ACCOUNTABILITY

For some reason, many children seem to be growing up thinking that they are not responsible for their actions and that there will be no consequences for their choices. It could be the modern media, video games and cartoons where the main character has nine lives, or even popular Hollywood figures that helps them to believe this lie. No matter who or what it is that seems to be spreading the idea that there is no accountability for our choices, it's up to us as parents and teachers to stop it.

As an adult, you are accountable for your own actions. Whether it's cleaning up your mess, apologizing for a mistake or taking care of your belongings, it's important to show that you are accountable. In addition to being accountable for your actions, it is important to teach your child to be accountable as well. By starting early, you can teach your child to take responsibility, so he makes better decisions as he becomes older.

Family meetings are a great way to teach children and teens alike between right and wrong. Sometimes it's hard to come up with ideas on how to teach children in the most effective way. Here are some simple ideas on how to teach your children "the consequences of making a choice."

ü Give your child responsibilities. Provide them with things to be accountable, whether it's taking care of their belongings or certain chores around the house. Whatever responsibility you give your child, make sure it is age appropriate. A toddler can be made responsible for putting his toys blocks away when he is finished playing. A grade-school child can carry his own lunch money to school or make his bed in the morning.

ü Establish rules in your home. Make it clear to your child that not following your rules will lead to consequences. For example, you can say, "I will not tolerate any pushing or shoving in this house. It doesn't matter if your brother started the argument, it still isn't right to hit him. If you hit him again, you will be punished."

ü Follow through with a punishment if your child doesn't follow your rules. If you don't enforce your rules, your child won't think he has to be accountable for his actions. For example, if he continues to receive bad grades on his report card, do not allow him to go out with his friends until he improves his grades. Your child will recognize that he can't just do what he wants, and there are consequences for his actions.

ü Model good behavior. If you don't hold yourself accountable for your actions, you can't expect your child to be accountable. When you make a mistake, apologize and don't blame your mistake on someone else. If you told your child you would take her to the park on Saturday, don't make other plans. By leading by example, your child will likely adopt those good habits.

PERSEVERANCE

Teaching children to persevere is an important aspect of their personal skills to develop. Preparing a child with the emotional tools to succeed in life is one of the parent's most difficult jobs and teaching perseverance is no exception. Some children are more inclined to persevere than others, but all can learn some aspects of this trait.

1. Resist jumping in. When you see your child struggling with something, it's every parent's urge to jump in and help. Don't. It will lead to a cycle of uncompleted projects and frustration for both of you.

2. Encourage from the sidelines. Say to them, "I know you can figure it out, I have confidence in you. You're a smart kid." This will boost their confidence and self esteem, giving them enough emotional steam to persevere to the task's completion. Then watch your child's self esteem grow when they accomplish what they thought was impossible.

3. Start early. It is much more difficult to teach a teenager to tie their shoes than a four or five year old child. Start the practice of perseverance early so you and they can master the skill.

4. Lead by example. If you quit when the going gets a little rough, they will too. Set personal and family goals and work to achieve them. Make a family diary to record your progress and review your goals annually to redirect as needed.

5. Let your child set his or her own personal goals as well. When your child has the calling to achieve something, give all the assistance you can. Cheer them on, help them doresearch and give them love and encouragement. This helps them know you think they're a great kid and can do anything with the right kind of help.

6. Enlist help. Go online to find help to aid in your parenting journey, including how to equip your child with the emotional tools they need.

You may also find some helpful tips in this video:

Read more: How to Teach a Child Perseverance | eHow.comhttp://www.ehow.com/how_2065821_teach-child-perseverance.html#ixzz2jNyxiGEV

TEACHING CHILDREN ABOUT FRIENDSHIP

Valentine’s Day is just a few hours away. Teaching children about friendship is part of many character education curriculums. Although young children often talk about their friends, they may not have an understanding of what a good friend actually is. Once you discuss characteristics and examples of being a friend, then you will want to do several activities so children can remember the qualities of friendship. You can also keep a list of characteristics of a good friend in your child’s bedroom and refer to these when you see them displaying one of them.

Role Playing - A great way to teach children about friendship is role play. You can give them a situation and a part to play in the scene. Then they act out how a "good" friend would act as opposed to a "bad" friend.

Friendship Chains - Another fun activity for children to participate in is making a friendship chain. First discuss with your child the qualities of being a good friend such as honesty, loyalty and trustworthiness. Next give him or her small strips of construction paper that can be easily made into a paper chain. On the strips of paper, students write the names of friends and then qualities this person has as a friend. Next, they make their own individual, short friendship chain.

Friendship Recipes - This activity can also start with a discussion on what makes a good friend. Once you have talked about it, you ready to make friendship recipes. On the Good Character.com website, a friendship recipe is described as "telling someone else how to be a good friend. Include the 'ingredients' of a friendship and the 'recipe' (steps) for being a good friend or making new friends." (References #2) For example, students could write as ingredients: 3 cups of trustworthiness, 1 tablespoon of humor, and so on. Steps for the recipe could be: Mix together trustworthiness and humor. Slowly add in loyalty. Let students read real recipes to get ideas for the friendship recipes. Once they have created their friendship recipes, they can copy them on poster board and decorate them for a friendship display or to share with a friend or the classroom.

To read more visit Activities to Teach Kids Friendship | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_6500091_activities-teach-kids-friendship.html#ixzz1mDcVa3DB

MAP REPORTS

This week, our Discovery School students (grades 1 through 10) will be taking their MAP reports home. As you know, MAP (Measures of Academic Progress™) are computarized adaptive tests that determine your child’s instructional level and measure academic growth throughout the school year, and from year to year in the areas of Math, Reading and Language Usage.

MAP tests are unique in that they are adaptive tests your child took on a computer. That means that the test became more difficult the more questions your child answered correctly. When your child incorrectly answered a question, the test became easier. Therefore, your child took a test specifically created for his or her learning level.

Your child’s MAP results are reported in RIT scores. This is a different type of score than a typical test that provides a percentage correct. It is also different from many tests that provide results based on your child’s score compared to others in his or her grade. Instead, the RIT score is an equal-interval scale, like feet and inches, that is independent of grade level. As a result, we can easily measure growth in learning. This type of score increases the value of the tests as a tool to improve student learning because it enables teachers to recognize where to focus attention for your child’s learning.

MAP testing is a powerful tool for monitoring student growth over time. It allows our teachers to make instructional desicions based on the readiness and needs of each child and class.

MAP reports also provide teachers and parents with a LEXILE score. A Lexile measure is a valuable piece of information about either an individual's reading ability or the difficulty of a text, like a book or magazine article. The Lexile measure is shown as a number with an "L" after it — (i.e. 880L is 880 Lexile.). This allows teachers and students to make adequate choices of reading selections that can be chosen at an appropriate level, and still focus on improving the reading skills needed for each student.

For more information on resources for parents, download the Parent Toolkit at http://www.nwea.org/sites/www.nwea.org/files/resources/ParentToolkit.pdf

Thank you for taking an active interest in your child’s education. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s student if you want to discuss the MAP report further.

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 6 – 10, 2012

This week, Discovery School will be hosting the ABSH Spelling Bee, with 25 schools from all over Honduras participating. We are very proud to have Matteo Renda represent us in the Spelling Bee in English, and Dago Sanchez represent us in Ortografia in Spanish. YOU ARE WINNERS and we are sure you will do a great job!!!

Our third graders are working very hard and keeping themselves very busy in class. We are engaging in some very cool projects, all the while learning and having fun. This is what we will be doing this week:

• 
• Math: we begin our unit on Fractions this week, learning about equal parts, fractional parts or regions, equivalent fractions, comparing, ordering and estimating fractions. You may want
  to use the following websites once the content has been covered in class: http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/WebLessons/FabulousFractions/default.htm

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/fractionflags/fractionflags.html

http://www.aaamath.com/B/g36a_cx1.htm#section2

http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/melvins-make-match/http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/cross_the_river/

http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/compare-fractions

http://www.ixl.com/math/grade-3/order-fractions

• R/W Workshop: we continue our unit on descriptive writing by writing on our personal journals in class. We will have a Journal Tea Time (volunterers are welcome!) to share the final product with our 3^rd grade parents after the President’s Day Holiday. The children continue to enjoy Caleb’s Story for Read Aloud, which ties into our descriptive writing unit. New Novels and Packets will be distributed this week.
• Spelling: lesson 22 for this week is about homophones. The quiz will be on Friday.
• Theme: we will warp up our Unit on Chemistry, and introduce our very much awaited unit on the MAYAN CIVILIZATION. We are planning to have our traditional Mayan Museum on the first days in March. Woohoo!
• Handwriting: letters /M/ and /V/ in cursive.

MAP REPORTS will be sent home on Tuesday. If you would like to meet and discuss them, please call the school to set an appointment.

HOMEWORK

Monday	Read your new novel Math paper Pair the homophones of your Spelling list *Practice your facts
Tuesday	Read your new novel Math paper Write sentences using 2 Spelling words in each sentence *Practice your facts
Wednesday	Read your new novel Math paper Spelling sheet *Practice your facts
Thursday	Read your new novel Math paper Stuudy for your Spelling quiz *Practice your facts
Friday	Read your new novel Practice your facts