Tips for Good Health this NNAT Season

It has been so cold out that it can be hard to keep your NNAT child warm, let alone healthy! This time of the year, flu season is hard enough to keep your child from getting sick, but add in the frigid temperatures outside and the stuffy indoors, and it can be almost impossible to keep your NNAT prep going. There are a couple of different ways to make sure your NNAT study sessions keep going without distraction, and I gathered them below.

• Flu shot: It may seem like it is too late, but with this extended flu season and the polar vortex, your child may still benefit from the flu shot! You can keep your child in good health and make sure that their NNAT studies are uninterrupted by getting them the flu shot.
• Get them Hand Sanitizers: Clip a little bottle of instant hand sanitizer to your child’s backpack or pack hand wipes in their lunchbox. Show them the proper times to use these hand sanitizers, and they will stay healthier, longer, and have more productive NNAT prep sessions!
• Have fun: The best way to beat a cold is to have fun! Laughter is the best medicine and here are some fun activities to do with your child.
  • Memory Mosaic: This is a great activity for secret NNAT preparation with a sick child. Print out pictures from your last fun adventure together. Let them cut out the photos and paste them onto a board with stickers and construction paper. This helps them with their categorization skill for the NNAT as well as making sure they do not stay bored in the house!

Stay healthy and smart with more tips on this site. Don’t forget the NNAT study sessions and good luck on the NNAT!

 

Free Children’s Toys for NNAT Prep

NNAT test prep can be so expensive! Not just NNAT test prep, but all items associated with children can be very expensive! Children want iPads and educational apps that you can get on the iPad are great, but also can run you up to ten dollars an app! However, some great news is that there are things that are lying around your house that you can use to help prepare your child for the NNAT test! Some of these you were playing with when you were a child, and just didn’t realize how much you were learning. One of the best ways for a child to learn and experience the world is through play, so give your kids these toys and watch them do NNAT test prep while they play.

• Paper towel rolls- Paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls after the paper towels and toilet paper has been used can be great for children! They can use their imagination to make the paper towel roll into a sword or use it to amplify their voice! These imagination skills help them with their fine motor skills, one of the skills on the NNAT test.
• Cardboard Boxes- Cardboard boxes are also imagination machines for children! They can use them to play in or around. They can decorate them like a house or use multiple cardboard boxes to create a fort! All of these activities use the skills of spatial reasoning, a skill that will be tested on the NNAT.
• Chip Cans- These are great because your children can use them for games of toss or to create a machine of some kind! This will help them build their spatial reasoning skills for the NNAT!

You can find toys for children all around your house you just have to be as creative as your children are. You can find resources on this site! Good luck on the NNAT!

Early NNAT Test Prep

Many Gifted and Talented programs do not inform parents of NNAT testing until a couple of weeks before giving the NNAT test for placement. This can be a major stress in a lot of parent’s lives. They want to make sure their children are prepared for this important NNAT test, and know that preparing their child for a NNAT test will help them score better. If you are a parent whose child was abruptly tested for their Gifted and Talented program there is something you can do to help prepare their children. Your child may not have been prepared for this year’s NNAT test, but you can help them prepare for next year’s NNAT test.

Many Gifted and Talented programs use the same NNAT test year after year for placement. If you child took a particular NNAT test this year, there is a high chance they will be NNAT tested with the same NNAT exam next year. You can use this information to your advantage! If you were able to identify the NNAT test that your child took, then you can start preparing them for next year’s NNAT test now! It is best to start preparation for your child at least 3 months in advance, and the farther in advance you start preparing your child, the better chance they have. Working with your child for 10 to 20 minutes a day will help them absorb the information without overwhelming them.

Your goal as a parent is to ensure that your child will be as comfortable as possible when they take their NNAT Gifted and Talented test. Preparing with them for their NNAT test in the year before the NNAT test will help ensure that the NNAT test does not make them anxious, and then distract them from completing the NNAT test to the best of their ability. You want your child’s natural intelligence to shine through on the day of their NNAT test. Preparing them in advance will help them to focus on getting the correct answer, instead of focusing on how to answer the question. Give your child the advantage of NNAT test prep to help them score as high as they can from this site!

Indoor Activities for NNAT Children

It can be hard to keep your child entertained with just NNAT test prep when they are stuck inside. With the very snowy and very cold winter we have been having, it can be hard to come up with fun and educational activities for your children that will also help them with NNAT study. You want to make sure your child does not get cabin fever, or NNAT test prep burnout from staying inside all the time. I have compiled some classic indoor activities below that will also help prepare your child for the NNAT.

• Blanket Forts: This activity is so classic, we made blanket fort when we were little! But did you know that it also helps prepare your children for the NNAT? When building the blanket fort, ask you child to gather all of the blue blankets and green pillows are the house. That helps them practice the NNAT skill of categorization. Just the simple act of building the fort also helps them with their fine motor skills, which is tested on the NNAT.
• Write a book: This is great for those older NNAT children. It can be boring to read a book, but having your children write a book is a great way to keep them entertained for hours, and may even inspire them for a future career! This helps exercise their creativity, helps them with their fine motor skills, and their vocabulary, all tested on the NNAT!
• Make home made play dough: First of all, this is a great way to save some money and make the play dough shades your children really want! This helps your children grasp numbers and fractions if they are older. This activity is especially great for older and younger siblings, as the elder siblings can practice their NNAT number skills and the younger siblings can work on their sensory play!

You can also find more fun activities to do inside on this site. Good luck on the NNAT!

 

It’s Never too late to Prepare for the NNAT

Gifted and Talented programs, that test with NNAT, often do not announce months in advance when NNAT testing for the program will occur. It is very common for your child to come from school one day with a note from their school about the Gifted and Talented program. The slip of paper will note that your child will be NNAT tested within the next couple of weeks to determine entrance into this program. Before your child came home with this note, you did not even realize that your child was eligible for NNAT testing into this program this year, and now they are going to be tested with the NNAT next week!! You need to find resources online to help prepare both you and your child for the NNAT test. You know you should prepare them for their NNAT test, but is 1 week or a weekend really enough time?

Yes, even a couple of days of preparation can help your child. The purpose of NNAT test prep is not to cram knowledge into your child’s head, but to prepare them for the skills on the NNAT test they are going to take. That way, your child does not have to worry about HOW to take the NNAT test, but instead on allowing their natural intelligence to shine through! If you do only have 1 week or even a weekend to prepare your child, focus on the skills the questions build. Make sure that your child knows the types of questions they will see on the NNAT test. When they can recognize the question type and know how to answer it, they will be far more prepared for the NNAT test. They will be able to focus on the correct answer instead of trying to figure out what the question is asking.

Especially if your child is prone to NNAT test anxiety or just does not enjoy taking NNAT tests, a little bit of test prep can help focus them. NNAT test anxiety is very common in school and one of the best ways to help combat that anxiety are low-key prep sessions. You can build your child’s confidence in their own skills during these NNAT test prep sessions, and show them that the NNAT test is nothing they should be anxious or worry about.

It is never too late to help prepare your child for a NNAT test that can affect the rest of their lives. Even a weekend or a week of NNAT test prep can give your child the skills to allow their natural intelligence to shine through the NNAT test.

You can find more information about the NNAT through this site. Good luck on the NNAT!

Technology in your NNAT Child’s Life

We all know how technology has been taking over our lives, and how technology can be used successfully in NNAT prep. However, you want to make sure that your child do not depend on technology or take it for granted. While technology can be useful in many different ways, such as improving NNAT study sessions, it can also be relied upon too heavily. You want to make sure your child can look up information without the internet, or knows how to talk to someone offline. Here are some tips on how to ensure that your NNAT child is not too technology dependent:

• Make them aware of technology: The first step to ensure that your children do not abuse technology is to make them away they are lucky to have this in their lives at all. Let them know when you were younger, that not everyone had a computer in their house and that today not everyone has a smart phone. Your NNAT child should realize they are lucky to have access to any technology.
• Use good technology: Do not give your child free reign to go on social media sites at anytime they want. Show them resources on the internet, such as sites for NNAT test prep or the encyclopedia Britannica site. This will show them the positive portions of the web, and show them that they can use the web for NNAT prep and help with homework!
• Keep “technology free” zones: Either this can be a physical zone in your house, say a reading or playing room or a library, or this can be a time zone, say over dinner. This is important to keep your child from depending on technology for everything, including NNAT test prep. Show your child you value personal connections over internet connections and ensure they know how to interact with the world around them.

There are good sites on the internet for NNAT test prep, here is one of them. But ensure that your child preps with both NNAT resources online and off. Good luck on the NNAT!

How to Keep from Yelling at your NNAT Child

Everyone knows how hard it is to parent, especially when you are going through NNAT preparation. NNAT preparation and NNAT testing are especially tough times of year for everyone in the family, but with trying to keep the stress from your child, you can carry too much of it in you! That result in your loosing your temper or yelling at anyone around you, and sometimes that is your NNAT child. Every parent has been there, and it can be hard to break that habit when you are in the middle of yelling. But yelling does not help anyone and it sets a bad example for your child. I have some tips below on how to avoid yelling at your child:

• Always act like someone is watching you: The most mortifying thing is when you get upset with your child, either they refuse to do NNAT prep or they are just goofing around when they should be doing chores, and when you are yelling at them, you realize that someone is watching you. But if you keep that idea that someone is always watching you, it is easier to keep your yelling in check and continue on in a more civilized tone.
• Whisper: This is my favorite tip to keep a parent from yelling during those stressful NNAT prep sessions. Whenever you feel a scream coming on, whisper instead. This will keep you from yelling at your child and will also scare them more! I remember when I expected my parents to scream at me and just whispered I knew I was in trouble.
• Take a note from your teacher: Teachers do not yell at their students. They do not take their student’s mistakes personally and instead turn all of those mistakes into a learning opportunity! Try and figure out why your child is lashing out, either tired from too much NNAT test prep or something else, and then decide how to react.

Here are more tips on how to not scream around your children, especially during the NNAT season. Good luck on the NNAT

Teaching your NNAT Child When it is Their Turn to Talk

It can be very difficult to have a very bright and talented NNAT child. One of the signs of a NNAT gifted child is the want to share all of their information with everyone around them. While you should encourage this verbal sharing while your child is very young, you will need to teach them when it is their turn to talk. Your child needs to know how to raise their hand to speak and when they should speak during a conversation. You want to ensure that they know on the NNAT when to stop giving their answer. Here are tips to keep your chatty NNAT child more tight-lipped:

• Set a timer: If you are having dinner or a conversation and your child continues to interrupt, here is an exercise you can practice at home. Tell them that they continue to interrupt the conversation, and while you want to hear what they have to say, they are not talking during their turn. Have your child sit quietly for a whole minute while the rest of you continue to talk. Ask your child what he observed while he was sitting quietly. This should help him understand the ebb and flow of conversation better, and be a better NNAT test taker.
• Share with their teacher: I’m sure that if your child over-talks at home, or during NNAT prep, they are also over sharing in the classroom. Ask your child’s teacher to monitor their conversation patterns to see if they improve or relapse during the school day.
• Incorporate into NNAT Prep: While your child is doing NNAT prep, have them sit for multiple minutes quietly. This will teach them how to sit quietly.

If you need more tips for how to teach your child to speak during their turn, go to this site. Good luck on the NNAT!

Fun Activities for NNAT Kids at Home

You know that there is more to life than NNAT test prep! You want to make sure that while you are practicing with your child every day for their upcoming NNAT test, you also include fun activities. While you need daily practice for the NNAT, you can also burn your child out easily. Burnt out children cannot absorb any more information about the skills they will need on the NNAT, or cannot do any more NNAT practice questions. You need to avoid NNAT burn out at all costs, because you want your child to do well on the NNAT and not give them a complex about standardized tests or the NNAT. Here are some fun activities to distract your child from the NNAT:

• Make a Memory Mosaic: Print out a bunch of pictures from fun activities from 2013 and then have your child choose which ones they like! Have them paste the pictures on a foam core board for you to post in their bedroom or in the family room. Provide markers and colored construction paper for them to make this mosaic their own. This is a great distracter from NNAT prep!
• Make a family tree: This is a great activity to help bond parents and children together. This idea work a lot like the memory mosaic. Print out pictures of all of the family members that you can, and then have your child paste them onto a board. While they are pasting and decorating, you can tell them stories about their family members and explain to them what life was like when your parents were alive, or your grandparents! This gives your children a fun break from the NNAT and also gets them interested in your family history!

While its great to take breaks from the NNAT, you can also find NNAT practice materials from this site. Good luck on the NNAT.

Tools for NNAT Prep

The NNAT testing season is coming up and its crunch time for a lot of parents! The NNAT is a standardized test that is used for admissions to Gifted and Talented programs and private schools. The NNAT tests specific types of skills in your child and you want to make sure that their intelligence can shine through the specific questions the NNAT contains. There are several different ways that you can prep your child for their upcoming NNAT test. I will go over the various ways to prep for the NNAT below:

• Private Tutors: This is the most expensive and hands-off way to prepare your child for the NNAT. You hire a tutor to meet with your child and they take your child through the NNAT process. However, this way is the most direct for NNAT test prep and less strong on general enrichment for your child.
• Workbooks: This is one of the best ways to prepare your child for the NNAT if you want to work with them yourself, and just want to prepare for the NNAT. You will be able to buy a book for the grade level that your child will be entering into and the NNAT test. You will have a section that explains the NNAT to you, their parent, and then practice questions for the NNAT for your child to answer. The only down side to NNAT workbooks is that you can only use the book once and if the test is updated, the book is no longer useful for NNAT prep.
• Websites: There is a site called Testing Mom that has NNAT test prep on the site. The advantage of this site, and other sites like it, is that you get instant access to the NNAT materials. The site is constantly updated with the newest information available about the NNAT and there are often several different ways to prepare your child. There can be interactive online games, materials that can be printed out, or activities you can do in regular life to prepare your child for the NNAT.

You can find online resources for the NNAT on this site. Good luck on the NNAT.