Developing Problem Sovling Skills

As adults, we have come across many problems throughout our lifetime and have developed skills to deal with them.  What about children who face a problem for the first time?  This can be difficult for us adults as we see a child we love struggle.  How do we help kids overcome this challenge?  The Search Institute has developed a list of useful tips when dealing with children who face a problem.  Use these tips to help you think about how you support youngsters in solving challenges they encounter.  To learn more about the Search Institute, visit this link.

1. Encourage "playing with" the problem. Encourage young people to throw out lots of ideas, make conjectures, and consider many different possibilities--even some that are outlandish. Look at the problem from many perspectives. This flexible thinking is an important skill for forming better solutions than the first that come to mind.
    
2. Guide the young person to break a big problem into its parts. Then focus on aspects of the problem that the young person doesn't understand or that seem like they have more potential to be solved.
    
3. Ask the young person to work through the problem out loud. Not only does this help you coach the young person, but it also slows down the thinking process.
4. Model and talk about the problem solving process, rather than focusing on getting the right answer. Talk through the steps you take and ask the young person to do the same so that it's easier to learn.
    
5. Have the student work through the problem on her or his own. Give only as much assistance as you need to when the young person is really stuck. And when you do so, limit your guidance to questions or suggestions that will help the young person move through a specific issue without solving the whole problem for her or him.
    
6. Ask open-ended questions. Instead of, "Do you think that will fit in there?" you might ask a more open-ended question, such as, "What do you think it will take to get everything to fit inside?" Ask follow-up questions that encourage the young person to articulate their problem-solving process. This not only helps you learn and guide, but it reinforces the skills.
        
7. Give positive reinforcement when young people overcome an obstacle or master a new problem-solving skill. Be specific in highlighting what they have done or learned.

Beginning Readers 101

"Help! My kid is learning to read. Where do I go?"
We hear this often in the Children's Room. The intensity varies according to the happenings of the day. We also see bewildered caregivers roaming the stacks eager, but wondering where to start first.
We're here to help!

The Tigard Youth Services staff have created a little brochure (coming soon!) to help you with choosing books for your beginning reader.
Some important things to think about when looking for books for your new reader:

• Different publishers have different leveling systems.
• Let your child read at her interest level as well as her reading level.
• Don't worry so much about literary merit at this stage. Children who are learning to read don't necessarily care about the quality of the writing or plot. They are more motivated to read about favorite objects or characters.
• When your child is first learning to read, look for books that have pictures in the story that match the text. This is part of the decoding process.

There are five phases your new reader will go through:

Phase 1: When your child knows the alphabet and is eager to begin reading, you know she is ready!

First Readers will have big type, easy words, picture clues, familiar objects or characters and require a lot of adult help. Keep it relaxed, though. Nothing quashes a child's enthusiasm for reading more than a critical listener.

Phase 2: Once your child is comfortable reading the First Readers, he will be ready to move on to books with easy sight words, simple plot and dialogue about familiar topics and themes. He will still need some parental help.

Phase 3: Now that your child is reading really well, she can begin reading books on her own. The books will have longer sentences, smaller type and high-interest vocabulary words.

Phase 4: Your child is completely reading on his own in paragraphs. The books are longer and the story plot is more complex. The books will have challenging vocabulary and difficult sentence structure.

Phase 5: Your child is ready for First Chapter books!

STEAM Saturday

At the heart of every scientist, mathematician, musician, or artist is a person who is willing to tinker.The scientist tests and retests (or tinkers with) theories. A musician will work and rework (tinker with) a song before it's finished.
Which leads to me to recommend one of my favorite new books for parents who want to nurture the "tinkerer" in their child. It's called Tinkerlab: A hands-on guide for little inventors by Rachelle Doorley

Doorly poses that the only way to really get to know a subject or process or material is to work with it long enough, over and over again, so that to the tinkerer gets to the place where she can see it or use it in new ways. There are so many fantastic ideas in this book and on her blog! I especially like her quote,

"When children are encouraged to solve problems on their own, they learn a great deal through the questions and hands-on experiements that lead to a solution."

If you use this book for nothing else, use it for the 10 Tinkerlab Habits of Mind

• Make room for creativity
• Encourage questions
• Listen actively
• Be curious
• See mistakes as gifts
• Embrace a good mess
• Accept boredom as a tool for self-discovery
• Step back ad enjoy the flow
• Spend time outdoors
• Think of everything as an experiement.

What are you waiting for? Get tinkering!

Origami Workshop

 

Try your hand at Japanese paper-folding! 

Join us in the Puett Room Sunday, February 1 from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Members of Tigard High School's Japanese National Honor Society will show you how to make simple, fun origami pieces.  Ages 5 and up.

 

More on Screen Time

Can you tell we liked the presentation by journalist-turned-author, Lisa Guernsey? First Janet, and now I am blogging about it! And I have to admit, my first reaction when I saw we were hosting an author to talk about screen time, was "Great. Now I have another person to make me feel guilty about letting my under-2-year-old watch TV." And it was not that way at all. Lisa focuses more on the quality of TV, apps and video games than the quantity (even for kids under 2), and she offers a pneumonic to help you remember: SPLERN. "SPLERN???" you may ask, "How am I going to remember a nonsense word like that?" That's what I said to myself. But I remembered it without even taking notes, so the acronym did it's job!

• Straight-time story line (the story goes from beginning to end without things like dream sequences, flashbacks, memories, side plots, etc)
• Participation (Dora or Blue's Clues are good examples of this where the kids are actually asked a question and given time to answer, but anything that encourages participation like songs, movement, etc.)
• Labeling (When unfamiliar words or items are shown, they are labeled or defined within the context of the show)
• Engagement (Do the kids like it?)
• Repetition (Speaks for itself)
• Non-Violence (I should probably stop letting Coby watch even the 1981 Spiderman cartoon *cringe*)

So glad I got the opportunity to see her in person, and I highly recommend her book Screen Time: How Electronic Media--From Baby Videos to Educational Software--Affects Your Young Child.

Early Literacy Workshop

As you know, it is never too early to share books with your child. Kindergarten may feel like a long way off (or it may be approaching very quickly), but there are many things you can do to help prepare your child to learn to read in kindergarten. Kids are not expected to know how to read upon entering kindergarten, but things you do at home can prepare them to be ready to learn.

On Monday, March 31 from 6:30 to 8:00 in the Puett Room, I will be offering a workshop on how to prepare your child to read. Babies who are not yet mobile are welcome, but if they are crawling or walking, please hire a babysitter and join us. So, if you have or work with children under 6, you may call the Children’s Desk at 503-718-2673 to register. Space is limited. It’s a fun, interactive workshop, and I’ll look forward to meeting you!

Learn More About Homeschooling in Oregon

Do you want to know more about homeschooling?  Join us for a FREE presentation by the Oregon Home Education Network, featuring a panel of experienced homeschoolers.  Panelists will provide an overview of homeschooling in Oregon and answer questions.  Participants will receive a handout with a list of homeschooling resources.  Join us in the Puett Room on Tuesday October 23rd from 7 to 8:30 p.m.  This event is open to adults only.

Simon Says: Don't Use Flashcards!

Recent research has been indicating that play is how kids learn and is important for their future success. This short article from the New York Times by Tara Parker-Pope, provides more explicit guidance around what types of games and how you can alter games to increase a child’s ability to pay attention, remember rules, and exhibit self-control—all strong predictors of academic success!

Here are a few things from the article that you can try with your kids or even a group of kids, for that matter:
• Play games like Simon Says, Red Light/Green Light, and clapping and signing games which require kids to pay attention and focus, follow instructions/rules/the leader, and exhibit self-control.

• Change rules or add new components to games develops mental flexibility and requires increased concentration and memory skills—examples include having kids touch the opposite body part than what is being sung during Head and Shoulders (touch your nose when you sing the word ‘toes’), switching green to stop and red to go in Red Light/Green Light.

• Do more singing and clapping games! Make up a new verse to an old favorite action rhyme that kids have memorized and try singing in the round (Row, Row, Row your boat is a good one to start with).

Meet the Collection Mondays: Parents

Thank you for joining us on our journey over the past few months as we looked at all of the collections that are housed in the children's and young adult rooms at the library.  We hope you found it informative and were able to learn more about what the library offers young patrons.  This week will be our last post in the series as we will be highlighting the Parents Colletion today.  Join us on Fridays as we begin a new series called "Favorite Book Fridays" where youth services staff will post their thoughts and comments regarding their favorite children's and young adult books. 


The Parents Collection is housed in the children's room at the library.  We've decided to keep the collection here so parents can browse books for themselves while allowing their children to puruse their own books and play with puzzles, puppets, and our game computers withouth having to leave the room to go upstairs.


The collection consists of nonfiction materials (books and DVD's) intended for use by parents, teachers, childcare providers and youth advocates on topics geared towards raising children from birth through 12 years of age.  The emphasis is on practical materials on topics such as:

·       Books on “how-to” parenting such as discipline and child rearing (includes secular and religious viewpoints)

·       General works on pregnancy and birth

·       General works on family values, family units, and nurturing

·       Books on child development (physical and educational)

·       Toilet training (resources for parents and juvenile literature)

·       Sexual abuse and prevention (resources for parents and juvenile literature)

·       Children’s safety, health, fitness, and popular works on disabilities

·       Books dealing with the educational needs of children by age/grade level through 6^th grade (enrichment activities, programming, curriculum support)

·       Books offering suggestions for entertaining children (activities, crafts, family outings/travel)

·       Bibliographic reference works and readers' advisory materials

·       Books related to children's literature, early literacy, literacy, and reading

·       Home schooling resources

·       “View and Reflect” resources for child care workers

This is just a sampling of subjects that we carry in the collection.  Other topics of interest that are in the collection includes baby signs, family cooking & cook books, first meals, family travel, gardening with children, and green living.  Stop by the children's desk today as we would love to show you the collection!