back to school: 4 Articles

New School Books for a New School Year

ADHD September 6, 2022 10:00 am

The new school year has started! The American Psychological Association has books for kids and teens to help with that transition, including books about: starting school for the very first time, starting at a new school, making friends, gender nonconformity, what it’s like to have a learning difference, and new titles about how to manage challenges in middle school. Managing Middle School The Kid Confident Books are an awesome nonfiction book series developed with expert psychologist and series editor, Bonnie Zucker, PsyD, that authentically captures the middle school experience. These books skillfully guide middle schoolers through those tricky years between elementary and high school with a supporting voice of a trusted big sister or a favorite aunt, stealthily offering life lessons and evidence-based coping skills. Kid Confident offers what kids need to have fun with it all and navigate middle school with confidence, humor, perspective, and feel our mad respect for being the amazing humans they already are. Kid Confident Book 1: How to Master Social Power in Middle School by Bonnie Zucker, PsyD Kid Confident Book #1 discusses the dynamic of social power, equal and unequal, in the context of friendships and with unfriendly peers. Readers learn how to be more assertive and how to create more self-confidence and balance the power in their friend groups. Check out the book. Kid Confident Book 2: How to Master Your Mood in Middle School by Lenka Glassman, PsyD Kid Confident Book #2 helps middle schoolers identify, manage, and self-regulate their emotions and moods. It teaches the importance of sleep, exercise, nutrition and relaxation in creating stability and balance. It also addresses the cognitive distortions that often create an imbalanced mood. Check out the book. Starting School for the First Time When a Dragon Goes to School by Caryl Hart Follow the dragon’s lead as kids headed to class explore school manners. When a dragon goes to school, will she throw crayons and refuse to share the toys? Why, no! Dragons don’t do that! While behaving well at school isn’t always easy, this dragon makes it fun. Check out the book. A companion book to the manners must-have When a Dragon Comes to Stay, this book helps kids get fired up for good classroom behavior. Read an interview with Caryl Hart. I Don’t Want to Go to School! by Alberto Pellai, MD, PhD and Barbara Tamborini New routine, new friends, new places, and new faces, and parental or caregiver separation can be a lot to handle at first! This sensitive book will help kids and parents talk about this big step and transition to being apart during the day—and maybe even have fun at school! This book includes a Reader’s Note to further explain this common behavioral and emotional stage of childhood. Read an excerpt from I Don’t Want to Go to School! Changing Schools New Kid, New Scene: A Guide to Moving and Switching Schools by Debbie Glasser, PhD, and Emily Schenck Calling all new kids! Do you know a

New School Books for a New School Year Eileen Hanning 2022-09-03T18:36:21-04:00

Go Back to Middle School with Confidence

Friendship August 11, 2022 10:00 am

It's that time of year—families are preparing for kids to go back to school: checking class schedules; figuring out bus routes, walking buddies, or car pools; and organizing after-school activities and snacks. Some kids will be starting or returning to middle school, with its own set of unique social, developmental, and emotional situations. Magination Press has great new books to help get back into the fall routine. “Smart and essential!” —Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid Magination Press’s new Kid Confident nonfiction series was developed with expert psychologist and series editor, Bonnie Zucker, PsyD, authentically capturing the middle school experience. These books skillfully guide middle schoolers through those tricky years between elementary and high school with a supporting voice of a trusted big sister or a favorite aunt, stealthily offering life lessons and evidence-based coping skills. Readers of Telgemeir's Guts will recognize similar mental health and wellness strategies, and fans of Patterson's Middle School series will appreciate the honest look at the uncertainty and chaos that the middle grades can bring. Kid Confident offers what kids need to have fun with it all and navigate middle school with confidence, humor, perspective, and feel our mad respect for being the amazing humans they already are. Here’s a look inside Kid Confident #1: How to Master Social Power in Middle School by Bonnie Zucker, PsyD. And here’s a peek at Kid Confident #2: How to Master Your Mood in Middle School by Lenka Glassman PsyD. Check out reviews of the Kid Confident books. The first two Kid Confident books will be released on August 30. Click here to preorder your copy of Kid Confident #1 or Kid Confident #2. More Kid Confident titles will be published in 2023. Check out our other books about school for kids of all ages here.

Go Back to Middle School with Confidence Eileen Hanning 2022-08-10T21:57:11-04:00

Help for Kids With ADHD for Back-to-school and Throughout the Year

ADHD August 5, 2021 10:00 am By Joshua Shifrin, PhD

What would happen if four kids with ADHD teamed up to help each other do better at school? They’d create The Homework Squad. Prisha, Mateo, Michael, and Hunter meet and decide to work together for a year to identify and test different skills to help them. Dr. Joshua Shifrin’s book, The Homework Squad’s ADHD Guide to School Success, provides strategies and skills to help kids improve reading, writing, math, listening, memorization, concentration, and more! Here’s an excerpt: We decided to call ourselves the Homework Squad. We made a pact: Meet every Tuesday after school. Research at least one study skill each week to help our ADHD. Test the skills together. Add every skill that works to our super-sacred, ultra-official guidebook: THE HOMEWORK SQUAD’S ADHD GUIDE TO SCHOOL SUCCESS We’ve now met for a whole school year and have come up with over 100 amazing ADHD study skills. KINGDOM KEYS The Homework Squad discovered that some ideas kept popping up over and over again in our research. We decided to label these skills the “Kingdom Keys,” because they are so important for unlocking an ADHD brain. Some Kingdom Keys include: Pace, don’t race. Many ADHD students want to finish every assignment quickly before they get bored, or because it’s overdue. Slowing down can actually help them finish faster. Break it down. ADHD students can feel overwhelmed by thick books, big projects, or long tests. Breaking an assignment into small pieces can be the key that unlocks success. Set goals and reward yourself. Build in rewards for your hard work. Treat yourself when you reach a goal. Practice. Any skill worth truly mastering is going to take practice. We know it’s a cliché, but practice really does make perfect. These key skills turn up in some form in most of the chapters because they are fundamental to developing good study habits. In each chapter, the Homework Squad listed the most common challenges we faced. For each challenge, we’ve put together the tricks that worked for us. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a fun journal prompt that encourages you to try out one of the tricks and reflect on whether or not it worked for you. We don’t expect every single trick to be a good fit for you (that would be slightly weird), which is why it’s a good idea to try them on for size. We suggest grabbing a separate journal. Go ahead and answer some or all of the questions once you read the chapter and decide which tricks you’d like to use in the future. ★“Meet the Homework Squad, four very different and racially diverse students with one thing in common: their ADHD diagnosis… The tips and tricks, appropriately, are not one size fits all, so readers are encouraged to try them all and keep track of what works… An important, affirming, and beneficial resource.” —Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

Help for Kids With ADHD for Back-to-school and Throughout the Year Joshua Shifrin, PhD 2021-08-04T21:29:36-04:00

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