1. How can I communicate best with Mrs. Carneiro? Please use e-mail whenever possible. It is much easier for me to be read a letter when I get to a break because I am directly teaching children most of the school day. I am very good about checking my messages a few times each day. 2. How can I help my child learn to read? Reading takes time to develop. The most effective way to help your child is to spend time reading each day. This definitely means less time for television/computer. The time you spend now listening to your child read, and the time you spend reading to your child will bring benefits to your child for the rest of his/her life. Reading time should be a time of "closeness" where your child has your full attention. My mother used to read to us each night-one chapter of The Chronicles of Narnia. We would all snuggle under a big blanket, all three of us. I still love reading today and my mother did a wonderful job of fostering a desire to read in her children. 3. How can I help my child improve their math skills? We do math problems each morning that we glue to some lined paper so that we can show our work/strategies. I week's worth of math problems will come home each week in your child's Tuesday folder with a grade on it for the entire week. Always review which problems your child struggled with and make them fix their errors. Then continue to give your child that problem type until mastery. You can change the numbers but keep the problem type the same.