Mary Loves ParentPowered Texts
“It’s one thing I can do a week. It’s everyday moments.”
Minneapolis mom, Mary Texidor, first tried Think Small ParentPowered Texts with her 3 ½ year old son Jeremiah.
“As soon as I started getting them I thought this is great. I want to tell everybody I know about these because they’re so simple, practical and straightforward,” said Texidor.
The FREE texting program provides families with fun facts and easy tips to help build a child’s school readiness skills. Parents who participate will receive text messages developed by educational researchers offering suggestions on ways to promote their child’s social-emotional learning, literacy, health and math skills to help get them ready for kindergarten.
One of the first messages Texidor received was about empathy. It said that to be ready for kindergarten children need to be empathetic towards other children.
The “tip” was that during a book you should look at whether the character was scared or sad and talk to your child about how that character’s feeling and what could we do to help. While reading, Jeremiah noticed that the spider was sad and Texidor asked what could we do to help her. Jeremiah answered that they could be her friend and go to her house and play.
“That moment just sort of melted my heart,” said Texidor. “At 3 ½, he was able to pick up on we could do something and this is something concrete that we could do to make her feel better so just watching it in action was really incredible to me.”
“Teaching my child empathy during a bedtime book, I never would have thought to do that.”
Mary Texidor, Mother
Texidor says the tips are simple, targeted messages that are age appropriate.
“Teaching my child empathy during a bedtime book, I never would have thought to do that,” she said. “It’s one thing I can do a week. It’s everyday moments.”
Parents of young children in Minnesota are invited to sign-up for Think Small ParentPowered Texts at www.thinksmall.org/texts.
Mary Loves ParentPowered Texts
“It’s one thing I can do a week. It’s everyday moments.”
Minneapolis mom, Mary Texidor, first tried Think Small ParentPowered Texts with her 3 ½ year old son Jeremiah.
“As soon as I started getting them I thought this is great. I want to tell everybody I know about these because they’re so simple, practical and straightforward,” said Texidor.
The FREE texting program provides families with fun facts and easy tips to help build a child’s school readiness skills. Parents who participate will receive text messages developed by educational researchers offering suggestions on ways to promote their child’s social-emotional learning, literacy, health and math skills to help get them ready for kindergarten.
One of the first messages Texidor received was about empathy. It said that to be ready for kindergarten children need to be empathetic towards other children.
The “tip” was that during a book you should look at whether the character was scared or sad and talk to your child about how that character’s feeling and what could we do to help. While reading, Jeremiah noticed that the spider was sad and Texidor asked what could we do to help her. Jeremiah answered that they could be her friend and go to her house and play.
“That moment just sort of melted my heart,” said Texidor. “At 3 ½, he was able to pick up on we could do something and this is something concrete that we could do to make her feel better so just watching it in action was really incredible to me.”
“Teaching my child empathy during a bedtime book, I never would have thought to do that.”
Mary Texidor, Mother
Texidor says the tips are simple, targeted messages that are age appropriate.
“Teaching my child empathy during a bedtime book, I never would have thought to do that,” she said. “It’s one thing I can do a week. It’s everyday moments.”
Parents of young children in Minnesota are invited to sign-up for Think Small ParentPowered Texts at www.thinksmall.org/texts.
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