Is your Inbox cluttered?

As teachers and parents life can get very hectic in this fast paced world! Social media has added another dimension to steal time from our schedules! Here are some great tips for getting your inbox systems under control! By Sally McGhee, Consultant and Productivity Expert (original article at http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/manageinfo/email.mspx)

 Do you have an effective way to process and organize your e-mail so that you can get to an empty Inbox on a routine basis? If you have lots of e-mail in your Inbox—we know people with as many as 7,000 messages—you might want to rethink your processing methods. Really, it is possible to empty your Inbox. The key is to evaluate how you are processing and organizing your e-mail and make some changes. No doubt you've opened an e-mail and thought, "Hmmm, not sure what to do with this. I'll deal with it later!"—and promptly closed the message. If you do this over and over again, it doesn't take long to end up with several hundred (or thousand) messages in your Inbox. Developing a new approach to processing your Inbox will help you to gain more control, improve your response time, and keep up with critical actions and due dates. This article will cover 4 key factors that will help you process your e-mail more efficiently.

• Set Up a Simple and Effective E-mail Reference System 
• Schedule Uninterrupted Time to Process and Organize E-Mail
 • Process One Item At a Time, Starting at the Top
 • Use the "Four D's for Decision Making" Model


Set Up a Simple and Effective E-mail Reference System The first step toward an organized Inbox is understanding the difference between reference information and action information. • Reference information is information that is not required to complete an action; it is information that you want to keep in case you need it later. • Action information is information you must have to complete an action. Most people receive a considerable amount of reference information through e-mail. Sometimes as much as one-third of your e-mail is reference information. So it is essential to have a system that makes it easy to transfer messages from your Inbox into your e-mail reference system. An E-mail Reference System is a series of e-mail file folders where you store reference information to ensure you have easy access to it later. Once you take care of filing your reference information, you can use the next three steps to handle e-mail you have to do something with, your action information.

  Schedule Uninterrupted Time to Process and Organize E-Mail How many interruptions do you get every each day? It's nearly impossible to complete anything when you allow constant interruptions from the phone, people stopping by your office, and instant messaging. So it's critical that you set aside uninterrupted time to process and organize your e-mail. Many e-mail messages require you to make a decision. Good decisions require focus, and focus requires uninterrupted attention. You need to establish a regular time each day to process your e-mail so that you can empty your Inbox. Of course, you can scan your e-mail during the day for urgent messages. Book yourself a recurring appointment for an hour a day to process e-mail, and mark it as "busy." During this time don't answer the phone or take interruptions, and work only on processing your Inbox. At first, keeping these appointments will take discipline, but over time the discipline becomes habit. And once you get to zero e-mail in your Inbox, you'll see the value of this one hour a day and you'll stick to it like glue.


Process One Item At a Time, Starting at the Top When you sit down to process your e-mail, the first step is to sort it by the order in which you want to process it. For example, you can filter by date, subject, or who the e-mail is from. Resist the temptation to jump around in your Inbox in no particular order. Begin processing the message at the top of your Inbox and only move to the second one after you've handled the first. This can be hard at first when you might have thousands of messages in your Inbox. But as you reduce the number of messages over a few sessions, eventually you'll get to the point where you can process the 60-100 messages you get every day and get your Inbox down to zero every day.


Use the "Four D's for Decision Making" Model The "Four D's for Decision Making" model (4 D's) is a valuable tool for processing e-mail, helping you to quickly decide what action to take with each item and how to remove it from the Inbox. Decide what to do with each and every message How many times have you opened, reviewed, and closed the same e-mail message over and over? Some of those messages are getting lots of attention but very little action. It is better to handle each e-mail message only once before taking action—which means you have to make a decision as to what to do with it and where to put it. Under the 4 D's model, you have four choices:

1. Delete it 
2. Do it 
3. Delegate it 
4. Defer it

 DELETE IT Generally you can delete about half of all the e-mail you get. But some of you shudder when you hear "delete." You're hesitant to delete messages for fear you might need them at some point. That's understandable, but ask yourself honestly: What percentage of information that you keep do you actually use? If you do use a large percentage of what you keep, then what you're doing is working. But many of you are keeping a lot more than you use. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you decide what to delete: 1. Does the message relate to a meaningful objective you're currently working on? If not, you can probably delete it. Why hang on to information that doesn't relate to your main focus? 2. Does the message contain information you can find elsewhere? If so, delete it. 3. Does the message contain information that you will refer to within the next six months? If not, delete it. 4. Does the message contain information that you're required to keep? If not, delete it.

 DO IT (in less than two minutes) If you can't DELETE IT, then decide, "What specific action do I need to take?" and "Can I DO IT in less than two minutes?" If you can, just DO IT. There is no point in filing an e-mail or closing an e-mail if you can complete it in less than 2 minutes. Try it out—see how much mail you can process in less than 2 minutes. I think you will be extremely surprised and happy with the results. You could file the message, you could respond to the message, or you could make a phone call. You can probably handle about one third of your e-mail messages in less than two minutes.

 DELEGATE IT If you can't DELETE IT or DO IT in two minutes or less, can you DELEGATE IT? If you can delegate it, do it right away. You should be able to compose and send the delegating message in about two minutes. Once you delegate the action, delete the original message or move it into your e-mail reference system. DEFER IT If you cannot DELETE IT, DO IT in less than two minutes, or DELEGATE IT, then the action required is something that only you can accomplish and that will take more than two minutes.

Because this is your dedicated e-mail processing time, you need to DEFER IT and deal with it after you are done processing your e-mail. You’ll probably find that about 10 percent of your e-mail messages have to be deferred. There are two things you can do to defer a message: turn it into an actionable task or turn it into an appointment. Name the task to clearly state what action is required so that you don't have to reopen the e-mail message. The result is a clearly defined list of actions in your task list that you can prioritize and schedule to complete on your Calendar. Do it daily

Using the 4 D's model on a daily basis makes it easier to handle a large quantity of e-mail. Our experience shows that on average, people can process about 100 e-mail messages an hour. If you receive 40 to 100 messages per day, all you need is one hour of uninterrupted e-mail processing time to get through your Inbox. Our statistics show that of the e-mail you receive: • 50 percent can be deleted or filed • 30 percent can be delegated or completed in less than 2 minutes • 20 percent can be deferred to your Task List or Calendar to complete later Of course, if you have a backlog of hundreds of messages, it will take time to get to the point where your daily routine keeps you up to date. It's important to get that backlog down, so I would suggest setting chunks of time aside to work through it. Then you can really enjoy processing your messages every day using the 4 D's.

Nursery Rhymes Enhance Learning

Research has shown that Nursery Rhymes help children become better readers. Nursery rhymes make literacy fun for children as well as introducing them to new sounds and words. Rhyming is important in developing phonemic awareness in children! The repetitious nature of nursery rhymes allows children to memorize basic structures and patterns necessary to master the English language. Share nursery rhymes at home using different tones, speeds and rhythms to your voice to help children develop a love of nursery rhymes and in the process you will enhance their literacy skills! Here is a project you can make for Baa Baa Black Sheep to add to your nursery rhyme adventure!

Be A Kangaroo Kid for A Day

If you have never tried Kangaroo Kids April is your opportunity to experience their outstanding curriculum, caring professional teachers and family friendly environment!

April is nationally acclaimed as Week of the Young Child and as a part of the celebration Kangaroo Kids Child Care and Learning Center is offering new students a free day of child care! Just call anytime during April to schedule your child's day of free child care!

Kangaroo Kids Child Care and Learning Center was awarded #1 child care center in America by the National Association of Child Care Professionals and is one of only 7% of schools nationwide to achieve accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Twenty two of their “Hall of Fame,” staff members have been with Kangaroo Kids for a combined total of 260 years…so you never have to worry about high turnover, or inexperienced staff members. In fact, Three teachers at Kangaroo Kids have been awarded the prestigious honor of Teacher of the Year by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

“We are proud to be being leaders in education of young children since 1991 and of providing high quality early childhood education programs for children from 6 weeks old through 9 years of age. Kangaroo Kids has infant, toddler and preschool programs as well as before and after school activities, summer camp and a full day private school kindergarten,” Said Director Kathy Feigley.

“Early Years Are Learning Years,” is the theme of the nationally celebrated Week of the Young Child. As part of the national Week of the Young Child™ Kangaroo Kids is honoring young children and all those who make a difference in children’s lives. Festivities will be held throughout the country during the week of April 23-27, 2012.

Kangaroo Kids will celebrating the week with an ice cream social, a book fair, and a visit from Clifford the Big Red Dog. They will also host a Joy of Reading program where friends, families, and the community will come to read to the children. Kangaroo Kids kindergarteners will also be sharing their new reading skills with their younger classmates. The kick off on Monday will be a breakfast to go honoring the Mom’s and Dad’s at Kangaroo Kids who provide a loving home environment and a partnership with the educators at Kangaroo Kids. The community is welcome to participate in any of the Week of the Young Child events. The book fair will be open every day from 8am to 6pm.

Young children and their families depend on high-quality education and care, which help children get a great start and bring lasting benefits to the future of our country. Week of the Young Child™ is a time to recognize the importance of early learning and early literacy, and to celebrate the teachers and policies that bring early childhood education to young children.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), is the largest organization of early childhood educators and others dedicated to improving the quality of early education programs for children birth through age 8. Founded in 1926, NAEYC has nearly 80,000 members.

You can also "like" us on our facebook page at Kangaroo Kids Child Care to learn more about the April Events or call 908-231-7800.

Most Popular Baby Names

According to the Social Security Administration, Jacob is the most popular boy’s name of the 21st century (so far), followed by:
• Michael
• Joshua
• Matthew
• Daniel
• Christopher
• Andrew
• Ethan
• Joseph
• William

The Favorite girl’s name is Emily, trailed by:
• Madison
• Emma
• Olivia
• Hannah
• Abigail
• Isabella
• Samantha
• Elizabeth
• Ashley

Go to http://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/decades/names2000s.html for year by year popularity of names!

Children Thrive on Structure

Many times as parents or teachers we want to give our children a great deal of freedom in decision making. Although freedom of choice can have benefits, it is important to remember, "Children thrive on structure," according to school psychologist Laura Marchese, at a workshop at Kangaroo Kids Child Care and Learning Center. Structure makes children feel more secure. It lets them know what to expect. If your child is having a difficult time getting ready in the morning, try creating a sequence chart with photos of him or her doing each expected behavior. This will be both fun and a learning experience. And, if you stick to it consistently, over time your morning routine should improve!

When it comes to choice, children can be overwhelmed by too many choices. As the parent or the teacher, you must make decisions based on what is best for the child and then give our child choices. For example, if you want your child to eat healthy foods, instead of saying, "What do you want to eat for dinner?” give two healthy choices, "Would you like carrots or peas with your dinner?" Instead of giving your child the opportunity to make any choice for what he or she would like to do on Saturday, you can offer two choices.

Laura also recommended positive, specific praise as the most useful behavior management tool you can use. Catch children doing it right! Many times we address inappropriate behavior instead of complimenting good behavior. If your child is wiggling around at an inappropriate time, instead of saying, "Stop wiggling.” try to wait for the moment he or she stops, and instead say, "I love how nicely you are sitting." If there is a sibling or classmate involved, give the child behaving appropriately over the top, enthusiastic, positive, specific praise, “Joey, I love the way you are sitting!” In the majority of cases, the child behaving inappropriately will correct his or her behavior to gain the positive praise. Make sure that as soon as the child behaving inappropriately begins to behave appropriately, you reward him with enthusiastic, positive, specific praise.

According to Laura, if you create a culture of positive, specific praise, and you do it consistently, you should see change overtime.

Holding Back Your Child?

Kindergarten registration has begun! In most school districts, children must be 5 years old by October 1, 2012 to enroll in Kindergarten. Many parents are faced with the dilemma of determining when his or her child should begin school. Today, parents are becoming more aggressive in determining what is in the best interest of their child.

A new phenomena, however, is taking place among many families. According to Preschool Director Mary Innocenzi, parents are opting to keep their young child out of public school an extra year, even if their child’s age falls within the guidelines for school entry. Why? Parents say “I’d rather keep her in preschool an extra year, so she can have an extra year to mature. What’s the rush?” “I don’t feel my son is as mature as the other children. I feel it’s better to keep him out an extra year. Also, he will have more of an opportunity to do well in sports—he won’t be the smallest kid in his class.” “If I keep my child out of school an extra year, he’ll have a decided educational advantage over the others in his class.”

And so it goes…

In the past there were always a few parents who would opt to “hold back” their child, for various reasons. Today, however, many parents feel that they are giving their child a head start by keeping their child out of school an extra year.

It is a difficult decision and some of the social concerns, physical concerns regarding sports, and academic challenges do not often show up until the higher grades. Many parents make the decision solely based on academics. But it is also important to consider social skills, confidence, organization skills, and physical size, as well as family preference. These are important considerations, especially when the new trend to hold children back makes some August and September birthday children almost 2 years younger than their peers. One of the reasons I feel this decision is so important is that the stakes are much higher at 17 years of age, when you want your child to be a leader, not a follower.

If you have any questions where we can help, feel free to stop by the office at Kangaroo Kids to discuss your options and some creative solutions.

25 Tips To Encourage Literacy In Young Children

1. Babble back to your infants
2. Encourage conversation
3. Teach site words – McDonalds, Lucky Charms, Barney
4. Speak another language
5. Encourage drawing and inventive spelling
6. Script what children say about their drawings – write their story, make it into a book
7. Fall in love with language, rhymes, songs and role model reading
8. Label your child’s environment
9. Make shopping lists with your child
10. Cook and read recipes together
11. Look for letters on the Menu when you go out to eat
12. Cut pictures out of magazines that begin with a letter you are studying.
13. Make an alphabet book
14. Read a book and then ask children questions to test their comprehension
15. Glue letters from an alphabet cereal on a piece of paper.
16. Put alphabet cereal on a plate and help child make their name out of the cereal.
17. Keep magnetic letters on the refrigerator
18. Make up silly songs starting with the letter you are studying.
19. Talk to your child
20. Sing with your child
21. Read to your child everyday
22. Limit television watching and watch appropriate shows
23. Visit libraries and bookstores
24. Select a quality child care
25. Read to children and ask them to predict what will happen next.