Books That Teach Financial Literacy

Using Children’s Books to Teach Financial Literacy It’s never too early to instill smart money management skills and savings lessons to children. One of the best ways to do this is through hands-on experience and real-life situations. This can be as simple as helping your child create and achieve a savings goal and to sharing…

Share This:
Read More

Does Your Child Have Sleep Apnea?

As parents, we are often quick to call our pediatrician when our child has symptoms such as a high fever, rash, vomiting, or seizures.  But what about snoring?  It is another important symptom that your child’s doctor should know about, although it often goes unreported.  However, snoring can often be a sign that a child…

Share This:
Read More

Keeping the Christmas Spirit All Year

I know the holidays are behind us, yet that very fact is entirely related to the message I hope to convey. I am also aware that I write the educate column, and yet this does not have much to do with kids or school. Yet there is a lesson to be learned. So here it…

Share This:
Read More

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Did your children write letters to Santa in which they requested the items they would most like to have delivered on Christmas Eve?  Did they hand-write lists of toys and games they hoped would be left under the Christmas tree? Writing letters to Santa is an age-old tradition in which most children eagerly engage, but…

Share This:
Read More

Delayed Cord Clamping in Newborns

Recent developments in the topic of Delayed Cord Clamping got me to thinking.  When I began teaching childbirth preparation classes years ago, the “movement” was suggesting many alternatives to accepted hospital protocol.  At that time, the membership of Lamaze International or “ASPO”, (Association for Psychoprophylaxis in Obstetrics as it was originally named) was mostly comprised…

Share This:
Read More

Putting the Pieces Together – A Look at the Mental Health of Children

By Courtney Cutright   Diane Kelly said the phone calls come somewhat frequently. The flustered parent of a child, whose pediatrician has just made a psychiatric referral, calls Mental Health America of the Roanoke Valley for guidance. “The first thing I tell them is, ‘Don’t freak out. If your child had a broken leg, they…

Share This:
Read More

Speech Development

By: Heidi Blackwelder     The first three years of a child’s life are the most important years for healthy speech development, because this is the time when the brain does most of its growing and maturing. In fact, during this time there are “critical periods” for speech development, where the brain is most able…

Share This:
Read More

Love My Students

I do not always love my students.  To say otherwise would be a lie, an attempt to convince myself and others of a fact that simply cannot be true.  My students come from varied backgrounds, and having grown up in an upper middle class family, I can sometimes find it hard to relate.  This particular…

Share This:
Read More

Fashions for Evergreens

  WE NEED YOUR HELP!!! We want to win Fashions for Evergreens at the Hotel Roanoke This year and we know just how to do it!  With your home made ornaments – we can make our tree truly a “Homegrown Tree” made by kids who are “Growing Up In the Valley!” Check out our Pinterest…

Share This:
Read More

How to Handle a Poor Report Card

  How to Handle a “Poor” Report Card Tips for helping your children when they are struggling to get Good Grades   By:       Linda Leap, Center Director Sylvan Learning of Roanoke   It’s that time of the school year again – report card time.  While many students will come home with good grades, others…

Share This:
Read More