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Tip of the Week: How to Identify Your Child’s Reading Level

Are you conflicted over choosing the correct level in a reading series for your younger child? Uncomfortable with simply choosing a grade based on his or her age and hoping it will work out? Don’t want to simply “guess and go,” (the popular trial and error approach)? You’re not alone. While all reading series are…

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Tip of the Week: Parse, Parse, Parse? No, No, No.

In last week’s Tip of the Week, I suggested that improvement in writing is often “caught” by continuous exposure to good writers. However, at a basic level you may be asking, can a student’s grammar be improved through direct teaching? I would answer yes, but not as a result of the common methods you find in…

Tip of the Week: Read, Read, Read to Improve Your Writing

When I was completing undergraduate studies in California, I took an advanced writing class. I was consistently pulling B+’s to A-‘s. Because I wanted to earn an A for the class, I gathered up the courage to ask the professor what I was doing wrong and how I could improve. She was quiet for a moment.  While she couldn’t put…

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Tip of the Week: Give Up Your Big Ambitions? Pause and Reflect.

My wife and I are native Californians. As young adults and new Christians, we grew up in Orange County, a densely-populated part of the state filled with mega churches and a continuous stream of end-time teachings and rapture frenzy. We wanted to re-locate. We wanted to find a simpler and slower pace of life. We…

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Tip of the Week: Will My Student Be Testing Over Common Core Standards?

Will my student be required to take a test that is Common Core aligned? The short answer, at least here in the Northwest, is… that depends. Students enrolled in any of the online public school programs such as K-12, Clackamas Web Academy, or Connections Academy will definitely face tests that are Common-Core specific. For privately…

Tip of the Week: Cultivate a Productive Attitude Toward Testing
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Tip of the Week: Cultivate a Productive Attitude Toward Testing

Spring testing is here! Perhaps you’re in a state that requires achievement testing.  Or, you test regardless of state requirements in order to gain the valuable information it yields.  Either way, your student’s attitude toward and during this important activity is a vital key to doing well and showing what he or she knows and…

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Tip of the Week: Three Keys to Learning Almost Anything

Here’s something to try at home with your elementary age children. Ask them this question: “If you could receive one million dollars right now or a penny doubled every day for 30 days, which one would you choose?” Some will take the “million dollars right now.” Others may sense this is a trick question. Regardless…

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Tip of the Week: Why We Must Teach Our Children to Question Authority

I don’t know about you, but by Sunday night I’d had my fill of media coverage of the last three days of “events.” And you, like me, probably have some strong feelings one way or another over what’s taken place. The thoughts below are not an invite to debate; they’re simply my reflection and serve…

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Tip of the Week: Consider Laying Your Badges Down

I’ve been thinking about what it was like when we were home schooling our children back in the 90’s.   Back then, distinctions beyond simply being part of a group that had decided to teach their children at home began to emerge.  In other words, sub-groups began forming. Members or advocates of these groups would say…