Parents Tips For Parent-Teacher Conference Season

Parent Teacher Conference season is quickly approaching along with the end of the school year, for some schools. If this doesn’t apply to you, give this article a read and then save it for next fall when you’ll inevitably want to read it again.

My first piece of advice for you is to identify if your school does Parent Teacher Conferences or if they do Student-Led Conferences. These two different types of conferences can sometimes look vastly different, so knowing what to expect going in is helpful.

An article that is helpful for Parent Teacher Conferences:

Articles that are helpful for Student Led Conferences:

Dear Future Teacher Me

Dear Future Teacher Me, 

I know it’s been a few years since you graduated with your teaching degree and received your teaching license (OKAY it’s been more than a few.) But someday you’ll find yourself back in the classroom teaching again when it feels suitable for your family. Someday you will walk through those doors to set up your own classroom instead of walking your own to theirs. 

And someday when that day comes, there are things you need to remember to carry with you that you learned during your time as a parent in the school setting instead of a teacher. 

Remember that all you ever want is what’s best for your kids. So when it feels like a parent won’t get off your back about something, remember that really all they want is what’s best for their child. 

Remember that you’re doing the best you can to support your children’s teachers, but sometimes it’s hard to be as supportive as possible because your life is busy and there’s a lot going on. So someday when you feel like you’re not getting enough support in your classroom, remember that these parents have multiple children and jobs and responsibilities. Their time to volunteer may not be right now. 

Remember that every day you send your children to school and worry immensely about their safety, but also place a lot of trust in the teachers and staff of the school to do everything they can to keep them safe. Remember this, because someday parents will be sending their kids to you and expecting the same. 

Remember that you think so highly of your kid’s teachers and are constantly impressed by what they are able to create and do in their classrooms and that someday, parents will think the same of you. 

Remember that you often forget to convey your gratitude and appreciation for your kid’s teachers and that parents will forget just the same. But that doesn’t mean the gratitude and appreciation aren’t there. 

Most of all, remember that you love your own kids, but you’ll also love your students like they are your own kids, too. Someday, you’ll make a great teacher. You may not have been teaching in a classroom for the last several years, but you’ve done your fair share of teaching with the children in your home, and that experience will carry over to your classroom someday, too. 

You’ve got this. 

The Best Way for Kids to Prepare Over Summer Break is to…..

Summer break is… almost here? I’m not sure how the weather is where you are, but we seem to be having a very late spring here! Either way, school will be out before we know it. 

That means parents and teachers will be hit soon with ads all over the internet from programs boasting about how great their summer workbook is for kids. Or an online curriculum they can follow through the summer to be “second-grade ready!”

But do you know what these students need over summer break? 

They need to play. Like, REALLY play. Not structured “Let’s add a manipulative to make it seem fun and call it play!” No. They need unstructured, free time to immerse themselves in a world of play. 

They need access to good literature. This means books they might find interesting or want to read, and this also means adults or older kids that read to them. Pack away the reading charts and trackers, just pull out some books and let it come naturally. 

They need to sing. As loud as they can, at the top of their lungs, or just casually as they play. They need to hear and feel and sing music, whatever suits them and your family. 

They need to color and draw and create. No, stop. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Yes, Pinterest has millions of cute crafts your family can do. And sure, you can do them! But what your kids really need to carve out space for is unstructured creative time. Where they can write and draw and have access to craft supplies (within your means/ comfortability level) and let their imaginations go wild. 

They need to be engaged in daily conversation. Discuss why the world is the way it is. Ask questions about their favorite characters from books and movies. Get them chatting about the pro baseball player they look up to or the new video game releasing soon that they’re looking forward to. Tell them about your plans for the day, and tell them your thoughts on the political happenings of the time. Engage in whatever conversation they are willing to have with you.

They need you to not feel guilty about screen time. Everything in moderation! Spending time outside is fantastic! Reading books is great! Diving into an art form is incredible! Screens are amazing! If you spend your summer berating them for spending too much time on screens it can lead to bad effects that you don’t want, like hiding their screens so they don’t get caught, or feeling poorly about themselves for wanting screen time. 

And the last thing they need? More play. More time just being a kid and enjoying their time away from academic pressures. What your kid needs most this summer… is to just, be a kid

Learning in the Wild: The Herrett Center for Science and Arts

Our favorite learning days always happen to be the impromptu ones. One day when we were out running errands in Twin Falls, Idaho, we decided we needed a break. We were driving past the College of Southern Idaho and chose to stop in at the Herrett Center for Science and Arts. It’s a fantastic museum full of Idaho history as well as a planetarium with showings each day. 

We explored a few of the live animals. They had, a tarantula and a very large snake… I wish I could remember what type of snake it was, but I didn’t get a picture. Mostly because I didn’t want to go too close, snakes are not my thing! We took a minute to learn more about those specific animals and the environments they need in order to survive.

We walked through the exhibit of Native Americans in Idaho showcasing how they lived, what they ate, etc. We didn’t have a single worksheet or checklist on a clipboard to tell us what to look for or how to learn, yet we (yes, even myself), walked away with new knowledge. 

Learning doesn’t have to be uniform or done in a specific way. It can be a day out running errands and deciding to stop in at the local museum. It can be exploring all of the different rooms with rocks and plants and art pieces. It’s practicing new reading skills while reading a sign about fish in Idaho because it’s interesting and fun.

Learning in the wild is still learning. 

Buying Into Kinder Readiness: It Needs to Stop

It was a very innocent Thursday. I was casually scrolling through social media catching up on what was going on in my friends’ lives. There was a video of Cindy’s four-year-old swinging independently for the very first time, a huge win for that little guy! Carly went to the water park with her littles. Sarah posted a video of her 3-year-old naming every shape, even a rhombus! Clark had a picture of him and his daughter sitting in their rocking chair enjoying a chapter book together. 

“My daughter can’t name that many shapes, and she’s 4.” 

It was an intrusive thought, but it still felt very real. 

“She’s starting kindergarten soon, should I be reading chapter books to her?” 

These thoughts are coming into my mind even after I’ve written countless articles on this very platform about not stressing over kindergarten readiness and really trying to hit home that what kids that age really need is copious amounts of freedom and play. I’ve scoured research articles, and other online posts, and I’ve even watched my own kids grow and develop. Yet somehow, I’m still here in this position. I’m seeing friends post about their 5-year-old reading entire sentences and writing his own Christmas list phonetically, wondering if I should work harder with my 4-year-old because there is no way she would be doing the same thing at his age. She’s still hit or miss on knowing all 26 letters. Never mind capital versus lowercase. 

Even with my background in education and the years of research I’ve done for this blog, I’m still falling hard for buying into the fast track of kinder readiness. I cannot even imagine the amount of pressure parents feel to make sure their kids are doing everything and anything they can to read in preschool and get ahead so they can be the smartest and the best by kindergarten. 

So here’s my reminder, to you and to myself. 

Your child is doing great. 

You can drop the expensive, intensive preschools and they are going to be just fine. Better off, probably. 

If together you are talking, singing, reading, writing (drawing, coloring), and playing, then you’re doing everything they need you to do. 

Play is a child’s work. Play is not a worksheet or studying magnets shaped like letters or shapes. 

If your child is not reading before kindergarten, they are not behind. If your child isn’t reading by the end of kindergarten, they still aren’t behind! 

Kids who learn to read at their own pace show a greater love and appreciation for reading later in life. 

You are doing a really good job. 

I know how stressful the push for kindergarten readiness is, I’ve fallen victim to it as well. It’s made me question if I’m not teaching my kids enough at times! Are they going to be smart enough to hold up in public school someday? 

Don’t trust society’s push for your kid to cram everything into their little brains as fast as possible. Trust yourself. Trust your kids. That’s how you’re going to have the best shot at getting ready for kindergarten. 

Other helpful posts:

More Thoughts on a 4-Day School Week

A while back I wrote a post about schools transitioning to a four-day school week. I tried to stay very neutral and simply line out the pros and cons of both 5 and 4-day school weeks. However, at the time I wrote the post, it wasn’t something even on my radar to worry about! It was purely just information I had researched. Our schools were doing the more typical 5-day school weeks. Then we moved to Idaho and everything changed. The school my oldest attends, as well as most schools in the state of Idaho, have transitioned to a 4-day school week. Now that we’ve experienced both, I have more opinionated thoughts and feelings on the pros and cons. 

If you’re looking for me to choose one side or the other- either 4-day school weeks or 5 days, then you’ve come to the wrong place. After experiencing both, I honestly cannot choose between the two. Both of them come with benefits and downsides. 

One concern I have with a four-day school week is the longer school days. Elementary school starts at 7:45 am and doesn’t get out until 3:45 pm. An 8-hour school day is long for those littles! Districts are required to meet a minimum requirement of school hours in a school year, so to make up for those missed hours by not going to school one day of the week, the school days and sometimes the school calendar year become longer and more stretched out to make up for those hours. 

This can be concerning for two big reasons I’ve personally found. First, meals. With school starting early in the morning, breakfast is naturally around 6:45- 7 am for us. My daughter (in kindergarten) then eats lunch at 10:45 am. Technically, the school is not expected to provide any other food besides optional breakfast for kids that need it, and lunch. So if they are not fed again, these kids go from 10:45 am until 3:45 pm without food. Yes, I know, food is a very privileged thing in a perpetual time of food scarcity. However, when little brains are working so hard on learning and growing, they need more. Luckily, most teachers in our school allow an afternoon snack, provided by the parents on an alternating schedule. But what about those schools or classrooms that aren’t providing extra food for those hours between lunch and going home? 

The next concern is for the older grades when it comes to after-school activities. If school is getting out close to 4 pm, then sports and arts and other extracurriculars start their practices after school is out. Our local high school has track practice from 4-6 pm. Once track practice is over, the kids go home and eat, work on homework, and accomplish any other household tasks they may have. Then they need a good night’s rest so they can be up around 6:30 am for school the next day. It makes for such long days when extra activities are considered! This isn’t even bringing in the factor that many high school students have part-time jobs, too!

However, when schools are on a 4-day school week schedule, they have one full day off of school and any extracurriculars can take up the space of that day. This is typically Fridays for most 4-day week schools. That means extra-long practices, tournaments, games, events and more can happen on Fridays when students are out of school, instead of cramming it all in on Friday evening/ Saturday. 

There’s also the bonus that even if students aren’t in additional school activities, there is space and time for family events and trips with an extra long weekend. We’ve enjoyed trips to the zoo and many local state parks because we don’t have to worry about attending school on Fridays. 

And in the same breath, there are also parents that have the burden of worrying about childcare on Fridays because they are still working parents and need a safe space for their kids to go to when they are out of school but the parents are still working. 

There are so many more thoughts and pros and cons I could add to this post, but it’s getting long-winded and I’m not here to bore you. When asked to choose between 4 or 5-day school weeks, I truly could not give you a straight answer. It’s such a double-edged sword! In some ways, I think either is the best and only way to do school! And in other ways, I think both are the wrong answer and make it harder than it’s worth. 

What are your thoughts? What other pros and cons have you seen from a 4 or 5-day school week? What are your kids on, and what would your preference be? 

Vestibular Sensory Input Ideas for Kids

I have a child with high sensory needs. You can read more about it here. One area we discovered to be a struggle with was regulating his vestibular sensory input. He was having the hardest time eating meals, going to bed, listening to stories, and more. Once we realized his vestibular sensory input needed regulating before we attempted these tasks, it changed our lives! We get all of our kiddos involved with this sensory input and it helps all of them, even those without sensory needs. 

I can’t help but be grateful for figuring this all out before he starts kindergarten in a few years, instead of figuring it out when he starts school for the first time. This is not the story with many families, and it can make the transition to starting school that much more difficult. 

Instead of pulling sensory input ideas out of my head each time we needed something, I made a quick printed paper of options for my kids to choose from. We have one laminated full sheet of paper to look at, and one that I cut into strips and laminated for when we want to randomly draw them out of a cup. 

It’s nothing special, just something I whipped together one afternoon. But if it’s something that can benefit your household or classroom in any way for those higher sensory needs kids (or any of your kids or students that just need a movement break), then here’s the free printable for you! Just click on the pdf to download and print. Enjoy!