Back to School

Back to School Shopping

Well, it's about that time again - back to school shopping has arrived. Parents everywhere are hit hard in the pockets. If you have the money, I highly recommend buying tons of school supplies now. You will not find better prices on pencils, pens, erasers, white out, glue, glue sticks, folders, lined (filler) paper, index cards, backpacks, colored pencils, and crayons then in August. So stock up!

Backpacks

Character and sport backpacks at Marshalls for only 12.99.

Everyone needs a backpack. It is always a given that every student will need a backpack. For parents that are new to the school shopping scene - be aware of durability and school restrictions.

 

Durability

Remember when shopping for a backpack that heavy text books will be pulled and dragged around in this contraption. It needs to be durable and have a good zipper. It is possible to find a cool backpack, that is well-made, that will last all year long. Shop around.

 

Restrictions

 

Most schools do not allow backpacks with wheels. You know the ones that roll like luggage. Although, it would be a nice break for your child's back to roll the books instead of lugging them around on their back, they are just too bulky and can't fit in most lockers.



Full size backpack on the Left compared to
 smaller 10-12 inch sized backpacks on the right.

Also, many schools require that your child has a full-size backpack, which is approximately 16-18 inches in height. This means that they don’t want a small toddler sized backpack. Why do teachers insist on huge backpacks for these tiny little backs? Artwork and paperwork. Younger students primarily need their backpacks for those huge art projects and paperwork to be sent home. So if the paperwork won't fit - then the backpack is useless. I recommend bringing a 1” binder (if you have a preschooler or kindergartner) or a 3” binder for older students to see if it will fit in the backpack that they choose.
 

Another, new trend that not all schools are going along with is the “messenger bags” or "trapezoid bags." Although the messenger bags can hold a good amount of books, their awkward shape makes it difficult for schools with small lockers to fit these rectangular or triangular shaped bags. So check with your child’s school. Don’t be shocked when you get a letter sent home – just call the main office now (they are open in August). A simple call to the main office can save you from trying to find a replacement backpack in the first week of school.  Don't know the phone number - just type in the town that your child's school is in or the name of the school (without commas or apostrophes) and you'll get a list of schools by using this directory for Connecticut schools http://www.dir.ct.gov/kids/Schools_Libraries/ctschools.asp.

 

Three and Four Year Old Backpacks

  However, if you have a jealous 3 or 4 year old sibling you might want to consider letting them into the "back to school shopping" fun and get them a cute toddler-sized bag. Here are some toddler backpacks that I found at Marshalls, which are a perfect size to keep small toys to entertain the kids while waiting to eat at a restaurant.

 

 



 

 

 



Zoo Pack and Zoo Lunchies sold at Barnes and Noble Bookstores.

Preschooler and Kindergartners

For younger kids, there are some cute options like these animal inspired set I found at Barnes and Noble Bookstores called Zoo Packs by Skip Hop for $19.95. The Zoo Lunchies by Skip Hop are adorable animal, collapsible lunch boxes for an additional purchase of 14.95.To the right you can see the Monkey Backpack and the smaller monkey is the "Zoo Lunchies."

Just keep in mind that if you can't fit a folder in the backpack that you shouldn't buy it.

 

Old Navy has some cute animal inspired backpacks in-store for a more reasonable price, but I can’t speak from experience on the durability of Old Navy’s backpacks since I haven’t bought from them.

Princess backpack with lunch kit undone.

 

Princess backpack with lunch kit
 attatched to the front.

TJMaxx and Marshalls always have great deals on backpacks and in a variety of characters that elementary kids love. Always test the zippers and look at the brand that you are buying. If you zip it up and down a few times and can fit a folder -then it is a good start. I bought my preschoolers Disney backpacks with a collapsible lunch box that attaches to the backpack for only $12. So I got Disney Tinker bell backpack w/ an attached lunch box for only $12 for one daughter and the other daughter got a new Disney Princess backpack w/ attached lunch box for $12. So for $24.00 and tax they both have lunchboxes and backpacks. If you go directly to the Disney store, (which I love,) the backpacks are now on sale for $12 but you have to buy the lunch bag separately for an additional $8.00. However, you can have the backpacks personalized with the child's initials or name. I don't put my kid's first name on their backpack because I don't want to advertise their name to strangers, but initials are helpful to differentiate if another kid gets the same backpack in class. Also, Wal-Mart had a ton of backpacks at various prices starting at just $9.88 - $12.98 for character backpacks some of which came with the lunch box.

 



Avengers, Disney Cars and Spiderman Sets.

Justin Beiber, More Disney Princess &
Hello Kitty Sets at Marshalls.

After I chose the backpacks at Marshalls, I went poking around the kid section and I found stationary sets to coordinate with their backpacks. Each set only cost me $5.99 and came with two folders, 3 pencils, a three-hole pencil holder, a pencil sharpener, a 6" break proof ruler, an eraser, a small notebook and a large notebook and the princess one came with a calculator, too.



Minnie Mouse, Princess, and Tinker Bell stationary sets at
Marshalls and Pink Locker Set.

They even have some cool locker sets with white boards, markers and magnets. At my local Marshalls they had a variety of different stationary and locker sets. For girls they had Minnie Mouse, Disney Princess, Tinker Bell, Hello Kitty, Justin Beiber, Peace Symbols, etc. For boys they have the Disney Cars, The Avengers, and Spider Man. Check your local TJMaxx or Marshalls to see what characters they have on hand.

 From there, I went to OfficeMax and got a 6 pack of glue sticks for my kindergartner and Crayola crayons. I have to say, that if you want to pinch pennies - DON'T do it on the crayons. Have you ever tried coloring with the poorly made crayons that hand out at restaurants? They are awful. I highly recommend Crayola. Anything else breaks easily and doesn't color smoothly. Check your local flier for crayons sales. Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Target usually win in sale prices for Crayola every year. Be careful with the "buy one get one free" sales. I went to buy Mead, college ruled, 1-subject notebooks at only .47 cents from Rite Aid. While I was there, I compared Rite Aids "but one get one free" sale to prices at other top name sellers and found that the only thing that was cheaper was the 6 packs of Elmer glue sticks. Everything else was significant over priced when compared to Wal-Mart and Target. This week, Target and Wal-Mart are tied at .50 cents for a 24 pack of Crayola crayons. Also, be careful when you shop to not grab the wrong product.

 

Older Kids (Middle School and UP)

If you have a child going into school that is in 6^th grade or higher, chances are good that they have a list of school supplies that they need to have on the first day of school. Be prepared and shop now. Bring the list with you to the store and make sure that you have plenty of time to poke around. Although, Wal-Mart had the lowest prices while I shopped this week - they also had the messiest stores, which made it nearly impossible to find anything. Target matched Wal-Mart on most of the prices while maintaining a neatly organized school section. So in my opinion, Target wins. Wal-Mart was so messy and disorganized that I almost bought the Washable Crayola Crayons for $1.97 instead of the regular Crayola Crayons for .50 cents. Sale prices are only a good deal if you can find the correct product that is on sale. Thankfully, I didn't have my three kids with me so I had an hour to walk around looking for crayons.

 

Backpacks for older kids need to be durable. In my opinion, L.L.Bean has the best backpacks for durability. They are even so convinced that you’ll be happy with their product that if you’re not “satisfied” they will refund your purchase and without a hassle. I bought my nephew a L.L. Bean Deluxe book pack for $39.95 and it just so happened that the style I got him didn’t have a stretchy side-pocket for his water bottle. He was unsatisfied, which made me unsatisfied. They kindly refunded me the current selling price of the backpack even though I had lost the receipt. He was happy to get to pick out his own backpack in all black with tons of pockets, and it lasted him all year. He chose the Super Deluxe Book Pack at $64.95. They have some great backpacks online like this cool skateboard themed one for only $16.99 or a nature one named Blue Wave Batik for $16.99. L.L. Bean has free shipping on all items. I like supporting an American business and frequently enjoy visiting Freeport, ME where L.L. Bean still originates.

 

However, I was shocked to find that Marshalls carried a variety of Jansport full-size backpacks that come with a Life-time Warrantee for a maximum selling price of $24.99. http://www.jansport.com/js_warranties.phpJansport’s website states, “Guaranteed for Life
JanSport engineers quality, durable, and reliable products. So, if your pack ever breaks down, simply return it to our warranty center. We'll fix it or if we can't we'll replace it. We stand by our packs for a lifetime and since we've been making packs since 1967, that's a guarantee you can stand by.”

 Not too shabby. My only concern would be how long it would take to ship it, wait for them to repair it and then wait for them to ship it back. However, it’s always nice to go with a company that stands-by their product so confidently.

Marshalls also had Marvel characters like Spider Man and sports team backpacks.

Wal-Mart has a wide range of backpacks. Including a neat purple peace design by Wildkin, Eastsport mesh backpack approximately $9.00, plaid designs by Everest, Triple Pocket Funky Love Print $8.88, ful Heart Breaker $31.99, and ful Superstition $23.99



Free lunch kit comparison (from Toysrus and from Marshalls)

Toysrus always has a large selection at reasonable prices. They usually have a special promotion where you get to pick a free lunch box with the purchase of a backpack. I have done this before. The last backpack I bought from Toysrus lasted two school years and many sleepovers. In addition, the lunch box that my daughter picked was a good size and durable. Here is a picture of the Free lunch kit we got from Toysrus two years ago compared to the free one we got this year that came attached to the backpack at Marshalls.  As you can see the princess lunch kit on the left is much larger and even has a zippered section on the bottom where as the lunch kit on the right is smaller and only has one compartment.  Toysrus is still featuring the promotion that if you buy any backpack $12.99 or more that you get a FREE lunch kit up to $9.99.  Check it out here

Backpacks at Target.

Target had a bunch of character backpacks at 19.99 and other solid color, full-size backpacks ranged in price up to 34.99.

Target had a better selection for teen girls than most stores that I visited. Many stores seem to have many little girl backpacks but not that much for the older girls who have outgrown character backpacks.

Girl backpacks at Old Navy

Old Navy has a small selection but great prices on backpacks and lunch boxes. For girls they have polka dots, peace signs, and butterflies for only $7.00 per backpack and $4.00 per lunch box.

Boy backpacks and lunch kits at Old Navy

For boys, Old Navy has a sports theme, a camouflage design, skulls design and a skateboard designed backpack. Each is priced at $7.00 with matching lunch boxes for an additional $4.00.

Old Navy has a bunch of tin lunch boxes for sale, too.  They have Kermit and Disney Cars on sale for only $4.99. The other lunch boxes are priced below $8.00.  They had characters such as: Hello Kitty, Disney Princess, all the Marvel characters and much more. They are not selling them online but you can check with your local Old Navy to see what they are carrying.

Wherever you go shopping, I strongly recommend bringing a binder or folders to see if the backpack will be big enough to fit the supplies that are mandated by your school.

Happy Shopping!

BONUS UPDATE-
Office Max is going to be featuring backapcks for 50% off starting on the August 26th and the Disney store has marked down their character backpacks to $9.99.

 

Changes to CT Mastery Testing

Just wanted to share this great article from the Hartford Courant about changes to the Mastery Test that will be taking place soon.  I know that most teachers are probably already aware of the changes to come but think that parents should be well-informed as well.  I can't wait to read the comments in response to this article.

State To Replace Mastery Test With Computerized, Personalized Test In Two Years

Goodbye To Bubbled-In Answers; New Tests Will Be Interactive, Use Audio, Video

By KATHLEEN MEGAN, kmegan@courant.com The Hartford Courant

10:18 a.m. EDT, July 15, 2012

If all goes as planned, the Connecticut Mastery Test, bubbled in with pencil on paper, will become a relic of the past in two years, replaced by a new, more customized online testing system.
By the 2014-15 school year, state officials hope to retire the mastery test, which is taken by third- through eighth-graders, and its companion, the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, which is taken in 10th grade.
In its place will be computerized tests, essentially personalized for each student. As a student progresses through a test, the questions presented will vary depending on whether the student got previous questions right or wrong.

Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor said that with the new tests — under development by the federally funded Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium — if a student gets a question wrong, "the system will provide other questions to try to get at what the underlying deficiency is."

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The interactive test "adjusts to students' skills and deficiencies as it operates," he said. The number of questions students are given during a test also will vary depending on how they perform.
Pryor said the adaptive properties of the test will provide teachers with a "deeper diagnosis of what the student is struggling with, which most standardized assessments absolutely fail at currently, because if you get the question wrong, it doesn't ask you any more questions."
The new tests also will use different types of questions, including audio and video components, and, proponents say, assess a student's knowledge in deeper ways than possible before. The testing system also offers a series of mini-tests teachers can use throughout the school year to quiz students on their understanding and progress.
Complex Tasks,Critical Thinking
One of the most striking changes in the new tests will be the "performance task" questions — in some cases multipart projects that require students to do some research, plot data points on a graph or use tools such as a ruler to construct an answer.
One sample performance task question asks students to read a short story and article, watch a video, review research statistics and then write an argumentative essay on their opinion of virtual schools.
Pryor said the purpose is to "ensure that we move beyond merely rote learning" and assess analytical and thinking skills.
"In the real world, the tasks that we are asked to perform in the workplace or in life do not involve bubble sheets," Pryor said. "They involve research, analysis and the use of items that we find in the real world."
Connecticut is one of 27 states working with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Curriculum to develop a test for English language arts and mathematics aligned to the Common Core State Standards — national curriculum standards adopted by 45 states, including Connecticut in 2010.
Two years ago, the federal government granted $350 million in federal Race to the Top funds to two multistate consortia — Smarter Balanced and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers — to develop new testing systems rooted in the core standards.
In May, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the new tests will be "an absolute game changer in public education, but we need to get it right. We need input from teachers and the public, and we need to make sure that the tests provide parents and teachers with the information they need to focus and personalize instruction for all children."
Pryor said that the test, which will have a bank of more than 35,000 questions, is still very much in the development stages and that it's not clear whether a computerized version will be ready to go in 2014.
The Smarter Balanced consortium estimates that the new test will cost $19.81 per student. State officials said they could not provide a comparative cost figure for the mastery and academic performance tests, but said the tests cost $24.5 million last year, with about a quarter of that covered by the federal government.
Renee Savoie, an education consultant with the state Department of Education, said Connecticut's standardized tests are expensive because they contain many questions with open-ended, written answers along with the bubbled-in responses.
"My understanding is we're not going to be spending more on the Smarter Balanced test," Savoie said.
Teaching To The Test?
Monty Neill, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, a Boston-based organization that is sharply critical of standardized tests, said, "We think for a lot of money, energy and hoopla, we'll end up with a marginally improved standardized test that won't solve the problems caused by the misuse and overreliance on standardized tests that we now see."
Neill said the new tests — including the mini-tests — are likely to lead to even more teaching that is based on test preparation, rather than curriculum.
But Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality in Washington, D.C., said the computerized test will be "a huge step forward," and the mini-tests will offer valuable information to students, teachers and parents before the end-of-the year "summative" test.
"The end of the year is not the time you want to find out that the student hadn't mastered things from many months ago," she said.
Jacobs, who taught fourth grade, also said the test's adaptability to a student's skills is helpful. "There's nothing worse than watching a student who doesn't know the first couple of questions and then they are so demoralized, they can't keep focused on it," she said.
Neill's colleague, Robert Schaeffer, public education director at the center for fair testing, said computers offer "tremendous potential to get beyond simple-minded bubble-in tests."
He said the consortium is promising that the new tests "are going to measure much more than regurgitation — that they will assess higher-level thinking skills, problem-solving." While that sounds impressive, he said, "the devil will be in the details." Too often, computerized tests are simply an online version of the typical "low-level multiple-choice test," he continued, because that's the cheapest way to do it.
An advantage of the computerized tests, Schaeffer said, is that the scores are often available more quickly. In Connecticut, students take the mastery tests in March, but the scores aren't released until July. This year's mastery test scores were recently delivered to cities and towns but have been under embargo until the state releases its report. Pryor wouldn't say exactly when that will happen, but he said it will be soon.
Several education professionals said they expect students will prefer the computerized tests.
"Students don't have any sort of phobia. It's what they've known, what they're comfortable with," Jacobs said. "We wouldn't be promising it would be just like a video game experience, but it's hard to think of anything less fun than sitting down with a bubble sheet and a test booklet."
For more information on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, including PowerPoint presentations with sample questions, go to http://www.smarterbalanced.org/smarter-balanced-assessments/

Article from The Hartford Courant
Special Thanks for permission to reprint from Kathleen Megan
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-mastery-testing-ending-0713-20120713,0,5890056.story?page=1 by Kathleen Megan

Cognitive Skills, Adaptive Behavior, Receptive Language

What are cognitive skills, adaptive behavior, and receptive language? To be honest, they are skills and behaviors that most people take for granted.  However, a lack in these skills can be a signal or warning sign to a bigger problem, like a specific learning disability.  Really everyone should take a minute to learn what each means.  If you know of someone that has a delayed child, please be careful as to how you approach the subject with them.  It is extremely hard to hear that there could be something wrong or a delay in your child.  (Trust me, I know.)  You might just want to kindly suggest they read the blog or visit the Birth-to-3 Program website to get a free evaluation for their child.  I mean everyone likes FREE, right?

Cognitive skills are the more well known of the 3 areas that I will be writing about in this post. 

“Cognition is a group of mental processes that includes attention, memory, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions.”

Cognitive skills for toddlers include:

·         Ability to explore and interact with toys

·         Perceptual Development (to notice a difference in objects)

·         Memory (to retrieve information)

·         Problem solving (to understand features of objects and their relationships)

The difficulty with this is that testing for cognitive ability is based on one's ability to communicate. So if your child has delayed verbal speech then the current cognitive tests may fail to represent your child's cognitive ability.

Adaptive Behavior                                                                                       

Adaptive behavior refers to the independent skills that people need to execute everyday tasks.

For toddlers (ages 1 -3) and young children this includes:

·         Attention span (can they sit still on your lap)

·         Eating (do they eat well)

·         Sleeping (do they sleep through the night)

·         Dressing (do they help stick their arms through the shirt hole, etc.)

·         Safety (are they aware of dangers)

·         Toileting Skills (do they lie still to be changed; is potty training not going well)

For teens and adults this includes:

·         Communication and social skills (interacting and communicating with other people)

·         Independent living skills (shopping, budgeting, and cleaning)

·         Personal care skills (eating, dressing, and grooming)

·         Work skills (following directions, completing tasks, and getting to work on time)

·         Practical academics (reading, computation, and telling time)

Receptive Language/ Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD)/ Aphasia

Receptive Language is the ability to interpret and process spoken language.  It is also known as Auditory Processing Disorder, Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD), Aphasia, or Comprehension Deficit.

For toddlers - teens this includes:

·         Looking at a person or object when you say the word

o   (ie. Where’s mommy? Where’s the baba? And looks at it.)

·         Difficulty understanding and following directions

·         Struggles with longer complex sentences

·         Has trouble understanding figurative and literal language

·         Often Avoids answering questions –

o    Says, “I don’t know” or “I forget”

o   Ignores the question all together

o   Shakes head yes or no

o   Repeats the last couple words of the question but doesn’t answer

For a more in depth explanation of receptive and expressive language I recommend reading this article:

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Receptive_language_disorder

Works Cited:

http://speechtherapyweb.com/late-talker-or-receptive-language-delay/

http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Receptive_language_disorder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition

CT Birth to Three Program

Battelle Developmental Inventory -2

http://www.howkidsdevelop.com/developSkills.html

Child Development

I sometimes forget that everyone is not use to the same special educational language that I have become accustomed to in my life.  Then, every once in awhile something happens that makes me realize not everyone is knowledgeable about child development and special education.  So I thought that I might explain and give some resources for developmental delays.  I cannot stress the importance of early intervention enough.  Trust your instinct!  If you think that a child may be having trouble with some skills, get help.  For many people it is free and for others there is just a small monthly fee.  If it does cost you anything – it is money well spent.  You wouldn’t make your child walk around on a broken leg for months and expect it to fix itself.  So don’t expect a developmental delay to magically fix itself either.  Speak to your child’s pediatrician or call 211 CT’s info-line.  The earlier you get help the more help they will receive.

The following is from http://www.howkidsdevelop.com/developSkills.html

Let’s start with the five main areas of development-

1. Cognitive Development
   This is the child's ability to learn and solve problems. For example, this includes a two-month-old baby learning to explore the environment with hands or eyes or a five-year-old learning how to do simple math problems.
2. Social and Emotional Development
   This is the child's ability to interact with others, including helping themselves and self-control. Examples of this type of development would include: a six-week-old baby smiling, a ten-month-old baby waving bye-bye, or a five-year-old boy knowing how to take turns in games at school.
3. Speech and Language Development
   This is the child's ability to both understand and use language. For example, this includes a 12-month-old baby saying his first words, a two-year-old naming parts of her body, or a five-year-old learning to say "feet" instead of "foots".
4. Fine Motor Skill Development
   This is the child's ability to use small muscles, specifically their hands and fingers, to pick up small objects, hold a spoon, turn pages in a book, or use a crayon to draw.
5. Gross Motor Skill Development
   This is the child's ability to use large muscles. For example, a six-month-old baby learns how to sit up with some support, a 12-month-old baby learns to pull up to a stand holding onto furniture, and a five-year-old learns to skip.

The National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities has recently launched a campaign to promote child development. For more information on child development, visit the Act Early website: http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/actearly/.