Category: News

It’s no secret: music can have a profound effect on the mind. A light, joyful melody can change the course of a bad day. An upbeat tune can motivate us to go a little further on a morning jog. And an instrumental of a favorite love song can inspire tears when a bride walks down an aisle.

Music connects with our minds in a way that nothing else can. It carries with it a harmonic, mathematical complexity that can be heard as well as seen. In the brain, neurons respond to music by creating pathways in the corpus callosum which connects the left and right hemispheres. The pathways created by the processing of music allow messages to be transmitted through the brain in a faster and more effective way. Although it is often viewed as nothing more than a pastime or form of art, music has proven to be critical to healthy brain function and development.

Music has the unique ability to engage the visual, auditory, and motor cortices of the brain at the same time. When multiple cortices of the brain work together to process a stimulus, it engages in a robust exercise that promotes advanced development. When children actively participate in music-related learning and activities, they strengthen a variety of neural and physical functions which then contribute to the development of other cognitive and motor skills.

Here at Academy of Scholars, a private school in Atlanta, our teachers use music as a tool to enhance learning in every classroom. Whether at school or in the home, there are many ways that parents and teachers can utilize music to encourage brain development in children, such as through listening to music, clapping out rhythms, and by teaching students to read music.

So, if you’re wondering how you can help boost your child’s brain development through music at home, here are some important tips and tricks:

1. Expose Children to Music Early On

Did you know that the same neural connections forged by music in the brain of a child can also be developed before they’re born? Even babies in the womb can experience the positive effects of music. This means that it’s never too early to begin exposing children to melodies.

2. Expose Children to Music Frequently

Make sure music is part of your daily routine. Sing clean up songs, play some tunes on your way to school, and end the day with a lullaby. The more children are exposed to music, the more effectively their brains will learn to process it.

3. Expose Children to Diverse Genres and Styles of Music

Most of us have a favorite genre of music. Yours might be classic rock, modern pop, or country. However, it’s crucial to expose children to a wide variety of genres and styles. Because each style of music has its own distinct characteristics, children who listen to and learn to process a diverse range of music will see enhanced neural development.

4. Combine Music with Stories

If you want to add some excitement to story time, try making your own soundtrack. Choose a story and make a playlist, including an instrumental track for each section of the book. For example, you might play a light, simple tune in the beginning, when the character is enjoying daily life. Then, when a troublesome event takes place, switch the music to something more mysterious and dramatic. And when that “happily ever after” finally comes, play a finale that swells with joy and ends in an exciting resolution.

5. Encourage Musical Play

Provide young children with various music-making toys, such as maracas, tambourines, or miniature drums and pianos. Then turn on some fun, upbeat music, and encourage them to play along with their instrument. To make it a game, have them switch instruments each time you stop the music.

6. Clap and Tap Beat and Rhythm

Children who learn to hear and replicate beats and rhythms unlock distinct and diverse neurological functions. Even stopping to listen and find the beat is like a workout for the brain. Begin with songs that have simple beats in the 4/4 time signature that aren’t too fast or too slow. Then have your child clap or tap the beat. Once they’ve mastered this, move on to faster songs, different time signatures, and more advanced rhythms.

7. Play Musical Games

Kids love to play games that involve music. Games like musical chairs, freeze dance, or “name that tune” are a fun way to help your child listen to and process music in a way that encourages cognitive development.

8. Use Songs for Learning

Music can also be a great way to help children remember important information. Teach your child songs that help them learn the days of the week, abc’s, or counting by 2’s. You can even make up your own songs that will allow your child to memorize your phone number and home address.

9. Encourage them to Learn an Instrument

Children as young as kindergarten can begin taking lessons for various musical instruments. When your child learns to play an instrument, they’re taught music theory in a deeper way than what they might learn in school music classes. Understanding the mathematics of music theory is a great way to boost cognitive development, and some studies have even found a link between music reading and higher IQs.

Music is magical. It connects to the heart, the soul, and the mind in ways that nothing else can. Because of its ability to connect with multiple cortices of the brain, music is fundamental to fostering cognitive development in children of all ages.

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Adults know emotions are an important, though highly challenging, part of life. They can take us by surprise. They can change the course of an entire day. They can build or destroy relationships. And if not given the proper care and attention, they can lead to serious problems.

Regulating emotions can be difficult even for the most even-keeled adult. For children, it can be incredibly confusing and often counter-intuitive. Emotional intelligence (EI) is a critical skill for children to learn, but doesn’t come naturally. They must work to learn, develop, and maintain it throughout their lives.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, emotional intelligence “involves the ability to process emotional information and use it in reasoning and other cognitive activities.”

Psychologists John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey believe that this skill requires four key abilities:

• The ability “to perceive and appraise emotions accurately.”
• The ability “to access and evoke emotions when they facilitate cognition.”
• The ability “to comprehend emotional language and make use of emotional information.”
• The ability “to regulate one’s own and others’ emotions to promote growth and well-being.”

How to Gauge Emotional Intelligence in Children

Emotional intelligence will look much different in children than it will in adults. An emotionally intelligent child should be able to:

• Recognize and name emotions
• Express emotions verbally
• Listen well to others
• Perceive inciting incidents that might have led to their emotions
• Consider the feelings of others and exhibit empathy
• Self-regulate emotions

On the flip side, children who have not yet developed emotional intelligence might:

• Have difficulty identifying emotions
• Avoid talking about emotions
• Struggle with impulse control
• Display explosive or violent responses
• Struggle to understand why their reaction wasn’t appropriate

How to Nurture Emotional Intelligence in Children

Emotional intelligence is crucial to helping children function and thrive. You can help your child develop EI by integrating these creative techniques into your family culture:

1. Teach by Modeling

First and foremost, children learn through observation. This can put a lot of pressure on parents. And it’s true, it’s a weighty responsibility. However, parenting provides the perfect opportunity and reason to learn to regulate your own emotions in a healthier way. If you struggle with modeling healthy and acceptable emotional responses, consider speaking with a licensed professional who can give you the tools you need to help you and your child.

2. Label Emotions

Children should be able to recognize and differentiate the emotions they feel. One resource that some of our pre-k Atlanta private school teachers have found helpful is a mood chart. These printable charts feature simple faces or emojis labeled with the emotions they reflect. When your child struggles to verbally communicate their feelings, bring out the mood chart and have them point to the emotion or emotions they’re feeling.

3. Discuss Appropriate Reactions

Recognizing emotions is only half the battle. Emotions lead to reactions, and not all responses are appropriate. For example, a child who throws food across the table because they don’t like what is being served for dinner is responding inappropriately to their emotions of anger and disappointment. Be sure to praise your child when they respond appropriately to difficult emotions, and ask them how they could have responded better if they acted inappropriately.

Here at our Christian private school, we believe the Bible can be an excellent resource for teaching children wisdom in handling emotions and reactions. The book of Proverbs, in particular, has many practical things to say about appropriately regulating emotions.

4. Practice Active Listening

When children don’t feel that they’re being heard, it can cause their emotions to snowball. If your child tries to express their feelings, ensure they have your full and undivided attention. In the same way, children should learn to actively listen to others to understand someone else’s feelings better.

5. Allow Children to Learn through Trial and Error

As adults, we won’t always respond ideally to emotions. So, it’s understandable that children will also struggle to react appropriately to every big emotion. When an inappropriate response is given, try to show your child patience and understanding rather than blaming them. Children should never feel that their feelings are wrong. Instead, they require a safe environment where they can learn to regulate their emotions through trial and error with gentle guidance.

6. Teach Self-Regulating Techniques

Children must learn to self-soothe and self-regulate their emotions to respond appropriately. Self-regulating techniques for children could include:

• Taking three deep breaths
• Counting to ten
• Asking for some time alone to cool down
• Verbalizing their emotions

7. Tell Stories

Stories provide excellent opportunities for children to learn about emotions and responses. Give your child real-life examples of when you responded appropriately or inappropriately to a situation. Talk about the feelings you experienced and what caused you to feel that way. In addition, look for books that show characters handling emotions. After a character makes a choice, ask your child to consider if it was an appropriate or inappropriate response.

8. Encourage Pretend Play

Imaginative play allows children to react to challenging emotions and practice interpersonal skills such as communication, regulation, and empathy. This kind of play often comes naturally for children, especially as they interact with their peers. Parents can also encourage this kind of play by giving children an imaginary scenario and asking them to act out a response to it. However, unlike charades, their act should include verbal responses.

9. Emphasize Conflict Resolution

Empathy is crucial to emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution is one of the best ways for children to develop it. When your child responds inappropriately, discuss how their choice affected those around them and encourage them to make things right. Similarly, when you display an inappropriate emotional response in front of your child (which we all do), model conflict resolution by apologizing and discussing what you could have done better.

Emotional intelligence will shape how your child responds to life’s most complex situations. It will determine their choices, relationships, and play a significant role in their mental health. Parents who nurture healthy emotional awareness and regulation in the home give their children the tools needed to thrive in a life full of emotional highs and lows. We hope these tips and tricks will help you empower your child to grow their emotional intelligence in a healthy and lasting way.

You probably don’t remember the day you realized what the number “6” looked like. At some point, you simply went from not knowing what it looked like to knowing, right? Whether you learned it through preschool worksheets or from Count von Count on Sesame Street, something must have aided you in recognizing numbers. As parents, it can be easy to overlook the importance of teaching our children early math skills, even ones as simple as recognizing the number “6.” After all, isn’t that what school is for?

Integrating these early skills into everyday life both before and during a child’s formal education is crucial to giving them the skills they need for math success. Here at our private school in Atlanta, our teachers have seen the difference this kind of intentionality makes in a child’s education. Children who begin to grasp even the most basic number-oriented skills at an early age often experience greater mathematical confidence throughout their schooling than those who do not.

The preschool teachers here at Academy of Scholars have found that teaching kids early math skills can be fun. The possibilities are nearly endless. Here are nine creative ways that you can help your child develop early number skills:

1. Count with Everyday Objects

Everyday life provides ample opportunity for counting. Children can count the remaining Cheerios in their cereal bowl, the number of building blocks in a pile, or line up their stuffed animals and count them one by one. As kids improve their counting skills, try incorporating simple addition and subtraction:

• “If you have five pennies and I give you one more, how many do you have now?”
• “If your tower has six blocks and you add three more, how many blocks will your tower have?”
• “If there are ten Cheerios in your bowl and you eat two, how many are left?”

Children can learn to comprehend the concepts of mathematical functions long before their first math class. Helping them think through simple equations in their everyday life will give them a crucial advantage in the classroom.

2. Tell a Story

Once your child can work with concrete, hands-on equations like those listed above, you can begin to introduce abstract equations. Stories are a great way to sneak in some learning. A mathematical story might go something like this:

“Once, there was a pirate named Pete who loved parrots. In fact, he had seven pet parrots. Every day, Pete and his parrots would sail the seas, hunting for treasure. One day, one of Pete’s parrots, Polly, decided to go off on an adventure of her own. Pete was sad to see one of his beloved birds go but knew it was time for Polly to set sail on her own adventure. So, Polly said goodbye to her pirate friend and set off into the sunset. If there were seven parrots before Polly left, how many parrots remained?”

3. Make it Sensory

Give your child opportunities to play with numbers in a way that appeals to their senses. Drawing numbers in sand, rice, or finger paint or forming them with playdough or clay are fun ways for children to solidify their number recognition.

4. Make it Musical

The internet is an excellent source for finding number songs and chants that children can memorize easily. Look for songs that help children master the basics, like counting from one to ten, or more advanced songs that help children learn to count two by two, three by three, and so on.

5. Go on a Math Scavenger Hunt or Discovery Walk

Kids love a good scavenger hunt. Pick a number and search the house, grocery store, or even road signs on a car ride to see how many of that number your child can spot. An outdoor hunt in the backyard or at the park is also an excellent way for children to engage their brains with the natural world while learning about numbers. When kids interact with nature, their brains often retain information more easily. On your walk, choose one thing to count. For example, you might see how many different colored flowers you can find or how many leaves you can crunch.

6. Read Counting Books

Books provide visual opportunities for children to develop their number recognition and sequencing skills. Many board books focus on simple counting and can be introduced to children even before they learn to walk and talk.

7. Use Sidewalk Chalk

Sidewalk chalk has been and probably always will be a favorite childhood pastime. You can integrate math by helping your child trace numbers or drawing a game of hopscotch and encouraging them to shout out each number as they land on it.

8. Let Them Help in the Kitchen

You may not realize it, but baking and cooking can provide excellent opportunities for children to work on their counting skills. Help them measure out three cups of flour and two teaspoons of vanilla extract, or put ten minutes on a timer.

9. Play Number Games

In addition to these creative activities, you can play many games with your children to encourage their mathematical thinking. Here are some of our favorites:

• Bean bag toss: label a few buckets with numbers and give your child a target number each time they throw the bean bag.
• Number bingo: Create your own version of bingo using numbers!
• Number puzzles: From foam to board puzzles, these are a great way to engage your child’s brain as they learn their numbers.
• Card games: Games like “Go Fish” or “Crazy Eights” are a fun way for kids to recognize numbers.

Sometimes, children learn best when they don’t realize they’re learning. Teaching them essential math skills outside of the classroom is crucial to their learning experience, and employing creative tricks like these above will help your child become a mini-mathematician in no time.

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It’s November. Leaves are crunching underfoot. Temperatures are dropping, sweater season is in full swing, and hot cider is on the stove. The trick-or-treaters have come and gone, and the store shelves are lined with ornaments, garlands, and gifts. It’s the time of year that we remind ourselves to step back and take a look at everything we have to be grateful for. It’s a season of thankfulness.

This time of year reminds us that practicing gratefulness deserves more than one month on the calendar. It’s a trait we want to carry past the holidays and into our busy, everyday lives. Similarly, parents recognize the value of instilling gratitude in their children. But how can you help your child grow this trait that sometimes seems to go against our very nature, and how can you keep it flourishing once the Thanksgiving leftovers have disappeared?

Here at our private school in Atlanta, we’re grateful for teachers who value this essential character trait and have a heart for passing it on to their students. They know that fostering attitudes of gratitude requires more than a go around the dinner table every year on Thanksgiving. Lik1e all good habits, gratefulness requires consistency and practice, and sometimes, it means you’ve got to think out of the box to help your child truly grasp its importance.

So, if you’re looking for simple and creative ways to help your child learn gratitude, here are some of our favorites:

1. Introduce It into Vocabulary Early On

“Thank you” should be one of the first things every child learns to say. But before they can speak it, they need to hear it spoken. Often. Encourage your child to practice saying “thank you” for meals when someone helps them with a task and at every other opportunity that presents itself. Thankfulness should be so ingrained in everyday vocabulary that it becomes a habit from a young age.

2. Mirror Gratitude

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Monkey see, monkey do,” and this couldn’t be more true when it comes to children. Children are like mirrors. They reflect what is shown to them. So, try to be intentional about modeling gratitude in your home as much as possible. Not only does this mean saying “thank you,” but it can also look like pointing out things you appreciate in your family members or bringing attention to little things they do.

3. Start a Gratitude Journal

Who says you can’t give gifts on Thanksgiving? This year, try giving your child a gratitude journal. Encourage them to write down one thing they’re grateful for each day. When envy, jealousy, or discontentment creep in, they can look through their journal and be reminded of everything they have to be thankful for.

4. Start a Family Tradition

One way to make gratitude a part of your family culture is to start a new tradition. Try going around the table each evening during dinner so that each person can say something they were thankful for that day. Or, make a gratitude jar and encourage each family member to jot down something they’re grateful for each day. At the end of the week, go through the jar as a family to reflect and finish the week positively.

5. Read Books About Gratitude

Although your child likely spends a lot of time reading for school, reading together at home is a great way to pass along your family’s values. Visit your local library and look for books with themes of gratitude, or poll fellow parents to find out which books they recommend.

6. Spend Time in Nature

Getting outside is a great way to relax and refocus. Go on a nature walk with your child and encourage them to point out what they love about nature. Watch a sunset just to take in the colors. Visit the beach or the river and pause to listen to the melody of crashing waves or flowing currents. Sometimes, all it takes to feel thankful is stepping out the front door.

7. Practice Sharing

Being thankful for what we have should make us want to share with those around us. Help your child to practice sharing their favorite toy with friends or siblings. Take some time together to sort through toys that no longer get played with, and take them to the local thrift store so other children can enjoy them, too.

8. Make Gratitude Crafts

Gratitude crafts are quite popular this time of year. You could trace your child’s hand, turn it into a turkey, and write something your child is thankful for on each finger, or turn fall-hued construction paper into a pile of “thankful” leaves. The internet may be lacking in gratitude crafts for the rest of the year, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Consider crafts that could incorporate thankfulness during winter, spring, and summer so that every season is a season of gratefulness.

9. Write Thank You Cards

Teach your children to go the extra mile in showing gratefulness by writing and mailing thank you cards. When friends have showered them with gifts on their birthday or relatives send Christmas presents, encourage your child to write specific, individual thank you notes to practice expressing gratitude.

10. Address Envy

Envy is an easy trap to fall into, and it can rob us of the ability to feel and show gratitude. When the jealous, green-eyed monster threatens to rear its ugly head, talk to your child about their feelings and help them focus on what they have instead of what they don’t.

11. Give Back

Giving back is one of the best ways we can help our children grow their gratitude. When we realize how much we’ve been blessed, it should make us want to bless others so they can feel the same way. Find a community program to volunteer with, spend an afternoon picking up trash in your neighborhood, or donate toys or food to a local organization.

Before the season of thanksgiving disappears as quickly as grandma’s pumpkin pie, take a moment to reflect on how you can integrate these strategies into your daily life. With a bit of creativity and mindful intentionality, you and your family can enjoy attitudes of gratitude that last all year long.

Long before they learn to read, kids must develop a pre-reading skill set. If the goal is to help children recognize words on a page, it is crucial to make sure they can differentiate between individual sounds and begin to understand how those sounds relate to words. This, in a nutshell, is phonemic awareness. Our Atlanta prep school teachers have found that when children are severely behind in reading, it is often because they lack this critical foundation.

What Is Phonemic Awareness, and Why Is It Important?

You might have guessed that phonemic awareness has something to do with phonics, which has everything to do with letters and their functions. Each letter has a sound (or sounds) that it’s designated to make. For example, the letter “k” makes the /k/ sound, and the letter “m” makes the /m/ sound. These sounds are known as “phonemes.” As they learn to recognize individual letters, preschool-age children should also learn to recognize each letter’s basic sounds. Additionally, a well-rounded phonemic awareness should include the ability to notice rhyming words, count syllables, and spot alliterations.

What Skills Are Necessary for Phonemic Awareness?

Although the overall goal of phonemic awareness is to help children recognize letter sounds and their relation to forming words, a number of specific skills are required for children to have a thorough understanding. Children should be able to:

• Identify phonemes: Differentiate between first, middle, and last sounds in simple words (e.g., the first sound in the word “top” is the /t/ sound).
• Separate and blend phonemes: This is what “sounding it out” refers to. Children should be able to identify each sound and then combine them to form the word (e.g., “c-a-t”).
• Subtract phonemes: “What would we get if we took the letter ‘s’ out of the word ‘west’?”
• Add phonemes: “What would we get if we added the letter ‘c’ to the word ‘lock’?”
• Swap phonemes: “What would we get if we replaced the ‘t’ in ‘top’ with an ‘m’?”

How Can You Help Your Child Develop Phonemic Awareness?

1. Start Early

Even if your child has yet to enter a classroom, it’s never too early to begin teaching them the fundamentals of phonics. Pointing out letter sounds can be a part of everyday conversation. Try combining daily tasks and activities with letter sound recognition. Here are a few examples:

• “B is for b-b-bed!”
• “T is for t-t-toys. Can you please put your toys away?”
• “D is for d-d-dinner. Time to eat!”

When it’s time for school, make sure your child’s preschool or kindergarten uses a phonics-based curriculum and continue to help them recognize letter sounds at home.

2. Read Aloud and Read Often

Reading aloud is one of the best ways to help your child gain phonemic awareness. Since there’s no such thing as too much reading, try to read as often as possible and make it a part of your daily routine. Tired of cycling through the same books? Head to your local library and let your child pick out something new to keep them interested and engaged.

3. Rhyme for a Reason

Rhyming words are an excellent way for children to connect and differentiate letter phonemic sounds. Crack open a Dr. Seuss book or ask your child to come up with some words that rhyme with “cat.”

4. Consonant, Vowel, Consonant

Start with simple words, no more than three letters, with the “consonant, vowel, consonant” pattern. Once your child has gotten the hang of these kinds of words, you can gradually increase in word complexity.

5. Clap it Out

Another crucial part of phonemic awareness is the ability to separate individual syllables. Have your child clap out the syllables in a word as you say it. For example:

• “Wa-ter”
• “Wa-ter-mel-lon”
• “E-liz-a-beth” (Have them try their name and their friends’ names, too!)

6. Make it Fun

Children often do their best learning when they don’t know they’re learning. Play a game of “I Spy,” where you say, “I spy with my little eye a /r/-/u/-/g/.” Or, try a variation of “Red Light, Green Light” where they can only move forward if they hear the short /o/ sound. There is no shortage of phonics-inspired games that you can try with your child. If you’re feeling creative, try coming up with a few of your own.

7. Make it Sensory

Use playdough, sand trays, and other sensory tools to help your child draw or shape letters and words, then practice saying their phonemes.

8. Make it Musical

The internet has a great selection of phonics songs to help your child learn their letter sounds. Songs like “CVC” (consonant, vowel, consonant), “The Alphabet Phonics Song,” and “The Big Pig Song” are great examples of catchy tunes that can be found on YouTube.

9. Make it Crafty

Who doesn’t love a good craft? Try making a paper bag puppet that likes eating things with the /p/ or /b/ sound in their name. Or, cut pictures out of a magazine of things with the /f/ sound in their name and make a cool collage.

10. Make it Routine

No matter what you do to help your child reach phonemic awareness, do it often. Children learn through repetition, so try to integrate these strategies and activities into your daily lives as much as possible. Even if it feels like they aren’t picking up on things, keep trying. With patience and practice, you can help your child build their phonemic awareness and set them on the path to becoming expert readers.

Writer’s block. Anxiety. Boredom. Burnout. Even the most seasoned writers are not fully immune from these mental plagues. And for children, a run-in with any one of them can seem insurmountable, leaving students feeling paralyzed and stressed when given a writing assignment with a deadline.

Here at our Atlanta private school, we believe these unfortunate but common issues don’t need to be a death sentence to a student’s ability to craft sentences easily. Parents can aid their children in strengthening their writing skills and stamina by engaging them in frequent and fun exercises and activities. Our Georgia private school teachers are here to help you fill in the blanks and discover practical ways to help your child become a better writer with these seven tried and true tips:

1. Prompt Jar

First, print out some fun writing prompts, fold them, and put them in a jar. Then, have your child draw a prompt from the jar and give them a goal to meet with their prompt (e.g., one paragraph, one page, or 300 words). Treat it like a game, and your child will learn that writing can be fun!

2. Free Writing Journal

Take a trip to the store (or a virtual trip if online shopping is more your thing) and let your child pick out a blank journal. Let them know that this is a special journal for writing. They can write stories, diary entries, or describe a vacation with it; the sky’s the limit! If your child doesn’t seem to use the journal often, provide an incentive for filling its pages.

3. Daily/Weekly Prompts

Frequency and consistency are crucial to building stamina and fostering healthy writing habits. Set an age-appropriate routine, whether daily or weekly, where your child can pick a prompt and write a short story or description. (Writing Wednesday, anyone?)

4. Story Cards

These story cards are one of many options the internet has to offer and are a great way to get the gears working and stories flowing. Children draw multiple cards and use them as a foundation for their story, which means the possibilities are endless!

5. Character Interviews

Character interviews are a great way to get the creative juices flowing and can be done in a variety of ways. You can use a worksheet (like this one on TeachersPayTeachers) and have the child “interview” their story’s main character. If your child needs a break from writing, have them pretend to be the interviewee and ask questions they must answer “in character.”

6. Timed Writing Challenge

Set a timer for a short, age-appropriate amount of time and see how much your child can write before the timer goes off. Try using your prompts or story cards to give your child a direction to run in, and let the race begin!

7. Handwriting Exercises

In addition to developing your child’s creativity and sentence-building skills, it is also imperative that children grow their handwriting abilities and stamina. In a time when typed work is becoming more and more the norm, handwriting practice is often placed on the back burner. This can lead to a decrease in handwriting stamina and overall discomfort with writing. Children who do not spend regular time working on these crucial skills may feel anxious when given a writing assignment that must be completed by hand. These days, it’s important to be intentional about developing healthy handwriting techniques in children.

Try the following exercises and activities with your child at home to strengthen their handwriting abilities:

• Guided letter formation activities and worksheets
• Spacial awareness worksheets
• Playdough writing tray
• Tracing worksheets
• Pencil control exercises
• Pencil grip practice
• Write cards or letters to friends and family
• Give your child bath paints
• Play with sidewalk chalk

Developing a child’s writing skills is not a task for the classroom alone but should be part of every child’s home routine, as well. By bringing writing into the home, parents can help their children understand that writing is a crucial (and fun) part of everyday life and not merely another piece of homework to be dreaded. Just as all accomplished athletes must train and exercise, an accomplished writer must do the same. These tips and tricks will help your child build their writing skills and stamina and develop a passion for this vital and rewarding craft.

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Adults and children alike can all relate to that feeling of exhaustion and restlessness while working on a tedious task. Sometimes you just need to take a lap around the office, get up and pour that second cup of coffee, or focus your mind on something else for a bit. In the classroom, our Georgia private school teachers know that children often need a chance to reset their minds as well. We call it a “brain break,” and it’s just as essential to implement this game-changer at home as it is in the classroom.

But are brain breaks actually effective in stimulating and refocusing the mind, or are they merely a waste of time? The science behind these short intervals of movement is pretty fascinating, so let’s unpack it.

Brain Breaks…

Ease Anxiety and Stress.

The amygdala might sound like the name of a Star Wars character, but it’s actually a part of the brain responsible for processing memory and emotions–namely fear-based ones. It is also the filter that processes new information to the prefrontal cortex in order for it to become a memory. When the brain constantly takes in information, the amygdala can reach capacity and go into overload mode, causing anxiety and stress. Shifting the brain’s focus to another network allows other areas of the brain to rest and reset.

Are Not Actually a Break for Your Brain.

A 2021 study found that periods of “wakeful rest” allows the brain to bind “together the memories required to learn a new skill” (Buch). This means that though the student may be taking a break from a particular task, the brain is using this time to commit the skill to memory.

Replenish the Brain’s Vital Chemicals, Renewing Its Ability to Focus.

Neurotransmitters (think of them as the postal service of your brain) are chemicals that transmit messages between nerve cells. These chemicals are crucial for attention and memory retention, but they come in a limited supply. In fact, too much of the same activity can quickly deplete a person’s supply of neurotransmitters. Brain breaks help the brain to replenish neurotransmitters by momentarily shifting its focus.

Boost Self-Regulation.

Our Atlanta private school teachers have noted that brain breaks are especially beneficial for children who struggle with self-regulation. When areas of the mind become overworked, it’s nearly impossible to move past the brain fatigue and stay on task. For these students, a calmer, more relaxing brain break can give the brain the time-out it needs to recharge and return to the task with the ability to push themselves to the finish line rather than being prompted to it.

Improve Attention.

Children can only remain attentive for so long when working on those less-than-exciting tasks. When information seems to be going in one ear and out the other, or you’re met with blank stares, it may be time for a brain break.

Stimulate Motivation.

Using brain breaks as an incentive to help children complete tasks (or even segments of a task) is an effective way to keep them motivated. Try setting a timer and giving them an allotted amount of time to work on their task before taking a break, or provide them with a goal (e.g., “Complete ten problems and then you may take a brain break.”). Although it may seem that these frequent breaks will slow task completion, you’ll find that your child will be able to work faster and more efficiently after a brain break.

Brain Breaks Should…

• Be frequent (but not too frequent)
• Reflect the child’s age and attention span
• Be active and engaging
• Provide incentive

Brain Breaks You Can Try at Home:

Cardio Activities

• Running
• Dancing
• Jumping jacks or other exercises
• Balloon volleyball
• Action songs
• Freeze dance
• “Simon Says”

Sensory Activities

• Outdoor exploration
• Sensory bin
• Playdough
• Scavenger hunt

Calming Activities

• Yoga
• Deep breathing
• Relaxing videos
• Relaxing music
• Drawing, coloring, or painting
• Reading aloud

Brain-Engaging Activities

• Puzzles
• Story starters
• Riddles
• Activity pages
• Brain teasers
• Science experiments

Brain Break Games

• Board games
• Card games
• Charades
• Relay races
• Obstacle courses
• “Name That Tune”

Motivating your child to finish tasks such as chores and homework can seem daunting and, at times, impossible. By utilizing the science behind brain breaks at home, parents can better aid their children in working through brain fatigue and reaching goals more effectively.