What a beautiful day

        Yesterday a young man I tutor came complaining of a headache.  This is usually an indication that we are going to struggle with tutoring.  I do not know if he really had a headache and cannot decide this.  I do know he was struggling to learn.  He began by telling me he could not stay long.  What was he really telling me?  I think sometimes we as adults miss what is being said.  How often do we try to do something that just needs to wait till another day or after a nap so we can function better?  I really think that children that struggle to learn need to be given that same consideration we need to often give ourselves.
     We are supposed to tutor an hour.  At 20 minutes, he told me he needed to go home.  For him this had been a long 20 minutes. I asked him if he wanted to listen to the book on tape we are working on and he told me he could not do that.  I asked him to play a game with him before he left.  He agreed to this. He appeared to be struggling to focus.  I chose the game Sequence. We played and it took about 15 minutes and he left confident that he had succeeded at something. The rules say a player needs to make 2 sequences to win.  I only had him make one as he was already struggling.
     When another child came later in the day, he told me it was too beautiful a day to be inside. What as a tutor had I missed?  I too wanted to be outside but the equipment to tutor was inside. The balance board is easy to take outside but the cards and other things blow away.  Also the ball hanging from the ceiling is not easy to move.I told him we would work inside and then go outside.  We did not work as long and he did well.
     Today, when the first young man came he seemed to be feeling better. I asked him if he wanted to be outside.His face lit up. We took the balance board outside and I hung another ball up outside. We also worked with the number board outside.  We came inside to work out of the rocket phonics and play a card  go fish game with words.   Then we went outside to listen to the book on tape.  Today we worked a little longer than planned and he did not want to leave. We listened to the book on tape for 30 minutes. It is amazing how well learning can work when it is on the timetable and of the learner and not the adult.
     My daughter telling me that she had recently read some research on how some learners needed to be outside to learn helped me meet the learning needs of these two learners for these days.

Grades

In our culture we need a way to measure success.  In the school system it is with grades and testing.  Many children resist reading because reading represents failure.  When the only reason a child reads is to take a test, reading becomes a miserable experience.  One of the children I have tutored made 4 A's, 4 B's and 1 C.  She is flying high.  Now she is ready to quit tutoring because she does not need it.  When I ask mom what she wanted to do, Mom was wise enough to say the child is doing too well to change things. This is the child that did not want me to teach her anything.  Hopefully I can get her to the library this summer for the summer reading program.  It will be such a joy to see her read for fun. 
Another student's grades have come up, but reading was an F.  I have been working with her but she has felt her grade at 72 in reading was good enough.  I tried to warn her that this was not a good enough grade. She was pleased because it was better than the F from before.  Pushing her is like pushing a rope so I gently do what she will allow.  We will use more balance board activities to help her.  She wants tutoring to be just help me with my homework.  She does not understand that reading affects all her grades. Now she is interested in working on reading more.  She will also go to summer school in reading. 
Another child is not improving as much.  When a family member told me she needed help, I told them that often I do not get her as she is somewhere else.  Often children who struggle in school are more interested in other things and do not understand the importance of reading.  How much do you like to do difficult things in your life?  A good example of this is someone who struggles to manage their money. How often do they read blogs like The Simple Dollar?
Another child that was told he could not pass third grade in October is going to pass.  He is also going to take summer school reading.  How much longer I will work with him is unknown.

Teaching with Dominos

It amazes me how busy life gets when you have something you want to do. A first grader, who is important to me, needs me to teach him right now. He is smart and yet does not do his work. We are using dominos to encourage him to get his math facts. He is good at concentration but we are already using that for Phonics. We started out only playing two hands at a time. The game goes to 250 points so we keep the score going for several days. I shuffle so he can play first and then he has to shuffle so I can play first. He would be glad to play first all the time but part of his problem with school is he likes to be in control. When playing with adults, players shut down the big dominoes to keep the opponents score down. When playing with children to teach math I let the big numbers stay as long as possible. The bigger score possible the more math is used. Also this teaches math estimation as the one to go out first gets the other person's points left in their hand. He would like to estimate when he plays too but that is part of the rules and we do not change rules in a game in the middle of the game. We have done this for two weeks and sometimes he is ready to play 4 hands instead of just 2 when we have time.

Jumping on a trampoline

Often I seem to work with children who need to move to learn. Also, too many children have eye problems that are not found until they have missed too many learning opportunities. One thing that I have found to help is the mini trampoline. It helps channel the energy as well as help the challenged learner to retain the things being taught. This is especially true to memorize facts. So many times the schools are geared to the child who can sit quietly and be still for long periods of time. How often is the learning challenged child told they are dumb just because someone does not know how to teach them.

Light on the subject

Put a little light on the subject. How many times I said this, I do not know. My child would try to read in the dark. My older children had eye problems with 20/20 and 20/15 vision. Eye problems can mean so many things. A child who needs glasses can often figure out that others can see things he or she cannot. When he or she see others copy off the school board and he or she cannot, it is often obvious help is needed.
The child or adult with dyslexia or Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (SSS) or Irlen dyslexia often cannot tell you there is a problem. He or she does not know that everyone else does not see like he or she does. When he or she looks on her neighbor's paper it looks like his or hers. Teachers and parents also do not know to ask if SSS could be a problem. I would like to share what my son wrote about SSS.
Dyslexia combined with Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome makes it a challenge to read, write, draw, do math, take tests, read music, spell or take notes. It is hard to explain to the music teacher that the notes move and you are not sure which ones to play. Reading by the Colors by Helen Irlen, The Gift of Dyslexia, the Del Kennedy interview and Internet research have helped me investigate Dyslexia and SSS. My own struggles and successes are also helping me help others.
My project has come about because this year, I have been found to have Dyslexia and Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome. It is embarrassing to try to explain to others why I wear a hat in band practice or wear dark glasses at the concert, why I will not wait tables at the chili supper, why I cannot finish reading the list of things to do while helping decorate, and why I do not try to learn to dance. I will try to show why in this report.
When we were decorating for the chili supper, the person in charge became irritated with me and said, "Just get over it!", when I told her I could not finish the list. Her son seemed to think I was being rude to his mom because I would not co-operate by finishing the list. I could not make them understand I could no longer read it. At the chili supper, I refused to wait tables because I could not tell exactly where the floor is. The carpet has a pattern and the pattern swirls when I look at it. Carrying food across a floor that appears to swirls does not sound like a good idea to me. I also do not try to learn to dance because the floor is swirling. It is embarrassing to have others think I am stupid when I cannot finish my work in speech class and the teacher thinks I am just not c0-operating. Often adults will not let me help with what I can do because I cannot do other things they ask me to do. Trying to explain to my parents is difficult also because they are just now beginning to understand what I see. I have tried different color glasses, highlighters, papers, been tested by Evelyn St. John at Rogers State University and had adults read to me when I could not longer focus.
The difficulty with my project is that people do not know what I am talking about. Also, it takes more time to read the materials or have them read to me. Typing is also a big challenge. Reading by the Colors by Helen Irlen helped me by explaining that there is a name for the kind of Dyslexia I have. The Gift of Dyslexia showed me that some people who have dyslexia are also geniuses.
I have learned to turn on all lights in my room and turn the book a certain way so the shadow is right for me to read. When it is cloudy and gloomy there is no glare to hurt my eyes. A sunny day has a glare on everything. I was excited when I found a line reader in a color I could use to read. After reading for 11 minutes my eyes hurt so much I could no longer read. With my glasses I can often read for 2 to 3 hours. I also no longer get carsick when I wear my glasses. Glare protection is needed by 97% of people with SSS.
The interview with Del Kennedy helped me understand how to explain what is happening. The only legal pad in blue (the color I need) is too light. Del Kennedy has been in the paper several times. He learned to read at age 59 when it was discovered he needed yellow glasses to learn to read.
If you know anyone who sstruggles in school please help them research this information to see if it will help.

Why can't I learn this

How often in life have you or I tried to learn something that it seemed others learned so easily? Why could we not learn it? Maybe we needed a different way of learning or just a different teacher? One thing that pointed me in this direction was my sister. One day she was applying for a job. She was young with little experience. The employer kept asking is she knew how to do things she had not been shown. Finally in flustration she told him, I am smart enough to learn anything you are smart enough to teach me. She worked that job successfully for many years.