Empowering Parents: Sibling Surprises
November 13, 2015
Edited by Nancy Weinstein Editor’s Note: As the mother of two daughters who are so different and yet sometimes seem so similar, I am always drawn to sibling stories. In this second post in our Empowering Parents series, Laura, mother of two girls, Julia, 8, and Leah, 9, describes why she chose Mindprint. She explains how her family continues to use Toolbox. To protect the family’s privacy, these are not their real names. When we decided to give our children the test, we didn’t have any specific concerns about their learning abilities. We just thought why not find out if there is anything there, any specific learning strengths or weaknesses that we could work on, foster, and/ or support. Why not do everything you can… Read More
ADHD, It’s Not What You Think It Is
November 5, 2015
The term ADHD generally conjures an image of the boy in the classroom who gets into trouble and can’t keep his hands to himself. While there’s no denying that there are children with ADHD that fit the stereotype, many more do not. In fact, in recent years researchers now understand that ADHD is not a behavior problem. Rather, ADHD is a difficulty managing the complex systems of the brain that are needed to work and manage time efficiently. Common ADHD Symptoms in Children One consistent characteristic of students with ADHD is that they can’t effectively maintain attention for something they aren’t interested in. However, contrary to popular understanding, they can easily maintain lengthy interest in activities they enjoy. Dispelling stereotypes and recognizing ADHD symptoms in children are just two of the many topics… Read More
Empowering Parents: A Premature Arrival
October 30, 2015
Edited by Mindprint Staff In this story, Beth, mother of 8 year old Talya, describes why she used Mindprint Learning to calm her lingering concerns about her daughter who was born prematurely. (Editor’s note: To protect the privacy of the child, Beth and Talya are not their real names.) Talya is very bright, but moves notoriously slowly in many ways. She was born very early so I was concerned that there might be learning disabilities that we hadn’t seen show up yet, or the school hadn’t noticed, but lingered beneath her sweet exterior. Talya had a range of services provided when she was little, including occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech therapy. She worked so hard and was placed out of… Read More
Vintage Ed Mom: Summer Math II
May 29, 2015
By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff Last week, we had homeschooling mom and blogger Cait Fitz, (My Little Poppies) share some great ideas for integrating math skills into your summer days with the kids at home. This week, we’re reposting a blog I did a few years ago with a math teacher who has “seen it all.” Many of her students, most of whom have learning differences, benefit from summer school, but you may find integrating math into day-to-day activities is enough to keep skills and motivation going strong. We hope you find her advice useful, and as with all things, frame it in the context of your own child’s needs. Questions for our math teacher: 1. Any thoughts you wish… Read More
Does Your Child Need an Executive Function Coach?
April 10, 2015
By Sarah Vander Schaaff “What parents see is a very bright and intelligent child who can’t pass the grade because they can’t get the homework turned in.” What the child needs, Joyce Kubik says, is to learn simple skills to fit into the linear world when they need to. Kubik is the president of the nonprofit ADHD Coaches Organization, (ACO) a group that serves ADHD coaches and families. As a coach, she brings another level of expertise to her work: she has ADHD, too. For a person with ADHD, Kubik says, “…their brain is wired to be the person who sees everything and reacts to things—they are the movers and shakers.” Still, in a world with linear expectations, such as following… Read More
It’s Time for Parents to Change the Conversation…
March 20, 2015
By Nancy Weinstein As parents we really need to stop saying: the teacher, the curriculum, the lesson, or the test is bad. Really, we’ve just got to stop. The reality is that most teachers are highly competent. Most curricula are well-vetted and well-written. Most administrators put a lot of care into selecting the materials they believe will work best for their students. So don’t immediately assume the worst of our educators. Instead, consider starting with the assumption that the instruction is probably fine, but for whatever reason it is not working well for your child. Believe me, I’m not suggesting that you allow your child to struggle or be bored without asking for accountability. Quite the contrary. I’m simply suggesting a shift… Read More
Do they shed tears with those timed math quizzes? Here’s help.
January 30, 2015
Never The First to Finish: Why Pace Matters By Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff. This post originally appeared on the Getting Smart website as part of a series of blogs written by parents called, “Smart Parents.” Remember how it felt to be halfway through a math quiz and a classmate gets up and turns it in to the teacher? Maybe that other student rushed, or maybe he or she just happened to be super speedy. Either way, I always came to the same conclusion: I’m just never going to be that fast. Years have passed since I’ve had to take a math quiz. As an adult, I’m comfortable with my own strengths and weaknesses and the time it takes me to do… Read More
Let’s Share Notes: 7 Must-Reads on ADHD
November 22, 2014
By Sarah Vander Schaaff Today we examine some specific issues related to Attention and the increasingly common diagnosis of ADHD. To do this, Nancy and I are opening up our filing cabinet of great articles, digitally speaking, and sharing the ones we think you’ll find helpful. These articles are primarily from non-profit sources such as the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) and The Child Mind Institute. We also have several from The New York Times. You can find more academic literature, but we think these cover some broad and important ground. To put this “red flag” in perspective, our first suggested article discusses the fact that while ADHD is not considered a learning disability, it frequently goes hand-in-hand with various LDs…. Read More
5 Tips to Help them Finish their Summer Reading (and math)
August 15, 2014
By Sarah Vander Schaaff Perhaps you, too, once had a weekend in college when you realized you had two days to read 700 pages of Dostoyevsky. I planted myself in a coffee shop and inhaled The Brothers Karamazov, along with the fumes of java, until I got the job done, my own form of crime and punishment. With a few weeks left of summer, I can’t send my kids to a coffee shop, not without a hefty Starbucks bill and some raised eyebrows. But we have work to do! Sure, we’ve been reading, and yes, we’ve been doing math, but there are papers to fill out and more math to be done. How are we going to get it all… Read More
An Original Educated Mom: Nancy Weinstein
August 8, 2014
In the process of raising our kids, when we come up against an obvious “miss” in the things we depend on, whether it’s a highchair that could be better designed or a book that could have been better written, we have two choices: settle with the way it is, or take matters into our own hands. It’s the later choice that often drives us to obsession, as it’s done with a few parents I’ve profiled who’ve seen a need for something and then set off on a process of educating themselves and making their concepts a reality. I’ve interviewed moms who’ve figured out how to manufacture better lunch boxes; foster parents who have started charities for kids in the system;… Read More