A Radical Ray of Sunshine
How does that saying go? “When life gives you lemons….” So the postponement of back-to-school has just thrown acid on your plans to return to normal life? (Normal, that is, life before 2020.) Once again marooned at home with antsy kids, probably you’d like to throttle whoever caused this mess. Wait a minute! Out of […]
Preventing Innumeracy With Knitting
Want another hint to prevent innumeracy (meaning, not automatically knowing how to add, multiply, estimate, and so on)? Borrow an idea from Waldorf Schools: stop worrying about reading and teach your kid to knit! Think about it: knitting means you MUST count and you MUST multiply even if you don’t know what addition and multiplication […]
The Magic of Music
My third tip for avoiding learning problems (not to mention the special hell of being designated Special Ed)? Put that toddler to music! Yes, music. Get ’em dancing, singing, tumbling, clapping, stamping…have a ball! Of all the multitudes of kids who have been through my program, and of the torrent of requests for help with […]
How to Avoid Learning Problems
My first tip for avoiding learning problems? Put that young learner on your lap and have fun together with a good book. My second tip? Be a role model for young learners by letting them see you engaged with a book–in your hand, NOT on-screen. (There’s already research showing that on-screen learning is far weaker […]
Reading Is First-Class Therapy
As a learning specialist, I’ve learned that by far the most common block to easy learning is auditory-processing deficit: the brain just doesn’t know how to organize the sounds of the language. Something gets missed in early childhood…or perhaps some trauma or accident disrupted the learning process. But this can be fixed! With help, even […]
All I Want for Christmas Is A Book
All I wanted for Christmas in the long-ago Fifties–besides a dog, natch!–was a book. A book of my very own, in which I could escape to other worlds and play with other beings, while actually safe and secure with my family at home. My first book was Grimm’s Fairy Tales–and boy oh boy, were those […]
There’s No Downside to a Book
Best medicine to protect our kids from the nightmarish reality their parents have to grapple with nowadays? It could be as simple, inexpensive and therapeutic as a book. Start your kids early with a family reading hour–why not? Kids imitate their parents; imagine the impact of seeing the grown-ups having fun with a book. So […]