Letter from Betty for April 2015

Hello, 

Welcome to spring! The season of new growth and warmer weather is officially here. It's time to go outside to play in the yard and take evening walks. But be careful to maintain the school year schedule so the end of the year goes smoothly.  

Do you need to work with you child's teacher to establish goals or seek support and services? Our feature article for April, "Discussing Goals with you Child's Teacher" will assist you in this endeavor.

We have a simple challenge for you with this month's Puzzler that involves a little imagination, a bit of knowledge of history, and time travel. Enjoy "Cleopatra's Time Machine."

At Foundation for Learning, we are ready to assist you with caring, one-on-one, individualized tutoring, SAT/ACT test prep, and educational evaluations. Please don't hesitate to give us a call at 973-425-1774 for a free consultation.

Best regards,

Betty

Betty Bodenweiser 
Director
Foundation for Learning

April 2015 Test Schedule

Mark your calendars! Here are the latest test dates.

NOTE about ISEE - Independent School Entrance Exam: For test locations and to learn more go to erblearn.org.

Discussing Goals with your Child's Teacher

IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT YOUR CHILD'S LEARNING EXPERIENCE and progress in school, you'll want to talk to his or her teacher to find out about additional support that is available. You might be a bit nervous about beginning this conversation, but remember that both you and your child's teacher want to see your child succeed. Your child's teacher will likely welcome a meeting with you to look at options. How do you begin? Ask the teacher’s opinion about what areas should be targeted. Express your own views about what you see from the home vantage, and ask if the teacher agrees or has a different view point. Are there difficulties with homework, organizational skills, or communications? Maybe there’s a particular working style or academic subject that is a challenge. Compare notes on what you have observed and find a focus.
 
Now that you have something specific to work on, set a specific and reasonable goal. Ask what you can do at home to help your child meet this goal, and about actions and resources the school can offer. Are there additional support staff or materials that can help? Finally, set a time-frame for achieving the goal you’ve established together. Once you know the end result, work with the teacher, break down the steps to take and a timetable for completing the steps along the way. Bear in mind that both the final goal as well as the achievable steps along the way should be specific in both nature and the time allotted.



Once your child has achieved success, follow up with the teacher to discuss the next challenge that might be overcome. Success often breeds even more success! On the other hand, if the plan that you and the teacher set up didn’t work, take another look at available options. Ask about other supports and services that can be explored.

Remember, making the teacher an ally in the process will benefit your child greatly, so approach the conversation with the intention of developing a plan and building a team whose goal is to help your child find success. 

The Puzzler for April 2015: Cleopatra Time Machine

Question: If Cleopatra had a time machine, would it be a longer journey through time for her to visit the past and see the Great Pyramid being built, or visit the future and see a iPhone being built today? Bonus question: How much longer in years is the longer of the two trips?
 

Answers in the next issue. 

ANSWER to The Puzzler for March 2015: Lucky Clover of Clovoid

In a galaxy far, far away, on the tiny lush planet of Clovoid, the land masses are entirely covered by clover, from east to west and pole to pole. By sheer coincidence, the local intelligent lifeforms—called Clovoidians—consider a four-leaf clover a sign of good luck, just like a tradition we have here on Earth!

However, on Clovoid, clover comes in three varieties: Common Green Clover, Red Heart Clover, and Hopeful Blue Clover. Each of these three-leaved clover varieties has a rare version with more than three leaves, each of which are highly prized as lucky for the finder, each in their own way. Common Green Clover sometimes has 4 leaves, and than means good luck. Red Heart Clover sometimes has 5 leaves, portending true love. Hopeful Blue Clover sometimes has 56 leaves, foretelling all of one’s hopes coming true.

Once, during the Clovidian holiday of Saint Clover’s Day, with the big and little suns riding high in an orange sky, little Zindi Loo Cloo was out walking in the rolling fields near her home collecting various clovers into 3 baskets. Zindi Loo found 4 Common Green Clovers and—crossing her six fingers for good luck—put them in the first basket. She found 4 Red Heart Clovers and placed them lovingly in the second basket. She found 4 Hopeful Blue Clovers and laid them hopefully in the third basket. "Ah, exactly twelve clovers in all," thought Zindy Loo with satisfaction. "Such a nice round number, and one for each of my fingers!"



As the smaller sun set, little Zindi Loo Cloo returned home to a tantalizing aroma filling the whole house. She found her father preparing the Saint Clover’s Day feast. Papa Cloo looked at the baskets of clovers and exclaimed: “Oh my, each of your baskets contains one lucky clover. This is a wondrous omen indeed of good fortune for the entire family this year! Quick, pluck all the leaves off the stems and toss them all into my Saint Clover’s Day soup!”

Question: How many individual leaves of clover did Zindi Loo pluck and toss into the Saint Clover’s Day soup?

Bonus question: We humans have a base 10 number system. We can connect the invention of this number system to our own anatomy. What is the most likely base of the Clovoidian number system?

Answers in the next issue.

Answer:

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Answer: 92 clover leaves 
(27 "ordinary" clover leaves plus 4, 5, and 56 "lucky" clover leaves)

Bonus Answer: A base-12 number system would probably be developed by intelligent aliens with 6 fingers on each hand (and assuming they had 2 hands, which in all fairness to you, we did not specify in the story).