Christian Health Service
of Syracuse

Education

Free Books For Preschoolers!

Research shows that reading to your child is one of the best things you can do to prepare him for school, and beyond. The Imagination Library is here to help! The Imagination Library will mail your preschoolers a new book every month, right to your home, ABSOLUTELY FREE!

WHO IS ELIGIBLE?
Children, up to age 5, who live anywhere in Onondaga County, may enroll. Each child within a family may receive his own free book each month.

HOW DO I ENROLL?
Fill out a registration form at Christian Health Service, or go to imaginationlibrary.com. Please be sure to include your e-mail address. Your child will receive his first book in approximately 2 months.
(Note: CHSOS has carefully screened these books for objectionable materials. We encourage parents to screen them again before releasing to your children.)

SPONSOR BY LITERACY COALITION OF ONONDAGA COUNTY, UNITED WAY'S SUCCESS BY SIX, CNY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION and DOLLY PARTON.

Teaching Your Children "On the Fly"

Barbara frets that her family’s busy schedule makes it hard to create special moments with her preschoolers. Does this sound like you? “I want to take them places and do fun activities, because I know the early years are critical learning years. Yet, every day is filled with laundry, grocery shopping, and other daily tasks. I just don’t have the time.”

Enter VROOM.
VROOM is a free app that sends you simple, daily activities to do with your preschooler, by utilizing materials you already have, and taking advantage of everyday teachable moments. While you set the table together, you can talk about shapes. While you fold laundry together, you can talk about colors. These spontaneous moments help build language and math skills. No special equipment needed!

Download VROOM today, and receive daily customized emails, to make everyday moments into brain building moments. You can make a difference!

Go to joinvroom.org.

Building A Strong Foundation For Your Child

In Parenting By The Book, John Rosemond notes that when we look at our children, we can’t help but think about what they will be as adults. Most likely, we would say to ourselves, “All I want is for them to be responsible, well mannered, and honest.” We’d think less about affluence or prestige, and be more likely to use words describing character.

Modern secular thinking focuses more on academic achievement than on integrity and morality. But from experience, we as adults know that a life lived selflessly and responsibly is more satisfying. This is the reason why we must take the time to give our children a strong moral foundation by teaching them godly character, not only at home but at school as well.

In today’s constantly changing world, it can be challenging to teach moral values to our children. Behavior that was frowned upon yesterday is not only acceptable today, but protected by law. It can be difficult to aim at a target if it’s constantly moving.

In past centuries, a Bible could be found in every classroom. Noah Webster’s Blue Backed Speller taught portions of the Sermon on the Mount, as well as spelling. McGuffey’s 1690 Primer taught a child his ABCs starting with this rhyme: “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” Even as recent as fifty years ago, the Dick and Jane reading series was big on character building, albeit short on vocabulary! Values reinforced were ones like respect for parents, family cooperation, minding one’s manners, and the importance of thrift and hard work. Lessons taught reading skills, but were infused with moral values as well.

Training a child requires years of consistent, explicit teaching and is most effective when the home and school work hand in hand. A school that uses the Bible as its gold standard for behavior has at its disposal a solid, fixed foundation, the foundation mentioned in Matthew 7:24 and 25: “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the flood waters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.”

Consider Christian education and build a strong foundation for your child. There are opportunities right in our community.

For example: Living Word Academy

30 Million Words

Would you like to give your baby an absolutely free gift that they’ll never outgrow? A gift you already have in your possession?

How about a gift of words?

Did you know that children exposed to daily conversation beginning at birth can potentially hear 30 million more words in their first three years of life? This takes place by interacting with people they know and love. Whether you talk, read or sing to your baby, the brain is developing and acquiring vocabulary and other important language skills. Skills that will prepare them for future learning!

So talk to your newborn! Read your favorite book! Sing a funny song! You will have a rapt audience, as your baby listens to your words, because talking is teaching!

To learn more, go to talkingisteaching.org.