Marcia L. Tate - Preparing Children for Success in School and Life: 20 Ways to Increase Your Childs Brain Power

Preparing
Children
for Success
in School and Life

M A R C I A L. T A T E

Preparing
Children
for Success
in School and Life

20 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR CHILDS BRAIN POWER

Foreword by Eric Jensen

FOR INFORMATION:

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Copyright 2011 by Corwin

All rights reserved. When forms and sample documents are included, their use is authorized only by educators, local school sites, and/or noncommercial or nonprofit entities that have purchased the book. Except for that usage, no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data

Tate, Marcia L.
Preparing children for success in school and life :
20 ways to enhance your childs brain power/
Marcia L. Tate; foreword by Eric Jensen.

p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4129-8844-5 (pbk.)

1. Child development. 2. ChildrenIntelligence levels. 3. Cognition in children. 4. Parenting. 5. EducationParent participation. I. Title.

HQ767.9.T38 2011
649.1dc23 2011019157

This book is printed on acid-free paper

11 12 13 14 15 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Eric Jensen

M arcia Tate has done it again! Parents, look no further. In these pages, she addresses childrens very first teachers, and the result is a quality feast of relevant information for any parent. Three big things in the book blew me away.

First, the information is absolutely relevant and laser focused. It is exactly what you need to know as a parent and nothing more. There is not a single wasted page and everything that is included is valuable.

Second, the information is quality. A peerless educator as always, Marcia has done her homework and incorporated the most up-to-date information available. I saw fresh ideas that every parent must know on page after page.

Third, three timeless but essential themes of wise and successful childrearingheart, health, and brainare touchstones throughout the book. Youll learn how to build cognition and creativity in your childs brain as well as how to foster optimal emotional and physical development.

Its refreshing to encounter such a positive and grounded assumption that you can learn how to develop a better relationship with your child. Youll learn how to surround your child with a calming environment and how to give your child a brain-healthy start. The books many detailed and practical chapters invite you to talk to and teach your child critical life rules, rituals, and responsibility. These topics are both urgent and embedded in everyday family life. Threaded throughout is the reminder that, as a parent, you have the power to accentuate the positive and deemphasize the negative. You can learn how to expect the best and visualize success.

This practical book will help you identify chronic behavior and mood disorders and identify and strengthen your childs auditory, visual, or tactile mode of learning. Memories with music close out the book, and its a key part to a happy childhood in the making, mindfully overseen.

Finally, this book is a take action book. Youll get excited about the information and youll want to put it into practice. Indeed, youre nudged to take action to ensure it happens. This is a book that will move you to do the right thing and do it more often.

If I sound a bit gushy about the book, its because its a triumph. Marcia has taken a tough topic and caught the magic for your reading pleasure. I know youll enjoy this feast as much as I have. Bon apptit!

Eric Jensen, author and consultant

B eing an effective parent is probably more difficult today than ever before. However, there are people who are doing it well on a daily basis. Families come in all shapes and sizes. There are two-parent, single-parent, and foster families; there are grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, and brothers who all fulfill the critical role of parent. You see, true parents are not the people who simply give birth. Parents are the people who strive to meet the everyday physical, mental, social, and emotional needs of the beautiful children who are blessed to be within their care.

This book is dedicated to those parents who desire to become better at what they do daily. It is my belief that no matter how great a parent one strives to be, each day, that parent should set specific goals to become better. This book will enable you to do just that! With the world changing as it is, if we are not working to improve, then we begin to move backward. I strive every day to become a better daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, sister, and friend to the important people in my life.

This book is also devoted to my parents, Alvin, a Methodist minister under whose administration two churches were built in the Atlanta, Georgia, area and Eurica, my mother and Alvins devoted wife for more than 35 years before he passed away. My parents equipped me and my two sisters, Ann and Eleanor, with values, morals, and the belief that we were capable of accomplishing whatever we put our minds to and worked hard to achieve. We all have been very successful both professionally and personally, in great part thanks to them!

This book is also dedicated to our three children, Jennifer, Jessica, and Christopher, of whom I am most proud. As parents, there were times when Tyrone and I were not necessarily at our best but, despite our efforts, you persevered and you should be pleased with the wonderful adult human beings you have become. When I look at you, I realize that your dad and I must have done something right. You are also making wonderful parents for your own children, Christian and Aidan, our grandchildren.

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Corwin Press, particularly Carol Collins, my editor, for being willing to take a chance and allowing me to write the first book published by Corwin strictly for parents. I am honored to be its author and feel that it has the capability to make a positive difference in the lives of parents and their children everywhere.

Corwin gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following reviewers:

Patricia Baker, KindergartenFifth Grade Teacher