•Are you frustrated with your child's low grades or lack of motivation?
•Is your homelife stressful due to homework hassles and poor report cards?
•Have you tried absolutely everything to help your child get higher grades?
•Do you have a bright child who seems to know information, then forgets it during the test?
•Are you truly serious about doing something different to help your child succeed?
Finding out your child's learning style is key to helping your child really learn.
Discovering your child's learning style will raise grades and test scores!
Go here to find out how your child's personal learning style can create higher grades in 14 days!
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Spelling Hints Part 3 - Routines
A mom wrote to me about the routines she established to help her daughter study spelling:
On Spelling, for my daughter, with poor speech and auditory issues, here's our method, for stress free, no tears spelling, started around first grade, now in fourth:
Monday: We look at and READ the words out loud a couple of times. If they are harder, I will read and she will repeat. No testing on this day,
Tuesday: She does some of her spelling workbook pages, and we look at and READ the words again, maybe do an oral test if she has mastered reading them.
Wednesday: Finish spelling workbook, do oral quiz, mark ones missed - have her write ONLY THOSE 3X on notebook paper.
Thursay: Oral quiz again, write words missed 3X, then review ones still unsure of until she can spell each one correctly.
She still misses some on the Friday test, but usually only one or two."
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
On Spelling, for my daughter, with poor speech and auditory issues, here's our method, for stress free, no tears spelling, started around first grade, now in fourth:
Monday: We look at and READ the words out loud a couple of times. If they are harder, I will read and she will repeat. No testing on this day,
Tuesday: She does some of her spelling workbook pages, and we look at and READ the words again, maybe do an oral test if she has mastered reading them.
Wednesday: Finish spelling workbook, do oral quiz, mark ones missed - have her write ONLY THOSE 3X on notebook paper.
Thursay: Oral quiz again, write words missed 3X, then review ones still unsure of until she can spell each one correctly.
She still misses some on the Friday test, but usually only one or two."
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Go Outside and PLAY - ADHD and Outdoor Activity
I know it doesn't seem like it, but the days are growing longer, now that the Winter Solstice has passed. Despite the cold, encourage your child to get outside more. Studies show that activity -especially if it takes place outside - reduces ADHD symptoms. Try practicing spelling words or math facts in the great outdoors. While you're studying, sit on a swing, kick a soccer ball back and forth, or dig in the garden. It just might make those math facts more fun!
Even if you're like a friend of mine, who lives in the sub-zero of Alaska (60 below...), remember that inside activity works well, too. Let your child squeeze a stress ball, use modeling clay, doodle, or even bend chenille wire while listening.
Of course, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, the days are getting LONGER and colder. So this applies to you as well.
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Even if you're like a friend of mine, who lives in the sub-zero of Alaska (60 below...), remember that inside activity works well, too. Let your child squeeze a stress ball, use modeling clay, doodle, or even bend chenille wire while listening.
Of course, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, the days are getting LONGER and colder. So this applies to you as well.
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Spelling Hints Part 2 - for Kids with Auditory Processing Disorders
A mom who has a child with Auditory Processing Disorders along with other "quirks", wrote, "Some kids have visual sequential memory problems. (They) can, on the other hand, find the correct spelling of a word in a list of incorrectly spelled words. Children can be tested for this and other spelling issues as well. And kids who have APD have the added problem of not processing information they hear correctly. The child may hear well enough, but not process the word as he hears it. (My son) still says "word" as worde - long o, for example. While this issue of his used to make my skin crawl, I had to accept this in my child and do what I could to help him.
I bought him a Franklin Speller and he was allowed to use it at school...On the other hand, I insist he use the spell check on the computer as well as the Franklin Speller before mailing in work. I will not allow the 'disability' to be used as an excuse for bad work."
NOTE: One of the most valuable helps we ever used was an electronic dictionary. Not only does it help with spelling, but it helps when your child has to look up words. The electronic dictionary has more concise definitions, so there's not so much to copy. And there's no flipping back and forth looking for words. After your child has mastered looking things up alphabetically, using an electronic dictionary is great!
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
I bought him a Franklin Speller and he was allowed to use it at school...On the other hand, I insist he use the spell check on the computer as well as the Franklin Speller before mailing in work. I will not allow the 'disability' to be used as an excuse for bad work."
NOTE: One of the most valuable helps we ever used was an electronic dictionary. Not only does it help with spelling, but it helps when your child has to look up words. The electronic dictionary has more concise definitions, so there's not so much to copy. And there's no flipping back and forth looking for words. After your child has mastered looking things up alphabetically, using an electronic dictionary is great!
Visit our website at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Spelling Hints Part 1
For the next few days, I'll have a series of blog posts on Spelling Hints. If you've got some spelling tricks that you'd like to share, send them to goaskmom AT. goaskmom.com!
Get out index cards - the larger the better - and colored wide tip markers. Write one word on each card, but divide the word into syllables, and use a different color for each syllable. Use large letters:
Of course, this doesn't work with all children. Some children need other approaches.
~Try the traditional method of rote spelling, or using phonics.
~If your child is a kinesthetic learner, it may be helpful for him to spell the word while doing jumping jacks, or while swinging outside.
~Some kids need to have each word put to music, like b-o-l-o-g-n-a OR B-I-N-G-O, or R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
~Try the "sail" method, in which you write the word on lines, adding a letter on each until it is done (and looks like a sail):
b
br
bri
brin
bring
~Have your son use pipe cleaners to form the letters to the word.
~While practicing, you spell the word and let your son tell you which word you are spelling.
Visit our websites at http://www.goaskmom.com/.
Get out index cards - the larger the better - and colored wide tip markers. Write one word on each card, but divide the word into syllables, and use a different color for each syllable. Use large letters:
ho li day taste trai ler
Show your child each card, and tell her, "Make a picture of this card in your brain. Keep looking at it until you can see it in your head without looking." When she says that she can 'see' it, then take the card away. Ask her to close her eyes and get the picture of the word bright and clear. Then ask her to spell it backwards. If she can do this, she's on her way to memorization.Of course, this doesn't work with all children. Some children need other approaches.
~Try the traditional method of rote spelling, or using phonics.
~If your child is a kinesthetic learner, it may be helpful for him to spell the word while doing jumping jacks, or while swinging outside.
~Some kids need to have each word put to music, like b-o-l-o-g-n-a OR B-I-N-G-O, or R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
~Try the "sail" method, in which you write the word on lines, adding a letter on each until it is done (and looks like a sail):
b
br
bri
brin
bring
~Have your son use pipe cleaners to form the letters to the word.
~While practicing, you spell the word and let your son tell you which word you are spelling.
Visit our websites at http://www.goaskmom.com/.
When There's Not Much to Praise
The day after I wrote the previous post, Mike was in a sermon competition. (Am I the only one who thinks that a sermon competition sounds rather odd?!) To put it kindly, he bombed. He hadn't practiced enough, he forgot what he was supposed to say, he was ill at ease. He knew he hadn't done well, yet people kept complimenting him on the good job he did. Their insincerity made him wonder about the compliments he had been given in the past. Were they true or not?
My heart hurt for him. I knew I better have some really wise words to say, especially after reading the aforementioned article...
So over the next several hours while he was smarting from embarrassment and regret, I told him: "I'm proud of you for being brave enough to get up in front of an audience. It was a real learning experience for you. You'll do better next time, because you'll practice more. I know you were embarrassed. This is part of life. It won't be the last time you don't do well."
To continue on ideas from the article above, we often give our child success so much that they don't know how to lose or to fail. It's important for a child to learn to be a gracious loser, to fail with grace, and NOT to be depressed - at least for too long. When your child doesn't do well at something, try to milk it for a good lesson. Mike and I came up with a line for him to use when people complimented him or asked him how he did: "I'll do better next year." We talked about how to change his notes so he wouldn't totally lose his place. We discussed the importance of practice, and of the danger of resting on one's laurels.
The good news is that Mike bounced back quickly, with no apparent long term scarring. And he'll do better next year!
Visit our websites at http://www.goaskmom.com.
My heart hurt for him. I knew I better have some really wise words to say, especially after reading the aforementioned article...
So over the next several hours while he was smarting from embarrassment and regret, I told him: "I'm proud of you for being brave enough to get up in front of an audience. It was a real learning experience for you. You'll do better next time, because you'll practice more. I know you were embarrassed. This is part of life. It won't be the last time you don't do well."
To continue on ideas from the article above, we often give our child success so much that they don't know how to lose or to fail. It's important for a child to learn to be a gracious loser, to fail with grace, and NOT to be depressed - at least for too long. When your child doesn't do well at something, try to milk it for a good lesson. Mike and I came up with a line for him to use when people complimented him or asked him how he did: "I'll do better next year." We talked about how to change his notes so he wouldn't totally lose his place. We discussed the importance of practice, and of the danger of resting on one's laurels.
The good news is that Mike bounced back quickly, with no apparent long term scarring. And he'll do better next year!
Visit our websites at http://www.goaskmom.com.
Monday, January 12, 2009
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