This is the period in every year when time goes racing by.  There are so many activities, holidays and celebrations during this period, that one doesn't have time to catch a breath between each one.   In spite of a schedule that doesn't want to let up, I try to force myself outside as often as possible to get that all important walk in.  Just a few hours a week and its amazing how it can clear my head and help me think more clearly, not to mention the benefits it gives a body that sits in front of a computer every day.  The crisp days provide a beautiful panorama of yellows, golds, browns and reds contrasted against a blue and sometimes white sky.  The continued beauty repeating itself year in and year out provides a sense of stability in a world that often moves too fast. 

We have been concerned for our children again this year as our televisions, newspapers and radios fill us with the details of horrific acts of terror on the East Coast and around the world.  While we need to keep abreast of the news, it is important that our children feel safe and secure.  This is a time to take special interest in how your children are acting and what they are watching.  Even though they may be thousands of miles away or around the globe from these incidents, they do impact a child's sense of security.  You can help your child by explaining honestly what is happening in your own words.  Take a break from television, play games, read and talk with your children.  More than ever, they need to feel that you are there for them.    

Many thanks to each of you who continue to support and encourage our endeavors.  May this time of changing seasons inspire you to make little changes in your daily routine that benefit children and students.  Have a wonderful, restful month. 

e-Tutor Lessons for the Season 

Primary

• Months of the Year - October
• Pumpkin Time
• The Autumn

Intermediate

• Halloween Night
• Skeleton
• A Ghostly Tale
• Photosynthesis and Why Leaves Change Color
• Trick or Teat! The History of Halloween

New Lessons at e-Tutor:

High School                                                                                   

• Modern Day Farming
• Developing Wetlands Habitats
• Flour Power
• Problems Involving Percent
• Percent of a Number
• Associative Property of Addition and Multiplication
• Distributive Property
• Scientific Notation I
• Scientific Notation II
• Volume - Cylinders
• Tailor-Made Crops
• Grains of Truth
• Solving Problems Using Equations

Middle/Junior High

• The Rice Plant: Growth

New lessons are added on a regular basis.

Truth can stand by itself .

Thomas Jefferson

Finding Time ~
Helping Your Child Succeed

Research studies show that when parents are involved in their child's education,  there is a marked improvement not only in academic achievement but also in the child's attitudes toward learning.  Finding uninterrupted time to help your child can be difficult, however.  So here are some ideas for taking advantage of the time you have:

• Turn waiting time into reading time.  While sitting in the doctor's office or waiting for some other appointment, read a book to your child.
• As you run errands, discuss what has happened during the child's day.  Ask your child to tell you about a book he or she has read.  Point out street signs and safety information.
• While watching a TV program together, discuss the show.  Ask what your child liked best about the program.  Compare the program to others the child enjoys.  How is this show like those?  How is it different?
• While grocery shopping, as your child to find familiar words on signs and product displays.  Discuss unfamiliar words. 
• As you cook, ask your child to help you follow the directions in a recipe.  Discuss what might happen if you added more of one ingredient than the recipe called for or if you skipped a step. 
• When sorting laundry, ask your child to help by placing dark clothes in one pile and whites in another.  When putting clean clothes away, have your child match socks or sort underwear by size. 
• Invite your child to hand you tools while you work on the family car or make a minor repair around thee house.  Talk about each chore as you complete it.  Explain what you are doing and why.   Be sure that your child understands its importance to the family.

Finding time to do one more thing in a busy day is never easy.  But by making the most of the time you have, you can make a big difference in your child's attitude toward school and learning. 

Invitations to Literacy, Houghton Mifflin

The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing. 

Socrates

Discover the Library ~ 
An Information Center

Perhaps you think the library is a place where a matron sits behind a desk, peering over horn-rimmed glasses, whispering "shhhh" every time someone opens his mouth.  Maybe you think a patron only gets up from his seat when he wants to pull another dusty, old book off the shelf or leave the library for the day....Well think again.

 Librarians are no longer just keepers of the books and the peace;  they now are likely to be highly educated media specialists trained to assist visitors with research, book selections and use of the varied library equipment and resources.  Libraries are no longer just places to store books and periodicals;  they contain vast amounts of information which also are available on computer disks, videocassettes, microfilm and microfiche.  Most librarians are experts in the use of various computer software and the Internet which establishes a vital link to resources across the world.  

Parents can encourage children to see the library as a valuable resource.  Your child should possess a library card and be familiar with the local library.  Most libraries have a good selection of youth books.  Offer guidance in the selection of appropriate materials, but let your child have the final say in what he/she wants to take out.  Even if a book seems too easy, too difficult or on a topic which does not interest you, remember that wanting to read is the most important thing. 

Suggest that your child become accustomed to using the card catalog and computer terminals which categorize publications by subject, author and title.  The computers will show whether a particular book is available or checked out or if it can be found at a nearby library.  Many libraries are part of consortiums which share borrowing privileges with each other's patrons.  

Remember to take out a book or two yourself;  let your child know that reading is a pursuit that does not end when a person's school days are over.  Promoting the use of the library for your child will head him on a path of a pleasurable activity which should continue into adulthood. 

Adapted from The Community Link

Parents As Teachers - Learning With Everyday Activities

• Use household objects, or word and board games, flash cards,  and jigsaw puzzles to teach your children shapes, colors, numbers and letters.
• Have your children write letters to relatives and friends.
• Encourage your children to paint, draw, sing and dance.
• Have your children count the number of steps from floor to floor.
• Teach your children to care for their own money.
• Let your children plan, plant and take care of a garden or flower box.
• Let children help in the kitchen and workshop.
• Teach your children the meaning of concepts such as "up." "down," "in" and "out."

• Teach your children how to score sporting events.

Monroe, North Carolina Public Schools

When a friend speaks to me, whatever he says is interesting. 

Jean Renoir

Phonics

Phonics refers to the alphabetical principles that describe the relationships between the sounds and printed letters and symbols of language.  English sounds can be coded in letters and letter combinations because there is a degree of consistency in English and its spelling patterns.  It is important for students to recognize and make use of these consistencies.  It is equally important to develop their awareness of irregularities to this sound-letter code as evidenced in the pronunciations and spellings of many English words.  

The ultimate goals of phonics instruction is to enable students to apply various phonics generalizations during reading and writing.  However, reading involves a complex process of obtaining meaning from print.  The purpose for reading and the format of the printed materials form the readers' expectation for what is read and begins the process of seeking meaning from the print.  Readers work from the meaning of the printed message to identification of individual words, word structures or parts and letters.  Entire sentences frequently determine the meaning, spelling and pronunciation of the words within them.  The process of writing begins with ideas and an awareness of what is to be communicated in print before specific words, letters and sounds are considered by the writer.  

You can help your child by:

• Using the same encouragement you used in fostering your child's speech development to support reading and writing development.
• Trusting and believing in your child's ability to be a successful reader and writer.  Instill confidence and self-esteem by commenting on strengths and minimizing weaknesses.
• Demonstrating the importance of language by sharing daily reading and writing tasks with your child such as writing notes, cards, letters, shopping lists and reading newspapers, telephone books, food labels, advertisements, maps and television guides.
• Supporting your child's curiosity about printed language by encouraging reading and writing efforts.
• Responding to your child's invented spellings with encouragement as such "inventions" test children's hypotheses about how the writing system works.  Excessive criticism of spelling mistakes can intensify their anxiety about writing.
• Reading to your child daily.  As children listen to stories, they expand their vocabularies and internalize book language which helps them learn to read.  You child should also be encouraged to read to you.  

Adapted from Saskatchewan Department of Education, Canada

The Person Who Plays the Game..... 

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

Ace the ACT and SAT

The SAT and ACT are the most talked-about exams among high school students.  And for good reason....1.26 million students took the SATs last fall and 1.7 million  braved the ACTs in 2001.  Your child or student can become a standardized-test whiz with these ten tips.

1. Don't stop for directions. 
   Have your timing strategy down.  Take as many practice tests as you can.  Read the directions carefully so you can skip them during the real thing and move on to more point-procuring activities.   

2. Start at the beginning.
   You'll find that questions start easy and get tougher as the test continues.  Get hose easy questions out of the way and finish longer questions later.  Don't spend too much time on a tough question.  Plan instead to revisit it after the easier questions are answered.

3. Take a class.
   If you need more help than practice exams provide, consider an SAT or ACT preparation program.  Preparation classes teach you strategy, such as learning definitions by association and context.

4. Become a thesaurus.
   Cram your brain with strategies, but don't leave knowledge building completely ignored.  Building vocabulary is a gradual process.  Surrounding yourself with decent literature can help, so read as often as you can. 

5. Learn how you will be graded.
   If you do absolutely nothing on the SAT but mark your name, you will get 200 points on each section...40 points total.  Answer an SAT question incorrectly and you will receive negative points...either a minus third or fourth of a point.  Answer correctly and it's plus one for you.  Leave it blank and nothing happens.  On both tests, guess an answer only if you are able to narrow the possibilities.  Randomly guessing won't help, as you are likely to guess wrongly as you are to answer it correctly.

6. Guinea-pig section.
   There are seven sections on the SAT, three math and three verbal and an extra section of either math or vocabulary questions that are used to test possible future SAT questions.  Concentrate on all the test sections equally; no one knows which section is the experimental one. 

7. Send your scores.
   The College Board will send your SAT scores to the colleges you will indicate on the test.  The ACT lets you review your scores before sending them (or not) to your prospective schools. 

8. Take it over.
   If you do poorly, but are usually a stellar student, call the universities to which your scores were sent to learn their policies on retakes.  Each school decides its own policy.  Most often a school will average the score of your original and any take-over tests to figure a new composite score.  Decide whether or not to retake the test depending on the weight your prospective school places on the tests.  

9. Don't stress out too much.
   Colleges know there is ore to you than the exam.  Standardized tests won't necessarily make or break your college career.  More important than standardized testing can be portfolios, extracurricular activities, community involvement and your overall academic track record.  

10. Ignore these common myths.

    • If you don't do well, you are stupid.

    • You can tell which part if the SAT is the non-graded guinea-pig section.

    • Cramming works.

    • If you score badly on the SAT or ACT, your future is toast.

SAT, ACT practice tests can be found at:
Kaplan Practice Tests  and Princeton Review.

Adapted from Next Step, May/June 2002

Page 4

He who never walks except where he sees other men's tracks will make no discoveries. 

Attention Deficit Disorder

Does your child often fail to pay attention to you or seem to be easily distracted?  Have trouble staying with a task until it's completed?  Engage in physically dangerous activities without thinking of the consequences:  Or run around, chase or climb on things excessively?  

If your child displays these behaviors in a way that is inappropriate for his age, you may need to be alert to the possibility of an Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).   ADD is a term for certain youngsters who speak out and act out at the wrong times, who can't seem to pay attention and who frequently can't even sit still.  No one really knows what causes ADD and no medical, biological or other laboratory test can diagnose it.  Rather, it is discovered by careful attention to symptoms.

This is a condition that is growing exponentially among our school age children.  Here are some behaviors to look for:

• Inattention and distractibility.  ADD children have difficulty remaining with a task and focusing attention on it in comparison to their same-age peers.  Additionally, they have difficulty screening out distracting events in their environment as they attempt to pay attention. 
• Impulsiveness.  Such children have trouble following rules, weighting the consequences of their actions and planning future actions.  They may know the rule and be able to explain it to you, but are unable to control their actions and think before they act.
• Difficulty delaying rewards.  Their difficulty working toward a long-term goal results in most tasks being left unfinished.  
• Over arousal.  A large percentage of these children tend to be excessively restless and overactive, a characteristic especially noted when they are required to sit still for periods of time.  They are more likely to express extremes of emotion and become frustrated easily, often over minor incidents. 

If your child exhibits several of these behaviors, a complete physical examination is a good idea to rule out other possible causes.  For example, physical ailments such as ear infections or allergies can decrease a child's ability to pay attention.  However, if you suspect your child has ADD, it is important that you seek professional assistance.  While the disorder can't be "cured'" it can be treated.  On the other hand, children who are not treated are more likely to suffer academic and social problems that may persist into adulthood.  

Neurology, Learning and Behavior Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
Sam Goldstein, Ph.D. and Michael Goldstein, M.D. 

Time

Time is an equal opportunity employer.  Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day.  Rich people can't buy more hours.  Scientists can't invent new minutes.  And you can't save time to spend it on another day.  Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving.  No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow.  Success depends upon using it wisely...by planning and setting priorities.  The fact is, time is worth more than money, and by killing time, we are killing our own chances for success.

The Joy of Working, Denis Waitley

Page 5

Success is a marathon, not a sprint.

Outstanding October Links!

Mark Twain:    Read about the film and Twain's life at this PBS site.  Take a behind-the-scenes look at the production, check out activities, selected Twain writings and a chronology of the writer's life. 
http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/

Flood Facts:  This site uses interactive activities to teach children about severe weather, particularly flooding.  Children can play games and tackle puzzles that teach flood preparedness, severe weather safety and weather-related terminology. 
http://www.floodfacts.com/ 

Chestnut Tree Program: Students learn about the American chestnut tree, it's historical rise as a major economic engine and its demise as it succumbed to the Asian blight.  They learn about trees, forest ecology and wildlife connections. 
http://www.charliechestnut.org/

Misunderstood Minds:  This site was designed to teach parents, students and educators about children with learning disabilities. Interactive features are intended to put some perspective on the way these children actually feel.  The site also includes information about how to help children who experience these problems.  
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/misunderstoodminds/

Science Knows No Boundaries:  This U.S. Department of Agriculture gives students a chance to explore the use of science throughout the world.  The site includes interactive slide shows designed to explain how the scientists come about their findings.  It also includes a section where young scientists can quiz themselves on what they know and research information about different scientific careers.  
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/globalscitech/index.html

Imagine Mars:  The prospect of life on Mars has fascinated scientists and researchers for year.  This site encourages K-12 students to consider what life would be like on the red planet and encourages them to take part in designing a mock society for its first 100 residents.  
http://imaginemars.jpl.nasa.gov/index1.html

Comic Elements:  Superheroes often got their powers as a result of chemical changes.  Now it's comic books that are behind the Periodic Table of Elements.  Click on an element and you can see that element used in a comic book.
http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/  

The Superfine Feline:  From the saber-toothed tiger to Socks the Cat, felines have been prowling the planet for millions of years.  And they haven't changed much in all that time! Learn the science behind the world's most glamorous predators.. 
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/cats/

Enjoy this Month!

From the Staff at Strategic Studies Corporation

 
Copyright © 2002  Strategic Studies Corp.
http://www.strategicstudies.com