Lily Heads for Kindergarten

My granddaughter, Lily, loves to swim. Watching her in the water in the summertime is one of the most joyful experiences of this grandfather’s days. In her element, she challenges herself at the leading edge of learning and adventure.

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Parents, How Can You Best Reinforce Your Child’s Strengths?

In my entries about children’s positive attributes, you can find details about the kinds of strengths children seem to display at different ages and stages of their development. No two children are the same, of course, and each will gravitate to different interests at the same ages because different things excite different children, energize them, [...]

Turning the Corner on Your “Developmental Cluster”

Teachers: As the second half of the school year gets underway, it’s a good time to take a look at that “developmental cluster” age of your class you may have explored in the fall. Those who read this blog regularly or have read my book Yardsticks will be familiar with developmental clusters.

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The Developmental Journey Journals

As a new feature ot the Yardsticks blog this year, I’ll be highlighting the developmental journeys of the same two young children once each month. My goal is to share some true-life examples of children’s passages through a single school year within the context of the developmental expectations you can read about in my book [...]

It’s Spring!

Here in New England we call it Mud Season or Sugaring Season, depending on how hard the sun is shining or the snow or rain is falling in mid-March. The other day, at the end of what looked like a long afternoon in one third grade class being led by a substitute (or what we [...]

Elaine’s Circle: A review, a recommendation, a veneration

I had picked up and put down this book in one of the education sections of a chain bookstore several times over the last couple of years, but just couldn’t quite believe the endorsement by Lynne Cox on the front that reads, “There are books … that stay with you all your life—Elaine’s Circle will [...]

Incremental Success

Remember learning to play the piano or a specific move in gymnastics or dance, or keyboarding, or cooking?
How did you know you were getting better at what you were learning and who helped you see your developing abilities?
It’s important that children, as well as their parents and teachers, have some concrete awareness of their own [...]

A Schoolwide “Read-Aloud”

A Welcome Back notice on our cyberspace newsletter and calendar alerts parents to a school-wide literacy activity that we hope will open discussions at the dinner table and in the car about a book everyone grades 3-5 in the school is reading:
Happy New Year!
A new reading activity for a new year:
This week we are beginning [...]