CHALK TALK: Strategies for Strengthening Your Child's Reading Skills (And Yours, Too!)

Reading is a complex process of the brain. Language acquisition begins very early in infancy as children begin to make sounds. As an infant’s brain begins to catalog and interpret sounds, the child creates the foundation of language and lays the groundwork for communication, cognition, and eventual reading. Once a child becomes phonemically aware, he or she will begin to connect letters to their corresponding sounds. This is tricky due to the fact that the English language is made up of 44 sounds and only 26 letters. Next, a child will begin to recognize sounds and blend them to create words.

When we read, several different sections of the brain are used in sequence to parse out meaning. These sections simultaneously link phonics, fluency, and comprehension, decoding and determining the meaning behind lines of words. Once a person has developed the necessary skills, reading is a function of the brain that only takes a matter of seconds. The reading process can be broken into five basic steps:

1. The brain sees shapes on a page.
2. The brain recognizes them as letters.
3. The brain recalls the sounds represented by the letters.
4. The brain blends the sounds to form words.
5. The brain extrapolates meaning from the words and punctuation making up the sentence.  

The process of reading is quickened and perfected over time with proper practice. Frequent and consistent reading exercises the brain, improving memory and mental cognition. Work with your child at home to improve their reading and communicative skills!

Read Aloud - Take turns reading aloud with your child. Even for adults, reading out loud helps to improve text comprehension and speech fluency. Another idea is to listen to audiobooks which are handy during stagnant stretches of time (e.g. in the car or waiting room).

Quality Over Quantity - Reading quickly rushes the complex mental hoops that a person’s brain must jump through. Experts encourage both adults and children to read at a slow and steady pace to boost comprehension. When reading is done at a furious pace, many of its benefits (e.g. vocabulary building and meaning comprehension) are lost.

Write, Journal, Compose - Encourage your child to keep a reading journal or to simply write freely. Writing and reading go hand-in-hand and exercise the brain in similar fashions. Fostering the connections between creating words with sounds, and creating meaning through words, is very impactful when children are honing their reading skills. The same is true for adults.

Discussion - When reading with your child, pause for a discussion. Host a book club meeting for you and your child to talk about the characters and events of a story. Engage in a conversation about the actions a character took, situations that occurred within the book, etc. Talking about a text helps to determine reading comprehension, test memory and vocabulary, and also helps children become more equipped to engage in academic dialogue, prepping them for higher education.

Make Time - Schedule a designated reading time for you and your child each day. Lead by example and ensure that your child can see you actively reading. If you establish reading as a habit, your child’s interest and ability will increase over time.

Contributed by Rebecca Stokes, Fairmont Private Schools

Image by Daily Genius

SNACKTIME: Eating for a Healthy Heart

According to the American Heart Association, you can never start too early when it comes to heart health. It may be surprising to learn, but plaque deposits (atherosclerosis), can begin building up in the walls of the arteries in children as young as five years old, leading to coronary heart disease.

 

Food is Fuel

In addition to regular exercise, diet can help lower the risk of heart disease later in life. Children age two years and older should be encouraged to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables daily as well as a wide variety of other foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Doing this can help maintain normal blood cholesterol levels and promote cardiovascular health.

 

Healthy Eating Tips for Heart Health

 

Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, which are high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, and pectin (a soluble fiber).

 

Choose whole-grain foods like steel-cut oatmeal, which are a good source of dietary fiber.

 

Eat fish for heart-healthy, omega-3 fatty acids.

 

Limit saturated and trans fats such as fatty cuts of meats, whole milk, cheese, butter, lard, ice cream, coconut oil, and palm oil. Trans fats are found in deep fried foods such as doughnuts and French fries. Look for “partially hydrogenated oils" on ingredient labels and stay away from those foods.

 

Limit your red meat intake and choose lean meats, fish, and poultry. Try meat-free alternatives such as tofu, beans, lentils, quinoa, and tempeh for protein.  

 

Snack on nuts! High in healthy fiber, protein. and healthy mono-unsaturated fat. A one ounce serving size of nuts is about 28 almonds or two tablespoons of nut butter.

 

Add flax seed to cereal or fruit smoothies for a high fiber, healthy fat boost!

 

Drink water instead of sugary drinks.

 

Making smart choices every day has a big impact on heart health. Develop proper eating habits early in life for better heart health.

 

Contributed by Leslie K. Kay-Getzinger, Regional Dietitian for Nutrition Management Services

Image by MintFit 

EVENTFUL: What is Leap Year?

Every four years, the day of February 29th graces our calendars and gives us one extra day to the year. But why does this happen? It takes the Earth 365.25 days to fully orbit the sun. Since it’s difficult to have a one-quarter day, those .25 are saved up until they equal one day, then are acknowledged every fourth year on February 29th.

Before Julius Caesar came to power over the Roman Empire, people used a 355-day calendar that included an additional 22-day month every two years. However, due to the movement of the stars and the shifting of feast days as they fell into different seasons, Caesar’s astronomer, Sosigenes, was tasked with created a more simplistic solution. Sosigenes developed the 365-day calendar that would save each year’s extra hours until they created an extra day.

Like any mathematical equation, there are rules. Generally, every fourth year is a Leap Year. However, a potential Leap Year that is divisible by 100 does not qualify as a Leap Year unless it is divisible by 400. Since Earth’s orbit around the sun is slightly less than 365.25 - 365.2422 to be exact - Pope Gregory XIII’s astronomers established the Gregorian calendar in 1582, which loses three leap days every 400 years to remain mathematically sound and astrologically aligned.

Contributed by Rebecca Stokes, Fairmont Private Schools

Image by Beachside LA