A Newsletter that Helps You Help Your Children

Brain-based Learning Resources
for Teachers, Parents and Anyone who Works with Kids

Vol. 2  No. 1  January 2007
published and edited by Dr. MaryJo Wagner
 

In this issue

  Here's what you'll find in your January Brain Boosters for Your
  Kids Newsletter

Workshops and TeleChat Schedule: Next Brain Gym Basics TeleChat starts February 6, 2007  Teachers, click here to sign up.  Parents, click here for Brain Gym Basics.

Feature Article: "How Much Homework is Too Much?"

Brain Quiz: Special Freebie just for you. A whole year's worth of Brain Quizzes you can get today.

Resources You can use: The Brain Connection 

And Remember: If you've taken Brain Gym Basics, a one-day Introduction to Brain Gym, or the 3-day Brain Gym 101 from me or anyone else, you can get a FREE Brain Gym balance over the phone with MaryJo Wagner, The Learning Doctor.

Brain Gym Tidbit: What about the research?

Please add mjw@mjwagner.com to your white list or address book in your e-mail program so you won't have trouble getting future issues of Brain Boosters for Your Kids. I know it's hard to believe but sometimes SPAM filters eat up your Brain Boosters Newsletter!

Read back issues of the Brain Boosters for Your Kids Newsletter
 

Note from The Learning Doctor

Hi:

Bet I know what you're thinking: "Good grief, did MaryJo fall off the face of the earth? What's happened to Brain Boosters?" 

So somewhere around Thanksgiving right after a weekend grandkids visit, my computer went berserk. This calamity was followed by nearly six weeks of computer problems including no e-mail, Web sites down, and on and on. I won't bore you with the details.

So there you were eating your Thanksgiving turkey, putting up your Christmas tree or lighting your Hanukah candles and I was on hold waiting for the next available tech support person to help me.

And frazzled, frustrated and worried about not keeping in touch with you. Finally a friend, longer in this business than I, asked me if I thought I was the only one this had happened too?  Ah, turns out I'm not alone! Not the first person whose computer has blown up!

And so finally I'm back with Brain Boosters and lots of exciting plans for the New Year.

If you haven't done it already, checkout my e-book series (Yes, it, too, suffered during the down time). 

The Brain Boosters e-book series includes terrific brain-based- learning tips, resources, links, templates, check lists, self-quizzes, and activities for kids in the classroom and kids at home.  You can use these strategies to help raise test scores, manage those hyperactive kids, and help 'em all learn to read and master math.

I'll be sending the first book out chapter by chapter so folks don't have to wait for the whole book.

You can still get in on my 50 per cent off pre-publication offer for the Brain Boosters e-books plus a bunch of bonuses--even a free Brain Gym Basics TeleChat.  Or the ADD TeleChat coming up the end of February.  (Unfortunately, it got postponed too.)

MaryJo

P.S. The e-books include "Brain Boosters for Your Kids: Strategies for school success," "They're Driving Me Crazy: How to manage ADD without drugs," and "Why Smart Kids Fail: What you can do to help them."
 

Workshop and TeleChat Schedule

Brain Boosters for Your Kids TeleChats in February
 

We have a free TeleChat every month, plus a single TeleChat, and a 4-session, 90-minute series.  The 4-session series are available for graduate professional development credit for teacher recertification and salary upgrade from the University of Colorado.

"Managing ADD/ADHD" FREE February 14 and again on February 20. Watch for sign
 up details.

"Brain Gym Basics," 4 evenings beginning Tuesday, Feb. 6 from 6 -7:30 Mountain time. (Teachers, you can receive graduate professional development credit for recertification and salary upgrade from the University of Colorado for "Brain Gym Basics.")

Teachers, sign up today and get Information about the Brain Gym Basics TeleChats

Parents, sign up today and get information about the Brain Gym Basics TeleChats.

All classes, even FREE classes, include handouts and templates you can duplicate to use in your classroom and at home. Plus a Web audio recording you can listen to later. 

Always sign up for the TeleChats even if you're busy that evening--you'll still get the handouts and can listen to the audio at your convenience. Of course, on the live call, you can ask questions.

Brain Gym Classes

   Start making your summer plans today. Come to beautiful Colorado
   for your vacation and while you're here, take a Brain Gym class.
 
   Evergreen, Colorado: June 25-27, 2007  (Near Denver)
   Basalt, Colorado: July 16-18  (Near Aspen)
   Estes Park, Colorado: July 24-26, 2007 (Near Boulder)
   Castle Rock, Colorado: August 7-9, 2007 (Near Colorado Springs)

 To register for these and other Brain Gym classes and to get more
  information, go to www.BrainGymClasses.com.

 Or take a Brain Gym class FREE. For more information, go to
 http://www.braingymclasses.com/FreeBrainGym.htm  Set up a class in North Dakota,
 Mississippi or any one of the lower 48 and we'll come to you. You don't have to come
 to Colorado.
 

Feature Article

 
"How Much Homework is Too Much?"
  Dr. MaryJo Wagner

Summary: Latest research shows that lots of homework doesn't improve learning or raise test scores.

Sammi Marden, age ten, had so much homework every night she cried. She switched to a school with less homework. Now she's stopped crying and has time to play with her friends after school and get her homework done too.

Are your kids doing so much homework they have no time to play?  Does the amount of homework they get done help them do better on tests?

Educators across the country are asking these questions. And many conclude that a moderate amount of homework helps children develop important study habits and time management skills. But that homework doesn't necessarily mean they learn more or do better on tests.

Researchers at Penn State University collected math and science data from schools in 41 countries. Students in Denmark, Japan, and the Czech Republic had the highest math scores and the lowest amount of homework.

And now administrators at some of our most elite private schools whose students often go on to Ivy League colleges are saying "no" to hours and hours of homework every night.

On the flip side, homework helps kids develop good study habits and time management skills. And homework reinforces and expands on lessons taught at school.

The National Education Association guidelines suggest that homework through grade two should never be more than 20 minutes a night. No more than 30-60 minutes a night for grades three through six.  High school depends on the subject and the number of AP classes a student is taking.

The American Academy of Pediatrics supports these guidelines arguing that daily free playtime helps kids' emotional development.

Bottom line: All kids from kindergarten through high school need both free time and homework time every day.

Parent and teacher resources for homework:

Read the full article with the research summaries of why we might be assigning too much homework, what to do about it, and the solutions several schools have reached.

Parents, help your kids develop good study and time management skills

Teachers, you can read several articles with homework guidelines for teachers

© MaryJo Wagner, 2007

MaryJo Wagner, Ph.D.
The Learning Doctor
"Helping You Help Kids Learn"
mjw@mjwagner.com
www.BrainGymClasses.com
www.brain-based-learning.com

Sign up today for the Brain Boosters newsletter to help your kids learn.
 

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You're welcome to duplicate this article, distribute it to parents and pass it around to teachers.

Got a school or PTA newsletter or e-zine? Your own parent, teacher, or learning Web site? A community publication? You can reprint this article. Just print the whole article with my name under the title and my contact information at the bottom. When the report is published, please send me a copy or the url to find it on the Web.
 

Brain Quiz

Wow! A Whole Year of Brain Quizzes.

You get a year's worth of great info about your brain and your kids' brains.  Its' Fun and it's FREE

            Get your Brain Boosters Quiz-a-week

Test what you know. Try it out with your friends and colleagues. See what they know. Bet you'll find some surprising answers.
 

Readers Tips and Questions

Don't forget to send in your tips and questions.  

E-mail them to me at mjw@mjwagner.com  Maybe your question or tip will be in the next issue.  I love to hear from you.
 

Resources You Can Use

Brain Gym Tidbit