Welcome to Chancy and Bruce
Educational Resources, Inc.
Thoughts to Parents
Some Points to Ponder...
School Readiness is defined as "the ability to cope, learn, and achieve without undue stress." Memorizing a list of facts is not the same as having the developmental processing skills and maturation needed for success in school. School Readiness and intellectual capacity (I.Q.) do not necessarily correlate. Each child is a unique human being who grows and develops at their rate. The decision as to when a child should enter the school system, either public or private, is one of the most important decisions a parent must take. Many states and schools have an age requirement for school entrance that says a child must be five years of age on or before a specific date. The majority of states and private schools use a date that falls between June 1 and September 1.
California has legislated performance standards for each grade level, including Kindergarten. Along with these standards, legislation was enacted, eliminating the practice of social promotion. Research has indicated that a child who has not begun the reading process by first grade becomes at risk for learning. There has also been new research about the importance of early intervention for children demonstrating delays in their processing skills. The observations of a young child by their parents and extended caregivers become crucial in helping to make decisions about the proper school setting and age at which to begin the formal learning process.
Different types of curriculum and the delivery of that curriculum require certain maturation levels in processing skills, attending maturity, and social-emotional maturity. Parents must be aware of the demands of the Kindergarten curriculum in the school setting their child will be attending. Questions as to the expectations of reading, writing, and staying self-directed at a task are important. Class size is also important to know, as all schools do not have 20-to-one ratios at the Kindergarten level.
In reviewing the content standards for the State of California and also reviewing curriculum demands from many of the private schools in Southern California, Chancy and Bruce Educational Resources, Inc. has found that a child should be developmentally between 5 and 5 1/2 years of age (regardless of their chronological age) to be successful in school and to begin the reading process no later than first grade. Many private schools expect reading to start by the end of Kindergarten. Appropriate intervention strategies best support children demonstrating delays in their processing skills. Developmentally young children do best in school when they are allowed to develop and mature in a setting that does not put undue stress on them. Such a setting would be a Pre-K, Preppy K, or Junior K setting provided through a Pre-School, Private School, or Public School.
Children grow at different stages and are on different developmental timetables, which makes the need for parent education in this area critical. Chancy and Bruce has assessed over 250,000 children since 1982 and has completed longitudinal studies following children from Kindergarten through high school and 4 years post-high school.
The Curious Brain
November 01, 2008
"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
The Brain thrives on: Good Nutrition, Loving Touch, Movement, Language, Direct Experience through Unstructured Exploration, Community, and Recognition of Unique Time Tables.
We have a tendency to provide children with so much structure that we are teaching them "what" to think rather than "how" to think that comes through self-directed play and plenty of unstructured time.
Over the last 20 years, looking at children ages 3 to 12 years, there has been a drop of 12 hours a week of free time for unstructured activities and structured sports, going up by 50%. Some parents feel that they have to have their child's life mapped out by the time they are 8 years. They see unstructured play as a waste of time or they are concerned that their child will become bored, and boredom equals behavior problems.
Electronic Media, screen time, or monitor time can do more harm than good when it comes to developing the creative brain. Dr. Linn from Harvard Medical School notes that although this type of media might be entertaining, it can be "antithetical to play." "Play is about discovering what the world is all about and not becoming a passive spectator limited by rules that other people have engineered. There is speed, noise, action, and distraction, and she feels that children need time, space, and silence."
Studies indicate that being actively involved in the environment and socializing in the environment will appropriately stimulate growing brains. An activity, which engages interest, and imagination and sparks the desire to seek out an answer, ponder a question, or create a response helps to enrich the brain's growing power.
Children who are hurried from one activity to another may get a lot of sensory input but will be shortchanged on the time-consuming process of forming association networks to understand and organize experiences meaningfully.
WHAT CAN I DO AS A PARENT TO STRENGTHEN
THE CURIOUS BRAIN?
1. Try to provide uninterrupted playtime every day and help your child find easy access to open-ended materials.
2. Try to buy as few single-purpose, media-linked, and electronic toys as possible.
3. When buying a toy, ask the following: What is the potential of this toy for fostering imaginative play and creative problem-solving? A good toy is 90% child and 10% toy.
4. Try to give your child as many concrete experiences with everyday activities as you can.
5. Think about things around the house that can expand opportunities for creative play.
6. Keep your child's screen time to a minimum so that it does not interfere with active play. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one to two hours of quality screen time for older children and no screen time for children under the age of two.
7. Encourage more human time through talking, eating meals together, and playing together.
8. Limit extra-curricular activities, especially before the age of eight years of age.
9. Push down academics do not make brighter children. Many of our school environments are not "developmentally friendly." The emphasis should be on turning curious children into lifelong learners.
10. Support developmentally appropriate early childhood programs that promote social-emotional development. Young children are learning how to function in a group setting, listen and take directions, and regulate their emotions.
posted by: Bonnie Bruce
Research That Supports The Development of Healthy, Happy, Young Children
October 23, 2008
Play is the cornerstone of development, and it takes time for good play to happen. Play equals learning and forms the foundation for all higher learning.
Family meals are essential not only for nutrition but can be a predictor of academic success and social skills.
It is better to do less and have more downtime with family.
Cherish family traditions. Limit Screen Time – too much “screen media” and we see attention problems and nutritional concerns. Children under the age of 8 years spend an average of 5.5 hours on media daily. The recommendation is no more than 1 -2 hours/day of educational, non-violent programming.
Push down academics do not make brighter children. Many of our school environments are not “developmentally friendly.” Children get their first taste of failure before they learn to write their names. Natural development and the needs of the curriculum should match. The emphasis should be on turning curious children into lifelong learners.
Social-Emotional development should be the focus of early childhood programs. The emphasis should be on learning to play cooperatively, how to function in a group setting, listen and take directions, and to learn to regulate their emotions.
posted by: Bonnie Bruce