You can maxim your child’s academic success by staying informed and involved with your child’s homework and assigned projects. You can effectively show your child the importance of sticking to a problem until the correct answer is achieved and praise her for her completion.
Homework is an important part of your child’s learning experiences and if they do not come home with homework on a regular basis it would be worth your time to speak to her teacher. Families may make the most of homework time with these four useful homework tips.
- The Right Timing
- Private Space
- Music or Not
- How Much Help
Timing is very important and each child’s personality and temperament must be considered. When some children get home from school they may need a break while others will lose steam if they do not sit right down and get into their books. You can learn what is best for each child by trial and error then you will be ready to create a consistent routine based what works best for each child; of course, your own schedule will also need to be part of the decision.
Space. A desk-like area is best for concentrating and doing their best homework. It needs to be in an area where there are little or no distractions. Therefore, a bedroom may not be the ideal space because all their toys are tempting them. A second location that may not be ideal is your kitchen table when there are other family members going in and out or through. Finding a consistent area away from distractions may be challenging but it is an important decision to make.
Off or on – music or not. Parents need to consider their child’s learning style and the type of music if your child enjoys listening to music while studying. Although a small percentage of children do do better with soft music in the background, the majority of children require a quite atmosphere. It is best to refrain from having TV noise or familiar tunes playing that might distract your children’s concentration. Instead, choose unfamiliar songs without words such as soothing classical music. This may, in fact, help the entire family and help make for a more relaxed meal time atmosphere.
And finally, to bring this article of part one of homework tips to an end parents need to be aware of how much help they want to offer. Each subject may require a different amount. You can be busy with your own work but still keep an ear out for a child’s question or to notice their body language when they might be stuck. You can always read together and help with directions. Go through the first few questions to make sure you child understands the concepts and then let her do her own work on an independent basis.
It is a good idea to check in now and again and if you notice several mistakes encourage corrections. But, remember, teachers need to and prefer seeing work with wrong answers so they can know where more teaching is needed. If your child can have a homework buddy she can be in some contact with this may also help encourage her to try harder, especially if she is struggling on one particular concept.
When you child’s homework is finished they may need some active outdoor play time or maybe she can help with meal preparation. Some children may just want to read or play quietly with a jigsaw puzzle.
You can see our line of Veggie Tales kids jigsaw puzzles and 3d wooden puzzles on our website All I Can Imagine
Part 2 of this article will be posted on Wednesday, Sept. 28th.
Veggie Tales Jigsaw Puzzle
Either you love them or leave them. Some people can spend all their spare time working any number of simple jigsaw puzzles to complex 3D jigsaw puzzles. Which category do you fall in?
Children, on the other hand, most always enjoy putting the colorful pieces together. And, if your children have an interest in a certain category such as flowers, trucks, dolls, cowboys, pirates, and safari animals you will find it easy to search online and find kids jigsaw puzzles that will keep your kids busy for hours of quiet fun.
There was a “golden age” of jigsaw puzzles. This was around 1920 – 1930’s when the great depression was in progress. Putting together jigsaw puzzles, they say, helped to relieve stress. Puzzles during this era were inexpensive and with the ability to be reused over and over helped make them popular in the depression era.
Educational Children’s Toys: Privileged children, back in 1066, would be found playing with pictures of British kings and queens made into jigsaw puzzles. This was one way they were taught history. This would be a great idea to bring back; find pictures of our presidents and other famous people and paste them onto cardboard. Draw lines with a black marker and cut out the pieces. Presto, you have made a new puzzle for your kids and an educational toy as well.
Learning geography can be made fun and interesting (and easier to learn) if you purchase a large map of the world, or the USA, for example. Cut it up into a puzzle. Homeschoolers will love this project, you can teach your kids where grandma lives, or an uncle or aunt. When they see something in the news about an event they can go get their puzzle map and find the location.
When a child is not feeling well, or perhaps the weather is too hot, too cold, or too wet outside an great indoor activity would be to bring out the jigsaw puzzles. Older kids can help the toddlers while you fix lunch. Working puzzles, whether jigsaw or 3d is always a calm, quite, relaxing activity.
Often, in break rooms, day care centers (for children and adults) there are several tables set up with an array of jigsaw puzzles being worked on. Even in Alzheimer’s centers, senior citizen centers and play rooms in homes children and adults alike are likely to be spending time either alone or in a group trying to piece together a pretty picture.
Group activities putting together puzzles provide needed socialization for adults and children alike. For children puzzle play is a great way for them to develop basic hand-eye coordination skills. For young toddlers you will want to provide many puzzles with large colorful pieces so they can easily grip the pieces and gain self confidence as they successfully assemble each puzzle.
Need an idea for a birthday party? How about utilizing children’s jigsaw puzzles? After you have selected your theme you might consider having a group game of completing a large jigsaw puzzle as your main party activity. You could begin by having the children make the jigsaw puzzle as suggested above. There will be plenty of great photo opportunities during this party!
There are jigsaw and 3d wooden puzzles available online to spark the interest of all ages of children and adults. There is a very unique set of Safari blocks that could be considered a 3d wood puzzle – take a look at this Stacking Safari 3d wooden Puzzle.
Another popular theme you might like to consider (and don’t see in stores all the time) is the Veggie Tales children’s jigsaw puzzles. Such puzzles include these 100 piece puzzles for kids age 5 and up:
Veggie Tales Two Sided Pirates Jigsaw Puzzle
Veggie Tales Campfire Sing Along
Veggie Tales Caribbean Bob
Veggie Tales Sweetpea Beauty (pictured above)
Veggie Tales Larry Boy and Fib From Outer Space.
The below link might also help give you other good activity ideas.
Play Jigsaw Safari – Piece Together 50 Puzzles!
Go on a safari of jigsaw fun with amazing pictures of exotic animals & amazing African scenery. A delightful challenge for puzzle lovers, each of the 50 vibrant images features elephants, lions, bison, penguins, and more in their natural habitats.
Need even more puzzles to play. You can do these online: http://origin.www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/bonusjigsaws.jsp
This concludes week number two of Friday Features. We hope you enjoyed reading about jigsaw puzzles and found some new and interesting party ideas. Read our Press Release if you are not sure what Friday Features are all about.
The first jigsaw puzzle was created in 1767. John Spilsbury, a teacher in England created the puzzle for the purpose of teaching geography.
Adhering his maps to flat hardwood, he used a fine saw to cut along the borders of the European countries, and the jigsaw puzzle was born. Hand-painted and made of wood, the puzzle was a map of England and Wales, with each county making up a separate piece.
Soon, people began making pictorial jigsaw puzzles. Their purpose was to entertain rather than to teach. The pieces in these early kids jigsaw puzzles were not interlocking. Not until the invention of power tools more than a century later did jigsaw puzzles with fully interlocking pieces come into being.
The first children’s jigsaw puzzles were made in 1880 by Milton Bradley. “The Smashed Up Locomotive” , their first puzzle, was a printed lithograph of a steam engine locomotive and cutting it into pieces, the “smashed up” effect was achieved when a child opened the box and saw the locomotive all in pieces.
Because of his Puritan upbringing, Bradley’s nature was to seek order. Therefore, the object of the “The Smashed Up Locomotive” was to make the locomotive whole once again.
VeggieTales is a series of English language children’s computer animated films. These films feature anthropomorphic vegetables.
Developed by Big Idea, these films convey moral themes based on the Christian faith and are ofter compatible with Judaism. The films are spliced with satirical references to pop culture and current events.
Pail Vischer and Mike Nawrocki, who provides many of the voices are also the creator of VeggieTales. The films were originally released in direct-to-video format and debuted in December 1993. As of 2009 the program is now shown on Gospel Music Channel. On September 11, 2009, the show that was running on Qubo lineup was removed. The series continued on DVD afterwards.
VeggieTales has also been released as books, music CDs and branded items such as toys, clothing and seeds for vegetables and flowers. The main character’s names are Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber and are popular kids jigsaw puzzles.