As a teacher and a mother, September brought homework back to the forefront for Pain Specialist and Yoga Instructor Ginny Hamilton. How do we make the time to keep our commitments to our own needs and growth? Doing our Homework, in this month’s Off the Mat: Reflections on the Practice of Parenting.
Speaking to teenagers’ desire for freedom, The Homeschool Liberation League chronicles a young teen’s quest for educational independence. Teaching readers about nontraditional education and the importance of relying on friends, family, and community when engaging in self-directed studies, the story promotes self confidence and educational independence in teens.
Listen to our podcast anytime! Our Back to School Episode includes music by Milkshake, Chuck Berry, Tom Paxton, Barenaked Ladies, Imagination Movers, and many other great musicians sing about all topics of school! Even Bill Harley is featured with a great story, “The Teacher’s Lounge.” Great classic episode!
S.D. Nelson’s “Buffalo Bird Girl” tells the story of a young Hidatsa girl, following her through a year’s worth of seasonal change and detailing the activities that take place in her life based upon the changes taking place in the natural world. Helping readers learn about Native American culture, the story presents families with information that challenges them to compare their own lives to those of members of the Hidatsa tribe – and accompanying hands-on activities offer experiential learning centered around local Native American culture.
Running all summer, our highly popular and comprehensive series of literary guides are written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England. They are designed to enrich the reading experience of your child. Each week a new book is featured.
This week’s book is for 5th graders and for kids at middle school level, and it’s a literary treat of intrigue and mystery! “When You Reach Me,” by Rebecca Stead is one giant enigma built upon clever riddles, as it covers two children interacting with Manhattan. The literary guide hones in on maximizing the developmental skills of detail tracking, note-taking, supporting inferences with evidence, and building a system of connections as the story progresses.
The literary guides have proven to be popular this summer. Read on to see how you can further develop your child’s reading experience with these wonderful guides!
Running all summer, our highly popular and comprehensive series of literary guides are written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England. They are designed to enrich the reading experience of your child. Each week a new book is featured.
This week we have a peach of a read called “Alec’s Primer,” by Mildred Pitts Walter. It’s a true story of freedom that spends time just up the road in Grafton, Vermont. It’s an inspiring narrative of perseverance and the spirit of self-education. The literary guide will direct you to enable your elementary school age children to explore themes of freedom, slavery and the Civil War. In addition to supporting place-based studies of the Civil War and the abolition movement, a reading of the book can spark discussion on topics such as what it means to be free, the ethics of restricting access to knowledge, courage, determination, and strength.
Our summer series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience, and mobilize critical thinking.
This week’s guide looks at local author Mordicai Gerstein and her book “The Mountains of Tibet.” The subject covers critical thinking with regard to topics such as religion and reincarnation. Children will consider different cultures and their belief systems, and critically analyse similarities and differences they may notice, in relation to themselves. Needless to say this is a stimulating exercise for kids- especially for third graders and older.
Our series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience. A quality outlook to your child’s reading releases so much in terms of a child’s reading and sophisticated interpretation of themes.
This week Jeanne Birdsall’s “The Penderwicks” is set in the Berkshires and covers the adventures of four daughters and their eccentric dad while on a quirky vacation. The text drives critical thinking and theme connection and is suitable for those kids ages 10-11. The guide provides direction on how to maximize this wonderful reading experience! Download it now for free!
Our summer series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience, and mobilize critical thinking.
This week’s guide helps us navigate William Steig’s “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble” under the banner of ‘be careful what you wish for.’ The illustrations offer first and second graders challenges to find clues linking to the overall narrative, and a wealth of new words to discover. They’ll also be inspired to construct that verbally watertight wish (we’ve all done it!) and to imagine where it could take them. Literally an inspiring read that will enrich your child’s literary development.
Our summer series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience, and mobilize critical thinking.
This week’s lit guide to Arthur Dorros’ story, “Abuela,” inspires young readers to connect to Hispanic culture, learn Spanish phrases and also to recognize illustrative patterns. The great concept of ‘journey’ is also open to exploration.
Read on and see how “Abuela” can lead your child’s literary development!
Our series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience. A quality outlook to your child’s reading unlocks so much in terms of a child’s learning and ability to build theme connections. This week’s guide covers a topic a bit light on the cover, a firefighting cat, but has a lot of relatable themes.
“The Fire Cat” by Esther Averill is designed for 2nd grade students and while a bit unrealistic in terms of the subject matter (a cat who works in a fire station,) it contains many relatable themes such as how to come to term with what skills you have, and how to fit into society. Big questions right there! The writing style lends itself to greater phonetic development.
Read on and see how Pickles the cat can lead your child’s literary development!
Every time a child picks up a book, they gain so much in terms of literary enrichment through development of vocabulary and critical thinking, and much more. Our series of literary guides written by graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England are designed to maximize your child’s reading experience. This week’s guide covers a topic familiar to so many people from so many perspectives: the relationships between siblings when growing up.
“My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother” by Patricia Polacco outlines the dynamic between a younger sister and older brother in a family still steeped in Ukrainian culture, from their immigrant background. It looks at sibling relationships and explores the concept of family through a different lens. It’s an enriching summer read that will help your children draw upon their own observations and experiences and match them up with the themes in the book. The educational guide gives pointers on setting the scene for a reading connection between you and your child.
Summer is the perfect reading season, and we’re making literary guides available for you to encourage your child to expand and deepen their reading experience. Each guide contains a featured book with guidelines in how to stimulate critical thinking.
This week’s book is Elly Mackay’s “If You Hold a Seed” covers the author’s experience with pregnancy and her core desire for growth. Pre-discussion with your child can help sharpen their experience before they start to read and connect to the themes of growth.
Maximizing a literary engagement experience is a crucial tool in a child’s development. Like the featured book, you can really explore the theme of growth through these guides.
Our Summer Reading Resource series is coming to a close with our seventh and final installment, Astrid Lindgren’s “Ronia, The Robber’s Daughter.” The accompanying literature guide is written for 4th grade students with lessons and exercises in finding context clues and understanding characters. The guide also includes a rich list of questions to ponder for each chapter in the story…
“Make Way for Ducklings,” written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey, is our featured title this week in our Summer Reading Resource series. This downloadable literature guide, written for use with 1st & 2nd grade students, includes outlines for activities that call for readers to create their own list of rhyming family names, write a new adventure for the Mallard family, and gain practice reading aloud. The guide also includes suggestions for post-reading discussions about the historical context of the story, the book’s illustrations, protecting animals, and the relationship that animals have with humans when they live so close to each other…
This week as part of our Literature Guide Series, “Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse” is featured. The literature guide accompanying the story includes lesson plans for helping children use the book as a platform for expanding their understanding of descriptive language and developing their skills in summarizing a text. The guide also includes questions for pre-reading discussion, and a list of possible topics to discuss after reading to help children understand the story and learn from it…
Our Summer Reading Resource Literary Guide series continues this week with Kate Banks’ book, “Max’s Words,” illustrated by Boris Kulikov. The literature guide provided for “Max’s Words” is written for six- and seven-year-old first graders, but the activities – which focus mainly on defining words and creating connections to text – could easily be used with students of any elementary age. There are mini-lesson outlines for activities that can be done to encourage young students to make text-to-text and text-to-self connections during and after reading, an exercise that helps students to make what they have read meaningful and to extract themes from a text…
Our Summer Reading Resource Literary Guide series continues this week with Roald Dahl classic, “Danny the Champion of the World.” The literature guide is written with 4th grade students in mind, but the story can be easily read and appreciated by younger students who have begun reading chapter books… a fun book for bedtime read-aloud time or to absorb aurally on CD during summer travel!
Our Summer Reading Resource literary guide series continues this week with Western Massachusetts author Mo Willems’ “City Dog, Country Frog.” This downloadable literary guide pairs Willems’ book with suggestions for ways to help children expand their thinking, create connections to the text, and allow their literacy skills to grow. Download the guide while finding out about other opportunities in Western MA to supplement studies via Mo Willems’ “City Dog, Country Frog.”
Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen, Illustrated by Barbara Cooney Our new Summer Reading Resource series will be featured here on Hilltown Families every week throughout the end of August, sharing downloadable guides of children’s literature from graduate students in the Integrated Learning teacher preparation program at Antioch University New England. Each literary guide pairs a featured book with suggestions for ways to help children expand their thinking, create connections to… Read More
This week we take a look at PBS LearningMedia, a free online digital media service for preK-12 educators (formal & informal). PBS Learning Media provides a wide variety of educational resources to help curious families expand their learning with extensive content, presented in the form of videos, still images, games, audio clips, rich text, and lesson plans, covering a wide array of topics…
End of the School Year Gratitude & Appreciation End of the school year is fast approaching and many families are looking for creative ways to express their gratitude of the teachers and administrators that educate and support their children throughout the school year! Gift ideas can range from making something from scratch in your kitchen, to pairing up store bought sweets for a fun association that expresses your appreciation, to a summer… Read More
Listen to Podcast: Back to School Episode Saturday from 9-10am Original Broadcast: August 20th, 2008 WXOJ LP – 103.3 FM – Valley Free Radio Northampton, MA New Podcasts ♦ Archived Podcasts ♦ Subscribe to Podcast Radio ♦ Facebook ♦ Twitter PLAYLIST Imagination Movers – “First Day of School” [Juice Box Heroes] Ernie & Neal – “Pre-School Punk” [Rock the House] Milkshake – “School” [Bottle of Sunshine] Adam and the Couch Potatoes – “Go to… Read More
QUESTION AND ANSWERS Are there subjects/topics you wish schools WOULD teach your kids? How about ones you wish they WOULDN’T? Laura Hoffman replies, “I’m beside myself that they are choosing not to teach cursive anymore…” Tonya Lemos replies, “Wish they did carpentry, more geography and less history… or maybe different history…don’t get me going on this topic!” Soma DiNicola replies, “They should teach sign language.” Jackie Amuso Dolby replies, “I just wish… Read More
QUESTION AND ANSWERS Lori Peters writes, “My son is kindergarten age next year and I am thinking about school options. I know that kindergarten isn’t mandatory in Massachusetts and I am wondering if anyone has tried an alternative program. Are there part-time kindergarten programs in the area? I work full-time so home schooling for that year isn’t a great option. I would love some feedback.” Holly Alexander recommends, “Our son goes to… Read More
Back to reality? Not yet I have been spoiled this summer. I took a five-day family trip to Alabama. I’ve been to Hampton Beach twice for day trips and took a brief road trip to Cape Cod to pick up a sea- and homesick 12-year-old boy. I’ve spent a few days enjoying my childhood vacation haunt, York Beach, Maine, with my mom, sister, our kids, plus one extra (he’s like one of… Read More
Baby, it’s cold (and snowy) outside O.K. Enough already! When there is too much snow to even snowshoe in the Berkshires, I’d say we’ve had enough. But as I sit here writing this column, taking periodic glances at The Weather Channel app on my iPhone, it is clear that Mother Nature doesn’t agree with me. It seems she’ll be dumping enough snow on us this week to last through to the month… Read More
The Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School in Haydenville, MA writes: The Hilltown Cooperative Charter Public School (HCCPS) is joining the Smith College Department of Education and Child Study and the Smith College Campus School in sponsoring the screening of the important film, “Race to Nowhere” on Sunday Jan, 30 at 3:30 pm in Wright Hall on the campus of Smith College (33 Prospect Street) in Northampton, MA. A discussion will follow the… Read More
Listen Now Back-to-School Episode Saturday from 9-10am & Sunday from 7-8am September 11th & 12th, 2010 WXOJ LP – 103.3 FM – Valley Free Radio Northampton, MA Featured Video: Our friends over at Boston Children’s Music turned us on to this new video, “Bookmobile Submarine” by John Hadfield. Podcasts ♦ Radio ♦ Archives ♦ Subscribe ♦ Myspace ♦ Facebook ♦ Twitter PLAYLIST Chuck Berry – “School Day” [His Best, Volume 1] Imagination… Read More
Dads’ 10 Tips for the New School Year By Joe Kelly Our children and stepchildren are starting the new school year. Dads & Stepdads are a valuable resource for kids in school. Here are a few simple tips to help you help them get the most out of this year (pronouns alternate because we dads have both girls & boys): 1. Listen to what’s happening. If she’s stressed or upset about cliques,… Read More