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If your children have good writing skills, they will have a much easier time and get better grades in school. Here are some tips to teaching good writing skills that will encourage your children and last a lifetime.

Read to your children...read, read, read: from an early age. Readers turn into writers.

When your child is a toddler, point out letters to them. Sing them the ABC's and, as soon as they are able to, teach them how to sing them.

Have your young children tell you a story and write it down. Staple it into a book for them that they can keep. Show them that their words can make a story.

Encourage your child to make lists and write things down.

As soon as they are old enough, help them to start keeping a journal.

Teach them about great books and literature..start with the children's classics.

When they are coloring, have them try and copy letters that you write for them.

Help them find a pen pal that they can write letters to or e-mail. This will get them into the habit of writing often.

If they are having trouble with writing or comprehension, help them or find them a tutor. Don't let bad habits or lack of writing continue...once you go down this path, it is hard to get back on track.

Tell them how the movies they love and video games they love all started with the written word. This shows them that writing is everywhere.

Cut out pictures from magazines and have them write a story to go along with the picture.

If your children enjoy writing, try submitting their stories to a children's literature magazine or web-site. Once they see their name in print, they'll be hooked!

There is no better way to prepare a child for school and for life than to help him learn to read well and read often. Getting involved in his or her reading routine, and setting a good example, are important steps in helping your child develop good reading habits now that will last a lifetime.

Here are some other tips to help you get your child to read more:

Read to Children
Long before children can read by themselves, you can begin reading to them. Choose short books with wonderful pictures. Show your child the pictures, and use inflection to make the story more interesting. Many children who are read to on a routine basis, learn to read at younger ages than their counterparts do. Books fascinate most young children, and they begin turning pages as soon as their little hands are able. Take advantage of this fascination and transform it into a love of reading.

Have Children Read to you

Many schools now send home reading books and have children read to Mom and Dad for homework. This indicates that educators also believe that parental involvement is important in developing good reading habits. In addition to homework, ask your child to read to you and with you on other occasions. Allowing your child to pick the book may help motivate him to read. This is a good practice to keep children fresh over summer vacation as well. Reading often will keep your child from getting behind over the break.

Make Reading Fun

A good way to make reading more fun is to take turns. Set the timer for a minute or two and begin reading. When the timer goes off, re-set it and hand the book to your child. Stopping in an awkward place, such as in the middle of a sentence, can be very funny. Laughing and having a good time while reading will help encourage your child to read more often.

Utilize the Library and the Internet

Make reading into an outing, by taking your child to the library. Young children can enjoy story time offered by many libraries, and older children can obtain a library card and select books they find interesting. When your child has a question, rather than answering immediately, have your child look up information on the internet and read about the topic.

Seek Help for Reading Problems Immediately

While reading can help a child throughout his or her school career, reading problems can drastically affect a child's performance and confidence. If you feel your child may have reading difficulties, discuss these problems with his teacher or guidance counselor. It may be a case of simply needing more instruction and practice. If the problem is more serious, see if your child's school offers a remedial reading program. If not, you may need to seek assistance from a tutor or a literacy program. If your child does not read well, he or she will not want to spend much time reading. Do not ignore the problem. Your child can fall behind quickly, and this can become very discouraging.

Reading is one of the most fundamental aspects of a child's education. Well-read children are not only well rounded; they also score higher on standardized tests and tend to do better throughout school than children who are not avid readers.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard looks set to be available for Tuesday's Premier League clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers after returning to training ahead of schedule.

The England midfielder was expected to be sidelined for at least two weeks after sustaining a hamstring problem in the FA Cup exit to Reading on January 13, but could play at Molineux.

Manager Rafael Benitez will wait to the very last minute to decide if the 29-year-old is fit enough to help the Reds continue their climb towards the top four places in the Premier League.

"He was training on Saturday and then a full training session on Sunday, and today was the same," said Benitez. "Normally he's someone who, if available, can play. We'll decide tomorrow but I think he can be available."

Having previously struggled for form, Liverpool have now won three and drawn one of their last four matches and that has taken them to within a single point of fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur.

A report in the News of the World on Sunday claimed that Gerrard was ready to play with pain killing injections to keep Liverpool's good form going.

Kids gravitate toward homework at about the same speed with which they ate spinach. While parents may not be able to get them to absolutely love doing lessons after school, there are a few things you can try to help kids turn off the television and pick up a textbook. Here are a few tried and true ideas.

1. Set a designated "homework" time each day. For some families, that may mean a quick 4 p.m. snack followed by an hour or two of lessons before supper. For others, an after-dinner time works best. Set aside between one and two hours, except for very young children in grades 1 to three. After checking family schedules for sports practice or a favorite television show, establish a mutually agreeable time when kids are expected to sit down to homework. This is a good opportunity for parents to model effective study habits by doing their own work-related tasks or by reading a book within the kids’ view.

2. Organize a homework area. Choose a quiet area with low traffic and few distractions. Dining rooms, family areas, or the child's bedroom may suffice, if there is no study or office room. Be sure to provide a desk with a comfortable chair and all the school supplies that may be needed, such as pencils with erasers, pens, markers, lined paper, and if applicable, equipment like a computer or calculator. Good lighting is essential, and keep the noise level down in nearby areas.

3. Protect your child's study time. Take phone messages or turn on the recorder, set appointments for other times, and hold off friends who come to the door to play. Encourage your kids to get the word out about the homework schedule, and interruptions will come less frequently. Consistency helps to keep everyone on task.

4. Supervise but don't intervene with your child's schoolwork. Some parents enjoy the challenge and take over an assignment as kids scamper off to do something else or sit back and watch their parent in action. Be available when genuine help is needed, but don't do the work for your student, or you'll disrupt the learning process.

5. Consider supplemental learning aids. Reference works like a dictionary, thesaurus, or research paper style guide can be helpful. CD-ROMs and software likewise can facilitate the child's efforts as well. Be careful about Internet use and check adult content blockers.

6. Take your children on family field trips. The library offers numerous resources that might be useful, such as videos, audiocassettes, books, and magazines. Or visit a local museum, nature preserve, or historical site.

7. Support your child's homework time. Provide healthy snacks during or after lessons. Fruit, veggies, nuts, or cereal bars make welcome treats, along with milk or a fruit drink. Promises of a favorite outing or special privilege after homework is satisfactorily completed can be a powerful motivator, along with rewards for good grades.

These practical steps of arranging a homework site and time, providing support and encouragement, and offering rewards for work well done may help your child learn to appreciate the value of a job well done

Brainstorming is a powerful tool used by teams and businesses around the world. Many business teachers and seminar leaders are teaching using brainstorming techniques. The following are some activities that either trainers or teachers can use to help lead their participants in more productive brainstorming sessions.


The concept was first introduced by Alex Osborne in the 1930s. It is a tool for generating ideas. It is an activity in which all members of a group (whether it be a work team, classroom, committee, etc.) contribute to a list of problems to be solved or solutions to a problem. Brainstorming helps get a lot of ideas into discussion in a short amount of time. Brainstorming may look unstructured, but to be effective, there should be some ground rules. These can include:

- Set a time limit on the brainstorming session.

- Don't let participants get sidetracked. Now is not the time to critique ideas that are being suggested.

- Be sure that everyone speaks freely.

- Be sure everyone contributes.

- Let the participants, not the leader, do the talking.

Elaine Beich, in The ASTD Trainer's Sourcebook: Creativity & Innovation suggests these similar rules:
1. Suspend judgement.
2. Encourage freewheeling
3. Quantity is wanted.
4. Piggyback ideas onto other ideas.
5. Post all ideas as you go.
6. Ask for clarification, but avoid questions such as ¡§how¡¨ and ¡§why.¡¨
7. Allow enough time.
8. Encourage playfulness and humor.
9. Assign a facilitator and a recorder.

Parents can help their school-age children learn and develop, but parents are often very busy. They may be working two jobs or trying to find a job, going to school, or taking care of other family members.

No matter how busy parents are, there are things they can do to help their children. Parents of first- and second-graders in the School Transition Study research project have discovered creative ways to stay involved in their children's learning and development. Researchers conducting the survey learned important and useful tips to share with busy parents everywhere.

Use Your Time Well
Organize your time. One single parent of four who is going back to school tries hard to organize her class schedule so that she has time with her children. She is able to be home with them in the afternoons on most school days. In another family where the mother and father both work full time, they are able to organize their work schedules so that one of the parents is always at home with the children. One day a week after school, the children walk to their mother's workplace where they wait a short time with her until their father picks them up.
Do a few things at once. One father arranges to do quiet household chores right beside his daughter who does her homework at the kitchen table. Then the father is there to answer questions. Another mother has her daughter start her homework in the family's car while they are waiting for her older brother to get out of school. The car is a quiet place where they can talk together.
Make daily routines a time for learning. When one mother walks her girls to school, she uses the time to talk about the unsafe parts of the neighborhood and how the girls can protect themselves. Children are learning all the time, but when you talk to them like this, it can help even more with their learning.
Find other people to help. One single parent who cannot be home in the afternoon or evening has the babysitter help the children with homework. Another single parent who works two jobs during the summer arranges for her son to get taken to his neighborhood summer program every morning by his grandfather, who lives nearby. When the program is over, the mother's friend takes the child to football practice and then back home, where the mother serves everyone a late dinner. As a busy parent, you can't do everything yourself. One important thing you can do is be the manager, and make arrangements for other people to help.

The very best form of motivation comes from within. Anyone observing healthy and well-attached infants knows that children are naturally curious and interested in learning, exploring, and mastering challenges. Youngsters with less innate talent but who gain satisfaction from engaging in tasks with responsibility, creativity, and effort can equal the performance of students with IQs 20 points higher. Persistence and task orientation make very significant contributions to achievement, sometimes over twice that made by IQ.
Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in tracking the occupational success of midd1960s Asian American high school graduates who were of average intelligence. Nevertheless, disproportionate to their numbers, they were working in high-level managerial, professional, and technical positions usually occupied by individuals testing above the 90th percentile on IQ tests. These people benefited from being raised by families that valued education above all else and instilled this drive in their children.

Students with learning disabilities who, despite competing against the odds, have maintained high internal motivation also can achieve significantly beyond the expectations set by their intellectual or information-processing weaknesses. Unfortunately, when such a student's high motivation results in grade-level achievement, the fact that the child has a learning disability may be missed altogether. Ironically, the child's motivation can mask his or her constant struggle, frustration, and effort to keep up.

The very best support for internal motivation is the family. When children see their parents and other family members work hard to achieve, they tend to do likewise. And after a while, they don't need hugs, praise, or treats for doing well. Achievement has become a highly valued motivator in its own right.