(Cross-posted at UBAM Young Readers Blog)

Learning doesn’t stop at the doors of the school. Every moment of everyday provides opportunities for learning, connecting school work to life, and building knowledge and skills that will help students be successful in life after high school graduation.  Parents can help support this learning by doing simple things at home or in daily activities that children can be involved in along with parents.

The following list includes some simple steps that parents can take at home to support the knowledge and skills that students are learning in school and to help build connections between school and life.

• Encourage your children to explain their assignments and share what they are learning in school.
• Set a time and a place to do homework.  Pick a quiet place to work away from the television with adequate lighting and materials appropriate for homework (paper, pens, pencils, dictionary, etc.) Be consistent.
• Give frequent encouragement and approval for good schoolwork.
• Develop a system with your children to record when assignments are due and to organize a timeline for completing tasks.
• Share your interests in hobbies with your children and use this time as learning experiences.
• Provide children with access to printed materials, such as magazines, newspapers, and books related to their own interests and to family interests.
• Develop nighttime reading routines with children that include reading out loud, asking questions, and discussing books.
• Promote conversation at the dinner table, giving everyone a chance to talk and be heard.
• Make visits to museums, zoos, historical sites, parks, your backyard, and walks through the neighborhood into fun learning experiences for children.
• Encourage children to write letters, words, and stories.
• Set high, but realistic, standards and expectations for learning and performance, and help your children meet those expectations.
• Help children make plans for the future by talking about what they want to do when they grow up and what skills they need to achieve their goals.
• Attend college and career days at your child’s school with your children.
• Include your children in activities like developing a monthly family budget, grocery shopping, and paying monthly bills so they can apply what they are learning in school to daily tasks and life skills.
• Serve as a “life-long learner role model” by talking with your children about how you learn the knowledge and skills needed for your job or how you learn the skills necessary for managing your home and family life.

What other tips or strategies have you successfully used at home with your children to promote and support their academic learning?

Earlier this year I wrote a post on my professional blog reflecting on my fear that my 18 month old twins — who currently LOVE to read books — may someday lose that love if they encounter teachers who make reading “not fun” in school.

This is a legitimate fear and as a parent I want so desperately to do everything I can at home to create strong and avid readers who will always love reading regardless of what happens — or doesn’t happen — in their school settings.  So in keeping with the spirit of my favorite quote by Ghandi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world…”, I did what I always tend to do when presented with similar issues — I did some research.  I searched online through a variety of professional organizations for teachers and websites for parents.  I came across countless “helpful hints” and other resources.  I also discovered a GREAT way to make a little extra income (and earn free books for my own kids) by promoting some excellent children’s books.  I’ll explain that a little later in this post.

In the end I made the decision to start a new blog focused entirely on promoting reading and literacy skills in the home.  I will be doing some cross-posting between the new blog and This Mommy Gig whenever I write posts that are of the “tips & tricks” nature.  If you are interested in bi-monthly book reviews and more indepth posts that address some of the research behind the development of literacy in the home and it’s impact on student academic success, feel free to subscribe to the new blog by clicking the RSS link in the top right hand corner of the home page.

As a “teaser,” here is one of my first posts on the new blog:

How Parents Can Encourage Reading

1.  Set an example. Let your kids see you reading for pleasure.

2.  Furnish your home with a variety of reading materials. Leave books, magazines, and newspapers around.  Check to see what disappears for a clue to what interests your child.

3.  Give children an opportunity to choose their own books. When you and your children are out together, browse in a bookstore or library. Go your separate ways and make your own selections.  A bookstore gift certificate is a nice way of saying, “You choose”.

4.  Build on your child’s interests. Look for books and articles that feature their favorite sports teams, rock stars, hobbies, or TV shows.  Give a gift subscription to a special interest magazine.

5.  View pleasure reading as a value in itself. Almost anything your youngsters read–including the Sunday comics–helps build reading skills.

6.  Read some books written for children and teens. Young adult novels can give you valuable insights into the concerns and pressures felt by children and teens of all ages.  You may find that these books provide a neutral ground on which to talk about sensitive subjects.

7.  Make reading aloud a natural part of family life. Share an article you clipped from the paper, a poem, a letter, or a random page from an encyclopedia–without turning it into a lesson.

8.  Acknowledge your teen’s mature interests. Look for ways to acknowledge the emerging adult in your teens by suggesting some adult reading you think they can handle.

9.  Keep the big picture in mind. For all sorts of reasons, some children go through periods without showing much interest in reading.  Don’t panic!  Time, and a the few tips listed here, may help rekindle their interest.

If you are interested in learning more about how I am earning free books for my kids, visit this page.  It’s a great opportunity and I am only doing it passively less-than-part-time.

Reading at home with our children has a direct impact on their academic success in school.  The research is very clear on the impact of the quantity and quality of the literacy culture within one’s home.  We read daily with our children — hoping to build their literacy skills while also fostering a love for books.

What are your strategies for fostering reading and literacy with your children?

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit down and write a post for this blog.  Needless to say, life with twins (who are now 15 months old) is definitely a non-stop adventure!  Let’s see… there’s double the feeding, double the diapering, double the playing (okay — that’s a good thing), double the temper tantrums, and — almost always — double the sniffles, coughing, ear infections, vomitting, and fevers.

And now our little girl has learned a new word that she can say more clearly than any of the other words she tries to say.  Her new word?  It’s “no!” — and yes, she says it with an exclamation point behind it!

The little man, of course, thinks that everything is a ball and therefore must be thrown as hard as he can throw it.

Oh — did I mention that nearly everyone gave them loud toys for Christmas and their birthdays?  Yeah…

And yet, there is absolutely nothing in the world as beautiful as their smiles, their laughs, and how they feel in my arms at the end of a long day.  I really have forgotten what life was like before they were here.  Before they were born I wondered what life would feel like as a mother.  Immediately after they were born I wondered “do ALL mothers feel like this?!”  Today I struggle to remember what it felt like to not be a mother — to not have this much love, this much joy, this much fun.

So now that they are 15 months old and developing so amazingly fast, I’ll be trying to share some of our adventures here (and some of the lessons we are learning along the way) on a more regular basis.  As for trying to juggle “this mommy gig” — yes, I am still working full time (and more — see below) while trying to be the best mother I can be, so I still wonder/worry about the whole balance thing… maybe I’ll figure that out someday.  If I do, you will be the first to know.  Enjoy the rest of your April and I’ll be back in May.

(So about the whole “work” deal which includes my regular 40-hour a week “day job” — Did I mention that in the past several months I also started teaching online part-time, have written a book, and I am now in the middle of having a new house built?  Yes, I think I must be totally insane!)

Stephanie Sandifer is a mother of (almost) 6 month-old twins (a boy and a girl) and lives in Houston, Texas. She balances motherhood & working as a Literacy Content Area Specialist for the Houston Independent School District - you can read more about Stephanie on our contributors page. She blogs about education and technology at Change Agency and about educational leadership issues at LeaderTalk.org.

July is finally here and I feel like I can breathe again.  We are working on developing a nap schedule, and everything seems to be going very well with that so far.  (Yes, I just knocked on wood…)

Last week I attended the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) and it was the first time that I was away from my babies.  I was out of town for 5 days and I can’t remember the last time I was so homesick.  Sure, I enjoyed the conference, but it was so hard to know that I wouldn’t be able to hold my babies, feed them, or kiss them goodnight every evening.  On at least a couple of occasions there were a few tears on my part.

We contemplated using Skype to chat in the evenings even though at 6 months old they really wouldn’t grasp the concept of what they were looking at, but the days were so busy and went by so quickly that we never did fire up Skype.  On the last day of the conference I was chatting with one of the other educators that I met at the conference and he said that his wife told him that he couldn’t Skype home any more.  Apparently his 2 year old daughter freaked out when daddy disappeared from the screen.  Not good.

Now I’m home and I’m fortunate that I have the month of July off from work to enjoy spending more with my beautiful children.  However, I am looking at quite a bit of travel over the next year and I struggle with mixed feelings of excitement over the opportunities to do presentations and workshops, and sadness over being away from my children.  And now I know that at least for a few years, Skype will not be an option…  Not sure yet how I’m going to cope with all of it.

In other news, I’ve also accepted a new job offer that will take me from campus-based position to a leadership role in central office.  Yep.  I just became part of the bureaucracy.  Okay — that was an attempt at humor.  I’m really looking forward to my new job and I’m very excited that the central office is only about 5 minutes away from my current school campus which is where the daycare is located.  I get a new job and I don’t have to worry about new daycare arrangements for the babies.  That doesn’t cure my recent (and future) homesickness — but it does make life a little easier!

This morning on my way to work I saw a young couple walking to the school.  The young man was holding their infant son in his arms.  Both parents are students at my school and the infant was on his way to be dropped off at the on-campus daycare before the two students headed off to their classes.

This week our local paper ran stories about a local high school that the state has declared must be shutdown (and reopened with new name and new staff), and a story about a 13 year old boy who was shot by a police officer because the boy was shooting a handgun around a local neighborhood at 3:00 a.m.  Both of these stories included reader comments and many of the readers were asking the question: “Where are the parents?”  Where are the parents of the 13 year old boy?  Where are the parents of the students at the failing school and why aren’t they more involved?  Some readers commented back that in many cases, those parents are working 2 to 3 jobs just to put food on the table and their absence is not due to disinterest but due rather to simple issues of time and economy.

I think about my own situation and I wonder “Am I spoiled?”  Do I have a right to complain about my own struggle for work/life balance when there are so many people out there for whom work/life balance isn’t even on their radar because they are too worried about food and shelter? 

I can work from 8:00 to 5:00 everyday.  I can afford to make employment/advancement decisions that benefit my desire for work/life balance because economically I am not in a situation where I have to accept just any job that comes along.  My children aren’t starving and I can spend quality time with them every evening and every weekend.  As my children grow, I will be able to monitor my children and be involved in their school experiences, social life, and extra-curricular activities.  I have privileges that so many people just don’t have — and in many cases, have no hope of ever having.

When I have days like I have had today, I feel guilty for wanting more work/life balance/flexibility than I currently have in my life.  Thoughts begin to run through my head that I should just be grateful for what I do have.  I am grateful.  I do feel blessed and I am thankful that I have an education and career that allow me to have as much as I do in my life.  I also know that I would have none of this without my own hard work and the support/encouragement/involvement of my parents, family, community, and teachers when I was younger. 

But I am left with a nagging question: “Who is supporting, encouraging, and being involved with the other young people in my city?”

How appropriate that my first blog post on This Mommy Gig is also my first blog post on my very first Mother’s Day as a new mommy. I am filled with so many thoughts and emotions on my first Mother’s Day and I want to share a few of those here.

I always knew that I wanted children, but I knew that I didn’t want to start a family until after I finished college. Hmmm… while I could argue that I actually finally finished college just last year (completed second master’s degree), that wouldn’t really be very honest. So I will admit that it’s taken me a little longer to become a mother than I originally intended, but better late than never, right? So here I am with two beautiful twins — a little boy and a little girl — who bring me so much joy and happiness. Becoming a mom has been so much more rewarding than I ever imagined. Watching these two little people develop day-to-day is so very entertaining and fascinating. For example, just within the past few days they both have become so much more aware, interactive, and vocal. It’s so much fun to talk to them and have them try to mimic the sounds of the words.

One of the recurring thoughts going through my mind right now is a new awareness of just how strong my own mother is. I am so fortunate that I have a loving and supportive partner who is as fully involved with the care of our children as I am, but my mother was on her own at the age of 25 with a 4 year old and a newborn. She also worked full-time. I am coming to the realization that my mom really must be a real “Super Woman”, because how else could she have raised my brother and me so very well while holding a full-time career in hospital administration? What did she give up to provide so much for us? Oh, I almost forgot to mention that she also spent a good number of years taking night classes in an effort to complete her bachelor’s degree. Where did she get the energy? Granted, she was raising us through her twenties and thirties while I am just starting down the motherhood path in my mid/late thirties, but I am in very good health and pretty good shape for someone my age. My biggest fear is being in a job that demands so much of me that I have nothing left to give to my children, and my goal is to completely avoid being in such position even if it means that I have to turn down offers for advancement. While I love my work in education, my priority is to be a wonderful mother to my children. So it does amaze me when I think back on my own childhood and I recall so many wonderful moments spent with my mother. Despite a full-time career and taking classes part-time to complete a degree, she still found time to be with her children. We played together, we read together, we did projects together, we traveled together, we learned together, and we enjoyed life, love, and family together. I am so grateful to my mother for this and I hope to give the same to my own children.

How did I spend my very first Mother’s Day? We had BIG plans… We all stayed home and just enjoyed each other throughout the day. We took a fun little walk around the neighborhood in the afternoon, but other than that our big goal for the day was to just spend quality time with each other and our beautiful babies who are just beginning to become very vocal and full of smiles.  It was the best day I’ve had in a while!

So to all of the other mothers out there who may be reading this — including my own mom — I wish you all a fun and relaxing Mother’s Day filled with much love and joy!