Category: Elementary School

The Cognitive Benefits of Being Bilingual

The benefits of bilingual education

In today’s interconnected world, being able to communicate in multiple languages is not just a cultural advantage—it’s a cognitive superpower. Research on the cognitive benefits of being bilingual shows an intriguing fact: speaking multiple languages not only enhances your global fluency but also makes your brain function more efficiently, for a longer time, and in […]

A Season of Learning: Supporting Summer Reading Goals

For students entering second grade and up, the French American Academy teachers assign summer reading tasks, activities, and challenges to ensure that students retain their reading stamina and skills. We do this because it’s very helpful for preventing the dreaded “summer slide” (more on that here), and because it’s useful for students to return to […]

Scrolling into Slumber: The impact of electronic device usage on sleep

Phone usage before bed

March 10-16 was national Sleep Awareness Week, and it got us thinking about the importance of a good bedtime routine for students, whose minds are rapidly developing and who need many hours of restorative, high-quality sleep every night. Longitudinal studies of adolescents have shown a clear correlation between late night phone or tablet use and […]

Benefits of Spending Time in Nature for Children

Does anyone else hear their mother’s voice identifying plants in their head, or is that just me?  As I walk around Jersey City every spring, she constantly pipes up:                 Ooh, look at the little crocuses popping up!                 There are the daffodils […]