In This Issue

Happening Now: Registration for Courses, Private Tutoring and College Advisement
Note from Dr. Linda: September: Back to School with His iphone
School Success Tips: The Perfect Assignment Book
Family Fun: “The Adventures of Berticus Barns,” Part Two
Now It’s Your Turn: Let Us Know What You’d Like

Happening Now at StrongLearning.com

• One-to-one tutoring – all subjects, levels and grades in your home, at a convenient location near you or online. No contracts
• Exam prep for SAT, ACT, PSAT, ISEE, TACHS, COOP, HSST & SSAT Private or in Groups
• High School Regents Prep
• AP Preview
  
• College Advisement −helping parents and college-bound students with college selection, essays, applications, and more
• Learn a Foreign Language: Chinese, Italian, Spanish, French – all ages – private or small group

Contact Strong Learning for More Information at 845-628-7910.

Registration for the following Small Group Courses offered by Strong Learning in Westchester and Putnam Counties, NY. Enrollment limited.

• PSAT Walk Through beginning September 16^th
• TACHS prep for November exam beginning in September
• Learn Chinese for 2nd-5th graders beginning in September

Register Today. Call Strong Learning at 845-628-7910

Note from Dr. Linda

Hi Parents, Grandparents, Teachers and Friends:

September is “Back to School” month. No more time to let your mind wander and daydream. It’s time to get ORGANIZED!

On the first day of school, the organized students have  their assignment book, laptop, lined and unlined paper, spiral notebooks, calculator, pens, highlighters, post-it notes and perfectly sharpened pencils neatly packed in the perfect back pack. Everything is color coded. These students are ready for action!

But for Berticus, and all the Berticuses of the world, going back to school is simply another long year of homework and tests. Most of their school work will be ignored, forgotten or lost because organization is just not part of their skill set.

How do we adults help these kids get organized? First find out what works for them. What works for you may not work them.

For example, take William, a senior I’ve been working with.

William never handed in assignments. In fact, he usually didn’t get the assignment in the first place. If he did write it somewhere, he couldn’t find it in his overstuffed back pack. To make matters worse, even if he found the assignment, he couldn’t read his own handwriting.

The only thing he kept track of was his iphone. So we decided that would be his ticket to success. He wrote everything in his iphone. Since he was always looking at something on it, he was continuously reminded of what he had to do. He always kept his iphone in his coat pocket.

All winter he did amazingly well. But yes, spring arrived and he didn’t need his coat. TA DA! No iphone–he left it in his coat pocket on the floor in his room.

This example shows how the disorganized person, is always disorganized. The problem doesn’t go away. The secret to success is to learn how to regroup and problem solve.

Give your children time to learn how to solve problems. Just getting the assignment, remembering which book to bring home, figuring out how to get the assignment back to school are all problems a large majority of kids face. Work with your children on how to regroup, problem solve and organize. These are valuable tools they’ll need all their life.

Best wishes,
Dr. Linda

P.S. Encourage your children to form good work habits with Strong Learning’s Improve Your Study Skills Workbook. This workbook offers advice on how to organize your time, manage your work space, how to get the right book home, and more.

From test taking to homework, from math to reading, twice a week, you’ll get short, effective tips to help your child learn. Sign up now and invite other parents to sign up. It’s my FREE gift to you and your children. Check out the bonuses you’ll get when you subscribe to the tips.

School Success Tips: The Perfect Assignment Book

Kids love to design their own assignment book. It’s more personal this way.

First download a copy of the assignment page we designed to help your child organize assignments and upcoming tests.

There’s lots of space to check off what needs to be taken home, what needs to be brought back to school and if the assignment was completed. There’s a flap on the upper right hand corner that needs to be folded or snipped off when all the assignments have been completed.

When a long term assignment is coming up, the flap isn’t folded down. This annoying flap sticking out reminds the student about the assignment.

Once you download this page, make copies, hole punch them and place them in a binder. The binder needs a transparent pocket on the cover so that your child can design his own cover and slide it into the see-through pocket.

Be sure the notebook has a pocket on the inside front cover and a pocket on the inside back cover. All papers, no matter which subject, are placed in the front pocket to go home. All papers that need to be returned the next day are placed in the pocket on the inside back cover.

You can even shrink the page to select a smaller notebook. If your child shrinks the pages to makes a smaller assignment book, be sure to purchase a folder with two pockets, one for assignments going home and one side for assignments going back to school. Keep in mind, however, that your child now has to remember both the assignment book and the homework folder.

Click to download the assignment sheet.

Family Fun: “The Adventures of Berticus Barns” by Brian Silbert

If you’re living with or teaching one of those kids often labeled an “unmotivated, disorganized, procrastinating, mind-wandering underachiever,” you’ll love Berticus. Berticus represents all those children who don’t fit into the system. I hope you enjoy this read-aloud story for the whole family.

Part Two:  Monkeys in the Revolutionary War

When we left off last time, Berticus was unhappy because his birthday was on the first day of school. He was no longer speaking to Mary M’Gerkin because she refused to sing “Happy Birthday” to him through her nose, and he was dreading school.

I sat with my cheek pressed into my hand as Ms. Vanderbeek enlightened us on what lessons we were going to tackle this year. Borrr-ing!

At that point I’m pretty sure I should have been paying attention to what she was saying. But, since it was my birthday, I felt I should at least be able to do what I wanted. So, I thought I’d treat myself by staring out the window for a while.

After a few minutes went by, I faintly heard, “Berticus… Berticus!” Ms. Vanderbeek snapped me out of what was an excellent daydream. I politely turned my attention away from the window and said, “Excuse me Ms. Vanderbeek, I believe I know what you are about to say.

You are correct in assuming that I was indeed staring out the window, thus not paying attention to a single word you just said. But, it just happens to be my birthday today, and I was in the middle of ‘Part 2′ of my splendid daydream of what it would be like if monkeys could drive race cars.

I’d very much appreciate it if I could get back to my little fantasy since there are currently many monkeys in my brain right now waiting patiently in their race cars, hoping my imagination will soon give them the checkered flag. I’m eager to see who wins the race myself. I thank you kindly for your understanding regarding this matter.”

Well, that’s what I wanted to say. But all that came out of my mouth was, “Huh?”

Ms. Vanderbeek asked, “Berticus, what was I just saying?”

“Oh, no,” I thought. “Brain, don’t fail me now. Think quick, think quick…” Under pressure, I blurted out, “Um, you were saying, how, um, monkeys had a very significant role in the Revolutionary War?” The entire class laughed.

Ms. Vanderbeek frowned and glanced at me. “Berticus, please see me after class today.”

A new record! Only 22 minutes into the new school year and I was already in trouble. I’m pretty sure that shattered Joey “Wrong Way” Rooney’s record by thirty whole minutes. “Wrong Way” got his name over the years for his uncanny ability to answer every question he had ever been asked incorrectly.

The teachers would say, “Rooney, true or false? Italy was involved in the French and Indian War?”

Rooney would reply, “True?”

“Wrong again, Rooney!”

After being scolded by Ms. Vanderbeek, I felt pretty low. “This is going to be some lame school year,” I thought. As I sat sulking with my hand now buried even deeper into my cheek there was an unexpected knock on the classroom door.

Oh great, who’s this going to be?

Find out who’s at the classroom door in the October newsletter.

Now It’s Your Turn

Go over to Dr Linda’s Blog now and subscribe by email or RSS feed so you won’t miss anything. Leave a comment. I love to hear from you. Let me know what you’d like to see in the next newsletter and on the blog. .

Thanks so much for all your emails, calls and comments.

Wishing your children and all you loving and hard-working Moms and Dads, a happy school year.

I’ll have more school success tips to give your kids a boost in school in your October Newsletter