Connie's Classroom Connie McCarthy is passionate about her work as a teacher of young children. She has devoted her entire career to making sure that her students do well at school, right from the start. Connie has an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education, and a Master’s Degree in Special Education. She has been teaching first grade in East Providence, R.I. for 23 years, where she received the distinction of “Highly Qualified Teacher” by the Rhode Island State Board of Regents. Connie also taught nursery school for four years, and published numerous articles on early education in East Bay Newspapers in Bristol, R.I. She’s also been published in PTO Today Magazine. She lives with her husband, Brian, and has a daughter and a son, both young adults. Connie enjoys reading, writing about elementary education, and taking long walks with friends. During summer vacations, she likes to travel with her husband. She also loves reading readers’ comments on her weekly blog posts.
Good listening skills are essential for school success. If your child’s listening skills could use sharpening try these three easy, quick, and fun activities. These games can be played in a 10-20 minute period of tim... Read more
Here is a great activity for eye-hand coordination, as well as strengthening finger muscles. Make your own lacing cards to help strengthen your child’s finger muscles. You will need: Poster board A hole puncher... Read more
Fine Motor Skills require the use of the smaller muscle groups like the hands, fingers, toes, and lips. Young children need to develop these skills for school success. Cutting, printing, coloring, pasting, writing stories, a... Read more
Gross motor skills impact bigger muscle groups, like the arms, legs, feet, and torso. They are the first motor skills a child develops.Mastering gross motor skills helps your child develop a sense of balance and spatial aware... Read more
National news programs recently reported that the amount of time American children spend watching TV, playing video games, using small electronic devices, or surfing on the computer has increased to almost 8 hours a day! I c... Read more
“Roll for a Card” is a fun game that I have played with my own children and students to sharpen early learning skills. It's fun, easy, and takes about 15-20 minutes to play. Items Needed: One die from a pair of ... Read more
In my last post I shared some simple activities that can help your young child improve cutting skills. Today's games are very effective in improving your child's drawing and handwriting skills. Fill a shirt-sized cardboa... Read more
Early school success is often based on the mechanics of a young child’s fine motor skills. These skills are needed for cutting, coloring, pasting and printing.In these next few weeks I’ll share some tips and activ... Read more
Research confirms the importance of grandparents in a child’s life. The time that grandparents spend, their patience, and their full-life experiences are invaluable to grandchildren. Grandparents are a wonde... Read more
The New Year is a time for reflection and resolution. We tend to get rid of what doesn’t work in our life, and fine-tune what does. Parents want to know how to maximize their young child’s early learning su... Read more
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