Young Scholars Academy

Where Children Develop a Love of Learning

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Language is key

March 30, 2022 by Young Scholars Academy Leave a Comment

One thing that I have learned as a parent and a teacher is how important it is to give your child language. And by that I mean the words to say, the knowledge of when to speak, the tones to use, and the confidence to express what they want to say. Speaking up is an art that needs to be learned and sharpened as they grow so it becomes a useful and helpful tool in their belt. It all starts by setting the example and modeling the listening and speaking action to your children. A great age to start….is as soon as possible!

When children are infants it is so important to talk to them. Read to them and emerge them in language. Give them the basics by showing expression when you talk and teaching about tone of voice. Toddlers is great time to continue with tone and introducing how to express emotions and their needs through language. Talk to them about what you need and expect and they will learn to express what they need and expect in that manner. Children learn language and expression of language through repetition and copying what they see and hear from you. With preschoolers you can start teaching about eye contact and taking turns in a conversation.

Improving listening skills and beginning to relate and be empathetic to others through conversation. The best way to teach this is to actually sit down and converse with your child. Ask about their day. Tell them about yours. Share feelings, ideas, and thoughts. Talk about mistakes you both have made and how to correct them. Talk about the successes you had during the day and how all of it makes you feel. Don’t be afraid of big words. Sometimes that is the only way to explain what you are talking about and you will be surprised how easy it becomes for them to understand and expand on their vocabulary. As school-age children, it is just as important to continue these conversations. In doing so it will build their confidence and their sense of worth. Giving them the opportunity to talk about things with you where they are safe and can trust in your support and truth will get the whole family through any situation.

The most important thing about giving children the ability to communicate is that it gives them a platform to advocate for themselves. They can express feelings and needs in a manner so that others can listen and participate with them to find solutions to problems, and find mutual understanding. Starting young gives them the confidence to speak up for themselves and others when they are adults. They learn quickly that their feelings and ideas are just as important as everyone else’s. They learn how to debate, how to argue, how to understand others, and best of all how to communicate in a positive and effective way.

It is so difficult to adjust and learn communication skills when you are an adult. Communication becomes an instinctual skill that you do without thinking about so it is so important that you teach and practice it every day with your children as they grow. As a parent of grown-up children, I feel that it was the best gift I have given them. So are so much better than I and I have seen them succeed in so much because they know how to speak up for themselves and for others.

Ms. Dotty
NAEYC Coordinator
Lead Pre-Kindergarten Teacher

Filed Under: General Updates

Can We Share Something Personal?

March 18, 2022 by Young Scholars Academy Leave a Comment

Can I share a story with you all that you might not know about?

Can I share just a small piece of the Young Scholars story.

Young Scholars Academy was officially labeled in 2000 with its original founders Jane and Geoff Germano. Geoff was a Lt. Colonel in the United States Air Force and Jane a college graduate with a background in teaching. These two had the crazy idea to start a childcare program since children of their own were not doable.

In 2001, Jenn Winters (my mom) came with all 3 of us kids in tow into Young Scholars and as you guessed it, the rest is history. Jenn moved up from a teacher’s aide to classroom teacher, to assistant Director, and then Director. I remember getting ice cream money from Mr. Geoff and trying to protest in front of Ms. Jane’s office about how I didn’t like the afternoon snack or the planned field trips for summer. (I know, the nerve.)

The Germanos & Winters worked side by side to grow the business and eventually even built the freestanding building we’re in now, we used to be in a strip mall! Can you believe that? We moved into this building in 2008- recession year, great idea, right?

(For those of you who are history nerds, our old location is now an appliance store off Austin Bluffs!)
Here’s the thing and why today is such a big piece is YSA history.

10 years ago today one of Young Scholars original founders Mr. Geoff passed away. He had been fighting medical issues for years and was finally able to live in peace. I was just a teenager, but I remember the day vividly.
Jane was devastated, he was gone too soon.

Jenn was stressed and sad. The recession was still very clearly impacting small businesses. I remember during those days she would come home and say she needed 20 minutes before she could “mom.” Looking back on it now I also see why she was mad I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer.

I went to work at 16 and finished high school online. The family was stressed, and I was that kid that just had to help even if it was working as a teacher’s aide in one of the classrooms.

With the passing of Mr. Geoff taking, its toll, I remember Jane asking my mom to lunch one day. Jane wanted to close Young Scholars for good. The finances were an array, the stress was too much and obviously, Jane struggled to run a business she had originally founded with her husband. She talked about severance packages, how she planned to do it, and the timeframe.

Jenn begged. Begged for the opportunity and freedom to turn things around. After buying in and becoming an official partner of the company a fire had been lit under her.

I quickly finished high school online and got my group leader status as quickly as I could finish the classes. I had to come in and help keep the family business alive. Then the rest of my family followed, my dad quit his job of 20 years to help, my siblings also came and worked when their schedules allowed it. It took all of us to keep the doors open. There was a long road ahead.

The only way we could stay afloat was to get more children and we had the opportunity to do so with army childcare (Child Care Aware.) However, we could only accept this program and the grants that came along with it if we were NAEYC accredited. (National Association of The Education of Young Children) say that ten times fast. Jenn requested a meeting with the rep many times, and she was turned down. Turned down, dismissed until one day we weren’t. (Thanks Ms. Judy!)

Now we still had to get accredited, and we did, like scored 98% overall on our accreditation visit. That’s major, props to 2014-year-old us!

The fire that was lit went far beyond making a paycheck. Not only did Young Scholars keep their doors open, but we’re also actually able to impact families and this community. All of this happened because Geoff took a chance on a little teacher’s aide with a couple of kids.

I like to think that he looks down and smiles at the impact one idea has had on a community. I don’t know about you all but I just can’t imagine a life without Young Scholars in it.

I wonder what these kids would be like if they didn’t grow up here. Would they be a little less spicy? Possibly (ha) but I absolutely love that this is their home. Would their lights have been dimmed if there weren’t given the opportunity to fully shine? I love that they feel so comfortable being who they were meant to be.

I’m bawling and can’t believe it’s been ten years. Cheers to you, thank you so much for changing the lives of so many families.

Ms. Jordan
Young Scholars Academy “Lifer” (seriously, I’ve been here since I was 4!)

Filed Under: General Updates

Your Kids & 2021 Goals

December 1, 2020 by Young Scholars Academy Leave a Comment

2021 Happy New Year Resolution Goal List – Business office desk with notebook written in handwriting about plan listing of new year goals and resolutions setting. Change and determination concept.

2020 has really been something. Just because 2020 seemed like a total bust does not mean we should give up our hope for 2021. Think back on your plans for 2020, do you think that you can adjust or revisit these goals in the new year? Why not change your vision to adjust with the times and get your kids involved as well!

Goals are not just for us adults either. Setting goals for little ones is just as important as adults. It is a great way to work towards something and be able to learn to fail and get back up. We all know not every goal we set out to obtain is always a success. 2020 has proven to us the need to pivot, be flexible, and problem solve.

Making resolutions with your kids can be a great family bonding experience. It can also open to you a little more about your child. Below you will find 4 ways to help your kids make resolutions and what lessons that can teach them along the way.

  1. Keep a positive approach. Goal setting and resolutions are truly about making ourselves happy. So, it is essential to keep an open mind and be positive when making resolutions with your little ones. Be there cheerleader instead of pointing out the short falls. Point out all the growth they made over the last year. Highlight huge accomplishments. Also avoid telling them their goal isn’t a good goal even if it a materialistic goal like collecting 25 new Pokémon. It is their goals and needs to reflect who they are.
  2. Suggest but do not tell them what resolutions to make. Ask questions about why they would like to build on. Brainstorm broad goals and milestones. Then talk to them about each broad goal helping them break down into an age appropriate attainable goal for each category.
  3. Do not end up with a list of ten or more resolutions. Have your child narrow their list down to about 3 or 4 top goals. It is important that we do not teach our kids it is about making a huge list of resolutions and not following through.
  4. Plan on how to obtain those goals but writing steps below each goal and how they plan to execute it.

There are so many lessons that can be taught by reaching your goals or even failing them. But the overall picture for our littles is support and encouraging them to reach high and go for their goals.

Ms. Michaela
Lead Preschool Teacher
Social Emotional Coordinator

Filed Under: General Updates

Countdown to Christmas

December 1, 2020 by Young Scholars Academy Leave a Comment

Boy in long Christmas hat reading a book and yawns on the floor by the white Christmas tree

 

Looking for something fun to do with the holidays in these interesting times?

Countdown each day of December with a new book. They can be any book, or you can do holiday themes only. If you keep with holiday themes you can always store these with the Christmas decorations to reuse the books for following years. I did this last year and didn’t even remember doing this at all, let alone what the books were Ha- so it just might work well if you were hesitant of reusing books.

The way this works is your child(dren) get to open one book each day in December. It’s an interactive advent calendar if you want to use it that way too (number your books to use as a calendar).

If you can keep up, wrap one book each night before you go to bed. If you know yourself well enough then set aside some time to wrap each book all at once. The long Thanksgiving weekend would be a good time to get that jump started. Keep this in mind for next year, as I know you are already reading this too late. So, this year wrap the couple that you need to get through the week. Wrap the rest on your next day off or if you’re feeling super energized while watching the new Grey’s whip it out then!

You can do this in addition to your Elf on the Shelf. He can be holding your new book each morning with his shenanigans or use it to your advantage and the game can be to find where the Elf has hidden the book each day. He can leave a clue. You’re welcome, just gave you all your Elf days if you are struggling to keep up.

All jokes aside, this is a really great way to get your kiddos reading through the holiday season. It is a great tradition and fun for the whole family. It isn’t too much extra work because you are usually reading a bedtime story anyway or doing the Elf on the Shelf or an advent calendar, or all three…so might as well cut yourself some extra time in the Christmas pie. I hope this sounds like a fun addition to your holiday traditions.

Ms. Brooke
Lead Pre-Kindergarten Teacher
Curriculum & Literacy Coordinator

Filed Under: General Updates, Holidays

Supportive learning

October 12, 2020 by Young Scholars Academy Leave a Comment

Teaching children new and difficult skills can be frustrating for the teacher, the student, and the parent. As an adult we forget that children need practice and repetition to learn. The key to learning is having support, positive guidance and making learning fun. Helping them work through frustration but keeping their interest is a challenge. Here are five strategies to help accomplish this: allowing time and opportunities to practice, providing lessons to guarantee success, allowing for mistakes, verbalizing your support and teamwork.

Supplying opportunities to practice can be integrated into everyday practice. When going to the grocery store you can point out the beginning sounds of the food you choose to buy. This is a bbbbanana. We have one, two, three bbbananas. Providing activities that are fun and feels more like playing can be great practice. Playing hopscotch with numbers, letters or letter sounds depending on what your child is learning is a great interactive technique. Just don’t go bananas with the practice lol. A couple of minutes here and there will do wonders to help your child learn but we don’t want to stress them out to where they don’t want to participate.

Sometimes if you feel like your child is struggling to learn a skill it is important to set them up for success. This way they don’t start to feel that they can’t do it and stop trying. If you are teaching the beginning letter sound of s words and ask what words start with s make all the answers be correct. Does snake, sign, or silly start with s. Emphasize the sound of sssss when you say each word. As you see their confidence grow throw in the challenge word such as snake, sign, and car. I feel this can be difficult. How are they learning when every answer is correct? When you do this remember that you are teaching through repetition and focusing on the process of learning and not the answer.

Allow them to make mistakes. Many times, during writing I encounter children who grow sad and want to quit because they made a mistake in the forming of a letter. You can see the frustration when they are erasing so hard, they put a hole in the paper, then they are mad about the hole. Reinforce the idea that everyone makes mistakes. Help them to try again and make a big deal out of the fact that they are trying. One thing I do is discourage them from erasing the mistake and help them see that they can start over or move on to the next attempt. Explain to them that trying their best is more important than doing it right. Working through these mistakes can be very fulfilling to both you and your child. Often children will go from disliking writing to looking forward to it because they have more confidence in their ability even when they make mistakes.

Working through frustration is an emotional trial for everyone. All parties involved want to quit. The important key to this is to not quit. Take a breath, do jumping jacks or sing a little tune to give you and your child a chance to restart. Sometimes breaking down the expectations of the lesson into smaller parts can help the goal of skill seem more attainable. Take tying shoes as an example. It can be difficult and frustration to learn this skill. If your child is frustrated start with just the first part, crisscrossing the laces then you take over the rest. As that step is meet add the next step. A great way to help defeat frustration in learning a new skill is changing their vocabulary. Change the words I can’t too I’ll try. Encourage their effort more than the results.

You and your child are a team when it comes to learning. A simple three step plan can make a big difference. First model the skill you want to teach. Then practice the skill together and finally let them try on their own. Show them how to dribble a basketball, work with them to do it together, then step back and let them try. You can use this method for any skill. Beginning letter sounds, counting, anything you wish to teach.
The most important thing in being supportive of your child’s learning will always be that you are present. Be active in their learning experience. Learning can be a fun adventure for you both!

Ms. Dotty
NAEYC Coordinator
Lead Pre-Kindergarten & Kindergarten Teacher

Filed Under: General Updates

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Young Scholars Academy
5815 Tutt Center Point
Colorado Springs, CO 80922
(719) 626-9650
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