by Laura Falin posted in Life & Home

I pride myself on being a parent who's involved with my kids' schoolwork.
I try (really hard!) not to do their work for them, you know. But I know what's going on in their classes, and I work with them at home to make sure they're ready for the demands of school each year.
It turns out, though, that some of the things we well-meaning parents do to help our kids aren't actually helping...and can even be hurting their development and learning.
I talked to Jaime Spencer -- a school-based Occupational Therapist who helps students learn, play, and take care of their personal needs at school. She trains teachers and staff to help students do these things as well, and she has a blog -- Miss Jaime O.T. -- where she shares information with parents. She had a few things for us to keep in mind as school starts up again. -Don't buy the jumbo crayons -- I have a kindergartner, and she thinks the big, chunky crayons are so fun to hold and play with. But Miss Jaime says the jumbo crayons don't allow children to develop the smaller muscles in their hands. Jumbo crayons are great for babies and toddlers just learning to mark on paper, but as kids grow they need smaller crayons and pencils to work with.
-Buy the right size backpack -- Parents want to make sure their child can fit all their supplies in their brand new backpack, which makes sense. But we need to make sure we don't overload our kids, and that their backpacks fit appropriately. The bottom o...