SUMMER LEARNING IS VITAL

Whew! We have completed a school year with all its ups and downs. Teaching and learning are both challenging and require our best effort everyday! Now we (teachers, students and parents) are ready for a break.Yes, it is vital for all of us to get away and do something completely different for a bit - it is good for our brain, emotions, and our body.

But, alas, we should only take a short break from all things academic. We know that when we allow too much time to go by, we begin to forget or at the very least, get rather rusty at what we once did well. Same for your child's academics. In order to not have to deal with intensive review in August, your child really must maintain skills this summer. 

Your child's teacher is the best person to ask for ideas of what should be reviewed or retaught in these two short summer months. Besides purchasing a workbook to practice reading, writing, grammar or math, there are some good (and beware - not so good) online tools. Free are best, but free can also just be a waste due to all fun and no real challenge in learning, repetition and true instruction in weak skills.  

To provide free reading practice that also has comprehension questions and writing, check out www.readworks.org    ReadWorks is free and a parent can register themselves and their child, if you want him/her to work online. Online is easier to grade, in my opinion, but you can also print out the passages and grade that way.  Specific reading skills are targeted as well as all reading levels and interests. It is important to provide practice, improve fluency, and remediate skills.  

Another valuable site, which I believe is still free to parents/kids, is www.mobymax.com
I love this one as it targets ALL sorts of academic areas from K-12. It has phonics, reading, vocabulary, grammar, math, science, social studies, test prep and so much more. Again, a parent may register themselves and then their child. When there is an assessment, please just get your child started, but then STEP AWAY FROM THE CHILD and allow them to finish complete with their own errors.  This allows the program to adjust and begin at the child's  level of need - which you want.  If you provide 'help' it can adjust to levels too high and not be beneficial at all. Just choose the icons of greatest need in which to work...do not have your child do them all. That would be too overwhelming. 

Finally, if you have not checked out these two helpful resources, you MUST! First, I love this parent friendly site as it covers so many learning needs with resources and parent advice. It is www.understood.org  Even as a teacher, I love its informative articles and tips! Then, if you have any concerns about your child's language impairment or dyslexia, you must visit www.dys-add.com/   which has important information about what dyslexia is, how to  identify it and steps to take. I love that it will read anything printed on that site to you as well as all the helpful videos available. 

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE is the best way to keep those skills sharp.  You can do that is so many FUN ways.  Have fun, learn, keep skills sharp and begin well in that next grade in August!

Have a blessed summer, 
Mrs. Stewart, FMCS LRP

New and great resource!!

I want to thank Tamara for sharing a great resource link!!

Hi Myra,

First off, I wanted to say thank you for putting together the "The Learning Resource Program at Fort Myers Christian School, Fort Myers, FL" page on your site (http://mrsstewartsresourceroomfmcs.blogspot.com/). There are some really useful links/resources on there.

Also, there's a resource guide by SuperSummary called the "Guide to Overcoming Dyslexia" (http://www.supersummary.com/dyslexia-guide/) that I thought your visitors would also find helpful. Perhaps it would be worth adding it to your page? Let me know what you think.

In any case, hopefully I'm not bothering you. Have a great day!

Best,
Tamara Haskell

These answer a lot of questions and are terrific resources for parents of students with learning needs:

My favorite for parents:     Understood https://www.understood.org/

Great resource:                   Smart Kids With Learning Disabilities www.smartkidswithld.org/

Provides tech tools:            Learning Ally https://www.learningally.org/

Develop self-Advocacy Skills in Your Child

This article discusses the importance of teaching your child in the early years to understand what is needed for his/her learning success and develop respectful ways to speak to the teacher(s) about obtaining the agreed upon supports and accommodations.

http://www.smartkidswithld.org/getting-help/raising-independent-kids-2/self-advocacy-strategies-ages/

Summer help to keep sharp!

These are terrific resources for parents of students with learning needs:

BEST PARENT LINK:      Understood https://www.understood.org/

Smart Kids With Learning Disabilities www.smartkidswithld.org/

Learning Ally https://www.learningally.org/

Use the Lee Public Library to practice skills: 

https://www.leegov.com/library/kids/homework 

and also:   

https://www.leegov.com/library/kids/kid-friendly-apps  

CHECK OUT THESE LINKS! (updated)

These are terrific resources for parents of students with learning needs:

BEST PARENT LINK:      Understood https://www.understood.org/

Smart Kids With Learning Disabilities www.smartkidswithld.org/

Learning Ally https://www.learningally.org/

Use the Lee Public Library to practice skills: 

https://www.leegov.com/library/kids/homework 

and also:   

https://www.leegov.com/library/kids/kid-friendly-apps  

Inspiring Struggling Students: ADHD

  Parents, this is a YouTube video that is almost an hour long. However, you could just listen to it, perhaps with headphones on your phone as you walk, drive, or clean.  There are just a few slides that you can go back and take a look at later. This is very informative and you can learn a lot about your child who has ADHD and ways to cope with school work, homework, fidgeting and ideas to defuse for both you and your child.
 

Please click on link below.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nwAkQmYUeI

CREDITS:

Published on Nov 13, 2014

Strategies for Students with ADD

Martha Cole (Verticy Program) and Michelle Dunn (Orton-Gillingham trained)

Join Calvert education counselors for the second of this three part series for students that are struggling to succeed. This session will focus on helping students to focus on their assigned reading and lessons and includes ideas for hands-on learning, varied environments for study as well as many other tips.

Need more information? Call Calvert Education Counselors toll-free at 1-877-638-0237.