Catch some Zzz's

Today's post is about how important sleep is. As an adult, probably have learned some ways to cope with lack of sleep, whether it be caffeine or energy drinks or listening to music loudly....or just learning to some how function at half speed. However, for children and teenagers, sleep is vital to their performance in school and thus needs to be an important part of their life.

Look and see what this article (excerpt below) has to say about sleep and kids:

School-Age Children and Preteens

School-age kids need 10 to 12 hours of sleep a night. Bedtime difficulties can arise at this age for a variety of reasons. Homework, sports and after-school activities, TVs, computers, and video games, as well as hectic family schedules might contribute to kids not getting enough sleep.
Lack of sleep can cause irritable or hyper types of behavior and may make it difficult for kids to pay attention in school. It is important to have a consistent bedtime, especially on school nights. Be sure to leave enough time before bed to allow your child to unwind before lights out.

Teens

Adolescents need about 8½ to 9½ hours of sleep per night, but many don't get it. Because of early school start times on top of schedules packed with school, homework, friends, and activities, they're typically chronically sleep deprived.
And sleep deprivation adds up over time, so an hour less per night is like a full night without sleep by the end of the week. Among other things, an insufficient amount of sleep can lead to:

• decreased attentiveness
• decreased short-term memory
• inconsistent performance
• delayed response time

These can cause bad tempers, problems in school, stimulant use, and driving accidents (more than half of "asleep-at-the-wheel" car accidents are caused by teens).
Teens also experience a change in their sleep patterns — their bodies want to stay up late and wake up later, which often leads to them trying to catch up on sleep during the weekend. This sleep schedule irregularity can actually aggravate the problems and make getting to sleep at a reasonable hour during the week even harder.
Ideally, a teen should try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning, allowing for at least 8 to 9 hours of sleep.

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So be sure your child is getting enough sleep at night so that they are able to do their absolute best these last couple weeks of school! A good night's rest will do amazing things for your body!

Keep those brains workin!

The responsibility to make sure your children are learning doesn't only fall on the teacher, it also falls on the parent too! And since your children aren't in school during the summer, you'll need to decide how you, as a parent, want to help keep your child's brain sharp. There are so many options, and here is an article that gives you specific things you can look for or questions you can ask of your child's teacher.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/13388817/ns/today-parenting_and_family/t/prevent-summer-learning-loss-your-kids/

Of course, we recommend our summer camps that cover a whole range of ages and subjects! Be sure to stop by our website to check out our camps - we are SO excited about our camps and really want to help keep your children sharp! : ) Make sure you sign up soon because space is limited!

Test Prep

Happy Tuesday!

Here's a great article that gives you specific tips for how to prepare for a test - whether it be a standardized test or a general classroom test. While I have posted several links to test prep before, I believe that any additional suggestions could be helpful, especially for those struggling to figure out the best way to prepare for a test. I like this article in particular because it doesn't just give suggestion points, the author actually discusses how each tip can be beneficial.

http://www.edarticle.com/article.php?id=168

And after you've checked out that article, be sure to look along the left side of the page to find more articles about all different areas of school/teaching.

Hope you find this helpful! Only a few more weeks of school, you can make it!

Eat Smart too!

For most of our students, this week is a week full of testing. So I thought that it would be a great week to cover good things to eat in order to help your body and brain function at its highest!

I found a website that is chock-full of great foods to eat in order to help productivity, alertness, memory and mood. So look through these lists and see if there is anything you can get on your child's plate or in his/her tummy. As I was looking through these, a couple of the items listed would be great in a smoothie! I'm pretty sure any kid loves a smoothie, so that could be a perfect way to send your child off to school in the morning - with a memory and productivity boosting smoothie!

Here is the website: 100 Foods that Make You Smarter, Happier, and More Productive - look through it!

ALSO, make sure your child is getting enough rest. It takes a lot of energy to focus on something for an extended period of time and that extra sleep can make a huge difference! So make sure they're going to bed early enough to get all the sleep that they'll be needing to focus well this week!

Young Reader Strategies

Hi All, Happy Tuesday!

This week's post will help parents of young readers. I found this article and immediately liked it. I'm sure you've heard that it's important to read with your children, which it is, but here are some specific things that you can focus on while reading with them! Try a strategy or two each time you read together. This will not only help your children be aware readers as you pick things out together, but you are also modeling good reading skills to your child. A win-win right? Make it fun and enjoyable and you'll both have a good time!

So here's the website, please check it out!

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/storytime-strategies-learning-literacy/

Learning to Study

We have a summer schedule all arranged, soon to be posted on the web site, so please check back soon so you can figure out exactly how you want to keep your kids busy this summer! We have lots of great camps lined up for them!

However, summer is not upon us yet, so we must continue to focus on this school year. My resources for the week are about studying. Students of all ages find themselves studying, whether it be spelling words in 2nd grade or calculus in high school, therefore, hopefully you can find these tips helpful. It's not just scanning the paper and hoping your brain grabs all the information, it takes more work than that! However, with the right skills and techniques, it might be easier than you think!

Here's an article discussing how to prepare to study - a good way to make sure your child's study environment is conducive for studying!  http://www.how-to-study.com/study-skills/en/preparing-to-study.asp

Here are good suggestions for how to read a textbook and remember what you're reading. I remember how hard it was for me to absorb information, just reading through it, but maybe by using these tips, it will be more useful.

Being able to concentrate while you are studying is incredibly important, so here is an article helping you figure out how to best help your student concentrate and do his/her best work while they are studying.

Finally, here are two more articles about imporoving study habits and study motivation. I think these are super helpful, especially for those parents trying to instill good habits in their younger students. Starting good study habits is a great way to have a successful school year, and it is never too late to start learning good habits!

Hope you find these helpful! Be sure to let me know if you have any studying habits that you have found helpful so we can share more helpful studying tips! Good luck studying!

Getting ready for the end of the year and Summer Break!

Hello All,

I apologize for the long absence in blog posts, but due to some recent changes around here at S.M.A.R.T. Zone Tutoring, we should have a new blog post/helpful article up every Tuesday, so please check back each week for tips, resources and news regarding testing, school, summer school,ways to keep challenging your student/child's brain and all kinds of other things!

This week I found some great articles. The first one is actually several, a web site that has many articles revolving around how teachers can help prepare their students for standardized tests - which are seen around this time of year! So please check out this website at Scholastic, where you will find articles like, "Test taking strategies for Three Subject Areas" and "Top 5 Ways to Prepare Students for Standardized Tests". Hope you find these helpful!

Here's an article for parents of children going through testing at school. It goes through several things you as a parent can do to help prepare you child for the days of testing they will be having.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/23154/

Finally, here's another article to help parents prepare for the summer! We need to keep challenging their brains throughout the summer since they aren't in school for a few months. It doesn't necessarily have to be worksheets and math equations though as you will find in this article!

I hope you found some of these tips helpful! Check back next week for more tips and resources for parents and teachers!