Digital Press Kit

Digital / Media Press Kit for Mrs. A

Press kit information for Barbara Allisen, also known as Mrs. A:

Contact Options:
Photos:
Sample Interview Questions:
High Five for Early Learning Tips:
Bio: (Tweet, short, medium and long)
Speaker/Presenter Intro:
5 Things You May Not Know About Mrs. A
Speaker One Page: (pending)
Press Release: (pending)

Contact Options:

email: teacher@123kindergarten.com
facebook: facebook.com/123kindergarten
twitter: @BarbaraAllisen and @123kindergarten
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/123kindy

Photos:

Book Synopsis:

1 2 3 Kindergarten
Everything Your Child Needs to Learn Before Kindergarten

112 pages of easy-to-read and easy-to-do tips and suggestions for helping your child get ready for kindergarten. Written by a kindergarten teacher and parent, this award-winning book, includes ideas that use resources already available at home or in child care centers, and strategies to incorporate learning time into busy, active days. An easy-to-use developmental checklist and rating scale, guidance for the this-year-or-next-year debate, and suggestions for home-school transition make this a birth-to-kindergarten resource.

Illustrated and informative, loved by parents, grandparents, teachers, daycare providers, and community resource centers–and kids.

…I need 2 copies so I can loan 1 and keep 1! S. L.

“Mrs. A, I love your book. What a fantastic resource!” K. P.

“You are an incredible teacher, I have watched you with awe and will strive to be even a fraction of the leader and mentor that you have been to your students. As a parent I appreciate all you have done for my daughter; as an aspiring teacher I look at you as a role model.” (from Jarrah’s mom)

Sample Interview Questions:

1. Mrs. A, what’s your why?
2. And how about your who? Tell about yourself.
3. Why is being ready for school so important? Shouldn’t the school be ready for kids?
4. Why, who, and what? What can parents and caregivers do to support kids?
5. How can parents fit this in? Life with kids is more than busy.
6. Isn’t this just play?
7. If parents do early learning at home, aren’t kids bored when they get to school?
8. What are some good toys for kids?
9. Do you have any suggestions for getting kids outside?
10. Are social skills important for kids?

(Other topics could include: holding children back a year, toys vs digital devices, learning styles, multiple intelligences, the role of routines, and more.)

High Five for Early Learning Tips:

As a parent or caregiver, you can give yourself a HIGH FIVE if you do these things often in a week!

1. Take time to talk. And sing, tell stories, play word games, ask questions. Make lots of word deposits in your child’s language bank!

2. Read and share books. Did you know you can download a whole library in your child’s brain bank by reading a few books every day? (The same one over and over and over and…still counts.)

3. Encourage social skills and making friends. These can be more important than academics!

4. Nature time is crucial for so many reasons. Spend time outside no matter where you live.

5. Play. Play is how kids learn; it’s even how our brains learn best too. Make sure each day has time and space for play.

Bio (tweet):

Mrs. A is a kindergarten teacher, parent, author, and radio show host who helps parents and caregivers support children’s early learning.

Bio (short):

Barbara Allisen, also known as Mrs. A, is a kindergarten teacher, parent, author, speaker, and radio host of Learn and Play with Mrs. A. Because children’s early years are so important, she helps parents and caregivers support children to be powerful learners.

Bio (medium):

Barbara Allisen, also known as Mrs. A, is a kindergarten teacher, parent, international speaker, and radio host of Learn and Play with Mrs. A. She has written an award winning guide for parents “1 2 3 Kindergarten, Everything Your Child Needs To Learn Before Kindergarten” and several children’s books and stories. Her mission is to support families during children’s crucial early learning years. 90% of the brain develops by the age of 5, so parents and caregivers really are children’s first teachers and home the first school.

Bio (long):

Barbara Allisen, also known as Mrs. A, is a kindergarten teacher, with years of experience in the classroom, and has witnessed the impact that parents have. She is a parent and author of the award winning “1 2 3 Kindergarten, Everything Your Child Needs to Learn Before Kindergarten.”

When asked why kindergarten, she answers with a grin “Because after grade 2 the kids are taller than I am! And at what other grade level could I play with puzzles and blocks and make crafts and build Lego machines and roll play-dough and read Big Books? And get drawings for my fridge? And so many hugs?

Her mission is to support families during children’s crucial early learning years.

Because: Children are 20% of the population and 100% of the future.
Because: Children who are ready for school do better in all the other grades and have more chance of finishing school. Unfortunately, many children who enter school behind their classmates stay behind.
But mostly because: Being ready for school starts before children ever get there. Plus, it turns out that one of the critical factors that affects children’s success at school is PARENT INVOLVEMENT. So, supporting parents is one of the best ways to support kids.

As host of the radio show, Learn and Play with Mrs. A, she reminds listeners, “Gazillions of brain connections form in the early childhood years and parents can encourage even more. To support your child to be a powerful learner you don’t need to turn your house into a preschool, but your home can be a place for all kinds of fun and play that will encourage learning and development.”

Barbara grew up in a tiny village of less than a hundred people close to the family farm, later moved to a small town and then city. Crisscrossing the country, she graduated with a B.A., B.Ed., D.P. E. and a special diploma in Early Childhood Services. “Two kids of my own, one with special needs, were another education, and the degree S.U.R.V.I.V.E.D.”

Mrs. A loves to travel and meet families around the world and has visited 6 continents, with China on her wish list. Reading, sewing, cooking, and crafts try to squeeze their way on to the to-do list, or at least, on her Pinterest boards.

Her next challenges are becoming fluent in Spanish and comfortable with technology as she fills her days with learning and PLAY because, in the words of George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t quit playing because we grow old. We grow old because we quit playing.” Barbara says she plays—and learns—everyday!

Speaker/Presenter Intro:

Mrs. A has shared the school start of more than a thousand kindergarten students but worries that 1/3 to 1/2 of our children are not ready for school when they start kindergarten. She is concerned that children who start behind often stay behind. The cost is beyond calculation in terms of the loss of potential. Children are 20% of the population and 100% of the future.

Barbara also has a website and daily blog with a learning and fun play-of-the-day at 123kindergarten.com. She believes that being ready for school starts before children ever get there and one of the critical factors that affects children’s success at school is PARENT INVOLVEMENT.

Graduating with a B.A., B.Ed., D.P. E. and a special diploma in Early Childhood Services, she also earned the degree “S.U.R.V.I.V.E.D”, that spells survived, that came with the education of raising two kids, one with special needs.

You will see why, when she’s asked why kindergarten, she says “Because after grade 2, the kids are taller than I am.”

5 Things You May Not Know About Barbara/Mrs A. :

1. Barbara loves to read. She once missed a plane even though she was sitting at the gate because she was deep in a book.

2. Barbara grew up on a farm but never did manage to learn how to milk a cow or ride a horse. Her first children’s story is about a pig and eating, because on the farm she left a gate open and the pigs got into the garden and ate it up.

3. When Barbara was only 10 and her grandpa was 80, the two of them flew beyond the Arctic Circle to see the Midnight Sun.

4. Despite being ‘vertically-challenged’, Barbara worked as a flight attendant. Her cousin from New York came to visit and travelled on one of her flights, saying “You told me you got a job flying, but you never told me your mama bought the plane.” It only held 18 passengers.

5. Besides flying, Barbara has gone the other direction, that is to say scuba diving. She and her husband did 11 dives in 3 days off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

(Speaker One-sheet and Press Release are pending editing.)