Since 2012, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has supported educational enrichment in rural areas by awarding over $3.3 million in grants to six outstanding organizations operating in Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. In this report, the authors combine the experiences of these organizations with findings from the…

This article describes fifty-five skill-building activities for use in teaching grades Pre-K through 8. Activities are labeled according to basic skill areas, and activities for parents are included as well.

These two papers offer parents of infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and feeding problems both general advice and specific intervention strategies. The first paper examines the causes of feeding difficulty (such as a physical structure problem, fear of eating, or difficulty learning to eat); the need for intervention while…

In 1978, the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, through its Head Start program, designed and implemented the Basic Educational Skills (BES) project to foster Head Start children's readiness for school and their subsequent achievement in elementary school. The purpose of this document is to disseminate elementary-level BES materials.…

Part of the Home Secrets Program for children in Head Start preschool programs and the first four elementary grades, this packet of 18 teacher-developed activity sheets is intended for use at home by parents and their first-graders. Activities include color and shape games, cut/trace/paste activities, word games, stories, writing, health…

Board games parents may use to improve their child's basic skills in reading, math, spelling, and reasoning are reviewed. The article describes eight games along with suggestions about how each game may be used to improve skills. Suggested ages and manufacturer of each game are listed. (JL)

This guide for parents indicates ways in which they can help their childen succeed in school. Sections focusing on language arts and mathematics list skills that students are required to master in kindergarten through fifth grades and suggest language arts activities for parents to implement at home. (RH)

Designed for college-bound students, their parents, and high school teachers, counselors, and administrators in California, this statement sets forth recommendations concerning the skills, attitudes, and qualities that should be imparted by high school science programs and the curriculum and courses to impart them. Prefactory material provides…

Intended for use by community organizers, parent-child advocates, parents, teacher education programs, and field experience classes, this book discusses after-school programs designed to assist students in completing homework, aid youth in acquiring basic educational and social skills, and help their parents become more effective agents in their…

One of a series of documents produced by a nationwide network of early childhood education specialists, teachers, parents, and Head Start staff, the handbook helps parents and teachers work together to enhance the development of basic educational skills in young children. Along with providing parent assistance in enriching home learning…

Provides guidelines on selecting software for preschoolers and a buyer's guide with entries arranged by manufacturer. Each entry includes: name of the software package; current price; a list of special features (paddle/joystick required, graphic, and sound); and brief comments (such as subject and/or skill area and format). (JN)

Designed for parents with children in the British school system, this booklet describes the National Curriculum, which sets out what children should know, understand, and be able to do at each stage of their education from the ages of 5 to 16. Under the National Curriculum, children will be taught what they really need to know, and students and…

To make some of the effective schools research known to parents, this chapter reviews case studies of schools with low socioeconomic status children whose achievement is higher than expected. The three most important characteristics of the effective schools in the cases studied were found to be discipline, leadership, and structured attention to…

Describes how parents can be most effective in teaching their children to value the written language as communication and enjoy reading. Parents are encouraged to keep reading meaningful and make it fun, optimize the child's environment, and maximize success to develop the child's self-concept as a reader. (SM)

Written to help parents understand what their children need to know before they start kindergarten, this volume, bound separately in English and Spanish, is intended to help parents become their children's best, as well as their first and most important, teachers. The first part of the book, the before school checklist, is divided into eight…