I've seen many posts in here about being BEHIND. I wanted to share some thoughts about this word... Everyone is told some time in their life that they are BEHIND. The motive is usually to light a fire of urgency… but instead it fosters doubt and panic. 
How do I catch up? Can I catch up? Should I just give up?

For parents it plants a seed of fear that my child is on a trajectory to life-long failure… because
* He doesn’t speak 50-100 words by 2 years old
* She doesn’t have her multiplication tables memorized by the end of 3rd grade
* He doesn’t read yet and seems totally uninterested in writing
And many more…

Action Study 

Sheryl and Trina -

Homeschool parent-teacher, Sheryl, was incredibly frustrated with her daughter’s resistance to the learning tasks she had planned for her.  It seemed every day was a fight and Sheryl was at her end. 

We spent some time considering the different actions that might be helpful in this situation. Sheryl decided to study CHOICE. She started with the religion curriculum because it had the same kind of tasks each week, a reading and a written response to a prompt about the reading.  She took a few minutes to…

1. Figure out the learning goal of the written response.
2. Write 2 other prompts that would accomplish the same learning goal but along a different path.

OBSERVATION - Trina read the assigned reading and then seemed pleasantly surprised that she was allowed to CHOOSE one of the 3 writing tasks. She got straight to work. Sheryl was SHOCKED. No resistance. No hesitation. Just a smile and a solid 30 minutes of writing work....

Environment of Support 

Let's consider each part of this...

1. Environment of SUPPORT

What do I mean by support? 

Anything that helps a learner complete a task.

It could be the music played while working, a voice recording app, colored pens for color coding, a calculator, you as a scribe, spell check in Word, a list of transition words, and/or anything in between.

It does NOT mean… make something easier.  Of course we want stage appropriate, but if the child is engaged you may be surprised by the level of difficulty they will rise too.

2. ENVIRONMENT of Support

Is support a crutch or a stool? 

One you lean on while you heal and frequently feel frustrated about needing it.  One you use to get to higher places; and since NO negative emotions are attached, you never hesitate to use it. (This is how my son, in the video above, sees his little chair, a stool to get to anything higher. AND he never hesitates to use it.) 

The...

There are many things I enjoy.  Picture books are one of my favorites.  I have collected a wonderful library for Jacob; and I enjoy reading different books to him as often as he will let me. Of course his attention span right now is about 2-4 pages and thus we miss most of the meat of a book. But the times we get through to all 10 ladybugs disappearing... I smile. He smiles. And once in a while, he turns it back to the beginning and we read it all again. 

Pictures books amaze me.  

So this shouldn’t surprise you… but my latest plunge is into creating a series of picture books that address learning, my specialty. I haven't seen these kinds of stories in the market and I think they could be valuable to learners. 

My main character is Pistachio the Pug who loves to learn and tackles many of the struggles learners face as he completes his work for the Pugademy, School for Smart Pugs. Pistachio will be a...

A few weeks ago I observed Jacob, my now 2 year old, pulling on a rope, that was attached to a tree. He would run with it until it ran out of slack and would yank him to the ground. (watch video) He didn't like getting pulled back or falling; but he continued to pull the rope and run. Repeatedly. 

I wondered WHY he kept doing this. Wasn't he learning? 

But then I observed him in the backyard... with his play horse. 

He had observed his dad take the dog for a walk ON A LEASH and now he was walking his toy horse ON A LEASH.  

If I pull on the rope, MY LEASH, then... what's attached will follow. 

He had LEARNED this from observation and was just applying it to the tree. But the tree didn't behave like his WORKING THEORY.  

For years it was thought that a student's mind was a blank slate. MYTH!!  From the moment a person enters this world as an infant they are learning. They don't know they...

As I’ve shared before I absolutely LOVE picture books. In a short period of time you can be TOTALLY moved.  I have been amassing quite a library for Jacob and truth be told… they’re just as much for me. :)

Some of the books capture you with the illustrations, some with the characters, some with the stories. But every now and then one just MOVES you. This is one such picture book.

What Do You Do With An Idea

For years I’ve had the IDEA… change education in a way that reaches every child as a unique learner. I’ve tried everything… the classroom, administration, district level administration, consulting, teacher training, tutoring, curriculum development, conference speaker, etc. Nothing has impacted in a way that sustains my IDEA… use your expertise and enthusiasm to help every learner into a customized program.

In 2009 I gave up. I sought a totally different career direction. But following me around was this IDEA…...

Exercise… BLAH!

Why can’t I love it like others do? I see moms who can’t wait to get to the gym every day. And there are those that run 5-10 miles, lift weights at home, and then do yoga before bed. OMG! If I could just have an ounce of their LOVE for exercise.

As a kid I played sports… but the running and stretching was always a chore. Catch a ball while running and I would do it all day. But take away the ball and just do sprints… YUCK!

I’ve recently been working with a posture pilates coach. She gives me a home routine involving stretching, weights, and pilates exercises that increase my heart rate and simultaneously improve my posture. I love how I feel after working out with her. I love how I feel after I do my home routine. My doctor has even commented on my improved health as a result. BUT I struggle every day with rallying to get started. I even putting on my work out clothes first thing every morning to get my head into it.

...

Writing seems to be a tough skill for most children. Actually many adults would confess to not being great writers either. And teaching writing can be an even bigger challenge. I’m not talking the mechanical act of writing… I’m talking about getting words into the form of sentences, paragraphs, dialogue, and pages, with a cohesive feel that accomplishes your purpose and reaches your audience.

 I have found writing is less painful when it is associated with something FUN. Thus I promote writing from PLAY.  (I am in the middle of a series called “Using PLAY to improve Writing.” You can find the videos on my FB page .)

 I know what you’re thinking. How do I use PLAY to address writing?

 First, let me clarify what I mean by writing. It’s any way that I, the writer, communicate what I understand OUT to an audience. It could be a paragraph, a data table, a graph, a visualization, a video, a script, a poster etc. And writing...

Counting, arithmetic, geometry, algebra, mathematical thinking, reading stories, reading informational text, reading visualizations, creating visualizations, writing stories, writing paragraphs, writing essays, writing comparison/analytical responses, 2nd language, music, art, art appreciation, culture, ancient civilizations, World Wars, Discovery of America, Slavery, birth of America, biology, chemistry, physics, environmental science, geology, forensics, how to drive, car maintenance, video editing, word processing, keyboarding, use of technology, test-taking, collaboration, time management, project management, cursive, character development, sex education, Biblical/Belief foundations, discipline, home economics, economics, money management, job skills, investments, cooking, cleaning, yard work, gardening, and the list goes on…

Overwhelmed yet? Of course you are…as are most of us.  It’s why we ask, “What do I do, there is TOO much to learn?”

I...