Our eldest heads back to school today and the primary school kids start back at the end of this week. Quite sad to see the end of summer holidays.

So as the kids head back to school, in today’s post I have a collection of resources that parents can use to help support their kids learning.

1. Blanks Levels Of Questioning

This post was a guest post from Julie who now blogs at The Useful Box. Julie is a speech pathologist and mother of three. You can find out more about Julie at the end of the post, where you will also find links to excellent articles she has written on childhood speech and language development.

In her post Blanks Levels Of Questioning – Stimulating Children’s Language Development Julie goes through the ages of kids from 2 until 5 and has suggestions for questions you can use to get them talking.

2. 10 Preschooler Early Learning Activities You Can Plan Into Your Day

This post was written in my first 6 months of blogging! I list very simple ways you can encourage learning with your kids and fit it into your usual day.

10 Preschooler Early Learning Activities You Can Plan Into Your Day also has a number of links to external sites that give overviews of basic early learning concepts.

3. Teaching Number Recognition To Preschoolers

Where possible when I am working with our kids on numeracy or literacy I try to make it fun and pretty much so they don’t even know I am trying to teach them. Teaching Number Recognition To Preschoolers (So they don’t know you are doing it!) gives you easy examples of how you can do it with your preschooler.

4. How To Create A Preschool Writing Box

There is a lot of steps that come before kids actually get to full blown writing. In this post How To Create A Preschool Writing Box I have Pre-writing Practice Worksheets you can download and list other items you might like to have available for your preschooler.

5. School Starting Age – Latest Research On Australian Children

This post receives quite a bit of search engine traffic, as it is an issue fretted over my many parents at some stage (including me!). School Starting Age – Latest Research On Australian Children doesn’t tell you what is the right decision for your child, but provides info on what is the starting age for each state and a summary of the latest research in Australia.

In a follow up post I share our personal experience with deciding what age to start school.

6. Setting Your Child up for “Success”

I really like this post from Kathy Walker. Setting Your Child up for “Success” is not about flash cards or rote learning but places emphasis on communication and self expression, good problem solving skills and resilience.

7. War and Peace or Comic Books?

This video is the perfect reminder that reading and learning should be enjoyable!

8. Writing and Spelling: Practical Ideas for Parents

Reading Rockets is a fabulous resource for parents, so if you have some time, do check out what it has to offer. Writing and Spelling: Practical Ideas for Parents gives ideas for activities and strategies you can use to help your child with spelling.

9. VELS Level 1 – Prep Year at School

The Victorian Essential Learning Standards is the Prep to Year 10 Curriculum for Victorian schools. Other states would have something similar. It is helpful as a parent to be aware of what the learning focus is for your child through out the year.

VELS Level 1 – Prep are Literacy, numeracy, interpersonal development, physical wellbeing and the arts. The table below shows where standards are set for assessment and reporting in the Prep year. Standards are set in these areas only because these are the highest priority for learning at this level. Schools devote more time to these areas since they have been set as a priority at Prep.

10. State Education Department Resources

The Education Departments of each state have dedicated sections for parents on their websites. Some are better than others, but I have listed the most useful aspects of each around the country:

• Victoria – Parent Update – a newsletter you can subscribe to which keeps you up to date with education issues in your state.
• NSW – School A to Z app – a very handy free app, that is useful for all parents even if you aren’t in NSW.
• QLD – schools + parents – subscribe to receive information about initiatives and issues that impact schools and students across all education sectors in QLD.
• SA – Parents & Community – general info for parents.
• TAS – Every Day Matters! – A free booklet you can download and is written for parents of young children starting school. It includes tips to help your child settle into school life, as well as information about what a “typical day” might be for your child in Kindergarten, Prep and Grade 1.
• WA – Parent Newsletter – a newsletter you can subscribe to which keeps you up to date with education issues in your state.
• NT – Stages of Schooling – a dwonloadable document overviewing the Learning Environment and the Learner Characteristics for each stage at school.
• ACT – Parents and School Community – general info for parents.

If you have any resources that you use or have written about on your blog, feel free to leave a link in the comments!

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Back To School – Parent Resources is a post from: Planning With Kids

Firstly notice that the heading of this post says “Keeping The House Tidy”. It doesn’t say perfect or spotless! To be honest I don’t think it is possible to do that when you have kids home, nor do I really want it to be that like.

What I do want though, is the house in state that doesn’t drive me crazy. I like it to be tidy, but in a way that the kids can still feel free to create, play and relax and enjoy their holidays.

Here are some things we do to try and achieve this balance:

Adjust my standards

I simply need to accept that with 5 kids home full time, the house will not be as tidy as it is during the school term. It will only be that tidy if I spend almost every waking moment working on it to be that way. That is not how I want to spend the school holidays.

Dust pan and brush

By accepting that there will be more mess, there are also some tools I can use to make sure the kids clean up after themselves. Having a child sized dust pan and brush easily accessible, so they can clean up after themselves works really well.

Wipe up cloths

The mess kids make are not always dry, so having small cloths available as well is important.

Start fresh each day

During school holidays we still stick to most of night time routine. Having a clean slate each day is better for my piece of mind and also reinforces to the kids that this is the way the house should look.

Rotate morning/afternoon tea duties including clean up

During the holidays, we share the responsibility for making and cleaning up after morning and afternoon tea. It is shared amongst myself and all school aged children. This is a great thing to do for a number of reasons – fine motor skills on cutting and preparing food, independence skills and it makes the kids realise the work that goes into preparing food for them to eat.

Eat outside when possible

Food make mess – there is no doubt about that. So when possible, we eat outside. Sometimes it is just morning tea or a picnic lunch in the backyard. All of these help reduce the crumb mess inside the house.

Tidy up before quiet time

Our almost three year old still has an afternoon nap. We use this as our technology time. It helps to keep the house quiet the littlest one sleeps and it allows me to have a moment to myself!

While I read a story to the youngest, the other kids know it is time to tidy up, inside and out. Technology time cannot start until all main living rooms and the main area outside are tidy. This requires team work, as not everyone will have made the mess.

Usual bedroom routines

The younger children need to make their beds and tidy their room each morning before school. The older boys have to completely tidy their room on Wednesday and Sunday. These routines stand even in school holidays. I do find though, that without the usual time checks of school routines, it is very easy for this tidy up not to be completed. I need to be more proactive in making sure these tasks are done during the holidays.

Enforce pack up first before next activity

I do try to always enforce the pack up first before next activity, but it can get away from me. School holidays however can turn to utter mess if I don’t, so I make sure I am more vigilant with keeping an eye on what the kids are pulling out of the cupboards.

Take turns vacuuming

For our kids 8 and up , I think it is appropriate that they have a turn at vacuuming the main living areas of the house during the school holidays. I think this helps them work out that the things they drop on the floor, the crumbs they make, while they may not seem like much to them, when you times that by 5, it can end up making a lot of work!

What tips do you have for keeping the house tidy during school holidays?

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School Holiday Tips – Keeping The House Tidy is a post from: Planning With Kids

When I wrote my first post in January 2008, I had no idea how long I would stick it at it. I have had my fair share of fads that I have started and left unfinished as I lost interest.

I loved blogging from the minute I started and right now am more excited about blogging and its potential than I have ever been. Blogging is now my part time job and but rarely does it feel like work. I love sharing things I have learnt which have made my life easier and love reading your tips and ideas you share with me.

Over the few months there will be some changes to Planning With Kids. I received almost 600 responses to the survey before Christmas and it has given me a wealth of information on how I can improve PWK. Thanks so much to everyone who completed the survey and a very big thank you for all the lovely words and positive feedback you wrote.

To celebrate PWK turning 4, I thought I would delve into the archives and collate some of my favourite posts over this time.

From 2008

• Tea Cup Biscuits – This post was the first post was really shared widely. It still receives search engine traffic every day and has been shared on facebook 493 times.
• Family Meetings – I love family meetings and parents I know who have persevered with having them as part of their family communication strategy all find them a fantastic way to discuss issues and celebrate successes.
• My Typical Day – This post was an answer to a readers email. She asked “I guess I was kind of hoping that you might be able to find the time to sort of throw me together a schedule for an average day for you as a mother of four.” My daily routine has changes slightly now 3 years down the track, but it is still has a similar base routine that I stick to.

From 2009

• Characteristics of Two (and a half) Year Old Behavior – I wrote this post when our fourth child was two and a half and going through a challenging stage. What I loved most about this post was the way it resonated with other parents. I still receive emails from readers (I close off comments after a month to reduce annoying spam) who find this post from search engines and are so relieved to realise that they are not alone in finding this stage in their child’s development challenging.
• Coping With A Baby That Catnaps – 4 out of 5 of our babies went through stages of catnapping. It can be exhausting and drive you slightly crazy as a parent. As with the above post, I loved how this post made readers feel – it was okay if their baby cat napped.
• Creating A Children’s Timetable – Having a time table or schedule for the kids that they help create has been a key strategy of mine to help the kids become responsible for getting themselves ready for school and kinder in the mornings.

From 2010

• Children’s Routines – This post was inspired by a couple of lovely readers Gin and Sarah. They were interested in routines that I have for kids and any charts that I use.
• 10 Things To Do Before You Go To Bed – I have had such lovely feedback from readers about how using the tips in this post has made their mornings with kids more organised and less stressful.
• Getting Organised At Home – I created this post to act as an introductory guide for Planning With Kids. It takes you through they key tips, templates and processes that we have used to help simplify and add fun to our family life. It is the page you land on when you click on the “Where To Start” tab in the navigation bar. It is one of the most popular pages on the blog.

From 2011

• Budget Basics – Boring topic, but many readers have successful used our budgeting system, or tweaked it and created their own and it has helped them regain control of their finances.
• Challenging Behaviour – This post was also answering a question from a reader. As I note in the post, I am not a child behaviour specialist. My suggestions come from the reading I have done and the practical experience of being a parent over the last 12 years.
• Our Big Family Story – This is not my big family story, but the big family story from a wonderful family I know. Katie kindly shared her journey as a mother of eight beautiful kids.

Thanks for reading Planning With Kids and for the ongoing support of the blog. If you have a particular post from the blog that you like or would like to share the post that you found this blog through I would love to read about it! Feel free to leave a comment below, this will also help new readers find some older posts they may not have read yet.

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Planning With Kids Turns 4!!! is a post from: Planning With Kids