Make learning easier – drink more water!

May 19, 2010

Children need good physical abilities if they are to be good learners. Children who do not see well do not learn well, children who do not hear well do not learn well, children who are hungry do not learn well, children who are tired do not learn well. The need for a [...]

Read the full article →

Time to talk about Parent Power

May 14, 2010

OK, the time has come, to say something that I have avoided as long as I could. It is time to give parents the power they need to help their children learn.
Up to this point I have concentrated on giving parents ways that they can help children learn. But something happened [...]

Read the full article →

5 signs that students don’t understand the need for effort.

May 3, 2010

Have you ever thought that your child was lazy, not interested in working, unmotivated? Many parents have. So they tell their child to work harder, they complain about the poor grades they are getting, maybe insist that their child does more homework.
But it doesn’t help. Their child does not do more work, [...]

Read the full article →

Whe students don’t understand how much effort learning takes – they set themselves up for failure

May 2, 2010

Many students fail to get the grades they are capable of getting because they don’t do the work they need to to get the marks they deserve. But this lack of work is the result, not the cause, of their problem.
We have all known students like this, and we have probably [...]

Read the full article →

Effort brings success, but do students understand this?

April 30, 2010

Research seems to be catching up with me! There is a study out of Michigan University that links better grades with the vision students have of themselves as adults.
Students who wanted to become doctors or lawyers, and students who wanted to become rock stars or sport heroes both intended to go to [...]

Read the full article →

BC Business Council says lack of school readiness is a major economic disaster.

April 28, 2010

The BC Business Council highlighted the lack of school readiness as one of the major economic issues of our time. Virginia Green, the person I heard on the radio talking about this, said that when children are not ready to learn they miss out on their education and then find it difficult to [...]

Read the full article →

Learning is all about timing. Get it right our your child will miss out.

April 26, 2010

The hockey playoffs have started and someone in our house (not me!) is glued to the TV whenever a game is broadcast. For those of you who don’t know, each game is made up of three periods of 20 minutes or so with two breaks of 15 minutes. I am really good at [...]

Read the full article →

Many books mean more learning, but maybe it is not as simple as that!

April 20, 2010

New research from the University of Nevada states that children growing up in homes with many books get 3 years more schooling than children from bookless homes, independent of their parents’ education, occupation, and class.
Just imagine, you can help your child get the equivalent of three years extra schooling- I would rather use the [...]

Read the full article →

Learning assessments: Be careful what you wish for.

April 16, 2010

Yesterday I heard the Chairperson of my local School Board talk about how upcoming financial cuts will change the services they offer. This is never good news, but something else she said almost was even more worrying.
Parents who are concerned about their child’s education and want to know what can be done to [...]

Read the full article →

Quote of the week

April 14, 2010

I am not a teacher, only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead, ahead of myself as well as you.
George Bernard Shaw 1856- 1915

Read the full article →

8 reasons why you may be frustrated by the support your childis getting in school.

April 13, 2010

I was talking to the husband of a ex-colleague of mine, asking about how his eldest son was doing, when he told me how frustrated he had been with the education system and how he felt that his son had been cheated out of the education he deserved.
Remember, I had worked with his [...]

Read the full article →

Learning is too important to be left to teachers!

April 8, 2010

Before I start this blog post I want you to know that I was a teacher for over 35 years. I think that most teachers do a great job, often in difficult circumstances, and are committed to helping children learn. Good teachers always have this feeling that whatever they do they could always [...]

Read the full article →

7 signs that your child is a backward learner.

April 2, 2010

I am a teacher with two diplomas, a masters degree, and a Ph. D. and I am a backward learner!
There, I have said it.
It has taken me many years to accept and to understand that I learn backwards. I used to call myself a slow learner and I told people that it was because [...]

Read the full article →

The best and easiest way to help your child learn, guaranteed!

March 30, 2010

Last week I was part of a group of parents and preschool kids who went on a field trip to their local library. I had managed to get myself invited because my Rotary club supports family literacy initiatives and we have started working with this group.
It was a wonderful visit. There were over [...]

Read the full article →

How to help your child make it to the end of the school year successfully

March 26, 2010

It is still March but already schools are in the final part of their year. After what can seem like a long, unrelenting winter teachers are tired and students are ready for a break from learning.
It can be difficult to motivate children to do their work and to continue learning as the delights of [...]

Read the full article →

Quick Quote

March 25, 2010

The object of teaching a child is to enable him (or her) to get along without a teacher.
Elbert Hubbard, American author

Read the full article →

Why the latest Sylvan ad bugs me and why it should bug you too!

March 24, 2010

Before I start – I have absolutely no problem with Sylvan as a learning resource for some children, they do a good job for children who want to get better grades in school. The problem I have is with the ad, you know the one, the one where a girl is trying to get [...]

Read the full article →

What funding cuts mean to you and your child.

March 23, 2010

The local school board has been told that there will be cuts of several million dollars to their budget this year. It was expected, but it still comes as something of a shock and is a bit hard to take when we have just spent so much money on staging the Olympics!
Very soon the [...]

Read the full article →

Does your child’s school measure up?

March 23, 2010

How well do schools teach children to love learning? Not very well at all says a report that measures parent’s attitudes about school performance. In fact nearly 40% of the parents in the study said that they did not think their child’s school did this well at all. That is a lot [...]

Read the full article →

How stress effects learning

March 18, 2010

When I talk about the emotional learning skills children need if they are to reach their learning potential I rarely mention how stress prevents children learning. Perhaps I should.
Stress, the kind of stress caused by persistent bullying, has been shown to lead to cognitive deficits in children but new research goes further, it shows [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →