Life Skills

Get Help Teaching Life Skills to Kids

July 13, 2017 By Marianne Leave a Comment

We talk a lot about curriculum over on the Homeschooling With Dyslexia web site and blog. Choosing just the right curriculum that works best with our kids’ unique learning ability is one of the biggest reasons for homeschooling them in the first place!

One thing that can be really difficult when homeschooling kids with learning struggles is making time for subjects other than the basics. Teaching reading, spelling, and math to several children can take a good chunk of the day as well as the bulk of mom’s energy!

One area that we have consistently dropped the ball is in teaching life skills.

Can anyone else relate?

How many of you have taken the time to teach financial skills like making and maintaining a budget, kitchen skills like reading a recipe, automobile upkeep like checking fluid levels or changing a tire, first aid, health and wellness, manners and etiquette, housekeeping, outdoor survival skills, hygiene, childcare, gardening…or is it just me?

I often tell parents to focus on the core subjects while their struggling learners are gaining mastery, but life skills are important as well. In fact, life skills are often an area where our kids excel – if given the opportunity.

That’s why I was so excited when I learned that a friend and fellow homeschool blogger (with kids with learning struggles) created a brand new homeschool program for busy homeschool families to teach life skills.

It is called Skill Trek and it is a premium, web-based, hands-on life skills curriculum that contains over 500 lessons for students ages preschool through young adult. Yes, it is perfect for your entire family.

Categories include health and wellness, first aid, financial literacy, technology, manners and etiquette, housekeeping, maintenance, outdoor survival techniques, hygiene, childcare, gardening, crafts, and more.

New content will be added regularly to tie in with current events and holidays.

One thing I really love about Skill Trek is that it is written by the parents of 7 children, including children with special needs who wanted to provide a tool for their own family and have used the curriculum for the last several months with success.

It provides skills from the playground to the workplace and everything in between.

The program has not officially launched yet, but I have had a sneak peek at it and it is FABULOUS!!

When the program officially launches, there will be an introductory price that is the lowest you will see. It is super affordable, even for the large family.

You will be SO sad if you miss this intro price. To be notified once the program is available, click here to enter your name and email address and that will ensure that you don’t miss the introductory price.

Don’t worry- there is no commitment, they will just notify you when you can take advantage of that sale price!

Click here to learn more and be notified when Skill Trek officially launches.

Life skills are one of the greatest gifts you can give your children…and Skill Trek makes it easy.

Simple Strategies to Teach Kids Time Management

January 12, 2016 By Marianne Leave a Comment

I didn’t know whether I should be relieved or disappointed when I learned that 40-60% of people with dyslexia also had some form of attention issue. What I do know now is that some of my kids aren’t naturally organized (ahem) and that they need to be explicitly taught how to manage their time as well as their space, thoughts and belongings. Today’s post will focus on simple strategies for teaching kids time management skills.

A Simple Strategy for Teaching Time Management

Begin by providing your child with a monthly calendar. You can buy one or print one online. Click here for a link to a great site with lots of free calendar templates.

Add important events to the calendar such as holidays, birthdays and other important including afternoon and evening commitments such as music lessons, sports practices, Scouts or Bible Study. We also have our older kids add any classes that they are taking through our homeschool group or at the community college on their calendars. As school assignments come in, add those as well as test dates to the calendar.

Transfer all activities and assignments to a weekly calendar. Click here for a link to some great weekly planning sheets. Teach kids to break up larger assignments, such as reading or studying for tests, into chunks and place them on their weekly calendars. Work backwards from test dates to schedule in enough time for study and review. As your kids learn how much time reading a chapter of science actually takes, they will be better able to schedule the proper amount of time to get the reading done on schedule.

Teaching Tip: A friend of mine shared with me a rule in her house. She will not help a child proof or correct any assignment the night before it is due. It is too stressful for everyone! Teach them to avoid procrastination and plan ahead!

Work with your child as needed. This will be daily at first. Continue to go over each day’s events and guide them through prioritizing and tweaking their schedule until they become proficient enough to tweak it on their own. As with any schedule, they are best used as a guide. Very seldom does a day go just as it is planned.

Time Management…In the Kitchen!

Another fun way that we have worked on time management skills with our kids is to have them plan and prepare the evening meal. Begin by breaking down the job into smaller chunks. So for making dinner this might look like this:

Choose menu
Find ingredients
Shop {if necessary}
Cook
Set table
Serve
Clean up

Have the child estimate (with your help at first) how long each task will take and work backwards from the time you want your family to eat dinner to know when to begin.

Time management for younger kids

Younger kids can benefit from simple time management exercises as well. Here are a few ideas for beginning to instill the idea and practice of time management in your younger kids:

Chore charts – from the age of 3 and up we have used chore charts to help kids stay on task throughout the day.
Use a timer for dawdlers – kids who struggle staying on task need more accountability and a timer has worked wonders for our dawdlers.
Family calendar – keep a family calendar in a prominent location so that all family members can see it. Use different colors for each person so that even younger kids can easily see when they have something planned.
Don’t overschedule – see above. Family relationships suffer when everyone is running around with no down time.
Lay clothes out the evening before an event like school or church.

Teaching time management to kids is critically important for their adult success. Start teaching them now how to think ahead, put aside procrastination and use your family’s priorities for making the most of their days.

How have you taught your kids time management skills? Share in the comments below!

Kids (and adults) with dyslexia often struggle with organization, time management and setting priorities. These deficits are often referred to as Executive Function skills. If your child struggles in this area, you would benefit from my Parent Class on Executive Function.

My latest parent class: Executive Function: Teach Your Child to Organize Their Thoughts, Personal Space and Time is full of tips, tricks and strategies for teaching organization in academics and personal life, for learning ways to control run away emotions and to improve social skills and motivation.

I first learned about the idea of Executive Function weaknesses during my Orton-Gillingham training. Since then, I have been researching and trying out everything that I could find in an effort to help our own brood of disorganized kids. The result is a HUGE new class packed with reliable, research-based information on how to help your seemingly hopelessly unorganized kids learn strategies to help them in school, work and social situations.

You may be one of the few people in your child’s life who understands how having a disability complicates his or her ability to develop these skills.

For more information on the new class, click the course image above or visit our classes page.

Teaching Kids With Dyslexia the Vital Skill of Self-Advocacy

January 9, 2016 By Marianne 1 Comment

It can seem overwhelming to add yet another goal to your dyslexic student’s plate, however, teaching him or her the vital skill of self-advocacy will give them greater confidence, self-awareness, and success. Having raised 3, going on 4 now adult kids with dyslexia – I have first hand experience on how empowering this skill can be.

What is Self-Advocacy?

Self-advocacy is the skill of being able to:

understand your diagnosis
know your learning needs (both strengths and weaknesses)
know your legal rights
being able to confidently express these things to teachers, bosses and others that may benefit from knowing

This skill is especially important for students with dyslexia. Dyslexia is often called a hidden disability because it is not detectable to the eye and its weaknesses are unexpected considering the level of intelligence people with dyslexia have. In other words, teachers, coaches and tutors are not going to know that you need help unless you tell them! Since dyslexic kids will become dyslexic adults, learning how to advocate for their unique needs is a critical skill.

Teaching Self-Advocacy

Teaching self-advocacy can be accomplished through meaningful conversations with your child. Over time, discuss the following topics with your child, asking one or more of the following questions.

What is dyslexia?
How do you think your dyslexia affects you in all areas of life?
How do you think you learn the best?
Are there any strategies that seem to help you?
Are you familiar with your goals and accommodations?
Do you know where to go for learning support?
Do you know your legal rights?

Take some time to discuss your child’s understanding of these areas. Teaching self-advocacy is ultimately about helping your child to become more self-aware, therefore it is counter productive to tell him or her what you think the answers to these questions are. Ask questions and take the time to gently guide your child into understanding. This is also a great time to point out areas where your child is doing well.

Knowing what dyslexia is. Your child should be able to describe dyslexia in his or her own words. They should know that while many people have heard of dyslexia, many also believe many of the myths about dyslexia such as that it’s just reversing letters. Be prepared to share your definition of dyslexia and then help your student to come up with their own definition in his or her own words.

Your child would likely benefit from reading through the list of Dyslexia Myths and Facts.

Try role playing what your child might say to explain dyslexia to a teacher or coach. When you are self advocating, you might say, ‘I have dyslexia, a language-based learning disability, that affects 5-10% of the population. My brain is wired differently, which means that I have trouble with reading and spelling.’ If your child is confident enough, they can also add an area in which they excel here. The idea is to have your child be able to describe their dyslexia quickly, confidently and accurately.

Take some time after going through this to talk with your child about which specific areas he or she is most affected by dyslexia. No two people manifest dyslexia in exactly the same way. Understanding their own unique learning profile is critical.

Knowing how I learn best. Most parents begin to understand their kids’ learning preferences by observing over time how their kids best complete their schoolwork. Begin a discussion with your child about how they prefer to learn. Encourage them to think about what has helped them in the recent past with their math, history, writing, and other assignments. Do they need to write things down? Do they need to watch someone else do it first? Consider taking an online learning styles profile test together.

Use this list of common accommodations and strategies to see which ones your child feels are the most helpful for them:

Alternative ways of completing assignments (e.g., oral presentation versus written paper)
Assistive technology such as speech-to-text, text-to-speech, audio books or electronic graphic organizers
Note takers, lab or library assistants, readers, interpreters
Video-based curricula
Test modifications (someone to read the questions to you)
Study skills and strategies training
Time extensions
Audio lessons
Highlighted textbooks
Computer aided instruction
Rearranging class schedules
Modifications to the environment (music playing vs quiet, separate from group or with group, chair or balance ball)
Academic tutoring
Preview what you will learn about
Look at an example of what you will do
Break down long directions into smaller parts
Highlight the main idea and important vocabulary in your textbook
Use manipulatives to move around for problem solving
Select projects based on interests
Participate in a study group (especially if you are an auditory learner)
Opt to complete a project rather than take a test

Make sure that your child understands the role of accommodations. Although some people will say that they provide an unfair advantage, they are actually meant to ‘level the playing field,’ and provide a way for students with learning difficulties to perform at their actual intellectual ability.

After discussing these accommodations and strategies, have your child summarize what he or she has learned about themselves. You can start the discussion by talking about your own learning style and needs and then ask them to so the same. For example, “I’m a visual learner who learns best when I can write things down and read them later. I do well with highlighting and having good notes.”

Finding support. For kids who are homeschooled, this will likely primarily be a parent. If a parent isn’t properly advocating, maybe there is a teacher or a friend’s parent who will help. In school and during the college years, students with dyslexia will need to know where the office of student services is and get to know which services are available at their school. College is much different than high school in that the student will need to ask for accommodations, not the parent.

Day-to-day advocacy. While the school setting is an essential area for your student to use self-advocacy, there are other areas where it is needed. Set aside some time to talk about your child’s role in advocating at the doctor’s office, at soccer practice or at work.

You might introduce the topic in the following manner: “You need to be able to explain to others what supports you need to be successful on the job, in college or training environments, and when you’re living independently.

Legal rights. There are a wide range of legalities surrounding the issue of dyslexia. From education, to employment and everything in between, the best source for legal and advocacy rights for people with dyslexia is Wrightslaw. College students may be able to gain valuable legal information at their college’s Student Center.

Start Teaching Self-Advocacy Now

Teaching a child with dyslexia this important skill – self-advocacy – can be done gradually over time through discussion, role playing and your support. The more you have these discussions, the more confident your child will be when the time comes to talk to others.

If you are the parent of a younger child, you can start the self-advocacy process by talking to your child about what it means to be dyslexic. Read this post for more ideas for how to talk to your child about being dyslexic.

How have you taught your child with dyslexia to learn to advocate for themselves? Please share in the comments section below.

How to Help Students With Dyslexia Become Independent Learners

January 4, 2016 By Marianne 8 Comments

Nothing pushes a busy homeschool mom to the brink faster than a line of kids needing her help and needing it now! All homeschool parents desire to teach their kids to be independent learners, but there are some different hurdles for the parent of students with dyslexia.

Helping kids to become independent learners requires two areas of focus:

Motivation

Tools

Fostering a Motivation to Learn

Before we begin to teach our kids with dyslexia to be independent learners, we need to foster a sense of confidence and motivation that can be particularly difficult when learning is associated with so many difficulties.

How to foster motivation in kids with dyslexia:

Provide opportunities for success. Nothing is more motivating than success. As our kids experience even small successes in their education, they become more confident and eager to do those things. Remember that kids with dyslexia are holistic thinkers. They will find more success if they can see the big picture first and then fit the details into that whole.
Provide positive feedback. One of the freedoms of homeschooling our kids with dyslexia is that our kids aren’t measured by some arbitrary standard of where they should be. Traditional standards of achievement can be used as a general guide, but we should be more focused on progress rather than perfection with our kids with dyslexia.
Building confidence. Another benefit of homeschooling our kids with dyslexia is that we avoid the trap of being compared to traditional learners all. day. long. However, we still need to be aware that we are not creating any unhealthy competitions between siblings or by having unrealistic expectations. Understand the concept of what Dr. Carol Dweck calls a ‘growth mindset’. By praising our kids’ effort rather than their end product, we build the kind of confidence that will keep them trying, despite hardship.
Acknowledge and encourage strengths. My dyslexic husband says that he doesn’t know how he ever would have gotten through school without sports and music, in both of which he excelled. Be sure to be on the lookout for your kids’ strengths and give them ample time to grow and enjoy these strengths. Doing so will improve confidence and balance out the difficulties they may have with other types of learning.
Help them set goals for themselves. What do they want to be able to do? Do they like to write stories? Let them practice their writing skills by writing their stories. Do they want to own a pet? Have them do research to learn more about what that entails. When kids are working towards their own goals, they will be much more motivated to read and write in whatever ways necessary to get there.

Goals for Independent Learning

My personal goals for my dyslexic kids are that they be able to take a list of daily or weekly assignments, understand what to do, and have the confidence, responsibility and ability to complete those assignments with minimal involvement from teachers or parents (me).

Tools for Teaching Independence for the Student With Dyslexia

Helping kids with dyslexia to become independent leaners requires both motivation and the right tools. Nothing compares to the variety of assistive technology available today to give all students with dyslexia the tools they need to become fully independent.

Assistive technology consists primarily of:

Text-to-Speech: converts printed text to spoken words using synthesized voices. One of today’s most frequently used assistive technologies and is built into computer operating systems, mobile devices, e-book readers, and websites. Examples of tools that feature text-to-speech are NaturalReader, Read & Write Gold, and Voice Dream Reader.

Audio Books: Audiobooks feature recorded human narration. They are available in different formats, including audio CDs and MP3 files. They are a good option for students who cannot tolerate the synthesized voices of text-to-speech over the course of an entire book. Read this post for the best sources for audio books.

Speech-to-Text: Also referred to as dictation technology, speech-to-text converts spoken words to printed text. Since accurate dictation relies on context, this technology works well for students who are able to formulate phrases and sentences in their minds before dictating them. The leading speech-to-text programs are Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Windows and Dragon Dictate for OS X. Students can also dictate on their tablets and smart phones with the integrated dictation of mobile operating systems.

Word prediction software: Word prediction software provides dyslexic students with spelling assistance while they type. The technology anticipates and predicts the correct words after only a few characters are typed. Word prediction is an effective tool when dictation is not an option and when students wish to write with moderate assistance. Two high-quality word prediction programs are Co:Writer and WordQ. The technology can also be found in a number of third-party keyboards available for iPads.

Electronic graphic organizers: Electronic graphic organizers allow students to organize information visually while completing writing assignments, taking notes on textbook chapters, and studying for tests. Because they are digital, they are accessible to dyslexic students and can be used in conjunction with other AT tools for independent learning. Examples include Inspiration, Mindomo, and Popplet.

Steps for Teaching Students With Dyslexia to be Independent Learners

Younger Years – Kindergarten thru Third Grades

The years between Kindergarten and 3rd grade have lots of one-on-one time with mom/teacher. We are reading all assignments, teaching everything from Math to History to Science to Spelling and Reading. One of the first baby steps we take in helping our kids become independent learners is to teach them how to listen to audio books. Most kids with dyslexia love a good story. Help them learn various ways to access this technology. There are some excellent educational apps for kids with dyslexia as well.

Fourth thru Sixth Grades

Simple Speech-to-Text apps or programs (see above) can help students with dyslexia put their thoughts on paper without the burden of figuring out spelling. We’re still teaching spelling but we use technology to help them enjoy the writing process more.

It’s during these years that we also begin using computerized, video-based school programs such as the Math program, Teaching Textbooks. Teaching Textbooks have an excellent video lesson format followed by interactive lessons where a child can click a button for help or watch how a problem is done if they get a problem wrong.

Another lifesaver for our family has been the Reading Horizons Elevate program designed for students 10 and up. Two of our kids have gone through this program now with fantastic results in reading fluency, spelling and comprehension. Better yet, it is completely online and mastery based, therefore requiring little parent involvement after the program is properly set up. Read my full review here.

Seventh thru Ninth Grades

Depending on the child and the current family dynamic, I begin to look for non-threatening classroom opportunities for my middle school aged kids. I have found it helpful to sign them up for a class on a subject that they are naturally interested in such as science, history, art, cooking or acting. Choose something with a fairly small class size and a teacher that is open to offering accommodations with accountability for your child. This gives kids an idea of what a classroom environment is like as well as providing a gentle introduction into learning how to handle outside assignments and due dates.

Continue using curricula that encourage independence. We use Teaching Textbooks for Math throughout the middle and high school years and may add a class or two from the Switched on Schoolhouse program at this time as well. Although a lot of the content is presented through text, Switched On Schoolhouse has a built in text reader for students who would benefit from that. The text reader requires the child to highlight the text, then press the read aloud button. This is a great tool for fostering independence, since the student can use it by himself.

Tenth Grade and Up

Continue to implement assistive technologies that are appropriate for your student’s current needs. Textbooks can be listened to, papers dictated via speech-to-text technology and notes taken using graphic organizers.

Encouraging independent learning in dyslexic learners is a balance between motivational factors and providing the tools your child needs to experience success.

Other curricula that we have used with success in the high school years are:

The Teaching Company
Lectures cover all of the traditional high school subjects. They are great courses for students in preparation for college coursework. We used their Astronomy, Geology, Calculus, Statistics, Music, World History, and other lecture series. The lecture DVDs, along with the accompanying books, make from The Teaching Company courses comprehensive by most any standard. At the high school level, these courses were some of our best homeschool curriculum for ADHD and dyslexia.

Time4Learning
This online home school curriculum combines learning with interactive fun. It teaches language arts, math, science, and social studies. One of the best things about Time4Learning is that it gives students independence. Your child can progress at his own pace. The Time4Learning curriculum has engaging content, so it also motivates kids to learn. Time4Learning offers a free trial that is a great way to see whether the program is the best homeschool curriculum for your child.

Brightstorm
A GREAT choice if your child prefers an audio-visual presentation. They have 3,000+ entertaining videos in a wide variety of topics. The programming is for high school level students. There is a small monthly fee for membership. However, the cost is low. It is a worthwhile fee for quality audio-visual content that will meet your child’s needs.

All families, whether homeschooling or not, have to navigate the process of helping their kids to become independent learners. No one knows your child like you do. Begin slowly by offering encouragement for effort and tailoring, when possible, curricula and teaching methods to the student’s learning style. Add in some tools as needed and before you know it, your child will be mastering more and more of their education on their own.

How have you helped your student with dyslexia become a more independent learner? Share in the comments below!

Strategies for Helping Your Unorganized, Unmotivated Child

October 29, 2015 By Marianne 1 Comment

In my last post, Help For The Hopelessly Unorganized Child, we talked about signs of poor executive function which is essentially the ability to organize your thoughts – which leads to organizing just about everything else in life!

For some kids this is just a matter of maturity. These skills do improve with age. For others, the seemingly, hopelessly unorganized ones, more intentional methods are needed to teach and practice basic organizational skills.

5 Strategies for Helping the Unorganized, Unmotivated Child

Make checklists. Listing the steps involved in a task will make it easier for your child to see how to get started. It also may lessen her anxiety around planning. Checklists also provide a visual reminder of where your child left off if she got distracted. You can make checklists for everything from the tasks she has to do before heading out to Grandma’s house to how to clean the bathroom.

Set time limits. Budgeting time for tasks can be difficult. On your checklists, consider giving a time estimate for each step. If your child doesn’t read yet, you can put some inexpensive kitchen timers around the house. Set them for the amount of time your child should be spending on everything from completing a math sheet to brushing her teeth.

Use planners and calendars. Not all planners have to be on paper, which is a good thing if your child has trouble keeping track of items. You can put up a big family calendar somewhere and give your child her own colored marker. For older kids there are free or inexpensive apps and time-management software that can help.

Explain yourself. Children who have trouble thinking flexibly or who have difficulty with emotional control don’t always take feedback well or see the point of learning new ways to do things. Try to explain why it’s important to learn a new skill, or how it may save time and energy in the long run.

Let your child explain, too. If your child’s method doesn’t make sense to you, consider taking the time to ask why before saying it has to be done differently. It may actually be an inventive approach that works for your child. The more successful strategies she comes up with herself, the better!

Learn More About Teaching Organization

You may be one of the few people in your child’s life who understands how having a disability complicates his or her ability to develop these skills.

For more information on the new class, click the course image above or visit our classes page.

Help for Your Hopelessly Unorganized Child

October 25, 2015 By Marianne Leave a Comment

Do you have a child who is hopelessly unorganized? This is the child who can never find their pack pack, school books or soccer cleats? Oftentimes these kids are not just disorganized with their belongings but also with their thoughts. They have difficulty starting projects and once they’ve started them, they often lack what it takes to complete them. You may be interested to know that there is a name for this type of disorganization – executive function – or in this case a lack of executive function.

Organization aka Executive Function

Executive functioning issues can produce a wide range of symptoms. Depending on which skills your child struggles with the most, and the particular task he or she is doing, you might see the following signs:

Finds it hard to figure out how to get started on a task
Can focus on small details or the overall picture, but not both at the same time
Has trouble figuring out how much time a task requires
Does things either quickly and messily or slowly and incompletely
Finds it hard to incorporate feedback into work or an activity
Sticks with a plan, even when it’s clear that the plan isn’t working
Has trouble paying attention and is easily distracted
Loses a train of thought when interrupted
Needs to be told the directions many times
Has trouble making decisions
Has a tough time switching gears from one activity to another
Doesn’t always have the words to explain something in detail
Needs help processing what something feels/sounds/looks like
Isn’t able to think about or do more than one thing at a time
Remembers information better using cues, abbreviations or acronyms

It is important to remember that although we aren’t born with executive function skills, we are born with the potential to develop them. The process is a slow one that begins in infancy, continues into early adulthood, and is shaped by our experiences. Children build their skills through engagement in meaningful social interactions and activities that draw on self-regulatory skills at increasingly demanding levels.

Executive Function Weaknesses in the Home

If your child has any or all of these issues, you are probably dealing with it in one way or another pretty much every day since it affects so many areas of life. This can be tedious. It can also be downright damaging to your relationship with your child not to mention the damage to your child’s confidence.

It is important to understand that your child is not lazy, unmotivated or willful and to learn strategies to help them. For some ideas, read this post => 5 Strategies for Helping Your Unorganized, Unmotivated Child.

Learn More!

I am thrilled to be able to offer you my latest parent class:

I first learned about the idea of Executive Function weaknesses during my Orton-Gillinghma training a few years ago. Since then, I have been researching and trying out everything that I could find in an effort to help our own brood of disorganized kids. The result is a HUGE new class packed with reliable, research-based information on how to help your seemingly hopelessly unorganized kids learn strategies to help them in school, work and social situations.

Executive Function: Teach Your Child to Organize Their Thoughts, Personal Space and Time!

You may be one of the few people in your child’s life who understands how having weak executive functioning complicates his or her ability to organize their thoughts, space and personal belongings.

For more information on the new class, click the image above or visit our classes page.

How to Teach Kids About the Power of a Growth Mindset

June 18, 2015 By Marianne 2 Comments

I was so excited to learn about how a growth mindset can dramatically improve a child’s academic performance and motivation to learn, that I set out to develop a way to teach this incredibly valuable information to my kids at home, to help them develop a growth mindset. This information is as important for homeschooled kids as it is for kids in a public or private school.

Learn more about what a growth mindset is by reading this post.

How to Teach Kids About a Growth Mindset

With a few simple strategies, we can teach our kids about the power of a growth mindset.

Teach About Their Brain

The first thing our kids need to know is that our intelligence isn’t fixed – that it can change. It can get stronger or weaker depending on how much effort we are willing to apply.

Download the article, You Can Grow Your Intelligence and read it out loud or have your older children read this by themselves and discuss the ideas about brain function. Lead them to understand that the brain is like a muscle that gets stronger with use and that learning prompts neurons in the brain to grow new connections.

Teach your kids that they can improve their IQ and talents. Present the evidence and teach them that education is something that have control over.

Just as a baby isn’t born talking but learns over time, they don’t know everything but can learn over time with work.

Teach them that people with a growth mindset believe that they can learn, change, and develop needed skills. They are better equipped to handle inevitable setbacks, and know that hard work can help them accomplish their goals.

Here is an informative video you can watch with your kids.

Another way to teach about the growth mindset is by telling stories about achievements that resulted from hard work. For instance, talking about mathematical geniuses who were more or less born that way puts students in a fixed mind-set, but descriptions of great mathematicians who fell in love with math and developed amazing skills engenders a growth mind-set. Try reading a biography of Thomas Edison for starters.

Model a Growth Mindset

A lot of how our students (or kids) pick up on a growth mindset will be from observing and listening to you as their parent or teacher. Show kids how to recognize fixed mindset thoughts and how to replace them with growth mindset thoughts.

Praise the Process

Parents and teachers tend to think that praising kids’ intelligence builds confidence and motivation to learn. While this type of praise may give the student a brief boost in confidence, we learned in my last post on the research behind a growth mindset, this kind of praise leads to a fixed mindset – one that is more concerned with looking smart and keeping the parent or teacher’s admiration than on actually working hard to learn. Parents and teachers do better to focus on praising the ‘process’ or personal effort and any effective strategies used, which fosters motivation by placing value on what students have done and what they need to do to continue to be successful.

Dr. Dweck’s research demonstrated how the simple act of praising effort, or the process the student took to learn, rather than ability, can have a dramatic effect on cultivating a growth mindset.

Here are some ideas to phrase your feedback in a way that develops more of a growth mindset to get you started:

I see that you have been trying so hard at …

You are becoming more confident at ….

Good job taking on such a hard task …

You are taking on harder tasks and that must make you feel confident.

I like the way that you ….

You must have tried really hard at this.

I see that you are trying again, great thinking.

You remembered to use the procedure for ….

It must feel good to follow those steps you have taken.

What a brilliant way to approach the task.

I noticed you are thinking through the steps we discussed.

You were confident with the task and I know you will be with the next step.

I am watching the way you’re approaching this and I think your effort is outstanding.

The steps you took must have really helped you…

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. Albert Einstein

More Thoughts on Teaching Kids so They Develop a Growth Mindset

Do you have a student (or child) that thinks they aren’t smart or who think that they can’t learn? Try to figure out what they understand and what strategies they could use. Great teachers believe in the growth of talent and intelligence in their students and will take the time to learn how their students (or kids) learn.

If ‘Plan A’ didn’t work, there are 25 other letters in the alphabet!

Many of you reading this today are here because you are teaching kids with dyslexia. Because of our kids’ struggles in the early years of school, it is fairly common for them to believe that they are not smart.

What to say when they struggle despite strong effort:
• OK, so you didn’t do as well as you wanted to. Let’s look at this as an opportunity to learn.

• What did you do to prepare for this? Is there anything you could do to prepare differently next time?

• You are not there/here yet.

• When you think you can’t do it, remind yourself that you can’t do it yet.

• I expect you to make some mistakes. It is the kinds of mistakes that you make  along the way that tell me how to support you.

• You might be struggling, but you are making progress. I can see your growth (in  these places).

• Look at how much progress you made on this. Do you remember how much more  challenging this was (yesterday/last week/last year)?

• Of course it’s tough – school is here to makes our brains stronger!

• If it were easy, you wouldn’t be learning anything!

• You can do it – it’s tough, but you can; let’s break it down into steps.

• Let’s stop here and return tomorrow with a fresher brain.

• I admire your persistence and I appreciate your hard work. It will pay off.

“Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 35 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.” Dr. Carol Dweck

Developing a growth mindset will take consistency over time. You will know that your kids are implementing the growth mindset when you see them becoming more persistent, not ruminating about their own failure much at all but instead thinking of their mistakes as problems to be solved.

How can you see teaching this growth mindset changing your kids’ attitudes and motivation to learn?

Read more about Mindset by reading Dr. Dweck’s book, Mindset.
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Motivate Your Kids by Teaching Them to Have a Growth Mindset

June 17, 2015 By Marianne 4 Comments

If you’ve been around the Homeschooling With Dyslexia web site or Facebook page for long, you know how I love to learn about learning. Since I learn completely differently than 7 of the 8 kids that I homeschool, you could say it is a bit of a necessity. Good thing I have learned to enjoy it!

Today I am going to share with you about some fascinating research that was done at Stanford University here in California by Carol Dweck. Carol and her team were studying the idea of learned helplessness in lab animals and began to apply their knowledge to the same sorts of attitudes in people. This research led them to learn about the profound effect of a person’s mindset, or attitude about learning, could have on motivation and academic performance.

Two Kinds of Mindset

In her research, Dr. Dweck identified two types of mindsets; the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

Fixed Mindset: This is the belief that intelligence is fixed and that any subject that is difficult or requires much effort simply means that you are dumb.

Growth Mindset: This is the belief that intelligence can be grown and that subjects that are difficult or require extra effort mean that you are increasing your intelligence.

Let’s look at some of the research done at Stanford to illustrate this concept a bit better.

Dweck took a group of incoming 7th graders and divided them into two groups based on an evaluation of their mindset – the fixed mindset and the growth mindset groups.

Both groups of kids were working at the same level academically at the beginning of 7th grade, but by the end of the first term their grades were clearly split with the growth mindset group significantly out performing their fixed group counterparts. This trend continued steadily over the next two years. Interesting, huh?

Here are a few more observations of these two distinctly different kinds of mindsets:

The fixed mindset group:

only cared about looking smart
didn’t want to take the risk of looking dumb
were determined to ‘look smart’ at any cost whether that meant lying or cheating to achieve the goal
avoided academic challenges
felt learning should come easily and that if they needed to apply much effort that they were not smart

Because of these beliefs, students with a fixed mindset had no real way to handle learning difficulties so were quick to give up or become defensive – either acting bored, acting out, blaming the teacher or the material to hide their fear of not looking smart.

The growth mindset group:

were not afraid to work hard
understood that learning takes practice and that even geniuses have had to work hard for their discoveries
understood that hard work and practice make you smarter

Because of these beliefs, students with a growth mindset learned how to capitalize on their mistakes and look at set backs as a natural part of learning.

Thomas Edison had a growth mindset.
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
– Thomas Edison

How Do We Get Our Mindset?

Simply stated, we develop our mindset based on the kinds of praise we receive with regards to our efforts. Research done at the height of the self esteem movement found that this constant praise of ability was back firing.

Let’s look at another bit of research to better understand this point.

Kids were given a fairly simple non-verbal IQ test. The 3 groups received a different response towards their work:

Praise for their intelligence: the first group was praised for their intelligence. “You did a great job! You must be smart.”

Praise for their process: the second group was praised for their effort. “You did a great job! You must have tried very hard.”

The control group: this group received a neutral response. “You did a great job!”

Next, these groups were offered an opportunity to choose the level of difficulty of their next task. Fascinatingly, kids who were praised for their intelligence, chose an easy task while those who were praised for their effort chose the harder task.

It was concluded that both groups of kids were sensitive to what the researchers valued – effort or intelligence – and were motivated to continue to score well in those areas.

The Powerful Effect of Praise

Recent studies have shown that the ways a mother praises her baby predicted that child’s mindset 5 years later. The development of mindset – whether fixed or growth – starts young. The good news is, however, that everyone’s mindset can be changed.

One Simple Word

By changing our language and being particular about which words we use, we can begin to change the mindsets of our kids and ourselves.

In one school, instead of giving a non-passing grade to students, they were given two words – NOT YET. Think about what this implies.

A ‘D’ or ‘F’ means that you are nowhere, but a “Not Yet’ means that you are on your way.

Try adding the word ‘yet’ on to these negative responses common within the fixed mindset.

If a student says:

“I’m not good at ______.”
“I can’t do _________.”
“I tried but it didn’t work.”

Add yet to the end of the sentence.

The Transforming Power of Teaching a Growth Mindset to Students

Researchers took a group of 7th graders, all with a fixed mindset and divided them into 2 groups.

Group 1 received 8 sessions of study skill instruction as well as growth mindset instruction. They were taught how to study and also taught how every time their brains worked hard, more neurons formed in their brains and that over time, they would become smarter.

Group 2 received only the 8 sessions of study skill instruction.

The results were significant. Group 1 scored dramatically better on their coursework during the following year than Group 2. A mindset can be changed!

Fixed and Growth Mindsets

There is a ton of research being done on the power of a person’s mindset showing that a person’s attitude towards their ability to learn is an incredibly powerful indicator of how that person will perform academically, and this attitude, or mindset, can be changed!

This can be especially profound for the student who struggles to learn because of dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia or ADD. I know that there are kids in our family, the ones with more natural academic ability interestingly, that struggle with a fixed mindset.

How have you seen this mindset play out in your family?

Join me tomorrow for a look at How to Teach a Growth Mindset.

How to Easily Improve Your Child’s Academic Performance

February 25, 2015 By Marianne Leave a Comment

Whether your kids attend a private, public or home school, all parents want for their kids to perform academically to the best of their ability.

Research has shown some interesting connections to the simple act of exercise on academic performance. The medical journal Pediatrics recently published research that found kids who took part in a regular physical activity program showed important enhancement of cognitive performance and brain function. The findings, according to University of Illinois professor Charles Hillman and colleagues, “demonstrate a causal effect of a physical program on executive control, and provide support for physical activity for improving childhood cognition and brain health.”

What is Executive Control?

The improvements in this case reportedly came in executive control, which consists of inhibition (resisting distraction, maintaining focus), working memory, and cognitive flexibility (switching between tasks).

Photo courtesy of The Atlantic

The images above show the brain activity in the group of kids who participated in the exercise program as opposed to the group that didn’t. The difference is profound.

Another study found that a 12-week exercise program improved math and reading test scores in all kids, but especially in those with signs of ADHD. Executive functioning is impaired in ADHD, and tied to performance in math and reading.

John Ratey, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard, suggests that people think of exercise as medication for ADHD. Even very light physical activity improves mood and cognitive performance by triggering the brain to release dopamine and serotonin, similar to the way that stimulant medications like Adderall do.

Simple Ways to Implement Exercise in Your Home

So how do we get our kids moving?

Here are 5 ways to implement an exercise program in your home.

1. Get out in nature. Although this may not be doable on a daily basis, it can be highly motivating for kids (and parents) to be exploring the wilderness as they exercise. Whether you explore a nearby hiking trail or visit a local park, getting outside together as a family builds happy memories as well as physical fitness.

2. Use the TV. Understanding that not all of us live in climates where outdoor exercise is possible all the time, there are many excellent exercise DVDs that can be played right in the comfort (and warmth) of your own home.

3. Sports teams. All of our kids have enjoyed taking sports or dance classes through various community centers in our area. Whether a swim team, soccer team, karate or ballet, these activities inspire kids to enjoy moving and can strengthen other skills such as a sense of sportsmanship and teamwork.

4. Limit screen time. This isn’t actually an exercise program per se, however, when we changed our kids media consumption habits by dramatically limiting their screen time, guess what they did? Yup, they went outside to play. We simple provided the tools – a trampoline, bikes, skateboards, jump ropes balls etc. and the kids took care of the rest.

5. Join a local gym or YMCA. As our kids got older and were less likely to play for exercise, we joined an inexpensive gym that provided a modest facility where all of us could exercise.

If your kids are resistant to exercising, try making it a family affair. Schedule a time each day that your family is doing some form of exercise, whether it is walking or running on a treadmill, walking or running around the block, taking the dog for a walk or watching an exercise video.

For more information on ADD and ADHD, read the following posts:

The #1 Non-Drug Treatment for ADD and ADHD

How to Teach the Distractible Child

What All Parents Need to Know About ADD and Dyslexia

The Number One Natural (Non-Drug) Treatment for ADHD

February 8, 2015 By Marianne 33 Comments

Why a post on ADHD on a dyslexia education site, you may ask?

There is a high correlation between dyslexia and attention issues such as ADD and ADHD. If you are beginning your search for information on ADD or ADHD, please read this post that includes many of the signs of ADD and ADHD.

As homeschoolers, we have tremendous freedom to adjust our learning environment for the different learning styles of our kids. We can choose curriculum, schedules, even foods and lighting that complement rather than frustrate our kids preferred way of learning.

However, any parent of a child that struggles with attention, whether it be inattentiveness or hyperactivity, knows that these struggles are not limited to the classroom. ADD and ADHD affect many areas of life including social situations, down time at home, ability to complete daily chores, and even sports and music practice.

How can we help our kids to have more control of themselves in the day-to-day without using prescription drugs?

Note: I am not discouraging the use of medication for ADD and ADHD. Many people use and are greatly helped by these medications. These ‘natural treatments’ are provided as another way to help your child be as successful as possible in their home, school and lives. What works for one child may not work for another child – each child is unique!

Studies have shown that using medication alone to treat ADD and ADHD is not sufficient and must be combined with one or more non-drug ADD treatments.

Natural Treatments for ADD and ADHD

Today we’re going to talk about the number one, most effective, natural treatment for ADD and ADHD.

Behavior Therapy

All kids need firm boundaries and none so much as the child with ADD or ADHD. Learning to implement a consistent set of rewards and consequences into your daily routine is one of the most highly effective natural treatments for kids with attention issues.

Interestingly, a lot of behavior modification is simply common sense parenting.

How to Set up a Succesful System of Rewards and Consequences

Choose a specific goal. Trying to focus on too many goals at once can be difficult to monitor. Start with one goal and as progress is made, add another.

Create a visual reminder. This should outline what is expected of your child. What you use here will depend on the age of your child. For my older kids, this comes in the form of a checklist. For younger kids is can be something as simple as a 3×5 card with an image of the desired behavior posted in a prominent place in your work or school area.

Choose the specific reward and consequence. Effective behavior modification finds a good balance between rewards and consequences. Parents are terrific at knowing when their kids are becoming overwhelmed or discouraged and when the scale needs to tip back towards rewards rather than consequences.

Here are a few examples of rewards and consequences that we use in our home with our ADD and ADHD kids:

Example of consequences:

For our 7-year old. I have mentioned before how we draw 3 lines on our homeschool room (dining room) dry erase board every day for our young son with ADHD. Because he tends to complain and have a low tolerance for things that are difficult, we have chosen this area to focus on of late.

If he begins to complain, I give him a gentle reminder, “It sounds like you are complaining.” If he does not self-correct (stop complaining) I remind him that he will lose a line if he continues.

If he loses all 3 lines by 2:00 when he normally is allowed an hour on the iPad, he loses his turn for the day.

Having this clear plan in place helps my son monitor his own behavior and it helps me not to feel overwhelmed and out of control.

For our 11-year old daughter. My older daughter strongly dislikes the tediousness of chores, especially room cleaning. At 11-years old, she has a well-established morning routine that she is expected to complete, without reminders, each day. (This is easily accomplished at this age with a simple chore check list.)

Our daughter also enjoys time on the Amazon Kindle that she received for her birthday last year. She looks up recipes, crafts, information on animals, listens to music and audio books or plays on Minecraft with her brother and sister.

One of our goals for her is to teach her self-control with her Kindle and she is allowed to keep it in her room. However, she is not allowed to go on it without permission yet as we work to establish good boundaries and healthy habits.

At first, if she was found on it without permission, for any seemingly good reason, she would lose it for the day. Now that that boundary has been established for some time, if she is on it without permission, she loses the Kindle for the week.

Examples of rewards:

For our 7-year old. I wrote recently about teaching the distracted child and how this little guy can easily get overstimulated at our weekly co-op day. I implement the above-mentioned consequence but if he has exhibited good behavior and self control at co-op on any particular day, I am quick to observe that, praise his efforts and offer some reward or treat such as renting a new release from the RedBox DVD rental or buying a box of popsicles or other treat.

For our 11-year old. They key to the successful use of rewards is to find something that is motivating to your child. Set up a challenge such as completing morning routines without reminders for a week and earn some reward. For this child it may be a trip to the craft store for supplies or some other activity for which she has been asking.

Having this clear, simple strategy set up alleviates many struggles for both the child and the parent.

Other Natural Treatments for ADD and ADHD

There are a variety of natural treatments that alleviate the symptoms of distractibility, and for some kids hyperactivity. These include (posts coming soon!):

Omega-3 or Fish Oil & Nutritional Changes

Exercise

Working Memory Training

“Green Time” or time spent outdoors

Neurofeedback