Learning at Home: 5 Articles

Increase Optimistic Thinking at Home or in School with Evidence-based Curriculum

Magination Press authors created a new social-emotional curriculum to help kids dream and set goals during these challenging times. As the new school year gets started in these different and unusual times, parents, caregivers, and teachers are faced with the challenge of supporting children’s social-emotional health and development, a facet of education that is more important now than ever. With many schools conducting classes virtually, teachers are looking for creative educational tools and parents are preparing to facilitate learning at home. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented situation for children, including disruptions to their schooling, activities, and routines, and isolation from friends, teachers, and extended family members, resulting in the creation of many new stressors. Resources to support social-emotional learning (SEL)—activities to help children understand emotions, achieve goals, and work through challenges—are in high demand.  About the book and research study Magination Press’s book, Dream It! A Playbook to Spark Your Awesomeness, by Sara E. Williams, PhD and Scott Stoll, is an evidence-based workbook that can be used as a curriculum to teach kids how to dream, set goals, and turn their passion into action.  A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Child & Youth Care Forum, validates that Dream It! is scientifically proven to increase optimistic thinking, hope, grit, and a growth mindset.1 Most importantly, teachers and kids find the games, lessons, and activities in the workbook to be fun, easy, and effective. It’s useful for anyone who wants to learn how to dream and set goals, including adults and, especially kids ages 8-12. Dr. Sara E Williams is a co-author of this research study and a co-author of Dream It!, the focus of this research. About the SEL curriculum Dream It! is perfect for kids working in a classroom, virtually, or in home-learning environments as a supplemental SEL activity, and the message is particularly relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a very challenging time for everyone and it may not seem like our lives will go back to normal any time soon. It may be difficult for children, in particular, to understand what is happening. Using the foundation of Dream It! we can teach children that the dream is to stay healthy and protect the ones we love. So, the goal that was set by our society—and the whole world—is to temporarily ask everyone to stay at home to achieve this dream. From this starting point, we can inspire children to dream about what the world can look like after COVID-19, too! The full-color, 80-page workbook has games, quizzes, and activities that teach students how to dream (set goals) and start making their dream a reality one step at a time. A free facilitator’s guide and SEL curriculum supports in-school or at-home implementation, and the Dream It! website provides additional supplemental resources. Helping Kids See the Future At a time when the future is wildly uncertain and present-day routines have been upended, helping kids learn to think optimistically and envision better days is a priority. Dream

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Increase Optimistic Thinking at Home or in School with Evidence-based Curriculum 2022-03-21T21:20:38-04:00

Magination Press Family Learning At Home: Activity Books to Explore Feelings

Learning about emotions and relationships is a life-long task. Every day, parents and caregivers help children learn to identify, manage, and express feelings in a healthy way and to develop strong and healthy relationships. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified that task, as people, young and old, all over the world are coping with anxiety, fear, sadness, loneliness, and uncertainty brought on by the health crisis, and parents are managing their children's learning at home. A new series of activity books, just published by Magination Press, provides kids the opportunity to work through the feelings they may be having and sometimes complicated sibling relationships. Written by renowned French parenting expert Isabelle Filliozat, The Find Out Files activity books explore feelings and the experience of having siblings. Using activities, stickers, and funny illustrations, these books make it fun for kids to discover "what makes you, YOU!" The Find Out Files provide a unique and engaging platform for social-emotional learning. Each book has drawing activities, quizzes, crafts, and stickers, as well as an extensive note for parents and caregivers with tips and tools for exploring the topic. There are four books in the series: My Emotions My Emotions is a fun-filled tool for kids to discover self-expression and awareness. It offers kids all sorts of information to nourish and appreciate their emotional life. Young readers will learn how to name their emotions, understand and accept their feelings, and develop emotional self-awareness so they can get on with the business of being a kid. My Fears Everyone can be less afraid with practice and feel more confident and sure of themselves. This not-so-scary activity book helps kids understand why they get fearful and reassure them that everyone feels afraid sometimes. Children discover how some fears and worries are useful and how to deal with other fears that are not helpful. My Fears can also help kids face their fears and learn to take chances, have fun, and be a less afraid kid! My Anger My Anger will help kids understand that getting angry is a normal part of life. It may be a bit uncomfortable at times, but it’s OK if kids need to be mad! Children explore anger through fun activities coupled with humorous illustrations and discover what it means to be angry, why it happens to everyone, and how to better handle it. Allowing children to work through their anger helps them better understand themselves, others, and the world, and will help them establish their sense of self and self-confidence. My Sibling This book offers activities to help kids get along with their brothers and sisters. Kids think that they are expected to love their brothers and sisters unconditionally, but sibling relationships can be really complicated. My Sibling covers jealousy, fairness, sharing, the parent-child relationship, and tons more. It helps kids find a common ground with their siblings if things get too fraught or upsetting. Young readers will figure out how to navigate frustrating situations, understand their sibling's perspective, talk about family dynamics

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Magination Press Family Learning At Home: Activity Books to Explore Feelings 2020-08-12T19:32:38-04:00

Magination Press Learning at Home: All Is Not Lost! Help Your Child Learn Important Life Skills During Quarantine

As parents work to support their children's learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Drs. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, share insights and guidance to foster crucial life skill development. Their book, Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children, published by the American Psychological Association, identifies the 6C's. As a parent, coping with the learning and childcare implications of the COVID-19 pandemic presents a big challenge. Even though schools and summer camps may be closed, children keep on growing and learning. It’s hard to imagine a silver lining, but there may be a time when you look back fondly on this brutal lockdown, remembering how much your children learned.  When traditional, although online, schooling ends, some of that learning may not be obvious to parents. Being at home with you, and possibly siblings, creates a unique learning opportunity for your child to develop important life skills. They’ll need these skills, called the 6Cs, to succeed in school, but more importantly, in life.  The 6Cs are: Collaboration Communication Content Critical thinking Creative innovation, and Confidence. These skills change the definition of what it means to be successful. Instead of thinking “if only my kid can get straight A’s’ his or her future will be assured,” the 6Cs incorporate skills needed to be happy, healthy, thinking, caring, and socially adept children who become collaborative, creative, competent and responsible citizens of tomorrow. The crucible for the development of the 6Cs is playful learning—lots which is going on right now at home. It will happen sometimes when you least expect it, like when your 7-year-old helps her 4-year-old brother to do a puzzle without taking it over. This is the kind of collaboration that will serve her well in the world, as she takes her brother’s perspective into consideration and makes suggestions rather than just leaping in to do it herself. Look for times like these when you can encourage your child to collaborate, like when you are clearing the table. You show the importance of teamwork with what you ask of your child.  The world depends on collaboration—at home and even across international boundaries.  In fact, international boundaries are melting away. That has never been more evident than now, as the virus spreads without regard to country of origin. Communication across international lines begins within family lines. For example, when your 11-year-old reads to your 5-year-old and actually explains words he thinks the 5-year-old may not understand, he is communicating effectively. Content is advanced, too.  Children need the 3R’s and more to become competent adults. Your 5-year-old learns new words that increase his vocabulary and your 11-year-old learns too, when he explains the meanings of the words in a way a 5-year-old can understand. Content and communication can also grow when you bake a cake or cook a meal with your child and talk about ingredients, measurements, and temperature. Science was never so delicious!  Content also includes those all important “learning to learn” skills like impulse control, or planning and

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Magination Press Learning at Home: All Is Not Lost! Help Your Child Learn Important Life Skills During Quarantine 2020-05-27T10:45:05-04:00