Remember that after school activities don’t always have to be taught in a school environment in a structured manner. There is so much that you as a parent can do to support your child’s academic, physical and social development. Don’t be too overly concerned about participating in conventional after school programs, especially since many children are already overscheduled.

As you know as a parent, school is the priority for your child. Attending school and completing assigned homework is what must be done in order for the child to keep up academically. Then, after the required homework is done, the child should also do some sort of daily reading and/or writing – remember that practice makes perfect! For some children, this is enough of an after school program.

Here are some tips for creating your own “after school program” for your child.

o Find a program in the local community college or community center. Some community adult/night schools have programs appropriate for children in the evening such as scrapbooking or photography.

o Allow your child to use the Internet to find more information about subjects that interest him/her. This type of self-directed ‘after school program’ (supervised by you, of course) is often the best type of program because it is directly connected to the child’s own interests.

o If you are worried about the lack of social interaction, enroll him or her in some sort of a club -perhaps a reading club. Visit public libraries or even the theater, if your child is interested. A parent-child book club is another interesting option. If you can round up a number of like-minded children and their parents, you might even start your own after-school program.

o When there are no organized group activities, look in the community. A lot of children love to get involved in social issues. Volunteering for clean-up sessions, adult education programs etc could be a real eye-opener for your child. These lessons can be invaluable.

o If physical activity is your major concern, enroll your child for dance or gymnastic classes. This is also a great way to find friends his/her own age.

Your child does not necessarily have to be a part of a coordinated group to
benefit from after-school activities. Engaging your children in daily household activities like cooking, cleaning etc can also provide them with a refreshing extracurricular experience. Moreover, it will improve family ties and make them feel like they are actually contributing to the household. Plus, such activities build skills for later life.

Welcome to neosoulmama.info, home of the My Successful Child newsletter. If you are unfamiliar to this site, let me introduce myself. I am a mother of three, run my own natural bath/body business and have had over 10 years of experience in urban education. I also hold a Master’s degree in education. My specialty is K-8 mathematics, however, given my experience and extensive research and training in the field of education, as well as my on the job training as a mom (smile), I am a tremendous resource in the field of education.

How do you create a successful child? Is it Kumon, Sylvan or other tutoring type programs? Certainly these programs can assist a child who is struggling academically, but in order to truly create a child who enjoys school and who understands that you appreciate their hard work and effort, communication and involvement is a must.

A successful child:
• Asks questions – A child who asks questions shows a curiosity about the world around him/her. Granted, with three children, I get a lot of questions during the day and to be honest, I don’t answer all of them all the time. However, I do make the effort to answer most of them. Answering your child’s questions is a way to open communication between the two of you and an informal way of learning.

• Is in an atmosphere of informal learning – A lot can be learned from a simple trip to the grocery store. It’s where my children learned that those pigs and chickens that they saw on the television could be turned into tasty morsels of pork chops and grilled chicken. They also learned the mechanics of grocery shopping (i.e. pay the money, pack the bags) and that there are people who work at the grocery store. Of course, the counting and simple mathematics were at work here too.

• Has role models – Are you willing to learn along with your child? I think one of my successes as a teacher came from admitting that I didn’t know everything. If your child asks you a question that you don’t know, then explore the answer together. This shows your child that everyone is a lifelong learner.

• Has rules – A child, well, everyone in fact, needs boundaries. A child should not be left to his/her own devices and allowed to do anything s/he wants. Children need boundaries and feel more comfortable when limits are set by parents and guardians.

• Follows a family routine – A child feels useful and a part of the family when s/he is encouraged to participate in family chores. Teach them young and form good habits that will last.

Although a few of these tips do not directly deal with school, these habits will engrain self-respect and discipline that will have an influence on how they perform in school and in life.

Please add your comments/ reactions to these tips. And remember to sign up for my mailing list and receive weekly tips!

President George W. Bush’s administration has been notable not only for one of the most significant shifts in federal oversight of education, under the No Child Left Behind Act, but also for new laws, programs, and developments in other areas affecting schools.

No Child Left Behind Act
President Bush made the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act a top priority upon entering office. The resulting NCLB law, which he signed Jan. 8, 2002, expanded student testing and introduced new accountability rules for schools that receive federal aid. It requires schools to assess students in reading and mathematics in grades 3-8 and once in high school. If schools fail to keep their students on pace toward proficiency in those subjects, they are identified as needing improvement and face a series of interventions, such as offering public school choice and free tutoring, and eventually being restructured. The law also added a requirement that all teachers be highly qualified according to federal and state rules.

Reading First
The NCLB law also created the Reading First program, which provided some $1 billion a year to pay for curricular materials and professional development focused on the primary grades. Although popular among educators, the Department of Education’s inspector general issued a series of reports questioning whether department officials overstepped their authority in pushing states to use specific curricula and assessments under the program. The department’s research office also released a report saying that the funding had been successful in improving students’ decoding and other basic skills, but not their reading comprehension.

School Choice
As part of his original plan for the NCLB law, President Bush had sought to allow students in low-performing public schools to use federal aid to attend private schools, as well as to transfer to higher-performing public schools. But facing staunch Democratic opposition, he agreed to drop the voucher element. The public-school-choice provision was enacted, but is widely viewed as ineffective, with very few parents transferring their children to other public schools.

In 2002, the Bush administration argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the constitutionality of including religious schools in publicly funded voucher programs. The court agreed, ruling that the inclusion of religious schools in such programs does not violate the First Amendment’s prohibition against a government establishment of religion. In 2004, the president signed into law the nation’s first federally funded voucher program, which targets students from low-income families in the District of Columbia. It was narrowly enacted in 2004 when Republicans held majorities in Congress, with most Democrats strongly opposed. It provides vouchers worth up to $7,500 per year, and they can be used at religious schools.

Special Education
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was reauthorized during President Bush’s first term, with language that ties the special education law to NCLB on such issues as highly qualified teachers for students with disabilities, and the importance of including students with disabilities in assessments. The administration introduced some testing flexibility for states by allowing different state assessments to be used for students with significant cognitive impairments, and students who could meet modified grade-level standards.

Educational Research
The 2002 passage of the Education Sciences Reform Act gave the Bush administration a rare opportunity to abolish the Department of Education’s existing research operation and create a new research agency out of the ashes. The newly christened Institute of Education Sciences, under Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, spearheaded the department’s campaign to transform education into an evidence-based practice, much like medicine.

Under Mr. Whitehurst’s six-year tenure, the agency increased the number of randomized experiments the department finances, revamped the agency’s peer-review process, retooled the federal education research laboratory system, and created new grant programs to nurture research talent for the field. The office’s best-known accomplishment, though, may be the What Works Clearinghouse, a sometimes-controversial project set up to vet the evidence base that undergirds many of the programs, policies, and practices used in the nation’s schools.

Gender Issues
First-term Secretary of Education Rod Paige in 2002 established a commission to study Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the federal law that bars sex discrimination in federally funded schools and colleges. Some civil rights and women’s advocacy groups feared the effort was a bid to soften enforcement of the law. After receiving a report full of mostly minor recommendations about athletic participation at the college level, the Education Department largely ignored them, issuing a document in 2003 clarifying previous Title IX guidance.

Meanwhile, citing research that educating boys and girls separately was proving effective in some circumstances, the department in 2006 issued regulations making it easier for public schools to experiment with single-sex education.

Race Issues
The Bush administration weighed in against the use of race in education in a series of landmark Supreme Court cases. In appeals involving race-conscious admissions policies in higher education, the administration struck a cautious tone, and the Education Department issued reports emphasizing ways in which schools and colleges could achieve racial diversity without relying on racial preferences. In those cases, from the University of Michigan, the justices affirmed the constitutionality of affirmative action but struck down some practices.

The administration was more assertive when the justices took up race-conscious student-assignment policies from the Seattle and Jefferson County, Ky., school districts in 2006. It urged the Supreme Court to strike down the plans, which the court did in a 2007 decision that sharply limited the ways K-12 schools could rely on race.

Higher Education
Secretary Margaret Spellings helped spur a dialogue over student financial assistance and college accountability by convening a task force to study higher education. The panel’s 2006 report called for a major new investment in federal student aid. And, more controversially, it encouraged colleges and universities to use value-added assessments to measure students’ skills at the beginning and end of their college careers. Colleges and universities should make the results of those tests public, the panel concluded.

—David J. Hoff, Alyson Klein, Erik W. Robelen, Christina A. Samuels, Debra Viadero, and Mark Walsh

The love of reading can begin as soon as your child is born. Certainly, s/he won’t be really looking at the pictures (joke) but the baby will certainly enjoy hearing the soothing sound of a parent’s voice. Reading aloud is very important to the development of your child’s hearing and his/her eventual recognition of the basic phonetic sounds. This will later assist in language development.

As your child gets older, hearing a more experienced reader pronounce words truly does assist them in learning new words. In addition, hearing a storyline can help children identify with a particular situation or character. In turn, this can lead to discussion about what the child would/would not do in that particular situation. Even if you don’t get an answer that you quite understand, the questioning helps the child develop critical thinking skills.

Tired of the same old classic books? Certainly we know that some school systems have never taken the time to update their list to include books that represent more aspects of their student population. Be aware of this, and make the effort to seek out books with black characters that reflect your experience.

Here are some recommendations for books for assorted grade levels, which will be indicated next to the book. I’ve read all of these books – either to my many classes or to my own children. Remember, you also have to set and example by reading yourself. In fact buy (or borrow0 two copies of your chosen book – especially in grades 4 and up - and you and your child can enjoy it together.

Let’s Count Baby– Infant/Toddler/Preschool
Author: Cheryl Willis Hudson, Illustrator: George Ford

Now who doesn’t like a counting book? In this book an adorable girl baby counts socks, cars and stars and at the end, wants to start again. My children read the book to me now.

Golden Bear –
Infant/Toddler/Preschool
Author: Ruth Young, Illustrator: Rachel Isadora

My 5 year old loved this story about a boy and his stuffed teddy bear. This lovely story will help children to recognize that everyone has a favorite toy or doll. The vibrant illustrations are perfect for the little ones and all children will love the depiction of familiar situations.

Peekaboo Morning 
- Infant/Toddler/Preschool
Author/Illustrator: Rachel Isadora

In this cute, simple book A little boy plays “peekaboo” with various toys and people around his house. Ms. Isadora brings her vibrant artistry and created beautiful illustrations. The little boy is just too adorable, with his mini-dreads.

Uncle Jed’s Barbershop–
4th  grade -up
Author: Margaree King Mitchell Illustrator: James Ransome

This book begins in the 1920s, where Uncle Jed’s (the only black barber in his county) dream is to have his own barbershop. He saves towards his dream but life often interfered and he experienced many setbacks. Told from the point of view of his niece, the story teaches children about working towards your dream and never giving up. The illustrations are excellent. I recommend that you preview the book to see if the story is a good match with your child’s temperament. Some may view the ending of the book differently, and that is an excellent starting point of discussion.

Amazing Grace -3^rd – 6^th grade

Author: Mary Hoffman Illustrator: Caroline Binch

This was my personal favorite to read to my fourth grade class. Grace, a young Jamaican girl, wants to play Peter Pan in the school play! But she’s not white and she’s not a boy. Hmmmmmm. What a great book to use to open children’s mind to the fact that they can do and be anything they want to be.

Vroomaloom Zoom –
Toddler/Preschool/K-4^th grade
Author: John Coy   Illustrator: Joe Cepeda

Ever take a car ride? How about on a night that is “cake-bake hot”? This story is about a little girl whose father loves to drive. So they take their blankets, hop in the back of the car with their pajamas, and Daddy takes her on a driving adventure. Rhyming lines and fun language make this a great bedtime read.

I tried to give you a bit of an overview of books that can be read to our younger children.
In an other post, I will review some books for older children that may be helpful

Most of these books are available either from a local bookstore or of course can be ordered online at major book retailers.

Happy reading!

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‘Not a black thing’: ‘Ghettonation’ examines youth behavior

Journalist Cora Daniels stumbled on the first raw material for her new book quite literally on her Brooklyn doorstep, where teenagers found it terrifically fun and “ghetto” to play cards, drink beer and cuss into the wee hours on school nights.

Several months and a few thousand miles later, she argues in Ghettonation that a “ghetto” mind-set — which she says celebrates the worst of human nature — has taken hold coast to coast.

“Ghetto” styles, from wearing gaudy jewelry to using the n-word in ordinary conversation, have caught on with teens and young adults who aren’t black, yet who seem to enjoy imitating famous hip-hop artists such as 50 Cent and Three 6 Mafia.

The “ghetto-ization” of America, which includes everything from baggy clothes to racial slurs and slacker attitudes, is triggering concern far beyond urban neighborhoods. Last week, white radio host Don Imus lost his job at CBS after he used “ho” (hip-hop slang for “whore”) on the air, and drew widespread condemnation.

Meanwhile, some worry that white youth are getting too comfortable adopting hip-hop norms, which, in the wrong hands, seem to mock the culture of poor blacks.

Daniels, who is 35 and black, worries about a downward cultural spiral where suburban boys work as pimps, middle-class girls aspire to dance like strippers and dropping out of school is often seen as a badge of honor.

Others have noticed a blurring of urban and suburban youth cultures: A 2004 Manhattan Institute for Policy Research report concluded that “suburban public high school students have sex, drink, smoke, use illegal drugs, and engage in delinquent behavior as often as urban” students.

Daniels believes “the bar has dropped so low (for acceptable behavior) that we don’t even know where it is anymore.” She emphasizes that “this is not a black thing. It’s a national thing.”

“This behavior is celebrated. It’s now something folks don’t have shame about,” Daniels says. “Our expectations have gotten too low.”

Beyond the media spotlight, Daniels argues, “ghetto” is a staple of many youth subcultures. What troubles certain onlookers is when youthful fans not only listen to the urban sound of hip-hop but also borrow from certain rappers’ attitudes and lyrics, freely using words such as “mofo,” “ho” and numerous unprintable others.

Ramon Ramirez knows the phenomenon firsthand. Growing up in South Austin, he and his friends listened to hip-hop, and Hispanic kids routinely addressed each other by the n-word.

Even now, as a senior at the University of Texas-Austin, Ramirez says non-black students will playfully call out, “hos in the back!” when jumping in a car with women. Nobody takes offense, he says, because they’re just joking around.

“Most people take rap with a grain of salt,” says Ramirez, music editor of The Daily Texan, the campus newspaper. When they talk or act like rappers, he says, “it’s very much tongue-in-cheek.”

But at times, white college students have crossed into racially offensive territory. For Martin Luther King Jr. Day, students at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, held a party where they dressed in faux gang apparel, ate fried chicken and drank from 40-ounce malt liquor bottles in paper bags. Similar events have taken place at other schools.

Undercurrents of racism and class prejudice are never far away when middle-class people dress and behave like poor blacks who’ve briefly tasted a type of success through hip-hop, says William Jelani Cobb, a professor of American history at Spelman College. “Periodically, American popular culture gets back to its minstrel roots (when whites) take an exaggerated caricature of black folks and play it up,” he says.

Others, however, see less harmful dynamics at work. Bakari Kitwana, author of Why White Kids Love Hip Hop and a convener of campus dialogues on hip-hop culture, says suburban kids forge their own identities through hip-hop culture and often mean no offense by claiming “ghetto” styles.

What’s more, he says, today’s youth and young adults reflect strong moral values in surveys and life. His example: out-of-wedlock births have declined with this generation. Even so, he says, people have never been perfect, and now their foibles are on display because young people today are generally less inhibited than their parents.

“I think the values have always been there and were suppressed” before hip-hop made it OK to celebrate materialism, Kitwana says. As a society, “we’ve taught young people that money is more important than anything else. Then we expect them not to act like that?”

Some worry that a younger generation is setting itself up for disaster by failing to heed traditional norms for respect and restraint. Theology professor Anthony Bradley, for instance, wants young people to recognize the link between self-control and dignity.

“This generation has no moral compass to see that this (‘ghetto’ style) is not good for them,” says Bradley, of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. Institutions such as marriage, education and the church “are no longer valued.”

Yet where institutions may be absent, hip-hop devotees are stepping up with an encouraging word. Jerod Couch, a senior at the University of Texas-Austin, uses his public access TV show ATX Most Wanted to discuss hip-hop culture — and offer moral correctives when necessary.

“My biggest concern is how hip-hop degrades women and makes them seem like objects,” says Couch, who is white. “I’ve encouraged people to treat every woman as if she was the best woman on earth — as if she was your mother, deserving of respect.”

The phrase “children should be seen and not heard” is a familiar one to those of an older generation, but as society evolves and technology and entrepreneurship become more prevalent, it is to our advantage as black parent to train our children to play both sides of the coin, so to speak. That is to say we should train them to “get along” in the classroom, for example, obeying the teacher and observing school rules, but we should also encourage them through our home based discussion, to be creative, to think for themselves and to use discretion when interacting with others.

Some of you who may be reading this may be offended at the fact that I am targeting black parents. However, I have seen too many black boys slated for special education classes because of so-called “behavioral problems” which simply stem from the inability of their current teacher to handle “boy like” behavior. As a parent of two headstrong black boys, their energy, gracelessness and their seeming inability to move through a space without disrupting something is business as usual to me; as a (childless) teacher, I fortunate enough to recognize that boys are different from girls (usually) and should be treated as such. Our African American, or black boys are full of energy – they can’t sit still for more than a minute or two! We have to teach them how to contain this energy so that they are not labeled as disruptive.

How do we do this? Talk to your children. Do not always “shush” them because you are tired of hearing their mouths (and believe me, this will happen). Answer their questions no matter how silly you might think they are. Explain things to them in the grocery store, at the car wash, in the deli. You’d be surprised at how much they will absorb and actually repeat back to you at a later time. Now, I am not trying to say be a doormat to your black child, to listen to prattling at all hours of the day – this is where we have to create a balance. The point is, we as black parents have to give our children the words and the information to express themselves. The way we do this is by our speech and conversations with them.

Too often I see black children in the store with tired mom or dad being continually “shushed” or worse “shet up boy, you ask too many questions” or “shut up can’t you see I’m trying to shop”. We MUST stop doing this to our black boys and girls. We black parents have to understand that we are our children’s first teacher and we have to overcome our irritability, our tiredness, our annoyance to give our children what they need from us.

Give your black child a voice – allow him or her to express themselves – find out what they are thinking - find out what they know! You might be surprised!

Please post with any comments or experience you may have with this.

1love in unity

N’mama

By Christine Longmore

Raising Black children with a positive sense of identity is no easy job. But when the necessary thought and effort is put into the job as a parent, the result is the difference between creating civilization and just increasing the population. Teaching children to view their place in the world positively becomes especially challenging when they begin to put pieces of history together. While I have control over what I teach my children about the world at home, their experience in the world to some extent is out of my control.

The day my daughter first learned about slavery is a day I will not soon forget. She was only 7. She had been watching “Reading Rainbow” and the story was about slavery. We discussed it for a while and I found myself wanting to keep it as simple as possible considering her age. When she asked me “Why?” I was stumped. She wanted to know why. She said, ” How could anyone think they had the right to do that !?” She wanted to know. I tried to offer a logical explanation, you know, happy endings and all that.

I stumbled. I stumbled over her innocence and the need to preserve it. After explaining the logistics of how it happened, she still wasn’t satisfied The best I could come up with was this. I told her that there are good and bad people in the world and as long as she tries to be a good person and do the right thing she’ll be all right.

For my daughter, attending school in an all white environment at times seemed to only intensify the difficulty in developing an understanding of our history. She often expressed her discomfort and feelings of isolation when it was time for her to participate in discussions about slavery. For this reason, she preferred to discuss the history of Africans in America at home. These discussions lead to many important questions. One that stands out in my mind is, – could it ever happen again? Of course I assured her that it wouldn’t. In the back of my mind I wondered. Can anyone really say it couldn’t happen again? I’m sure the first captured Africans never imagined the possibility of being enslaved or the horror that awaited them overseas. I decided not to tell her that slavery and other forms of oppression still exist and have since the beginning of time.

I guess as parents we all instinctively try to protect our children from any kind of pain or suffering when we can. I also think that we have to look at those feelings of sadness, anger, fear, etc. as natural reactions to a terrible thing. It is extremely important that we learn for ourselves and pass on history that reflects our strength – like the many slave rebellions that most of us know little or nothing about, and the many inventions that African Americans are responsible for. Our history is incredible and really unlike many other groups of people.

It seems that historically, Black people have often been the underdogs but we always seem to rise.  There are so many great Africans of both continents. Kings and Queens, doctors and spiritual leaders of the past and present – inventors, musicians, artists, writers, scientists, athletes, entertainers, the list goes on. You name any field of accomplishment and we have someone that is great at it. It occurred to me one day that the only Black heroes I really knew anything about as a child were Martin Luther King, and Muhammad Ali. Of course they were great heroes to have but today my children see Black heroes everywhere and I’m thankful for that. We also have countless numbers of “unsung heroes” – from the late Mother Hale who established the Hale House in New York City for drug addicted and otherwise struggling babies to the neighborhood dad/friend/coach who always has time for the kids.

Hopefully, this new generation of Africans in America will find more opportunities for learning about the greatness of our history to balance out the negative. If that happens, our children’s perspective on our history will be a strength in their efforts to develop strong and healthy identities.

from http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/african_american_children_and_id.htm