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Educator Paulette Chaffee Shares How Parents Can Give Their Child a Head Start in Reading

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Paulette Chaffee Parents Give Their Child Start in Reading

Reading is a fundamental skill that children must learn in order to progress in educational development. The inability to read can lead to a child falling behind in school or even failing. As an experienced teacher and children’s advocate, Paulette Chaffee states that difficulties with reading usually begin before fourth grade, making reading skills all the more challenging to learn if the issue remains unaddressed.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress reports that out of all fourth-grade students in America, only thirty-five percent are successfully reading at grade level. To help set a student up for a positive learning experience with reading, parents can give their child a head start in reading using these tips from Chaffee:

  1. Incorporate Language into Early Childhood Play

According to Dr. David Kilpatrick, learning how to read is an auditory process. For that reason, a parent can help develop a solid platform for a child’s language development before the days of kindergarten through repetitive experiences with sound. For example, one of the simplest ways to incorporate language and sounds into early childhood play is through singing.

  1. Make Reading Fun

Parents can create a fun atmosphere around reading through positive and exciting interactions. For instance, reading a bedtime story aloud to a child while enjoying milk and cookies can communicate to a child that reading time is a treat or something to look forward to daily. Reading can also be fun for a child when the child gets to choose what to read.

Reading books with your children at an early age helps them learn more words before starting school. In a recent study conducted by the University of California, Santa Cruz, psychology professor Dominic Massaro revealed that children could more effectively expand vocabulary by hearing a book read aloud versus talking.

  1. Create a Dialogue

To create other positive experiences with reading, parents can create a dialogue with their children while reading a book together. Sounding out words is excellent but asking a child follow-up questions about pictures and words generates more impact. When a child has to look beyond the story to answer questions regarding colors in images or pointing out animals, they exercise thinking skills. As a child develops, reading-time questions can also evolve into talking about punctuation or asking more complex questions behind a story’s main idea or plot.

  1. Build an At-Home Library

Books can provide children with a gateway to new and undiscovered worlds. Giving children access to books at home is a great way to maintain engagement with reading. The availability of books at home also shows a child that reading is valued, encouraged, and embraced.

  1. Utilize Books on Tape

Various scenarios might prevent a parent from fully supporting a child during early learning development. From demanding jobs to non-native language barriers, parents cannot always be there to read a child a book. In that case, parents should take advantage of books on tape or audiobooks. A child can hold a book and follow along as it is read to them. Audiobooks still grant a child the ability to hear new vocabulary and how words sound.

About Paulette Chaffee

Paulette Chaffee is a teacher, speech therapist, and attorney deeply involved in the Fullerton community. As an educator and member of various non-profit boards, her focus has always been on providing children with the highest quality education. Ms. Chaffee holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Redlands, a California Lifetime Teaching Credential, and is admitted to the California Bar.

 

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Gordon Ramsay and his fitness routine as a celebrity chef

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Gordon Ramsay

A chef is usually pictured as being overweight, due to the nature of the job. Having to constantly taste food to understand it, can’t be good for your health. But with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, it doesn’t show at all. This thanks to a fitness routine and healthy diet. Ramsay lost an incredible 50lbs, and he looks better than ever. His routine consists more of endurance training rather than lifting heavy weights, and he routinely trains with cycling when he’s travelling. If he’s not travelling, he makes sure to get his workouts in at his home gym (working out with Will Usher, former army captain and member of the Royal Protection Squad!).

“The more I train, the more normal I am, the more I feel that I’m still unchanged” said Ramsay in regards to his diet and training routine, which he believes keeps him feeling young and healthy.

Moreover, Gordon came out with a new cookbook called “Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Food: Mouth-Watering Recipes to Fuel You for Life”, which is full of healthy meals for the fitness enthusiast.

Gordon doesn’t follow a specific diet or have a dietician, but he swears by certain rules for his eating habits. One of these is cutting down on dairy, which he believes makes you feel sluggish. Almond milk is his replacement, which mixes in with a smoothie consisting of berries yoghurt. He also believes in drinking a couple glasses of water before you eat a meal, which he says doesn’t fill you up but it does stop you from eating excessively.

It’s plain to see that Gordon Ramsay is in great shape, and it is evident in his body even at his age of 53. It is important to take care of your health, even if you are a celebrity chef who can create delicious meals at any time.

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Daily habits of Mark Wahlberg to use in your own life

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Mark Wahlberg

Mark Wahlberg is commonly on the big screens, and is obviously a healthy and fit guy just by looking at him. So it comes as no surprise that he has a rigorous daily routine and habits that keep him scheduled, disciplined and in shape.

It also helps him deal with his busy lifestyle as a movie star, producer and model.

Here are some of the daily habits Mark Wahlberg has that you could use to benefit your own life.

Early morning workouts

It’s obvious that Mark Wahlberg works out, but how about a 5am workout?

Wahlberg rises early at 4am to start his day with a scheduled breakfast, then a 5am workout. After training intensely at the gym, he’s drinking a shake at 6:30, then dropping the kids to school at 7:30 and eating at the same time. He says by 9am, he’s been to church and eaten again.

Discipline is everything

This isn’t surprising either, considering how disciplined he would have to be to continue his above schedule every morning. For Wahlberg, the discipline in his fitness, career and faith is how he keeps his life together. He continually strives for more and more, and he believes since he started acting he is much more disciplined, in contrast to when he was doing music.

He is always hustling

Wahlberg is always working towards the next big thing, and following his mantra of hustle harder. This started from his past when he was hustling in the music industry, to going in front of the camera and hustling within the movie industry where he enjoys his success of today.

Mark Wahlberg is a very disciplined person who follows habits almost religiously to do with fitness, faith and career. He believes it’s this discipline and drive that has made and kept him successful.

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Christian Bale’s physical transformations for movies – from skinny to huge

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Christian Bale

Christian Bale is responsible for some of the most drastic physical transformations shown on the big screen. From very skinny in “The Machinist” to huge playing The Batman in “The Dark Knight”, Bale’s physicality range knows no bounds. A dedicated actor in his art, Bale commits all the way for his roles and continuously delivers in both his on screen performance as well as his on screen appearance.

These are some of Christian Bale’s physical transformations on the big screen.

The Machinist

Four months prior to the production of “The Machinist”, Bale started to lose weight for this role. Starting at 180 pounds, Bale dropped an unbelievable 60 pounds to look extremely skinny. His diet during this time included one coffee, an apple and water. He also chain smoked cigarettes and drank whiskey to further lose weight. His dedication is revealed on the screen, with Bale looking scraggly and dangerously skinny.

Batman Begins/The Dark Knight

Bale put on 100 pounds for his role as The Batman, doing so in an unbelievable 6 months from his end of role in “The Machinist”. He used a typical workout body part split to focus on different muscle groups on different days. The effect is noticeable, The Batman looking large and intimidating on screen.

American Hustle

This role required Bale to pack on the weight again, but this time not through working out. He ate cheeseburgers, donuts and whatever else he could get his hands on for two months in order to get to 200 pounds, and visibly fatter. The effect is obvious on screen, with Bale sporting a belly and obviously looking much rounder when compared to “The Dark Knight”.

Christian Bale is a master of physical transformations, and he commits to his roles. From ridiculously skinny, to ripped and muscled, to fat and overweight, Bale can and will do it for a worthwhile movie role.

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