Video

This morning my grandson and daughter in law helped me make a video to enter the contest that Dave Ramsey has for a give away.  I would like to help struggling learners with a balance board. It is exciting
to try new things.  The give away is for 5000 dollars.  It is what would you do if you could give away 1000 dollars a day for 5 days.  Wouldn't it be exciting if I could win this. Thank you so much for the help.

Making airplanes, being successful

One day it was my turn to teach a 4-H group at camp.  There were about 30 children in the class to make airplanes.
To prepare, the night before I went through my house and picked every type of paper I could find to
make airplanes.  There was some paper provided but so often that is the same old thing.  One paper I picked was cupcake papers.  I tried several times to make an airplane from it.  I had no success so this was a good choice to let the brain create. 
I like to teach a class on something I do not do well.  This encourages students, especially children, to try something new.  I told the students, age 9 to about 14 or 15 that I could not get the cupcake paper airplane to work and did not know if it would work. 
Three of the older boys in class assured me it was alright because I was right it just would not work.  Their Dads worked designing airplanes.  The best airplanes were made by a couple of the younger boys using the cupcake papers.
My purpose was not just making airplanes.  I told them to never let someone tell them they could not do something just because the other person could not understand how to do it.

Having your child's eyes checked by a doctor

One child I tutor quickly becomes exhausted when she reads.  When I asked about having her eyes checked, the mom said they were checked at school.  Many times parents think this is enough.
Anytime a child struggles in school, complains of a headache or says their eyes hurt when they read needs to have an eye test at an eye doctor to see if they need glasses.  We will see what the test shows.

94 on a test

The child I tutored yesterday made a 94 on her test. I calIed to see how she did on the test. I am so excited.  So is she. So is mom. The comment was made that maybe this will encourage her to try harder.  She is trying.  She is writing her assignment. It means nothing when the words she is writing have no meaning.  So often it is assumed by those who read well and do well in school that someone is just not trying hard enough.  That is like saying that someone in a wheelchair could walk if they would just try harder.  However just because we cannot see the wheelchair of someone struggling does not mean trying harder is the answer. 
Teaching harder is not the answer either.  Teaching harder means that more written work is assigned and more work is done.  A different method needs to be used to teach.  The skills used in BrainCenterWorkout is a place to start but also teaching in the subject area is needed. The child does not have time to learn skills and keep up in school at the same time so both are needed to keep up.  As the child learns the BrainCenter
Workout they should have the skills to keep up once the compresentation is taught. How exciting!

The joy of Tutoring

I am having so much joy as I reconnect with the children I tutor.  Just today, one child had no compresentation of why it was important that the early explorers of this country used the waterways
to explore.  When I asked her why she pushed her younger brother in a stoller instead of carrying him, she explained he was too heavy to carry very far.  As I explained that the explorers using a boat or canoe on the
water to carry their things was like her using a stroller for her brother, she seemed to understand better.
Years ago I was trying to explain to a group of children about a horse's bit.  When a child does not ride there is no compresension.  When I explained that a bit was like a steering wheel on a car, it was understandable.
The game apples to apples helps with this also. I found so many ideas and books on my trip to share with the children I tutor. 

BrainWorkoutCenter

Denver has a wonderful place.  It helps people of all ages who struggle with learning or coordination.  It is
the Brain Workout Center.  There we met a husband wife team who teach children and adults how to
use their brain, eyes, and body together to work together to learn.   If you have a child or friend who struggles to learn and you would like to help them call and go see what these people have learned and are teaching.
Hopefully, several people will chose to start a business doing this all over the country as the drop out rate
is too high and the number of people in this country who struggle to read is too high.
They call this the Total Learning Program and it teaches self-observation, self-control and self-correction.
Their web site is http://www.brainworkoutcenter.com/. 

sudoku

Sudoku teaches children to think.  I have tried to teach the 3 sisters to do sudoku without success.  I had tried on paper and on a dry erase board.  Most children like the dry erase board. These do too.  I was still not teaching in a way they needed.  Just because I am trying, or nice or what description you want to use, does not mean it is the way the student needs to learn. I realized that I needed a hands on way to teach this.  I have a sudoku game with tiles.  It is a nine box game.  I think it also teaches children that numbers are fun.  How many children or adults that struggle to learn dislike math? Too many in my opinion. 
I took the game and placed the given numbers on the board.  Then I assigned each girl a row of three boxes.
I showed them how to pick out the numbers their box needed.  At this point, I was not making myself clear "I kept saying you are smart and we can learn this".  Once we picked out the numbers for each box they wanted to mix them all up.  I  helped them seperate them again and kept gently but insistantly saying, "Do not mix them, this is important".  I showed them to find the number that was in the most boxes.  The oldest girl all of a sudden smiled and I knew she was catching on. Once she caught on the next one decided she was smart enough to learn too.  It brings joy to me to see this.  Wonder why I tutor? 
We also played mother may I at the end of tutoring.  I found both younger girls need to work on oral communication.  We will not tutor for two weeks, so I may start with mother may I next time.