Connecting the MEAP to the Real World

1. Connecting the MEAP to the Real World A guide to meaningful conversations and experiences to help your child succeed.

2. Test Taking Strategies • Ensure your child is receiving adequate sleep. (eight hours or more each night) • Maintain a consistent daily schedule. • Provide a quiet, stress free area for your child to study. • Nurture a positive attitude, complete study packets with your child, parents should try the questions. • Eliminate morning stressors, drive your child on test days to prevent bus situations and arrive a few minutes early. • Give your child nutritious meals rich in Omega-3, choline and B-vitamins: (salmon, tuna, green leafy vegetables, eggs, whole grains, peas and beans)

3. Reading: First and Foremost: Read to your child a minimum of 15 minutes per day! • Car games: Play the ABC’s on road signs or license plates. Ask your child to identify the message in a road sign…Who are they? What is their purpose? • Read Cereal Boxes in the morning, explain the nutrition information. • Games: Boggle, Scrabble, Nerdy Wordy, Crossword Puzzles, Word Finds, Up Words, any Trivial Pursuit, and Life. • Newspaper/Magazines: Have word scavenger hunts. Identify titles, captions, and authors. Read the articles together and ask your child questions. • Make weekly or bi-weekly trips to the library.

4. Writing/Language • Keep a family journal: each member is required to write in the journal 3-5 times per week. • Plan grocery lists, cleaning lists, chore lists. • Write letters to family members, friends, celebrities, teachers ect. • Engage in meaningful conversations that require your child to think, play devil’s advocate, introduce new vocabulary, always ask them to explain why and answer the question ‘so what.’ • Car games: Try 20 questions or identify parts of speech on road signs, ask your child questions: Now why did they use a capital letter there? Why did they use a period?

5. Math • Dice: Students can add, subtract, and multiply the dice. Add 4 or 5 and see who can roll the biggest number, then identify the places of the number. • Estimate jars of penny’s or candy. • Engage in math conversations at the grocery store and while shopping. Encourage their input and make them justify why one brand is a better deal. Reward them with the purchase of a certain item.

6. Science • Use science vocabulary in everyday tasks: your child should be classifying the laundry by color. • Talk to your child about the amount of sunlight at the bus stop in the morning. Engage them in a conversation about why it is getting darker. • When you’re watching TV advertisements engage in conversations about fuel economy and how it relates to global warming. • Discuss hand washing and sanitation procedures and how it relates to viruses and germs. Discuss how the human body reacts to infection. • On foggy mornings discuss what fog is and how the water cycle works, or why the grass is wet when it didn’t rain in the morning.

7. Social Studies • Common Good: Discuss why the school is participating in the penny drive. • Talk about community involvement and the different levels of government, local, state and federal and how it relates to the election. • Watch the presidential debates and have your child say who they think won and then support their answer with details from the debate. • Talk about the constitutional right to vote and whether or not those rights pertain to home ownership and clothing choice. • Discuss current economic events like the rise in the price of gas, the mortgage crisis and the budget bailout. Explain to the children why and how it relates to them.

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