you’ll help inspire a love of reading.

Image: photostock / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Creating board games based on favorite stories

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

On a recent Tuesday after a doctor appointment, rather than rushing the kids back to school, I gave them the option to stay home. “However,” I explained, “you’ll have a job to do. I expect you to work together to create a game for the family to play. I’d like you to create this game based on a favorite book.” As I pulled into the Target parking lot, asking what supplies they would need we began brainstorming a list, which surprised me for being quite small. As it turned out, they had everything they needed at home, except the poster board. Of course, all moms knows that we can’t leave Target with just poster board, but the boys were focused. They convinced me that they had so many games in mind, they’d need several pieces of poster board and 3×5 cards.

That afternoon I enjoyed true peace and quiet as they worked to create three board games and a card game. I overheard them discuss the need for exciting tasks, for punishment and reward, for good versus evil. In the game they created for the first year of Harry Potter, the players were rewarded for learning new spells by moving forward spaces, but punished for being caught by Mr. Filch after curfew by going back. If they landed on two spots, the players would have to report to an extra loop area to fight a giant. I heard the kids debate strategy, discuss logic and time, and offer suggestions for wording. They worked together to make their game work. When it was time to play, they found LEGO mini-figures to act as their playing pieces. And we played. We played again and again, making changes as necessary to the game.

After a few rounds, one of the boys suggested a break from Harry Potter. It was time, he explained, to create game two: The Adventures of Tin Tin. Another action packed British story this one prompted the kids to recall favorite scenes they could work into a different board. This second game proved an opportunity for the boys to be more creative and challenging in their plans. In fact, once Tin Tin was complete, they explained that this game would be suggested for children ages 6 and up, because the challenges were more difficult. Because we were all “of age,” we played for a bit, again using a die and LEGO mini-figures.

When at breaking time they picked up the 3×5 cards, they explained that it was time to create a game based on yet another story, but this time it would be a word game. Together they listed words found in Diary of a Wimpy Kid on their cards and began playing a game where they would retell the story by putting the words in the proper order. Next, they split the cards up and made up new stories.

Their final game of the day was a drawing game. The boys have really been enjoying Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants stories. Rather than a traditional board game, the boys split the poster board into sections and held drawing contests as they drew different scenes of the story.

Game creation has become a favorite past time at our house. The kids love to share the stories they enjoy through game, and I enjoy learning the stories, checking their comprehension through the summaries they offer as they create the games and the time we spend together creating and playing. This month for Family Game Night we now have enough home-made games to select from that we don’t even plan to open the game closet. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we make a new game just for that night.

Numbers, counting, and place value with Cheerios

Posted on March 30, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

Sure. Kids can count. If they’ve memorized really well and “get” the pattern, they can count to a hundred! But do they know what all those numbers mean? When I realized that my son was easily reciting his numbers without the knowledge of place value (tens, hundreds, thousands) I pulled out the Cheerios (our favorite counting food) and several plastic cups.

Counting by tens

We placed a handful of Cheerios into the first cup and estimated the number of cereal pieces.

To find out how many Cheerios were in the cup, rather than straight counting, I challenged the boys. “Each cup can only hold 10 Cheerios. Let’s start by filling the first cup with 10.”

After we added 10 Cheerios to the first cup I explained that it was time to move on to cup two. We counted out another 10 and found there were 6 left over. Then we counted by tens: 10… 20… plus 6 is 26 Cheerios!

What is 100?

Of course, the boys wanted to get to 100, so we continued to add Cheerios to each cup in groups of 10. They realized as they counted by tens that we’d need 10 cups to have 100 Cheerios. Quickly they could envision “how much is 100.” They also quickly mastered counting to 100 by tens.

Moving on to bigger numbers

Of course, they weren’t finished yet, as they next wanted to envision one thousand. Rather than putting out 100 tens cups, we counted by hundreds to 1000. Realizing that we’d need 10 more groups of 10 cups, we opted to pour all 100 Cheerios into one larger cup (in our case, a pitcher) and called that our hundreds cup. We traced the hundreds cup onto paper 10 times to show 1000 Cheerios.

Next, we added a few more Cheerios into the hundreds cup without counting! (oops!) We estimated our Cheerios again and divided them into tens cups. Because we had a few more cheerios this time, we knew we’d need more cups and added them until we found we had 142 Cheerios, needing 14 cups with 2 left over Cheerios.

There are endless ways to learn math through cereal pieces (and other small foods.) What are some ways you use food to teach and learn?

Using Playdough in Learning

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

As forever the parent who forgets to bring the distractions to activities, I was grateful last week when the mom sitting next to me at Big’s basketball game had a few extra canisters of playdough in her bag. While I focused on Big shooting, dribbling, and stealing, I noticed Middle (age 6) and Little (age 2) began to create their own games.

While Little pressed out shapes, balls, and worms, Middle began practicing creating letters. As I glanced over to him, I noticed he was perfecting upper- and lowercases to look correct. Shortly thereafter those letters became small words, and he began teaching his little sister how to make letters.

5 Ways to Use Playdough in Learning

Letter Creation

Children’s hands aren’t always comfortable gripping a writing utensil so playdough offers a great opportunity to exercise the hand muscles and still create letter formation. Practice upper- and lowercase together and “quiz” each other. After your child is skilled you can begin a race to create the letter.

Cursive Writing

As older children learn cursive, you’ll find their hands may cramp more often. Work out that muscle tension with a ball of playdough, but don’t stop the learning. Manipulate playdough letters to connect properly to form connecting cursive letters.

Small Rhyming Words: Phonics

Start with a word like “cat” molded in playdough and show that the first letter can be changed to create a new word again and again and again. Roll up the “c” and make it a “b”, “m” and “r.” Then switch the word to “sit”, change the first letter to “b”, and more. Change the game a bit by switching the last letter instead of the first. Or the vowel.

Story Telling

Give your child a container of playdoh and ask him to create a scene or a character. Then ask questions about the creation: What is the character doing? What will happen next? Why did you create this scene? How does the character feel? Once your child has brainstormed a bit, ask him to tell you the story he created.

Have a Conversation

Someimes kids don’t want to talk, but they’re happy to work with their hands. During these times, give your child some playdough and ask a simple question, requiring your child to answer with a word, in playdough. No talking allowed. This game will likely change the attitude of your child; he’ll be far more willing to cooperate when he thinks he’s won the silent game! All along, you’re teaching listening skills, letter formation, reading, writing, and conversation.

How do you use playdough to teach your children?

Celebrating Reading

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

I have three very different children. Like me, my oldest loves to read. In school his teacher is constantly reminding him to put the book away and pay attention. He reads on the bus, in the car, in front of the TV. . . . We even catch him reading when we ask him to go from point A to point B. Somehow, he attempts to sneak a point A and a half in there and read a little more. He’s been reading chapter books since he was four; all he wanted for his eighth birthday was a Kindle. The joy of reading has always been within him.

My middle son loves books. He loves maze books and dot-to-dots. He adores being read to and paging through picture books. Nearly every evening we read humorous poetry together. But reading words hasn’t been his thing. He’s the type of child who needs to study and be certain he can do something exactly correct before he’ll jump in and do it, which is why the past few days have been so amazing for us.

After years of encouraging him to read to us, he asked to read a book to his sister before her nap last weekend. It was a simple board book, but he read every word to her with such pride. Every night this week he’s helped me read books to her. Most books are familiar in rhyme or repetition, but the joy I see on his face as he says the words he is certain are on the page is enlightening and fills me with such pride.

My youngest, at only two, favors active books. She wants to touch books and perform the stories. She wants to hear different ways a story can be read, which is why she loves it when we all take turns reading with her.

Books enlighten. Books encourage. Books raise esteem and help readers become lost in fantasies. This week kicks off Read Across America and, as we always do, our family will pause on March 2 and have thirty minutes of reading in Theodor Geisel’s (Dr. Seuss) memory and celebration of all he brought to children.

How is your family celebrating Read Across America?

Feature image courtesy of AKARAKINGDOMS / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Independent Reading: Using the Goldilocks Method to Determine If Your Child Is Reading an Appropriate Book

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

There is never an age that is too young to encourage independent reading. Even the youngest child benefits from “quiet reading time” where they can page through books, look at the pictures, and create a story in their heads—or recall stories they’ve heard before. But as a child gets older, parents need to insure that their child is reading books that are on the child’s reading level—books that are appropriate both in comprehension and in word awareness.

While there are many official testing devices available, including the widely used Scholastic Reading Inventory, which assigns a child a Lexile^® Score, parents can use several easy techniques when they’re in the library or at a book store to quickly assess if a child has selected a book that he can read. One such method was created by Marilyn M. Ohlhausen and Mary Jepsen.

The Goldilock’s Guide to Selecting a Book for Independent Reading

Just like Goldilocks found things to be “too easy, too hard, and just right,” so can you and your child analyze a book. While trying to find a “just right” book ask

Have you read this book many times already?
Do you understand this story well?
Do you know every word?
Does it seem too easy?

If the answers are “yes”, this selection falls into the too easy category.

Are there more hard words than easy words?
Is the book confusing you as you read it?
When you read, do the words sound choppy?
Will you need help to read this book?

If the answers are “yes”, this book is too hard to be read alone.

Is this book new to you, or have you read it only a few times?
Do you understand most of the book without help?
Do you know most of the words?
Can you read it pretty smoothly?

If the answers are “yes”, then this book is just right for your child.

The Goldilocks strategy works very well with children who are reading young children’s books independently. It’s helpful to stop your child a few pages in and ask these questions; if you find the book to be too difficult, you can jump in and read it together. If you find the book too easy, allow your child to enjoy it, then encourage him to select a more challenging read next.

Feature image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Making Snow People with Lois Ehlert’s Snowballs

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

With so many mixed messages in the media, kids need to know who they are. So we reach for every opportunity to learn from our children. We ask questions. We talk about our days. We give examples and act as role models. But, sometimes, we can learn more by watching them.

Upon enjoying Lois Ehlert’s Snowballs with my kindergartner and preschooler for the umpteenth time, we needed a change. The kids loved pointing out the many materials used to decorate each snowman in the short story. So after reading it another time, I asked them if they’d like to create their own snow people.

Snowballs, which is written as a brief poem using site words and simple prose, is a collage book. The author illustrates her story as a snow family is built and embellished with household items. As we focused on the pictures, Little shared that she didn’t like the snowcat because of his ears, and Middle told us he liked the dog—Spot, who was covered in buttons—best.

I asked the kids what Snowmiddle and Snowlittle would look like. Middle wanted his to have pockets to hold important things like phones and money. And it needed a hat to wear during the inevitable snowball fight. Little explained her snow person would need a tutu and a pink phone.

When I asked them what supplies they would need to make their snowpeople, they looked at me with wonder. “Paper?” Middle asked. I led them to our craft closet where we found paper, glue, scissors, pipe cleaners, and stickers. And then I explained I wasn’t finished. I reached into my pantry, curious to see what I’d find. We unloaded pasta, beans, peas, sprinkles, and even chocolate chips.

While the kids were anxious to jump right in with crafting, I slowed them down with a thought. “This time,” I said, “let’s try something new. Let’s try to plan what we’re doing first.” We made lists and brainstormed what our snowpeople would need. “Eyes, mouth, tutu, pink phone, and pink bow,” Little listed. “A giant snowball!” said Middle. “And a phone, and a wallet. And remember? My snow person needs money!” While I helped Little with the writing, Middle wrote his own, learning to brainstorm with words that he did his best to write.

Finally, the crafting began. When Big came home from school, he jumped right in to make his own.

The next reading of Snowballs was different as we rewrote the Ms. Ehlert’s story, this time using our own snowpeople in place of her’s. The story is new again. It’s familiar, exciting, and . . . a little more special.

Learning on a Snowy Day

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

We love the snow, which is a good thing, considering we live in Pennsylvania and get a good deal each year. And while snow is an excellent opportunity to relax with hot chocolate by the fire, we all know that with kids, relaxing on a snowy day isn’t likely to last too long. Before your next snow day, it’s helpful to have a “snow plan” to entertain your children and give them opportunities to learn throughout the day.

There are countless snow-related picture books to have on hand for snow days. One of our favorites is the 1999 Caldecott Honor Book, Snow by Uri Shulevitz, which blends rhyme, descriptive words, images, and a simple, repetitive story—all perfect for beginning readers to decode.

Predictions and Hypotheses

Recently, after we saw a few surprising flakes that weather.com didn’t predict, we returned to this favorite book and discussed predictions and hypotheses, introducing the concept to our youngest and revisiting it for our older children.

Then, we made a few hypotheses of our own.

Measurement and Graphing

While the snow didn’t accumulate that day, other times we have used the snow as a learning tool. Using a ruler, one can measure the snow to see how much accumulates by sticking the ruler straight down into the snow. If the ruler has both inches and centimeters, it offers an opportunity to discuss the two different means of measurement.

If you measure throughout a snow storm, record your measurements and create a snowgraph.

Painting in the Snow

While playing in the snow, mix water and a few drops of food coloring in a cup and paint the snow. We enjoy painting rhyming words or pictures with words. Take pictures of your masterpiece before it melts away! (Which we, sadly, didn’t do.)

Snowman Building

Snowman building is another great opportunity for learning. It’s always fun to estimate the size of your snowballs before you measure them—which reflects on the prediction and hypothesis discussion from earlier. Take your snow ruler and measure the snowballs’ diameters (distance from one side of the circle to the other). Then discuss ways that one can measure the circumference (distance around the circle at the widest spot) and measure:

Roll the snowball one full rotation, marking the starting and stopping spots, and measure the distance rolled with a ruler. (A measuring tape will work well.)
Use a large string or rope and wrap it around the snowball. Tie a knot in, or cut, the string when it meets the beginning, then measure the string.
Compare measurements; they should be the same. If they aren’t the same, discuss what problems may have occurred in your measurements.

Create a Snowman Story or Song

After you’ve completed your snowman, give him a creative name. Sing “Frosty the Snowman” and change the words to give your own Snowman a story, or create a family for the Snowman.

Write about the Snow

When it’s time to go back inside, the learning isn’t finished. Check your hypotheses and discuss learning from being correct or incorrect.

Next, as you’re sitting with your hot chocolate, brainstorm words that describe snow and write a poem about the snow, or draw pictures to remember your day and write descriptive sentences or paragraphs about your memories.

Feature image courtesy of Evgeni Dinev / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Creating New Years Resolutions with Your Kids

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Julie Meyers Pron

This time of year, everyone’s running off to make New Year’s Resolutions. This makes it a great time to teach your children about setting goals, and can be done in a few segments.

Define Resolution

Enhance your child’s vocabulary by talking about the meaning of resolution. Discuss what it means to resolve to do something and how you set goals. This is a great opportunity to express that not all goals are reached, but that if we work hard and try, we make huge steps.

Goals for Children Should Be Small and Reachable

There’s nothing more discouraging than setting a goal and not reaching it, especially for a child. Therefore, lead your child to set one or two reachable goals for the new year, long before encouraging long-term goals. Goals such as “I will clean my room each night” and “I will read for 15 minutes after breakfast” are easy to reach, and children will be encouraged with accomplishment. A longer-term goal such as “I will put a penny in my jar every day for a year” is another goal that can be celebrated with each clink of the penny. More suggestions for New Year’s Resolutions for kids can be found at the eHealth Connection.

Celebrate Small Accomplishments

Reward children with praise every time they accomplish a goal. It helps to keep a reward chart, showing that the child accomplished his or her goal with a simple star for each accomplishment. Always tell your child how proud you are of him for trying, even when he doesn’t reach the goal.

Be a Role Model

It’s always important to be a role model for your kids. Sit down together and brainstorm a few goals for yourself out loud, talking about it with your child. Then help your child to brainstorm as well. When your child sees that you’re serious about setting a goal for yourself, he’s more likely to set one for himself.

Write Down a Goal and Post It

Nothing makes a goal more real than putting it in writing, so have your child write down his goal and keep it posted as a reminder. ABC Teach offers a simple

Goal Setting worksheet

. This can also be made into an art activity as your child can decorate his goal on a piece of pottery, or create a masterpiece about the goal and frame it. Working together and creating something helps your child to invest time and more thought in the goal, helping him to focus more. Additionally, making a goal public by keeping it in a public place makes one more likely to achieve it.

We’d love to hear what goals your child came up with this year. Share them!