Teaching Tips – Elementary School

One of the hardest transitions from elementary to middle school, is the change in friendships that can occur. Going from playdates arranged by parents to a diverse pool of unfamiliar faces can be hard for some to adjust to.  The emotions and hormonal changes alone will affect your adolescent child’s understanding of relationships. Middle schoolers will experience changing and complex sets of relationship rules and will form new boundaries. Thus, there will be a new term that may enter your home this year, “Frenemies.”   This is when friends seem to morph into enemies, and your child will be confused and saddened by this change in the relationship.

Are you tired of the fighting between your children? Do you deal with tantrums and yelling because they will not share or do not want to do help each other with chores? Conflict is a normal element of parenting and of life; however, conflict resolution does not just happen naturally. As parents, we must guide and coach our children to exhibit the behaviors to help them navigate relationship conflicts. There are three things you can do at home to help your children work better together and to help them navigate conflict.

When the warm, lazy days of summer are over  it is time to get back to an actual bedtime. Transitioning from a summer schedule to a school routine can be challenging. Getting back into a normal sleep pattern is often the most difficult.  However, it is also so important for learning. Research says that sleep deprivation can impair cognitive function, slower processing speeds, and a lack of focus. These are all things that will cause difficulty especially in a school setting. Here are some tips you can use to help families respect their bodies and brains by getting proper rest.

Caring for others is an important character trait, and a learned skill. One wonderful way to promote a culture of kindness in your home is to write letters to one another and to others outside of the house.

Provide students an opportunity to discuss the impact of spreading the warmth of caring to others in the world.