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My Little Pony Make Your Mark I Can Read!

The HarperCollins I Can Read! My Little Pony book series features pony characters from the Hasbro my little pony franchise. These books have been a big hit in my house because my children love the fifth generation of My Little Pony from the Netflix show Make Your Mark. How Accessible is The Language in the My Little Pony Books? The books are rated at level 1 and 2 of the I Can Read! series. I thought that this rating was too low because there are some difficult words to decode and I would have placed them all at level two or three. The names of places are on the longer side like Equestria but the children were already familiar with these from watching the TV show.  The biggest accessibility issue with these books are the "pony puns". Several equine word plays are used. For example, instead of everybody, anybody, nobody and somebody the books use everypony, anypony, nopony, somepony. The maritime area is called maretime bay, the 5 main ponies are called the mane 5. For emergen...
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Atomic Habits for Home Study With Children

If I could sum up the whole of the book Atomic Habits book in two words it would be, just start. 

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I struggle with creating routines myself, I haven't found a life hack that has suddenly transformed my day and given me laser focus at ticking off items on my to do list. That isn't what Atomic Habits by James Clear is offering either, the main proposal in this personal development book is that incremental changes (atomic habits) can lead to significant long term success.  Habits are an evolving work in progress and often as adults we need to ovecome bad habits too. So how can we help our children who are just starting their scholastic lives to develop manageable habits and strategies that make their study session productive and enjoyable?

atomic habits creating good routines for homework and home study
Creating productive routines for homework
and home study


How can I incorporate the concepts from Atomic Habits into our homework routine?

1. Make the habit obvious

Signal to the brain that it is time to study and focus by setting up a designated study area. We bought a small desk for my daughter and it is only used for studying. Other crafts or activities are done at the dining room table.

2. Make the habit attractive

Encourage positive associations with studying by following it with something enjoyable. Play a board game or Lego together. We focus on our children when they are studying, continue with that attention after the study session is finished. I haven't found that reward charts or stickers work for motivation. We do buy a new book of my daughters choosing after completeing a Reading Eggs map. 

3. Make the habit easy

Break tasks into managable steps so that children are not overwhelmed. I cut up the CPG daily practice book into individual pages because being presented with the whole workbook had become overwhelming.

4. Make the habit satisfying

Maintain focus and motivation by using a timer to keep homework sessions short, try ten minutes to start with and stop studying while the child is still enjoying it. Don't let children get fed up or tired. 

5. Stack habits

Embed the study habit into your childs routine by linking it to another activity. For example we always do homework after finishing our snack.

Atomic Habits advises that making small changes and being consistent with habits leads to greater productivity and success. Even if a change in your study routine isn't immediatley successful, keep trying variations of it until you find a habit that works for your house.


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