Phonics Plus Five Blog

A Goodbye That Is Really A Welcome

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 19:06:34 +0000

I am delighted to tell you that our programs are expanding and we have now are offering the reading materials as an online reading program at www.readingkingdom.com. You can continue to purchase Phonics Plus Five reading kit from this site, but it is also available, along with additional reading materials, at the Reading Kingdom online store. So this will be my last entry on this blog. But it is by no means the end of my blogging. I am now blogging at the Reading Kingdom. http://readingkingdom.com/blog/ Hope to see you there.

A School That Welcomes Gender Differences

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:10:22 +0000

For decades, observers have commented on the way in which school practices are geared for girls rather than boys. For example, schools are based on a child sitting for long periods of time and girls tend to be more willing and able to meet that demand. Issues like these are thought to be related to the fact that boys are more likely to be medicated for attention problems and learning disorders, and more likely to be held back or disciplined for behavior problems.

Now a school in California is planning to make major changes into practices that have for so long been the mainstay of most classrooms.

Some Puns for the Holiday

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:28:04 +0000

July Fourth is rightly celebrated with some serious commentary on the invaluable role of liberty in our lives. But that is no reason for not celebrating the holiday with a few jokes as well. Like the following:

How is a healthy person like the United States?
They both have good constitutions!

What quacks, has webbed feet, and betrays his country?
Beneduck Arnold!

What kind of tea did the American colonists thirst for?
Liberty

Child Rearing: An Expensive Proposition

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:11:58 +0000

A recent report from the US Department of Agriculture offers some eye popping statistics on the costs of raising a child. Based on a study of 11,800 husband-wife families and 3,350 single-parent households, the price tag for middle class parents on raising one child through the age of 17 is $222,360. And those costs have been steadily rising. For example, adjusted for 2009 dollars, middle-income parents in 1960 spent a total of $182,857

College Education and the Job Market: Change is in the Air

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 01:11:12 +0000

Any parent faced with the challenges of funding higher education for their child will find important information in a new report recently released by Georgetown University that is titled Help Wanted: Projection of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018.

It is generally accepted that more future jobs will require advanced education. For example, in 1973, nine percent of jobs required a bachelor’s degree. By 2018, that figure is expected to be 23 percent. But the report finds that colleges are not doing enough to prepare their students for the projected workforce.

Handwriting Skyrockets with a Helping Hand

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 18:34:03 +0000

"I supported Emily's wrist for her homework and her writing was best we've seen."

That was the happy message in a recent email I received from a parent of an eight year old. The family had come to see me about a range of reading and writing problems that the child had been experiencing since kindergarten. Like so many other families, they were delighted and amazed at how easy it was to achieve smooth handwriting.

For Some, Spelling Is A Scourge

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:26:50 +0000

A couple of days ago, I commented about the National Spelling Bee and the pleasure some get from having to spell esoteric words whose letters and pronunciation seem to have little, if any, discernible relationship.

Now it seems appropriate to mention their opposite number who, while not in the auditorium, were nevertheless on the scene. They took the form of a tiny group of activists who gathered outside the National Spelling Bee. Their goal: phonetic spelling.

Some People Really Do Like to Spell

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 11:57:45 +0000

Lots of people have been plagued by the vagaries of English spelling. But for spelling buffs, that is precisely what they find attractive about the language.

This week, these unusual folks had a chance to immerse themselves in their favorite activity via the popular Scripps National Spelling Bee contest. And the winner? Fourteen year-old Anamika Veeramani from Ohio who won by spelling the word "stromuhr" correctly. Wondering what that set of letters might mean?

Facts You Probably Don't Know, Don't Need to Know--But Still They Are Fun

Thu, 27 May 2010 14:24:00 +0000

According to Illinois state law, it is illegal to speak English. The officially recognized language is "American."

Widow is the only female form in the English language that is shorter than its corresponding male term (widower).

Victor Hugo's Les Miserable contains one of the longest sentences in the French language 823 words without a period.

Pesticides and Attentional Problems

Wed, 19 May 2010 16:58:19 +0000

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a condition which now affects three to seven percent of school-aged children, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That is an astronomically large number of children.

Now a report from the HealthDay Reporter indicates that exposure to high levels of pesticides, commonly found on berries, celery and other produce, could raise the odds for children developing this condition.

Location, Location, Location--Knowing Your Way Around

Mon, 17 May 2010 20:21:03 +0000

A while back, I wrote about the amazing directional skills of London cab drivers. To be eligible for that job, drivers have to know, without having to refer to any maps or devices such as GPS, the location of every single street in their very large and complicated city. The benefit for passengers is enormous--since they can feel confident in relying on a driver getting them smoothly and accurately to any and all destinations. There is another benefit as well. Development of this skill leads to measurable changes in brain activity

Now there is another study from England--but this one represents the "other side of the spectrum." It seems that a fifth of children now have no idea where they live - because they no longer walk to school.

Family Life in the 21st Century

Tue, 11 May 2010 14:21:45 +0000

In a column on May 10th in the New York Times, columnist Ross Douthat offered some interesting information that, in one way or another, applies to all of us. Titled Red Family, Blue Family, Douthat starts by stating that "Fifty years ago, American family structures were remarkably uniform. The rich married at roughly the same rate as the poor and middle class. Divorce rates were low for the college educated and high school graduates alike. Out-of-wedlock births, while more common among African-Americans, were rare in almost every region and community."

And now???

Spelling: The Tip of the "Visual" Iceberg

Sun, 02 May 2010 15:55:57 +0000

Last week, a parent raised one of the queries that I regularly receive about spelling. Specifically, her question was, " I am curious to know if you have any insight about my son's spelling errors. He is in fourth grade and on his spelling test, which he practices for all week, he spells many words phonetically, but incorrectly. Examples are mixing up -ie and -ei; also -le, -el, -al endings as well as the -ant and -ent endings."

Actually, many parents who see their children struggling with basic words like "dawg" and "kat" would be delighted if their children were as far along as this child. After all, his mistakes are limited to relatively subtle details. But still, it's dismaying to see a bright, hard-working child struggling for years with spelling inaccuracies.

Some of the difficulties have been written about extensively.

Inspiring Words --That Touch the Heart and the Mind

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 22:37:51 +0000

I recently was preparing for a talk I have to give on the complexities of teaching language to children with profound language problems. It is a field marked by enormous controversy, on the one hand and great promise, on the other. This led me, as I often do, to search for quotes that would capture the essence of the message I was trying to convey. Hoping that you will enjoy them as much as I have, here are some that captured my interest:

"Just don't give up on trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."
– Ella Fitzgerald

"A bad habit never disappears miraculously; it's an undo-it-yourself project."
– Abigail Van Buren

"Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
– Steve Jobs

School Lunches: About to Change?

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:06:03 +0000

Schools started out with the mission to teach the "3 R's." But it didn't stay that way for long. In its role as the major agency for children, each decade brings new assignments that it must fulfill--from teaching driving education to learning methods of negotiating aggression.

One of these expanded functions has included nutrition as millions of children each day consume "the school lunch." The original aim was the noble one of decreasing hunger. But now, the constituents of that lunch have seem to have contributed significantly to the rise of obesity in the nation.

As a result, Congress is now considering a bill to make certain that whatever lands on those cafeteria trays is nutritious and safe to eat.