I recently met with a fifth grader. HIs mother thought I would be the best person to catch her son up so he could be in the top math group. Her son was very disturbed because he was not placed in the highest math class. When asked why that was important to him, he replied,
Kids say the darnedest things. My friend’s granddaughter was excited about her first day in first grade. We’ll call her Suzy for story telling purposes. The teacher was sweet and Suzy loved her immediately. That’s a good thing for a parent who is leaving her child in the care of someone for the first time.
Working with children who have been on-line for a year and watching them transition into the regular classroom, I have witnessed some new challenges for parents. During Covid on-line instruction, parents were pulled into the learning environment more than ever before. Children who were somewhat independent prior to on-line are now demonstrating increased dependence on
If asked, will your child say they are terrible at math or good at math? Would they say they are a good student or a bad student? Do the words artistic, athletic, or creative show up on their list of descriptives about themselves? Or are meth challenged, poor reader, or is clumsy on their list?
When we ask questions or have hard conversations with others, we are making ourselves vulnerable. Most people fear being vulnerable. It takes courage to open ourselves to shame or criticism. And learning how to allow oneself to recognize and address those who shame is a powerful life skill we can give our children. According to
I have been asked many times what is my secret to helping children overcome learning obstacles and grow into thrivers. The success comes when the children understand they can’t blame anyone or anything for what they are dealing with. They learn how to look at a challenge and see how they can take responsibility for
I wrote the following poem about 26 years ago with my mother, that expressed the challenges we were having with children being too dependent on their parents to help them with homework. I sit at this paper and I stare and I think. This homework and these projects have me right on the brink! The
Victoria is an educational consultant, nationally recognized speaker. Her over 50 years in education has been focused on developing resilient self-reliant self-advocates who know how to tap into their innate ability to independently solve challenges.