The second half of the school year is a time when many math upper elementary curricula begin exploring geometry and graphing. As well, students in the fifth and sixth grades may be doing more graphing work in science class. While it's often left off of school supply lists, a ruler is a helpful tool to have around, particularly for homework assignments. I recommend a colorless, transparent ruler that allows children to see graph lines and angle rays underneath it. The one pict

In a recent learning resolutions blog post, I encouraged my readers to get their children to write more often. Admittedly, getting started can be a little intimidating. Sometimes the right tools can be inspiring, however. For a little motivation, here are a few interesting writing journals for students that may just kick-start your kiddo's inner author. Me: A Compendium is a hard-cover journal filled with colorful pages. It gets youngsters up to about age nine to write about

A significant source of frustration in elementary math learning is errors caused by not being able to track digits through lengthy computations. A child subtracting a three-digit number from a four-digit number, for example, might meet with frustration if he tries to subtract a digit in the tens place from a digit in the hundreds place. Multi-digit multiplication, long division, and fraction computations can be similarly challenging if a student's writing is not neat and well

Planning on staying in town over your school's spring break? Get in touch to schedule tutoring! It's a great opportunity for an academic boost. I'm available to meet at a client's home or in a nearby public library. Sessions can be one hour or longer in length over the break. I will be available to meet with families in DC, lower Montgomery County and the Langley area. Get in touch by calling me at 202.327.3104 or emailing christina@christinabarrytutoring.com.

I recommend audio books as a resource to my students, both for pleasure and as a learning tool. In my previous post "Have You Heard a Good Book Lately?" I explored where to find audio books for all ages. I'm writing today with a quick update on additional places to get audio books. The Libby app works with your library card to access audio books for free. It has a easy-to-use interface that allows you to sample, listen, read, and renew e-books and audio books. You can listen