If you're new to this blog, one of the things I like to do is add some tidbits about the school where I teach.  We spend quite a bit of time in the outdoors and the children really enjoy it.  And sometimes I hear children say, "I'm bored!"  I love it when children say they're bored.  It's such an opportunity to discover and explore that they wouldn't have had otherwise.  

A very wise woman once said, "All great things were created because someone was bored."  It gives children an opportunity to think within the stillness and have room within themselves to have new ideas.  Just as we adults need time and room within our days to think and organize ourselves, children need the opportunity to be bored.  So, the next time you hear, "I'm bored", embrace it and allow your child to be in the boredom for a while.  You just might be surprised when they come up with something amazing on their own!

I went into school yesterday for a little while to find this:

While it's not too bad, there's a lot of work to do!  Today the carpets are being cleaned, and then we'll be able to go in and set up soon.  I'm looking forward to setting up the space putting works out on the shelves!

This year, we once again have 24 children in the environment and my co-teacher Jennifer and I.  We will also have an intern from Xavier University with us named Caroline, and she's very excited to be with us.

When things start to get settled, I'll upload pictures of a more organized space.  The excitement is building and I can't wait to get started!!

An interesting insight to the development of a child's brain from infancy through 5 years of age.

An interesting comment from the article:   Researchers have shown that when parents spoke to their infants often, children learned almost 300 more words by age two than did children whose parents rarely spoke to them.
One of the reasons why it's so important to talk with children rather than at children. 


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While I'm still teaching at the same school, this year I'll be taking on some different roles.  I am going to be working with kindergarteners for part of the day exclusively on language/reading skills and speech is tied directly to reading abilities.  One of the most common symptoms of potential reading difficulties in preschoolers is the inability to come up with specific vocabulary for various items, as well as a delay in speech pattern development.  I've put this here as an easy reference.   Enjoy!

I hope to be updating this on a more regular basis with information about what I'm doing with these 5 and 6 yr olds in the environment.  

Learning to Read in a Montessori Environment

I came across this article on the web.  It's about how children learn to read in a Montessori environment.  Learning to read in a Montessori school is definitely different than a traditional route.  Hopefully you'll find it informative!

Enjoy!

It's About Time!

Life got very busy and I haven't posted in the past year.  Teaching, tutoring and taking graduate classes will do that to a person.

Good news today!  Here in the State of Ohio, a group of parents sued a school district near Columbus called Upper Arlington Schools.  Apparently their children were not getting the appropriate support needed to remediate their dyslexia, or specific language disability as it's also know.  So, the parents took action.

The suit alleges that the school district did not use the appropriate testing to identify the learning disability and then allowed the children to flounder for years without appropriate accommodations and remediation.  My heart breaks for these children and they deserve better.

You can read all of the findings here:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=95291298&key=ZWJjN2VjYTct&pass=ZTMxOS00OTFk

The school district and the parents came to an agreement without having it go to trial, and the school is agreeing to provide additional diagnostic testing and remediate children with specific language disabilities.  This is very timely for us in Ohio because Dyslexia is still not a "recognized" learning disability here.  And it should be.  Much work has been done to help get a law passed that recognize it, and we're close.  This should help.

"Dyslexia is not a learning disability"

If you live in the state of Ohio like I do, dyslexia is not currently acknowledged as a learning disability for children in elementary grades.  Can you believe it?  Those of us with dyslexic children and who work with dyslexic children know it is as real as a child with a fine motor issue.

There has been some lobbying efforts at the state level to get Dyslexia included in the list of acknowledged  learning disabilities for the past few years and now they're closer than ever.

Here is a link to the Ohio IDA's information on what they're doing to get the new Dyslexia law passed.

There is another organization called Wrights Law that gives advice on the legal side of getting services for your child.  They have a great page on dyslexia and what's needed for the child as well as additional information.

Wrights Law information on Dyslexia

Having a child with reading problems can be challenging.  Reading is one of the skills needed for people to be functioning members of our society.  If we can't read, our choices in life are very limited, and not giving a child the correct services needed to help him achieve his full potential should be criminal.  It falls on us as parents to be advocates for our children and push for correct services in schools or pay for it out of pocket like we are doing for our son.

Most teachers don't know what a dyslexic child needs or even how to identify the possibility of having a dyslexic child in their classroom.  Hopefully, at least in Ohio, this law will change that.  These children deserve the best they can get, and by acknowledging that dyslexia exists and is real and that these children require specific services, we'll have taken the first step in Ohio and will be on our way.