Tips for Parents:

Parent Teacher Conferences

 
Getting the most out of parent teacher conferences with Board Certified Educational Therapist Bonnie Terry. She talks about how parents should prepare for parent teacher conferences to get the most out of the conference. When you prepare as a parent for parent teacher conferences you help set your child up for a better school year. Taking the time to prepare lets your child’s teacher know that you are an aware parent that is caring and concerned about your child whether they are doing great and making all a’s or if they are struggling. There are some specific things you can do to create a partnership feeling with the teacher so that your child has a terrific school year.

Parents Checklist for Parent Teacher Conferences:

Here is the quick down and dirty list of what you need to let the teacher know during parent teacher conferences:
1. if your child has allergies or frequent ear infections
2. if you suspect any learning problems
3. how much time it has been taking your child to do their homework
4. If your child is under a 504 or an IEP, give the teacher a copy of the 504 or IEP
5. show the teacher samples of homework-
i) an assignment that was very hard
ii) an assignment the really enjoyed doing

Parent Teacher Conferences Tip 1

What are some things you want to tell your child’s teacher during your parent teacher conferences that will help your child learn easier?
If your child has allergies, has frequent ear infections or had them in the past, if you suspect there might be a learning problem, and how much time it is taking your child to do their homework – whether it is done very quickly or it takes a long time is important. If your child is completing their work correctly and quickly they may not be challenged enough. If they are taking a long time there may be a learning problem hindering there ability to complete the work in a reasonable amount of time. Again, parent teacher conferences give you the parent the opportunity to have these kinds of discussions with your child’s teacher.

Parent Teacher Conferences Tip 2

Why do you need to tell the teacher if your child has allergies or has had or has frequent ear infections during your parent teacher conferences?
When your child has allergies or ear infections their ears are often plugged up and then they aren’t hearing the instruction as clearly as they should, so teachers need to be aware of that – teachers can check to be sure they understood the instruction. Your child may need preferential seating to help out with this too. If your child had frequent ear infections when they were in the primary grades they may have missed out on some critical instruction regarding reading such as phonics. Their ability to speak clearly, spell, and sound out words may have been compromised by the plugged up ears. Sometimes children even need speech therapy as well as tubes in their ears to correct the loss of instruction they had during this time.

Parent Teacher Conference Tip 3

Why is it important to tell the teacher how much time your child is spending on homework – does that have anything to do with a possible learning problem?

The time element will help the teacher to gage how your child does their work independently. The time element also is an indicator of possible learning problems as is whether your child likes reading or math – you can do an informal assessment with our Learning Disability Screening Tool to see if there might be an actual learning problem happening.

Parent Teacher Conferences Tip 4

What is a 504 and an IEP? Doesn’t the teacher already have a copy of your child’s 504 or IEP?

They are both legal documents to help your child. The 504 is done for accommodations or modifications within the classroom. An IEP is an Individualized Education Plan when your child needs additional help through a resource class or a special day class. Your child’s teacher typically knows if your child is under a 504 or an IEP, but that doesn’t mean they have had a chance to read it to see what is in it. Remember, these are both legal documents that need to be complied with, so when you had the teacher a copy during your parent teacher conferences it lets them know you are aware and it gives them easy access to the document. you do not want to create an adversarial relationship with your child’s teacher but you do want to ensure cooperation and a partnership with them. Parent teacher conferences are a perfect opportunity for you to set that relationship up for the rest of the school year.

Parent Teacher Conferences Tip 5

Why should you bring in some of your child’s homework to show the teacher during your parent teacher conferences?
Obviously your child’s teacher has seen their work before, but they don’t have your feedback then and they don’t see how your child is doing the work when they are not in a classroom situation. So, you want to bring in an assignment your child really enjoyed or found interesting as well as one that was very difficult so the teacher can get an idea of how your child is learning at home – when they are independently doing the work. When the teacher knows this, he or she can and usually does adjust their teaching accordingly. If a lot of students struggled on a particular type of assignment, they can re-teach the concept in a different manner. If your child is the only one or one of just a few, the teacher can make some slight changes for your child or those few to be sure they understand the concept.

Remember, you want to have separate folders for each of your children that contains work samples and the checklist of items you want to discuss when you go to their parent teacher conferences.

Does My Child Have a Learning Disability
 
or Learning Problem?

Bonnie Terry, recognized as America’s Leading Learning Specialist, explains the difference between a learning problem and a learning disability and then gives you several steps you can take to help your child improve their skills in just minutes a day on the FOX News Morning Show.

(There is more information on learning and how to improve learning skills below the video.)

What is the difference between a learning

disability and a learning problem?

 
The difference between a learning disability and a learning problem is how much the problem interferes with learning. It is the degree of the problem – and you can be gifted and have a problem and end up working harder than you need to. Homework time can be long and almost painful when there is something interfering with your learning. A learning disability is when you have a cluster of learning problems that impact learning. We actually find out the root cause of why you struggle.
 

What are some tell-tale signs of learning problems that may be part of a learning disability?

 
When a student takes too long to do their homework, when they don’t like reading or don’t like math – those are learning problems that may warrant looking at because there is a reason for it.  For example, children want to learn how to walk and talk – and even read early on, but when reading is hard, they decide they don’t like it – they don’t even know that it is hard – they just prefer not to do it. Same thing with math, when you don’t like math, it’s because something is interfering and making it harder than it needs to be. When you have a cluster of those learning problems, that’s when they become a learning disability.

Signs of Learning Problems:

Take too long to do their homework

Know they have an assignment but can’t remember what it is

Have trouble understanding directions

Doesn’t seem to work up to their abilities

Doesn’t like to read or struggles with reading

Doesn’t like math

Is there anything a parent can do to help their child improve their skills even if they have a learning disability?

 
Yes, there are several things parents can do to help their child with learning problems or a learning disability. For example, reading fluency, the ability to read smoothly with ease is necessary for reading success. Parents can do reading fluency training with their child very easily. We use our Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills for that. After spending five minutes improving their child’s reading fluency we suggest that you play games like the Comprehension Zone because it can be played for reading as well as listening comprehension. Finally, you can teach your child study skills – we do that with our Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills, and of course, read with your child.

We always hear that it’s important to read with your child – that just reading more will help – is there a special way to do that that will make a bigger difference?
 
Reading to your child and with your child is vitally important to reading success but the next step is even more critical. The next step is to ask the right questions after reading. You can actually even just read a few paragraphs or a few pages and then ask the usual suspects – the who, what, when, where, how, and why BUT then you need to ask about sizes, shapes, colors, scenery, movement, and mood. Those questions help one to visualize what you read or listened too. That’s when you get true comprehension – when you can picture what you have read or listened too.  You can have your child write those things down in the fill-in-the-blank graphic organizers that are found in our Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills too, because writing is the doing part of thinking.

Remember, with just a few minutes a day you can help your child with their learning skills even if they have a learning disability!

Back to School Tips with


Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Bonnie Terry, America’s Leading Learning Specialist, shares some of her favorite back to school tips on FOX News Morning Show.

Watch here for 3 of Bonnie Terry’s Back to School Tips:

1. Backpack Organization
2. Time Management
3. Secret Tools to Help with Homework: the dreaded word problems and writing assignments

(More tips under the video!)

Don’t forget to sign up for additional step-by-step homework tips to your right.

Back to School Tip 1:

The school year is about to start or has just started. Be sure to let your child know how excited you are about their new school year and that you know they will have a good experience with their new teacher. You may want to meet their new teacher either a few days before school starts or during the second week of school – just to introduce yourself. That effort will let the teacher know that you are an interested committed parent.

Back to School Tip 2:

If last year was a difficult year, your child had a hard time, let them know that you remember how rough it was, but that this is a new year and you want to help them to have a really great experience this year. Ask your child for their suggestions for what they think you might do to help them have a great year.

Back to School Tip 3:

Look at the newspaper ads together, plan what kinds of supplies they may need this year. Take a trip together to get school supplies – notebooks, book covers, pens, pencils, backpack, assignment book, etc. Think ahead of time about the different subjects your child has so you get different colored notebooks, book covers, and folders – one color per subject so that all of their math books & folders are one color, English books another etc. This will help your child keep track of their work and make finding the correct folder easier.

Back to School Tip 4:

Help your child organize their backpack by using color-coded folders and book covers – and you may want to check it the first few weeks to help them keep it organized.

Back to School Tip 5:

Help your child organize their study or homework area so they have the supplies they need in one place. Keep a container filled with the supplies they need. You also want an area that is free of clutter and distractions for them to work in. It can be a desk in their room, in the family room, or even at the kitchen table. You may also want to help them organize their desk (after school) if they have trouble with it on their own.


Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills includes planning calendars and school supply lists for different grade levels. The Writer’s Easy Reference Guide is the ultimate cheat sheet for any writing assignment and the BT Easy Math Guide is the ultimate cheat sheet for any math assignment whether it’s addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, word problems, fractions, decimals, or percents.
My last back to school tip is to remember to enjoy learning, learning should be engaging, interesting, and a bit challenging. For more homework tips, don’t forget to sign up for our 10 free homework tips at the top on the right (above my photo) and start your back to school time with a bang.

Parents want to help their kids improve their skills. That is a given as far as I’m concerned. All parents want the best for their children and when learning reading, writing, or spelling is hard they often don’t know where to turn. Parents often spend a small fortune seeking the help they need for their child.  I know what it is like, being a parent as well as a teacher.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased materials that haven’t worked. That is what I keep in mind when I design materials to use with my struggling (LD, dyslexic, ADHD, or gifted) students – whether they are in 1st grade, 5th grade, 8th grade, high school, or even adult students. I want to create materials that will work, that will improve their reading skills, writing skills, and spelling skills and be affordable at the same time. It truly is one of my passions.

Each reading, writing, and spelling product is developed out of the needs of my students and is tested with them to be sure they work. We look at ease of usage and the results the reading, writing, and spelling materials produce. But, I don’t want you to take my word for it. After all, I created the materials, although I am truly inspired when I create them, so I can’t take total credit at all!

What I would like to do is to share what Donna Morello has to say about our program here – our Awaken the Scholar Within Program where I coach you on how to help your children yourself and provide you with the reading, writing, and spelling materials to do so. Because I walk you through the materials – the program, holding your hand so to speak, they work. You are no longer alone just buying something and hoping it will work.

With our Awaken the Scholar Within Program you have the opportunity to ask me your questions twice a week. You have every avenue of support available to you. Do yourself a favor and listen in to hear what Donna Morello and Janet Landerholm have to say.

Donna Morello

Janet Landerholm

Awaken Your Scholar Within Today! Give our international office a call today: 530-888-0351

Mid Summer Training – What You Can Do to Prepare Your Kids for School

I Can Hardly Believe It? Check it out…
The FREE Live Teleseminar is filling up fast – Only 100 68 52 Spots left!
Reserve your spot now.

Mid-Summer Training Call

I have had so many calls from parents recently, wondering how to help their child between now and when school starts back up. They realize it’s not too late to give their child a boost, but they also want to be sure they have an enjoyable rest of the summer. So, I decided to have a teleseminar where I will present information on summer activities to help your child’s skills improve as well as activities rich in experiences and family time.

I’m hosting a FREE Live Teleseminar on Wednesday July 14th at 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, and 5 pm Pacific. Upon registering you will receive a FREE Handbook on the 5 things you can do to help your child over the summer. Those that attend live will receive a surprise FREE gift.

Searching for Mid-Summer Activities to Improve Your Child’s Skills and Still Have Fun?
FREE Live Teleseminar on Wednesday June 2nd at at 8 pm EST, 7 pm CST, 6 pm MST, and 5 pm PST.
Space is limited. You can attend via phone or via internet!

Reserve your Teleseminar line now at:
Title: Mid-Summer Activities to Improve Your Child’s Skills and Still Have Fun
Time: Wednesday, July 14th at 5:00pm Pacific
Listening method: Phone + Web Simulcast

To attend, visit:
Mid-Summer Training Call
LD Specialist and Board Certified Educational Therapist Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., is answering your questions about summer activities to help your child improve their skills. The teleseminar will be recorded; if you can’t attend, you’ll be able to listen later. Plus special surprise bonus just for registering! Those that attend live will receive another surprise FREE gift.

Mid-Summer Training Call

It’s the almost middle of Summer Vacation and as you know, it is the perfect time to give your child a boost in their learning skills, but you still want to have fun…

Join Bonnie Terry’s call and find out what you can do in just 20 minutes a day to boost your child’s reading, writing, and math skills and have fun at the same time.

I’m hosting a FREE Live Teleseminar on Wednesday July 14th at 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, and 5 pm Pacific. Upon registering you will receive a FREE Handbook on the 5 steps you can take to help your child over the summer even if they have a learning problem, LD, dyslexia. The activities and steps are for all age students – kindergarten through adults.

Those that attend the Live Teleseminar will also receive a surprise FREE gift. And, of course, if you can’t make it live on the call, you will get access to the recording!

Mid-Summer Training Call
FREE Live Teleseminar on Wednesday July 14th at 8 pm Eastern, 7 pm Central, 6 pm Mountain, and 5 pm Pacific.
Space is limited. You can attend via phone or via internet!

Reserve your space for the Teleseminar now at:

Title: Searching for Summer Activities to Improve Your Child’s Learning Skills and Still Have Fun?
Time: Wednesday, July 14th at 5pm Pacific, 6 pm Mountain, 7 pm Central, 8 pm Eastern.
Listening method: Phone + Web Simulcast

To register, visit:
Mid-Summer Training Call

Learn About:
1. How to improve your child’s reading, writing, and math skills in just 20 minutes a day
2. 5 steps you can take to help your child
3. Activities to do at home, in the yard, or in your neighborhood

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Hi, Bonnie.

We spoke on the phone when I ordered your materials, which I’ve since received. Thanks very much!

You mentioned at the time that you are open to questions as I began using the materials–and, of course, I now have those questions!

-My son will be entering 3rd grade. His 2nd grade teacher noted his reading fluency as low proficient at end of year (technically passing, according to the DRA2-28 which they started using this year). At some point in the last few months of school, some one of his reading teachers at school appears to have told him that he read at 120 words per minute, and he adamantly clings to this.

However, I clearly see where he is still skipping or guessing at words inaccurately (and I don’t know if they measured that). So, when I put the 5 minutes to reading book in front of him, he was insulted–very put off. I tried explaining to him that we were not measuring speed so much as accuracy, and that we could chart his accuracy as it improved. I explained that even adults use this program. I offered to let him start with one of the later exercise if we would then go back to the first and didn’t get much more cooperation than I had originally gotten (though he did a fairly good job of reading exercise 45). Do you have any thoughts on how to break the resistance without forcing him to do it?

-My son’s other complaint about the exercises is that they feel to him like tongue twisters because all the words sound the same, and he really doesn’t like that. Do you have any suggestions for changing that perception?

I am very interested to see if I can get him to use this program, and interested to see if we will see results–but I am meeting with HUGE resistance up front. I really don’t want to force him to do it because I think that will diminish the results.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Joan

Hi Joan,

I’m glad you see that he isn’t actually reading 120 words per minute with accuracy. I never understand how they are measuring the kids when they say things like that because you can see from what you’ve done already, that is NOT the REALITY! When you time him, you can show him what he actually did. That should start to get him to see the reality – his words per minute and mistakes per minute. Explain how you are scoring him. If you need to press the point, you can even have him total his words up after you time him, so he knows how many there are. I’ve had to do that with a few students over the years. I don’t do it to be ‘mean,’ but sometimes they need a reality check so you can move forward.

We start with easy words – because we are working on accuracy as well as speed. Big words are just little words (syllables) put together. If you can’t read the small words accurately, you won’t be able to read larger ones efficiently and accurately either – which will mean you will end up re-reading your social studies book or science book 3-4 times in order to be able to answer the questions.

I know this, this happened not only with many students, but with my own son. In fact, he flung his 3 pound social studies book at me saying, “Mom, I’ve read it 3 times and still can’t find the answers. You do it.” This was because of his skipping, repeating, or mispronouncing words. Once we consistently did the 5 Minutes to Better Reading he was able to read his book one time and get the answers – because he read with accuracy in a quick amount of time. Doing the program – 5 minutes a day, will end up saving hours and hours of homework time. We are looking at the big picture here – making his life easier for the rest of his schooling – which at a minimum is the next 10 years (through high school).

But, you really need to start at the beginning – even though it may seem easy at first. Even my adult students start at the beginning! You are competing against yourself, no one else! And, yes, some of the drills are like ‘tongue twisters’. That is on purpose – to be sure you learn to read exactly what is there. Your son may think it is ‘too easy’, but his ‘fussing’ about it is actually telling you how much he needs it – that it is actually taxing and stretching his visual processing system. Hang in there! And remind him, it is only 5 minutes a day. It is not like you are expecting him to work for 2 hours or even one hour. You are only asking 5 minutes. And, when you are consistent, you will see results in just a few days.

The more you do it, the easier it gets and the more they see themselves improving the easier it gets.

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

Can you do your own summer learning program?

Should you do your own summer learning program?

Fact: More than half of the achievement gap present in 9th grade between lower- and higher-income children can be explained by summer learning loss.

Make Learning Stick with learning games and reading fluency training over the summer. There are many things you can do at home to bridge that summer learning gap.

1. Reading Fluency using Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills…and Yes…it only takes 5 minutes to do. Sally Shawitz, author of Overcoming Dyslexia states, “I urge parents to make fluency training their number one priority.”
2. Take a weekly trip …to the zoo, a local park, the pool, the river, a local factory…and afterwards as a family write down what you did and what your favorite part was…using the fill-in-the-blank forms from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills and create a booklet to keep for all of your weekly trips.
3. Do some nature activities such as listening to outdoor sounds, nature rubbings, shape hike, incher hikes … again use the fill-in-the-blank forms from Ten Minutes to Better Study Skills to describe what you found or did.
4. Activities to do at home like making puppets and putting on a puppet show. Bake cookies together, have a backwards day where you eat dinner in the morning and breakfast in the evening, do add-on-stories. Again write down your favorite things or worse things about the activity.
5. Have a Game Night or a Game Day…choose learning games…they are fun as well as work on skills. Some great ones are The Sentence Zone (play & learn sentence building and grammar while having fun) , The Comprehension Zone (play & learn reading comprehension and listening comprehension), or the Math Zone (play & math calculation practice).
6. Read books together…and write a review or report on it, or have a review night where you all act as book reviewers of the book you read.

Check out the books, games, and guides here:

Reading

Writing

Math

Bonnie Terry, M. Ed., BCET

“FACT – Some Parents Are Giving Their Children A 2 To 4 Year Learning Advantage In Reading, Writing And Math In Just 20 Minutes A Day!”

The alarming realization that your child is struggling at school, followed by frustration of not knowing why, and the “is there anything you can do about it” often leads to sleepless nights. However, there is much that you can do to give your child reading help, writing, help, and math help. Join us on our upcoming call to find out more.

The upcoming private training call is Tuesday, March 2nd at 8 PM EST; 5 PM PST. To register for the call, just go to http://homeworkwars.com/privatetrainingcall