Curing Those Homework Time Blues

Homework time can be one of the most stressful times of day. After all, kids already spend 6-7 hours per day at school and are then asked to do even more work once they get home. This can feel frustrating and draining. By putting structures and positive practices into place, homework time can become more manageable and feel pleasant for the whole family. While tutoring is a great option for support, there are steps you can take to create the perfect homework routine for your family.

Set up a Daily Routine

One of the first steps you can take at home is to set up a dedicated workspace for your children for their homework time block you set each day. This space should be inviting and distraction free. Although your children may initially complain and whine, setting up a system where they put their cell phone and other electronic devices away in a specific spot during their homework block will greatly reduce distraction. If you stay consistent with this practice, they will soon build good habits that will translate to other independent work time.

Use Sustained Attention Tricks

Sustaining attention during work time can be particularly challenging for students with ADHD and executive function deficits. One helpful strategy you can try if you have a child who struggles with this is body doubling, a technique where you sit quietly in the same or an adjacent viewable room to model focused work time. This makes your child feel more comfortable and encourages completion of tedious tasks that might otherwise be neglected. For those who still have difficulty, students can also try to stimulate one of their senses by using a fidget or putty in their non-dominant hand, sucking on a mint or listening to soft instrumental music. By giving their bodies something to do, it can enable their brain to focus better on the work task at hand.

Set Movement Breaks

Each student’s attention span is unique. Some kids can sit for an hour straight and some need a brain break every ten minutes. Whatever the case may be for your children, you can set a timer for each of their work cycles and then encourage them to get up and move their bodies for five minutes to reset. The trick is to learn how long they can work before losing focus, as you want to catch them for a movement break just before. To reenergize, they might like to jump on a small indoor exercise trampoline or have mini dance party to their favorite song. To recenter, they can try choosing a couple yoga poses or stretches that they enjoy. The key is, however, to structure your kids’ movement breaks so that they know after five minutes they need to get right back to work.

Find Pick-Me-Ups

Let’s face it, homework isn’t always fun. Finding small ways to make the time a little more enjoyable is important. Some ideas your kids can try (depending on their age) include: having a stuffed animal nearby, eating a small handful of their favorite snack after each task, having a family pet sleep at their feet or setting up a homework date with a friend. Study time can also feel more pleasurable by turn studying into a game or to use a white board with fun colors and visuals for practice.

Develop Metacognitive Practices

Encouraging your kids to attempt their homework assignments independently first is a great way to foster independence. You can offer small colored Post-It Page Markers to your children to flag items that feel confusing or difficult and invite them to check in with you near the end of their homework block for assistance. Having them communicate what they do versus do not comprehend enables them to build important metacognitive skills.

Written by Krista G.

Start the Morning Off Right: Tips and Tricks to Create a Smooth Before-School Routine

Has your family’s morning routine become a race to get out the door? With a consistent, peaceful morning routine, you can help ensure that your kids get to school on time and that they are prepared for their day mentally, physically and emotionally. Here are some tips and tricks you can try with your kids to help them start their day off right!

Prepare the Night Before

If your mornings tend to feel rushed, try creating a ‘night before’ organization checklist to tackle some of the to-dos before the busy morning even arrives. Some items your children can accomplish the evening before include: putting their homework and belongings into their backpack, packing their lunch, filling their water bottle and picking out their outfit. Not only does this allow your children to check items off their morning list, but it also reduces the stress of having so many morning to-dos.

Let a Little Light In

Building appropriate sleep and waking habits are instrumental to your kids’ wellbeing. With a good night’s sleep and sunlight cues, your children might wake naturally without the use of an alarm clock. This synchronizes the body’s biological clock and increases immunity and mood. Since it’s not always possible to wake with the morning sun, there are also really cool electronic tools, such as Hatch, that can illuminate a mock sunrise and even play peaceful morning sounds, like chimes or birds.

Set Clear Expectations

In particular for little ones, it is beneficial to create a morning routine checklist to set clear expectations for your children. This checklist can be hung in a central area of your home, like on the refrigerator in the kitchen, and can incorporate the use of choice items, such as stickers or dry erase markers. The list should be clear and concise, yet the level of detail can vary depending on your kids’ age and degree of independence. Younger kids frequently enjoy charts with visual cues. Older kids tend to do fine with a simpler format. It generally works best not to allow the use of electronics during the block of time before school so that your kids can stay focused on the tasks at hand.

Practice What You Preach

In order for your children to learn good habits, it is imperative that you, as the parent, model the behaviors you wish to see from them. Hopping out of bed, getting dressed and brushing your hair and teeth are behaviors your kids will expect to see from you before they follow suit. Sitting down for a balanced breakfast, whether it be a quick protein smoothie or a more elaborate oatmeal bar, is another important routine to have as a family. Kids look to their parents as role models, even when it comes to building their morning time management skills.

Use Fun Weekly Rewards

Offering your kids a weekly reward for leaving for school on time five days in a row might be just the extrinsic motivation your kids need while they are developing their good habits. Providing them the opportunity to earn a Friday afternoon hot cocoa or ice cream treat is a great way to increase their buy-in. You can keep a simple sticker chart in your vehicle for tracking and motivation purposes!

Written by Krista G.

Structuring a Balanced After-School Routine

Let’s face it…life for kids is busy. Between school, homework and extracurricular activities, they have so much to manage. Helping your children plan out and structure their time can help them feel organized, reduce their stress level and ensure they have balance in their lives. Below are some tips on how to create a well-rounded weekly schedule for your children.

Extracurricular Activities

It’s crucial that kids find passions in life and begin to develop a sense of self through the activities they do. Giving your children a choice of weekly activities (art, music, dance, sports, martial arts, yoga, etc.) allows them to feel a sense of control and confidence. It’s helpful to provide guidelines, however, to ensure that the choices include physical activity for exercise, are age and ability appropriate and work with your family’s overall schedule. Many programs offer free trial classes, which is a fabulous way to let your children try a variety of activities before committing to specific choices for a whole season or semester. To avoid over-scheduling, start with a single activity per day no more than 3-5 days per week. As kids get older, they might be able to manage a longer daily commitment. It depends on the individual. High interest activities tend to have very specific time constraints, so other components of your children’s after-school plan can be scheduled around their choices.

Consistent Homework Time

While there is an ongoing debate about the ideal amount of homework, many schools follow the research-based rule of thumb that students should receive 10 minutes of homework per class per night. That means, for instance, that a fifth grader should expect to spend 50 minutes on average per night doing homework. Teachers don’t always accurately estimate the length of time that activities take and each individual student has their own work pace, so the amount of time your child needs to block off for nightly homework should be individualized based on their actual circumstances. Scheduling a consistent daily time block for your children’s homework completion helps them get into a routine and emphasizes the importance of completing their assignments.

Family Dinners

Carving time out of each day to spend as a family is important. Putting family rituals into place while your kids are young will also help once they hit adolescence. Having family dinners at least four nights per week is a wonderful way to enjoy time together. It opens up space for dialogue, develops relationship-building skills and provides the opportunity for your kids to share details about their experiences and reality. One fun idea might be to let each child choose one dish for the family’s weekly meal plan and to have them help you prepare it so you have extra bonding time.

Daily Duties

Despite your fast-paced life, your kids can benefit and start to learn a sense of responsibility from doing age-appropriate chores. Having a set daily or weekly time for your children to accomplish a short 15-minute checklist of tasks is really helpful. A few ideas of age-appropriate duties for a 10-year-old, for instance, are (un)loading the dishwasher, folding and putting away their laundry and keeping their bedroom tidy. As kids get older, they gain interest in earning money for their work. As they approach their tween years, you can help them explore opportunities for a weekend neighborhood job, such as doing yard work, babysitting or dog walking. It is important, however, that they do not overcommit to a job so they can continue to manage the other aspects of their weekly schedule.

Social Time

It’s important that kids have time to be social and have fun. Life should not feel like it’s all work and children learn, develop and grow trough their social experiences. Outdoor and screen-free play are amazing. It is also acceptable for kids to set aside one hour each day for gaming or talking with friends online. There are really great parental control tools, like Bark, to help you manage and protect your kids on their electronics.

Down Time

Winding down with an hour of screen-free time at the end of each night can help ensure your kids’ minds and bodies prepare for sleep. After a nice warm bath or shower, some great activities you can suggest to your kids are reading, journaling, doodling, guided meditation and restorative yoga. Encouraging your children to create their own ritual will help them buy into this practice.

Reasonable Bedtime

Getting a good night’s sleep on a regular basis is important for kids’ overall wellbeing. Research indicates that children with appropriate sleep habits have improved attention, behavior, learning, memory, emotional regulation, quality of life, and mental and physical health. Depending on their specific age and unique needs, school-age children should get between 8 and 12 hours of sleep per night. Sticking to a consistent sleep schedule will benefit your kids greatly.

Sample After-School Schedule

Here is a sample after-school schedule that is appropriate for a 5th grader. Individualized times would vary depending on the specific age of your children. It’s very helpful to post a weekly version with your children’s specific activities per day on a whiteboard or wall calendar so they can start to develop their time management skills.

3:45pm Activity 

5:00pm Homework

6:00pm Family Dinner

6:45pm Daily Duties

7:00pm Social Time

8:00 Down Time

9:00pm Bedtime

Written by Krista G.

HOW TO HELP PREPARE YOUR CHILD FOR FINAL EXAMS

With the end of the semester approaching, many secondary students are feeling anxious about their final exams. As a parent you can incorporate specific practices in your home to help your child feel more at ease and make their testing experience a positive one. Here are five useful tips to help your student enter their exam week with confidence and ease.

Get Clear on Expectations

Before your child dives right into the studying process, set aside time for a brief check-in to offer support and encouragement. Taking a few minutes to go through your child’s course materials and communications from teachers together can ensure your learner has a complete, accurate list of all test and project requirements. Making a to-do list for each course is a huge help! If your child has any gaps in materials or understanding, you can suggest they reach out to a classmate for guidance or you can help your child craft a message to their teachers to clarify expectations.

Create a Visual Plan

It is extremely beneficial to create a visual plan that includes the dates of all of your child’s exams and a study plan for each day for 1-2 weeks prior to the test dates. You can use a large month-view wall or desk calendar or create a multi-week sticky note calendar  that allows for manipulation of information as plans change. With your guidance, your child should be the one to actually fill in the details on the calendar with colors and markings they enjoy so that they feel in control of their own study plan. Encourage your student to make a logical plan based on how much preparation is necessary for each exam, the actual date of each test, as well as any other activities they need to work around during those weeks. Your child might need a gentle reminder that it will be best to study multiple days for each exam.

Block Off Time to Study AND Time for Breaks

Setting up an efficient study schedule often requires time for the actual studying to take place and time for rest, movement or recharge. For each study day, it is important that your child blocks off chunks of time in this manner. For the available study time, suggest a certain pattern based on your child’s unique needs. One method that might be useful for final exam preparation is the Pomodoro Technique, where a student uses a timer and takes a 5-minute brain break after each 25-minute study period. After 4 study rounds, the student can take a well-deserved longer break to eat and do something enjoyable for an agreed upon time. You can even incorporate a reward system with this study model if it is beneficial for your learner.

Use Tailored Study Techniques

There are many useful study techniques and some might work better for your child than others. It can be very helpful to have a dialogue with your child prior to their study time each evening to ensure they are making logical technique choices based on the subject matter they need to review. You can offer to quiz your child over material once they have reviewed information independently, or they can flip the role and try to teach you or a sibling the information they are learning to really make sure they are clear on the concepts. More than anything, however, it is incredibly important for you as a parent to maintain a positive outlook so your student feels good about the work they are doing and the support you are offering.

Focus on Health and Wellbeing

Since your child will be expending great amounts of energy on assimilation and retention of information, it will be essential that they drink plenty of water and eat ‘brain’ foods and balanced meals with limited sugar. They should also aim to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. To help calm their nerves, you can also suggest they set up a daily ritual to destress, such as spending 10 minutes using items from their calm down kit each morning, afternoon and bedtime during their final exam week. Throughout the week it will also boost your child’s mood and confidence if you find opportunities to acknowledge their hard work and let them know that their personal best is always good enough for you.

Written by Krista G.

Creating the Ultimate Calm Down Kit: Using the Five Senses to Reset and Regulate

What is a calm down kit you ask? Well, a calm down kit is a tool that can be used to help children self-regulate, center themselves, and reset. Building a calm down kit does not have to be expensive or complicated. You and your child can create a simple and effective calm down kit by focusing on items that engage with the five senses. So, grab a basket, box or bag and let’s begin to curate the ultimate calm down kit!

Below are some ideas for items or activities that your child might enjoy placing in their calm down kit that correlate with each of the five senses: Sight, Touch, Listen, Smell, and Taste.

Sight:

Items to add to your child’s calm down basket that will appeal to the visual senses might include:

-breathing exercise cards

-glitter jar or snow globe

-I Spy book

-family photo album

Touch

Below are some tools to help your child engage with the sense of touch:

-fidget toy, like a Pop-It

-palm or scalp massager

-putty or slime

-stress ball

-sensory bag or pillow

-Rubik’s cube

-soft and cozy blanket

-if younger, a favorite stuffed animal

Listen:

Items that will create a sense of calmness through listening might include:

-headphones to listen to a calming playlist

-rainstick

-sound machine

-music box

-chimes or gentle bells

Smell:

Aromatherapy is a great way to immediately trigger a sense of calm. Here are some objects you can add to your child’s calm kit to ignite the sense of smell:

-essential oils

-nature scents

-lotions

-scented markers

-scratch and sniff stickers

-candles

-diffusers

Taste:

It’s always nice for your child to have a little treat or something appealing to their sense of taste:

-dark chocolate

-mints or gum

-tea

-hard candy or lollipop

-favorite quick snack

Other Items to Include:

Some other items you may want to think about including in your child’s calm down basket might include:

-mindfulness coloring books

-yoga pose cards

-small puzzles or crossword books

-gratitude or regular journal

-bubbles

Depending on your child’s age and general self-regulation needs, invite them to select about 8-12 items to place in their calm basket to start. Objects can be swapped out monthly or seasonally. After selecting items for the kit, set some boundaries about when and how to use it. Your child should find a special place to put their calm down kit, ideally in a quiet and comfortable environment. A good time to use this kit is whenever they are feeling overwhelmed or frustrated or experiencing any other big emotion.

Calm down kits should be used for around 10-15 minutes per session as a quick brain and emotional reset. During this time your child should choose 2-3 items that they are drawn toward and that they feel will help them regulate their emotions and lift their mood.

A calm down kit is a simple and effective tool for social and emotional regulation that can be added to your house today! Here is an example of a calm basket shared on Peak’s Instagram account.

Written by Laine J.

Tips and Tricks to Strengthen Working Memory in Math

Of all of the executive functioning skills required to succeed in mathematics, working memory may be one of the most important! Working memory refers to how the brain uses, holds, processes and manipulates the information stored in our short-term memory. Working memory allows us to plan, problem solve and reason, all of which go hand-in-hand with the necessary skills to complete a math problem. Let’s dive into some tips and tricks which can help to strengthen working memory, specifically in relation to the world of math!

Play Games

There are many popular games that can be played as a family that utilize working memory. Games like Concentration, Uno, Crazy Eights and Go Fish all require the players to use their working memory system. Simon Says, Follow the Beat, Tongue Twisters, puzzles and brain teasers are other excellent examples of activities that can be used to strengthen working memory. In many of these activities, our brains must actively recall information, and in-turn manipulate it to make the next move!

Put Your Child in the Teacher Role

When working through a new math concept, once a child has begun to master the concept at hand, they should attempt to teach someone else how to do it. When the child becomes the teacher, they are switching into a more active role and thus enhancing their working memory skills. For example, if a child is working on adding fractions with a different denominator, they should be able to walk someone else through each step necessary to solve this kind of problem and explain the “why” behind it.

Practice Every Day

For things like math facts (simple and quick math problems across the four operations), practicing every day can help to reduce the strain on working memory capacity. The more automatic these quick facts become, the more space is freed up in the brain to utilize other math skills and solve larger and more complex mathematical equations and word problems.

Visualize

When working on word problems, it is best to come up with various visualization strategies that can be used to solve each problem. Examples of visualization strategies in math might be drawing an array, making pictures or using math manipulatives.

Make a Plan

A great general rule of thumb for math problems (especially those tricky word problems) is to NEVER leave math in your head. This means write down as much as possible. Circle, underline or highlight the key words in a math problem and then make a plan to solve. Write out each step as a number sentence, and use the visualization tools mentioned above to help solve the problem.

Practice Yoga & Mindfulness

Research has shown activities like yoga and mindfulness can improve working memory. Both of these practices aim to draw our attention to how and when our mind wanders, which in turn can help increase focus and the working memory function of the brain. There are many wonderful YouTube channels for kids yoga, such as Cosmic Yoga that can be completed daily. Alternately, try simple breathing exercises in the car on the way to school as a way to practice mindfulness each day.

Use Mnemonics and Songs

Making a mnemonic device or turning something that needs to be memorized into a song are two more fantastic ways to strengthen working memory. The most famous mnemonics device in Math is PEMDAS with “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” as the words to remember the order of operations. There are also fun and silly songs on YouTube to help learn and memorize math facts. Putting information into a catchy song allows our brain to more easily store and remember it!

Written by Laine J.

Organization: Tips for Creating and Maintaining an Inviting Home Workspace

Did you know that having a clean and organized personal workspace can actually have psychological benefits? Studies show that having a well organized and clean workspace can increase persistence by as much as 84 % and help sustain attention longer than a messy one. With summer vacation coming to an end, now is the perfect time to begin getting organized and work with your child to create their own personal workspace for the upcoming academic year. Providing your child with a dedicated home work space is a wonderful way to instill responsibility over personal space and develop an organizational foundation. Here are a few ideas to create a winning workspace!

Encourage Use of This Space with Personalized Details

Find fun ways to personalize the desk or work area and tailor it to your child’s specific interests! For younger kids this might be a little framed photo of their pet or family or some fun posters! For older kids this might be adding some twinkle lights or small plants! Adding some inviting elements to make the space peaceful and cozy help invite your child to want to spend more time in their workspace. You could also give it a name like “Katie’s Home Office” or “Jeff’s Work Cave” to make it extra special to them.

Design the Ideal Workspace

An ideal workspace for your child will have a desk with plenty of space to write and draw on and perhaps a few cubbies, drawers or shelves nearby. It is best if the space is quiet and removed from extra stimuli as much as possible (not by a TV or right in the middle of the living room). Keep only the most necessary items present on the desk space so that it isn’t cluttered. Use shelves and drawers to store papers, folders, books, writing utensils etc. It can be helpful to label specific spots for things so that everything has its designated space.

Make an “All Tidy” Reference Photo

When you first set up this workspace, take a clear photo of how everything looks and where each item is. Print the photo out and tape it to the desk or a clipboard. This serves as a wonderful visual cue for how to maintain organization and cleanliness in the space from day to day.

Create a Routine to Keep It Clean

At the end of each work session, your child should do a quick 5 minute tidy up of their space. You could even make them a little written check list with items like “throw away any trash”, “put away extra papers”, “pack homework into back pack” “tuck in chair” etc. They can use their “all tidy” reference photo to try to make sure they leave their space looking the same way each day. Once a month, do a de-clutter session to pack away papers, books and other items not needed anymore. An incentive for keeping their space clean and tidy might be getting to buy new decorations or special office supplies for their desk every once in awhile!

Written by Laine J.

Simple and Fun Ways to Incorporate Math Skills during Summer Vacation

Taking two months off from essential math and computation skills can be worrisome for many parents of little ones. After all, many math skills build upon each other and require year round practice to not fall behind or forget important facts. Luckily, there are many fun and unique ways to incorporate math skills into summer break and help your child reinforce the skills they have been working on all year long in school.

Acknowledge and Work on Math in Real World Situations

One of the simplest ways to use math during the summer is to point out all of the times in everyday life that we use math skills, perhaps without even realizing it! If your child is working on ratios, fractions or division, invite them to make a recipe with you from start to finish. Going through a recipe together is a great way to strengthen understanding of all of those skills. Another example might be having your child start to notice how much items cost at places like restaurants or grocery stores and use basic computation skills to tally up totals or how much change they might need. Lastly, try giving a back-to-school shopping allowance to your child and tell them they need to buy a certain number of items with the set amount of money you gave them. This activity is fun and puts real world problem solving and computation skills to work!

Make it an Experience

Another way to use math in summer is to come up with experiences that rely heavily on certain math skills. Things like garage sales, lemonade stands or bake sales are perfect examples! Children can calculate how much they need to spend to buy the items for the sale, how much they’re going to charge for each item and (depending on their age) can even start working on concepts like how much profit they are making.

Keeping Score

Family game night is another scenario where math skills can be reinforced. Games like Sudoku, Set, Monopoly, Connect 4 and many more help with math computation skills as well as problem solving skills. There are also endless card games that can be used to work with math concepts.

Apps and Games for Basic Reinforcement

Finally, to make sure your child does not lose their math facts, try to find a fun app or game that can be used to do a daily 10-15 minutes of math facts practice every day!

Written by Laine J.

Reflecting on and Celebrating Big Accomplishments from the School Year

As the school year winds down and comes to a close, now is the perfect time to do some reflecting and some celebrating! Looking back on the year’s biggest successes is a wonderful way to strengthen the executive skill of metacognition and continue the upward momentum into the summer and next school year. It is very important to celebrate a students’ successes no matter how big or small for a variety of reasons. This positive reinforcement provides motivation, builds confidence, acknowledges their effort and ultimately reinforces and strengthens the better habits they’ve worked so hard to build all year long. 

Let’s start with reflecting upon the year as a whole. Hopefully, at the beginning of the school year, or at the start of each semester, you and your child created some specific and measurable goals. Examples of goals you may have set throughout the school year might be: getting all A’s in each course taken, arriving to school on time every day, only having one missed homework assignment per month, or remembering to check off a daily planner. Take a look at whether these goals were met either month by month or each semester and hopefully you will see progress in some, or all, of the goals set throughout the year! It could be worthwhile to create a chart or graph as a visual way to show the progress made. Try to highlight all the positives, make a note of what went right and what strategies worked the best so you can continue those into the next school year! If some goals weren’t met, those can be moved to the top of the priority list for the upcoming school year. 

Let’s celebrate! It’s possible you already had an incentive system in place when certain goals were reached throughout the school year. Now may be a good time to look at the progress made for the year as a whole and pick out an extra special way to celebrate. Experiences are a great option for celebrating accomplishments since they are so memorable. Perhaps you can plan a special family dinner out, a staycation or day trip, or a shopping spree to your child’s favorite store! Acknowledging your child’s successes throughout the school year in a unique and personal way goes a long way toward sustaining the skills they have worked so hard on all year long and helping them to see that it is worth it to continue to build upon these skills and strategies into the future. 

Written by: Laine J.

Tips and Tricks To Help With Task Initiation

Imagine this: a high school student has an essay due in one month. They know they have the whole month to finish it so they focus on other assignments that are due sooner. One week from the due date, the teacher reminds the class about the essay due at the end of the month, yet now that student also has two tests, two quizzes, a busy extra-curricular schedule and one more project all due at the same time. Suddenly, the once small task that they had plenty of time for, they now have zero time for. This is an example of where task initiation skills would have come in handy. Task initiation, the opposite of procrastination, can be one of the hardest executive functioning skills to improve. Let’s dive into some strategies and tips to help strengthen this vital skill that is needed not only during school years, but into adulthood as well. 

Have a discussion with your child about obstacles that they feel inhibit them from starting their work. Make a list of these obstacles on one side of a paper, and then work together to come up with specific strategies on the other side of the paper of how to perhaps overcome these obstacles. For example, a common obstacle for starting a task might be “This assignment is going to take way too long, and I don’t have time to start on it tonight.” A solution may be to break down the assignment into smaller pieces, i.e. picking two of the fifteen total math problems, or writing just the introduction paragraph of the essay. Have this chart of obstacles and solutions easily accessible so your student can pull it out whenever needed. 

For particularly hard-to-start tasks, consider rewards. For example, if there is an assignment that your child has been avoiding all week long, perhaps they can earn a small reward (like their favorite smoothie or a special dessert) if they get started and make significant progress on that work. It will be helpful to specify exactly how much of the assignment they need to complete to earn the reward. 

Try using a timer to help with short bursts of work. Set a timer for twenty minutes and tell your child they are going to work on this assignment for twenty minutes only today and then take a break and move onto something else. Sometimes, having a set time to work on it can make the task seem less overwhelming. 

Set up a prepared environment for homework time. Make sure that your child has a clutter and distraction free place to get their homework done each day. Consider if they may need reduced access to their phone or the internet during their set homework time. Having a calm and organized environment with minimal distractions can help with task initiation. 

Provide extra support at the beginning of hard tasks. It can be helpful to sit with your child as they begin a task or assignment that they have been putting off. Tell them that you are going to get some of your work done while they start to get their work done. This may be enough to give them the structured push they need to get going on their work. 

Written by: Laine J

Metacognition: Reflecting Upon First Semester and Setting Goals and Rewards for the Second

The start of a new year is an excellent time to both do some self-reflection on the past semester and look ahead at the upcoming semester. One of the key executive functioning skills, metacognition, is essential in doing both of those things. Metacognition, in its most basic definition, is the act of thinking about thinking. Sounds simple, but in reality it is one of the hardest skills to strengthen because we often just don’t take the time to sit down and think about what went wrong and what went right and why. However, if we can improve this self-regulatory process we can begin to strengthen all of our other executive skills because they all work interdependently. So, let’s take a look at what it means to reflect on the past semester and set goals and rewards for the second semester!

Helpful strategies when reflecting on the previous semester: 

• Be Specific: When we begin to “reflect” on the past semester, it is important to be as specific as possible. Hopefully, you had some goals previously set that were measurable. For example, your child’s goal might have been “turning in all homework assignments on time with no more than one missed assignment per week.” Now is the time to go in and see if this goal was met and how often it was met. If possible, giving a percentage here is helpful (i.e. this goal was met 80 percent of the time).

• Open Discussion: After looking as specifically as possible at previous goals or grades from the last semester, spend some time discussing what went wrong and what went right. It can be helpful to do this for each class individually, especially if there are one or two classes that goals were or were not met in. For a class where goals were met, ask questions like, “What were some things you felt helped you the most to stay on track in this class,” or “What do you feel you did really well in this class?” For classes where goals were not met, it may be helpful to ask questions like, “Can you tell me what the hardest aspects of this class are,” or “What are some things that you felt you struggled with in this class?” Jot these things down and spend some time discussing strategies to adjust or improve in each area!

• Future Planning: Once we have identified the successes and areas for improvement from the past semester, we can better plan realistic goals and rewards for the semester ahead.

Setting New Goals and Rewards

• Setting New Goals: January is naturally a great time to look ahead at the remainder of this school year and either make new goals or adjust previously set ones. Let’s say in the previous semester your child had a goal of turning in all homework assignments on time with no more than 2 missed assignments per month and they did this 90 plus percent of the time. Now may be a good time to adjust this goal to “completing all homework assignments on time with only 1 or no missed assignments per month”. If a goal is consistently being met (85 percent or more of the time) it would be good to either adjust it to strengthen it more, or possibly look to see if there’s another area that could be worked on instead.

• Defining Rewards: Rewards can be extremely beneficial in all scenarios but especially if many of the goals from the previous semester haven’t been met. Let’s go back to the goal of completing all homework assignments per month with two or fewer missed. If this goal was only being met 50 percent of the time, now may be a good time to add a reward in for reaching this goal. It is good to offer a mix of smaller attainable rewards and then possibly a larger reward. In the scenario of turning all homework assignments in on time, there could be a weekly, or even daily, small reward for turning work in and a larger reward to look forward to if the month-long goal is met. It’s great to discuss with your child what rewards are most interesting or exciting to them and work together to come up with an incentive plan as the new semester begins!

Written by: Laine J.

Self Regulation and Emotional Control: 5 Tips and Tools to Use at Any Age when Stress Gets High

We’ve all been there… the work has piled up, there isn’t enough time to complete everything and anything that can go wrong does. Yes, life can be full of stressful situations no matter who you are or what age! A key life skill is our ability to handle our emotions and self-regulate even at times where it may seem impossible. Self- regulation and emotional control are skills that most of us are, in fact, still developing each and every day. Similarly to how we strengthen our bodies at the gym, we must also practice our tools to de-stress and self-regulate on a regular basis. Below are five tools and tips to help improve these vital executive functioning skills at any age. 

1. Mindfulness and Breathing Exercises: Mindfulness and breathing exercises can be some of the most beneficial tools to work on our emotional control and handle all that life throws at us. The key is to practice them on a daily basis, not just when things get hard. Think of it this way, a professional athlete spends an enormous amount of time training for the big day, they don’t just show up at the game and expect to be good. Our minds work the same way. For younger children, the ‘take five’ breathing exercise is a great strategy for calming down. Have your child hold up their hand and trace each finger breathing in as they go up the finger and out as they go down. For older kids and adults, the 4-7-8 is an excellent breathing exercise to use daily. Breathe in through your nose for a count of four, hold at the top for 7 seconds and breathe out for a count of 8. Repeat this four times. By making these exercises a part of your daily routine now, you can have them in your toolkit when stress gets high.

2. Movement: The benefits of regular physical activity cannot be stressed enough. When we exercise our body gets endorphins, and as Elle Woods says it, endorphins make us happy. It is great to try to incorporate movement a little each day, but especially when life gets chaotic it is more beneficial than ever to stop, take a break and get some physical activity. Going for a walk or bike ride, doing twenty minutes of yoga, or having a ten-minute dance party break for the little ones (and little ones at heart) can all be excellent brain breaks and give us what we need when we are having trouble regulating our emotions.

3. Create a Calm Down Kit: When we feel stressed, we often want to be comforted. A great idea to help with this is to create a basket or kit that can help us calm down and feel at peace during these times. For little ones, the basket might include a stuffed animal, a fidget toy or small puzzle, a book of yoga cards, a sensory jar or play dough. For older kids, a calm down kit might include headphones for listening to your favorite music, a comforting snack, a mindful coloring book, a warm blanket or pillow, a candle or anything else that brings us the feeling of peace that we crave during times of stress.

4. Change up the Routine: If your child all of the sudden has a bunch of projects, multiple homework assignments and a test due in two days, cue the stress and emotional overload. A simple tool that can help is to change up your routine. This might mean working in a new environment like outside or at a coffee shop. Another option is to alternate the harder tasks with something different and fun— perhaps an activity in your calm down basket or a quick trip to get some ice cream!

5. Nourish Your Body: When we get stressed, we tend to forget about self-care and that impacts our ability to self-regulate and control our emotions. Make sure to drink extra water, eat whole foods, get plenty of sleep and exercise. We can also nourish our minds by doing something creative like a craft, spending time with family and friends, or watching a funny show or movie to give a good old dose of laughter.

Written by: Laine J.

Summer Fun to Boost Executive Functioning Skills

Executive functioning skills are the “soft skills” that are seldom explicitly taught to children; however, they are essential to completion of tasks and demonstration of knowledge. They are also essential to successful social interactions and daily living.

The summer, when we spend more time with our kids and engage in novel and interesting activities, is the perfect time to encourage the development of executive functioning skills. Family activities, social situations, and games can all be orchestrated to foster skills like self-monitoring, response inhibition, working memory, task initiation, and planning and prioritizing.

Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child recommends role playing, imaginary play, and storytelling to develop executive skills in pre-school-aged children. Learning to take turns and mimicking mature tasks help children get ready to meet the social and attentional demands of kindergarten. Singing songs that repeat and add, change, or delete words, like B-I-N-G-O and Wheels on the Bus, help develop working memory. Matching and sorting activities, increasingly challenging puzzles, and cooking encourage working memory, planning, and sustained attention. 

Reading and visits to the library are perfect for those hot summer days by the pool or enjoying the cool of indoor. Ellen Galinsky and her colleagues at Mind in the Making have created lists of books and accompanying tip sheets that promote focus and self-control, perspective-taking, communicating, making connections, critical thinking, taking on challenges, and self-directed engaged learning. The book lists include selections for children age birth through 12 years.

Games of all sorts, and designed for all ages, can promote various executive skills while increasing family time and decreasing screen time. Word and language games, such as Fannee Doolee, are especially adaptable to travel and situations that require waiting. The professionals at Understood provide us with 7 Tips for Building Flexible Thinking, which includes directions for this clever game.

Another list of activities for kids and teenagers can be found at Left Brain Buddha. Games like Simon Says require response inhibition and attention, while card games like Uno require working memory and attention. To engage and entertain teenagers, try games like Taboo and Apples to Apples that require complex thinking and impulse control.

Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child and Left Brain Buddha agree that games of strategy, like Risk, are especially valuable in developing planning, prioritizing, and other executive skills. Michelle and Kira at Sunshine and Hurricanes have created a list of the best board games for teenagers, actually chosen by teenagers.

So, whether your family is traveling around the world; playing word games and I Spy in the car or at the airport; planning a staycation that includes trips to the library and playing board games together; or maintaining the status quo with daily meal preparation, playdates, and sleepovers, there are always ways to incorporate executive skills development into the summer months. Your kids will be better prepared for the social and academic demands of school in the fall, and they might discover a new pastime in the process!   

Written by: Kerrilee W.

Resources:

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University (2014). Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence. Retrieved from www.developingchild.harvard.edu.

Mind in the Making website: www.mindinthemaking.org  

Understood.org: https://www.understood.org/en

Left Brain Buddha: the modern mindful life: http://leftbrainbuddha.com/

Sunshine and Hurricanes: smart parenting with purpose: https://www.sunshineandhurricanes.com/

Oxford University Press: Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience: https://academic.oup.com/scan

Attention Deficit Disorder Association: https://add.org/