Be Well

CK TO OBE S AD

Pull out the games and story books

a n d h e l p yo u r c h i l d c a t ch up i n a fu n wa y

With all of the disruptions in the school calendar the last few years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s no wonder that parents are worried about their children’s education.

It’s not unfounded; some studies say that students may be months behind in subjects like math and reading.

All is not lost. There are things that you can do to help at home that don’t involve more school books. Activities where both you and your child can have a blast while learning at the same time.

Staff at the Omaha Public Schools gave us these tips and learning resources to help your child catch up, if needed. 1. Read every day. Read aloud to and with your student, encourage your student to read independently and talk to you about what they are reading. Utilize books, magazines, newspapers and online books. 2. Talking to your child about what you are doing and thinking as you are doing it will build vocabulary, language skills and reasoning. 3. Here are some activities that enrich and connect mathematics and reading to daily life while building vocabulary: • Cooking and baking • Building and crafts • Gardening • Budgeting and grocery shopping • Creating a daily schedule with times including a.m. and p.m.

Planning travel with maps and distances 4. Sorting and patterning with household objects 5. Matching and sorting games also will help, by building words and putting numbers and letters in order. Find items around the house that match a number or a letter (five pillows).Talk about the letters and numbers; their shapes, what they represent. 6. Play games that promote reasoning and number sense: • Dice games like Yahtzee, Trouble, Farkle and Tenzi • Strategy games like Sequence, Dominoes, Mancala, Backgammon, Monopoly or Chess • Card games such as Uno, Phase 10, Skip Bo, Rummy, War, Set, Bridge, Cribbage and Pinochle 7. Play games that promote reading skills:

Boggle, Scrabble, Apples to Apples Junior, Hedbanz, Scattergories Junior 8. Playing any game that requires conversation will build vocabulary. 9. Some online learning activities: • OPS: iRead, Amira, Lexia, Zearn, MAP Accelerator • Digital resources subscribed to by schools (consult your student’s teacher) • Khan Academy • Greg Tang’s online skill games and learning games • Storyline Online