About the time you're reading this, we're tooling down the highway to begin our 2013 Big Loop speaking tour. First stop, Greenville, Tennessee (near Knoxville). Then we make our way past Atlanta, the southernmost tip of Alabama, and then we spend a chunk of time down in the promised land (Florida). If you're in the area make sure you stop by. I'm just guessing you need some encouragement . . . especially if you teach a special learner.

I know there is a ton of pressure on you, both externally and internally. The lies swirl around your head almost daily, but take courage, you're not alone and you're doing just fine. In fact, listen to this mom who wrote me after I spoke to their homeschool group, "Todd, I've heard many positive comments about that evening. One mom said, "He was so encouraging! He talked about all those things you are afraid to say out loud in case you are the only one that feels that way. I walked away thinking that I'm doing an okay job {homeschooling} after all!" 

Truth is, she is normal and doing a good job after all . . . and so are you.

Be real,

Todd

Think through social situations. What's required by the class, co-op, event, or activity you'd like your child to do? Will there be reading aloud? Writing? What about at check in--how will they sign up? Things that are no big deal for most kids can be huge roadblocks for struggling learners, even when they are perfectly able to participate in the class.

Get their siblings on board. Our son said his heart sank every time he saw a stack of name tags, "It's like making a billboard saying, 'I'm dyslexic' and sticking it to my chest." It was a big relief when his brother started just casually writing both tags at once. An alert sibling can intervene in difficult areas for their special needs brother or sister and build a lifelong bond in the process.

Clue in the adults in charge. Something as simple and friendly as Vacation Bible School can produce tremendous stress when they might get called on to read aloud or to write something for other people to read. Just explaining things to the authorities can smooth the way for your child to enjoy the event without fear of embarrassment.

Ask for accommodations. Our son thought he'd never be able to win academic awards like his brothers, until we thought to ask if he could dictate his essays instead of write them by hand or type. The next year, he won first place among all secondary students in a statewide essay contest, of all things! Asking for accommodations isn't cheating; it's allowing your child to work at his full potential.

Use legal language when you ask for help. If you say, "My son has a learning disability and we'd like to request accommodations," often program organizers will be legally required to help you out under the Americans With Disabilities Act. In fact, most folks are delighted to do so! Our severely dyslexic and dysgraphic son is taking a class in essay writing and keeping an A average because he got the accommodations he needed to succeed.

Don't let a learning struggle stop you. Anxiety, both theirs and our own, can keep us from trying outside activities that our children are well able to do-- activities that may bless their lives. Speak up and get the help they need, and then encourage them to get out there and do it. It's so worth it!

Yours in the battle,

Hal & Melanie

Got a son who's nine to twelve years old? Wondering what's up with the emotional rollercoaster or why they are struggling in school all of a sudden? Get geared up to make the teens years great with our LIVE online series, Boot Camp 9-12! Next session starts October 22nd. Sign up now!

The Verbal Math Lesson is one of those books I wish I'd had earlier in the homeschooling process. As its name implies, it is a verbal program. Level One is addressed to ages 4-7, and Level Two is addressed to ages 7-8. In Level One the first lesson is titled "Working with Nothing" (the concept of zero). The last lesson (31 in all) is "Subtracting double-digit numbers ending in 0". The range between is implied and is pretty thorough. In Level Two, instruction begins with "Operations with numbers ending in 0" and wraps up with "Multiplication and division by 9." Level Two also does a good job of covering--in 29 lessons--the material between, including addition and subtraction of double-digit numbers. The website indicates that Level 1 can be used with elementary students and Level 2 with Middle School students. It seems that the material is therefore less targeted to grade-level or age than to skill sets.

The authors rightly state in their introduction, "Verbal math, also called mental math, is a practical and time-honored method of solving mathematical problems. Math done with worksheets often slows children down. Shortcuts and computational tricks learned by doing math mentally allow children to bypass much of the tediousness they experience with written math." (. . .)

(To read the rest of the review, click HERE.)