Letter from Betty for January 2015

Hello,

Happy New Year! I hope your 2015 is off to a great start. 

Every year new books are published. Some are destined to become beloved classics for future generations. It is hard to tell from our perspective here in this present moment which books are bound for future glory, but this month's feature article offers a brief list of some of the most promising children's books published in 2014.

Hindsight is 20/20, though, so challenge yourself to name all nine of the deservedly acclaimed children's book characters in this month's Puzzler.

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

Focus on One: SAT or ACT

Free diagnostic test at FFL next offered on Jan. 17

Currently many high school juniors take both the SAT and ACT to determine which test is best for them. We feel it is beneficial for the students to focus on only one test. In order to accomplish this, we can administer a complimentary SAT/ACT diagnostic test to help students determine which test is better suited to their abilities. The next test will be given Saturday, January 17th. Please call (973) 425-1774 or email betty@foundationforlearning.com by Monday, January 12th to reserve a spot.

Test Schedule for January 2015

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.

Best of Children's Books 2014

Towards the end of each year, the folks at NPR put together a best-of list for readers looking for newly published gems. This year’s list has some fabulous recommendations for us, conveniently categorized into sixteen groupings including children, adults, music-lovers, science-lovers, tales from around the world, and more. Here are four recommendations from the NPR Book Concierge list for 2014 that you and your children are sure to enjoy. 

Draw! by Raúl Colón is a beautifully illustrated, wordless book about a young boy who goes on an imaginary safari. Paper, pencils, and supplies in hand, Leonard goes on an amazing adventure and takes us along with him. No words are needed to thoroughly enjoy this gorgeous book. Your children will want to have their own adventures after making their way through it.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat is another fabulously illustrated adventure book. On an island far away, there are imaginary friends just waiting to be chosen by a real child. When Beekle is overlooked time and again, he bravely sets off for the real world to find a child to adopt him. It’s a great story of friendship sought and found.

Shoe Dog by Megan McDonald is a charming story of a newly adopted dog, so full of love, playfulness, and gratitude for the lady that brought him home from the animal shelter. But there’s a problem. As you might guess, Shoe Dog loves to chew….shoes! This is a great tale of animal adoption, perseverance, creative problem solving, and of course, an adorable dog that your family will love!

The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier is a spellbinding book. Irish orphans journey to England and find employment in a country manor full of secrets and magic. Older sister Molly spins tales for her disabled brother Kip, and readers will be riveted. This is a great book for children in grades 4-9.






Want to check out more of NPR's recommended children’s books and perhaps some great reads for yourself?  Follow this link to the full list. 

The Puzzler for January 2015: Classic Characters

Illustrated children's books are full of memorable characters. Here are nine classic examples that will probably make you smile in recognition.

How many of these classic characters can you name? 

Bonus points will be awarded for book title, author, and names of secondary characters shown above. Come on, you know you want some bonus points!

Answers in the next issue.

Letter from Betty for December 2014

Hello,

Happy Holidays! I hope you have a chance to relax and enjoy your family and friends. But also remember that the beginning of a new year is a good time to establish goals for yourself and children. See our feature article, "Resolutions and Goal Setting" for some great tips and hints about this. Planning ahead will make your whole year better!

Please remember to call us at Foundation for Learning if we can help your child reach his or her academic goals in 2015.

Happy Holidays!

Betty

Betty Bodenweiser
Director
Foundation for Learning

Focus on one: SAT or ACT

Free diagnostic test offered January 10 at FFL

Currently many high school juniors take both the SAT and ACT to determine which test is best for them. We feel that it is more beneficial for students to focus on only one test. In order to accomplish this, we can administer a complimentary SAT/ACT diagnostic test, including the essay portion, to help students determine which test is better suited to their abilities. Testing will take place the second Saturday of each month from November-March and then periodically throughout the other months. Testing will start at 8:45 AM and end at approximately 12:45 PM. Our next testing session is January 10. Please call (973) 425-1774 or email betty@foundationforlearning.com by January 3 to secure a spot as space is limited.

Test Schedule for December 2014

Mark your calendars! Here are the latest test dates.

Note: ISEE - Independent School Entrance Exam dates are for testing at the Morristown-Beard School, located at 70 Whippany Road, Morristown NJ, for any students entering grades 6-11 who are applying to independent schools. Learn more about ISEE at erblearn.org.
 

Resolutions and Goal Setting

The holidays are here! Decorations, family, friends, celebration, tradition, gift-giving, food, food, and more food. Many of us mark the end of the year by making New Year’s resolutions. We look to achieve something in the coming year that will enhance our lives or make us better people, but how many of us actually achieve our goals? By properly and formally setting goals, we stand a much better chance of staying on track and keeping these promises to ourselves.

To begin, think about where you want to go in life and what you want to accomplish in the coming year. 

This is an important step and will help you narrow down your focus, so do a little brainstorming. Now look at your list and narrow it down to just a few goals that are truly important to you. Pick one thing on your list and envision the end result. Break down the overall process into a series of small targets. If at all possible, break those small targets down into even smaller steps.  Use this strategy for each of the goals that you have chosen.

Hints on picking your goals:

State each of your resolutions in a positive way and be as precise as you can about what it is you want to achieve. Set realistic goals that you can achieve rather than shooting for a grandiose outcome that will only set you up for failure. Include timeframes for completion.

Now write it down! The act of putting pen to paper makes your aspirations real. Write down those steps to achieving your goal too. Post your goals in a place where you will see them often and set a regular time to sit down and review your target and your action plan for the coming week.

Pick a quiet time each week, perhaps every Sunday, to review your tasks for the upcoming week. If you’re finding that your action plan needs tweaking, then make the needed adjustments and reset you direction. Refining as you go is essential to achieving your final goal.

This is also the time to cross each step off your list as you get the job done. You’ll be able to actually see that you’re making progress on your self-improvement journey. When you’ve finished your tasks for the week, enjoy a steaming mug of hot chocolate. Who doesn’t like a reward for a job well done!

Now here’s the tough part: Stick with it! Remember, this is a process, an on-going journey. Those New Year’s resolutions and goals are much more than just stating that you want something to happen. You have to clearly define what you want and how you need to get there. By taking the time to move through these steps you greatly increase your chances of success.

Good luck to you as you begin your journey into the new year!
   

The Puzzler: Happy Holidays Word Search

We wish you a very merry and relaxing holiday season. Get those new pens and pencils out of your stocking and give this word search a try!

 

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LAST ISSUE'S PUZZLER: Atlantic Flyway 

New Jersey is a part of the Atlantic Flyway, a well-traveled migration route for birds. As it happens, New Jersey makes a perfect stopping point for thousands of species of birds.

Here are 9 birds that migrate through New Jersey. Match the names to the photos:
Yellow Warbler
Dark-eyed Junco
Hooded Merganser
Bufflehead
Indigo Bunting
Gray Catbird
Common Goldeneye
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Common Yellowthroat



Can you match each bird in the photo to its common name? 


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Letter from Betty for November 2014

Hello, 

The holiday season will soon be upon us! Do you have students on your gift-giving list this year? Don't miss the fresh, creative ideas in this month's feature article, "Educational Gifts for the Holidays."

New Jersey is the perfect stop-over for many varieties of our feathered friends this time of year. Test your brain about birds in this month's Puzzler, "Atlantic Flyway."

At Foundation for Learning, we are ready to assist you with caring, one-on-one, individualized tutoring. 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

Focus on one: SAT or ACT

Free diagnostic test offered at FFL

Currently many high school juniors take both the SAT and ACT to determine which test is best for them. We feel it would be beneficial for the students to focus on only one test. In order to accomplish this, we can administer a complimentary SAT/ACT diagnostic test, including the essay portion, to help students determine which test is better suited to their abilities. Testing will take place the second Saturday of each month from November-March and then periodically throughout the other months. Testing will start at 8:45 AM and end at approximately 12:45 PM. Our next testing session is December 13. Please call (973) 425-1774 or email betty@foundationforlearning.com by December 5th to secure a spot as space is limited.

Test Schedules for November

Mark your calendars! Here are the latest test dates.

Note: ISEE - Independent School Entrance Exam dates are for testing at the Morristown-Beard School, located at 70 Whippany Road, Morristown NJ, for any students entering grades 6-11 who are applying to independent schools. Learn more about ISEE at erblearn.org.
 

Educational Gifts for the Holidays

It’s time to think about holiday gift giving and putting together a shopping list with the kids in mind. Need some ideas for creative and educational gifts this year? Here are some suggestions for you as well as links to some really great online sources for easy-chair shopping.



Wild Detectives DVD Collection from National Geographic explores nature as only Nat Geo can! Answers questions like “What do lion cubs do in their den when no one is looking?” and “Why do penguins swim so deep in the ocean when their food is on the surface?”  Beautiful camera work, interesting critters, fun information!


Put together a craft box for unlimited creativity! Purchase a colorful plastic box (with closure) and then head to your favorite crafting store to stock that box full of markers, colorful ribbons and pipe cleaners, stickers, watercolor paints, glue or glue sticks, crayons, colorful papers, cute Japanese Washi tape, pompoms, glitter, beads, and anything else that strikes your artistic fancy.


Let’s get physical! Hula hoops, scooters, skates, skateboards, bikes, boogie boards for the beach, jump ropes, mini exercise trampoline, stilts, climbing rope ladder, hop balls, anything that will get the kiddos up and moving is a very good thing!



Open-ended imagination toys such as Brio trains, Playmobil sets, Lego, hand-puppets, Lincoln Logs, all these things are perfect for freestyle fun.


Qwirkle is a fun mix of Scrabble and dominoes. For 2-4 players, colorful wooden blocks get matched together based on color and design and really make the players strategize as they go. Loads of fun for all ages, so parents and older kids can play along too.


Simon is another fantastic game that is guaranteed to bring lots of laughter. Flashing lights and colors exercise and build memory skills that are critical for academic success, while at the same time increasing manual dexterity. The kids, of course, won’t know that they’re growing and learning – they’re having too much fun!

Globes, atlases, maps: Do you have a little Dora the Explorer in your family? Maybe a young Indiana Jones? Consider the gift of a globe, an atlas, or an interesting collection of maps! Kids can not only learn to identify places they are learning about, but they can do some route tracking during your family’s holiday travels. Learning to read maps is an important life skill, and it’s never to early to start!

For the budding scientist in your family, how about a microscope kit or telescope? Rock tumblers are noisy but so fun, with a “prize” at the end of each session. Robotikit also offers a series of do-it-yourself kits that allow kids super-fun while building working miniature motorcycles and more! Geosafari also offers a whole line of really interesting scopes, kits, and other “toys” for exploratory fun, both indoors and outside in nature.

Let’s not forget books! To see a list of recommended reads, take a look back at our two-part article series. Part 1: Great Children's Books for the Early Years and part 2: Great Books for Older Children.

Online, one great resource for creative games and toys for kids is Hearthsong.com. Also check out shop.nationalgeographic.com, shoppbs.org, or the fabulous Museum of Natural History store at shop.amnh.org.

Above all, when you’re thinking about gift giving for the holidays, make sure to include toys, games, and other gifts that you can share with your kids. Spending fun time with them is the best gift of all!

The Puzzler: Atlantic Flyway

We know you’ve heard about bird migration, where different species of birds migrate north during breeding season and south during colder months. But did you know that New Jersey is a part of what is known as the Atlantic Flyway? This is the route that many species take on their journey. It is defined to the west by the Appalachian Mountain Range and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean.  Did you know that New Jersey’s latitude on the globe puts the state about halfway between the equator and the Arctic? This location and many varying habitats make New Jersey a perfect stopping point for thousands of species of migrating birds who find just what they need here. 

Here are 9 birds in our area that are on the move during the month of November.



Can you match each bird in the photo to its common name? Here are your choices: 

Yellow Warbler
Dark-eyed Junco
Hooded Merganser
Bufflehead
Indigo Bunting
Gray Catbird
Common Goldeneye
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Common Yellowthroat



Answers in the next issue.



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LAST ISSUE'S PUZZLER: Leaf Pile 

Remember when you were a kid and jumped into great big leaf piles? Well, here is a big pile of 8 words to jump into: Elm, Birch, Oak, Cherry, Chestnut, Ash, Beech, Maple. Can you pick up the correct words from that pile and pair them with the 4 leaves in the photos below?


 

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Letter from Betty for October 2014

Hello, 

What do driving, cooking, and learning have in common? More than you might suspect. Find out in this month's feature article about "Styles of Learning."

It's that time of year for the leaves to transform our world into a red, yellow, and orange landscape. I imagine you have probably jumped into your share of autumn leaf piles, right? Check out our Puzzler for October, "Leaf Pile," and see if you can name those leaves.

Remember that at Foundation for Learning we are ready to assist you with caring, one-on-one, individualized tutoring. You are most welcome to give us a call at 973-425-1774 for a free consultation.


Best regards,

Betty

Betty Bodenweiser
Director
Foundation for Learning

SAT, ACT, SSAT, and ISEE Test Schedules for October 2014

Mark your calendars! Here are the latest test dates.

Note: ISEE - Independent School Entrance Exam dates are for testing at the Morristown-Beard School, located at 70 Whippany Road, Morristown NJ, for any students entering grades 6-11 who are applying to independent schools. Learn more about ISEE at erblearn.org.

Styles of Learning

You probably don’t realize it, but in most things that you do throughout the day you are using several different channels, senses, or styles of learning.



When you drive, you are listening to the sounds of your own car, hearing noises from other vehicles, and straining to detect the source of emergency sirens. You use your sense of sight to track and gauge the speeds, distances, and directions of other cars on the road, and to take a stream of cues from instructional, directional, and caution signs. Meanwhile, our sense of touch enables us to operate our vehicles—shifting gears, braking, and accelerating, all without having to look at the stick shift or pedals.



We learn to cook using all our senses. We can smell when something is burning, or experience a wonderful aroma that tells us the cookies are ready to come out of the oven. We use our fingers to tell us when the baked potatoes are done. We can look from all the way across the room to see a steaming pot that tells us the water is at full boil. We use our ears to listen as we thump on the newly baked loaf of bread to test that it is cooked through, and we hear the rapid-fire “pops” slow down when the popcorn is ready. And we enjoy taste-testing the Thanksgiving stuffing. Too much salt? No, just right. Yum!

We all have different learning styles, different ways of taking in information and experiences, and different ways of recalling information or processes that we’ve already learned.  We often use a mix of styles in order to learn new things, relying on one method over another depending on what we’re trying to learn or the circumstances that we’re in. By using a mix of learning styles or methods we greatly enhance our ability to learn new information or a new skill.  You might discover that you have a dominant style, but by learning or consciously developing another method you can positively enhance your learning experience—increasing your speed, your comprehension, your ability to recall, and the overall quality of your learning.

So what are the different learning styles? Do you know which is your dominant style?



Visual vs. Aural vs. Kinesthetic Learning
If you prefer using images and spatial comprehension then you are a Visual learner. Do you use sounds, music or auditory repetition when you’re trying to memorize? If so, then you are an Aural learner. Do you use touch, your body, or your hands to learn a new skill? Then you are using physical or Kinesthetic skills.

Interpersonal vs. Intrapersonal Learners
People who prefer to learn, practice, or study with other people or in groups are social or Interpersonal learners, while those who would rather close themselves off in their room or in a study carrel are identified as solitary or Intrapersonal learners.

Logical vs. Linguistic Strategies
Do you find that you prefer logic, puzzles, reasoning, or systematic processes? Those are characteristics of someone who uses mathematical or Logical styles of learning. If you rely heavily on words, either in speech or in writing, then verbal or Linguistic strategies are your dominant form of learning.

By discovering your dominant learning style and trying to develop and utilize other methods as well, you can become a better learner!

The Puzzler for October 2014: Leaf Pile

Remember when you were a kid and jumped into great big leaf piles? Well, here is a big pile of 8 words to jump into: Elm, Birch, Oak, Cherry, Chestnut, Ash, Beech, Maple. Can you pick up the correct words from that pile and pair them with the 4 leaves in the photos below?




Answers next month.



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LAST ISSUE'S PUZZLER: Summer Flashback 

This beach umbrella displays 3 of the following 6 colors: indigo, magenta, puce, malachite, cyan, chartreuse. 



Can you name the correct three colors, left to right, on the umbrella?

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Letter from Betty for September 2014

Hello, 

According to the calendar, summer comes to an end in a few weeks, and a new school year is upon us. I hope that you and your children have had a smooth transition into the schedule of a new year. Hopefully you have successfully shifted into a consistent routine for homework and a comfortable schedule for school-night bedtime and waking hours.

For this month's newsletter, note that our test schedule dates have expanded to include SAT, ACT, SSAT, and now also ISEE test dates.

Speaking of testing, we are hosting a complimentary PSAT test at Foundation for Learning on Sunday, September 21st. If you are interested please contact me by Wednesday the 17th at 973-425-1774.

In our feature article we focus on test prep and overcoming anxiety. Finally, we take one last backward glance at the recent sunny season in a "Summer Flashback" Puzzler.

Remember that at Foundation for Learning we are ready to assist you with caring, one-on-one, individualized tutoring. You are most welcome to give us a call at 973-425-1774 for a free consultation.

Best regards,

Betty

Betty Bodenweiser
Director
Foundation for Learning