GIANTmicrobes

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Teaching phonics



I made this video to offer a few tips I learned for teaching phonics from the book Overcoming Dyslexia, as well as from other sources.

This video shows just the beginning stages of teaching phonics. Obviously words get more complicated, there are blends, vowel and other letter combinations, digraphs and more to teach. Reading is much more complicated than it seems to be on the surface. It is especially complicated to people with dyslexia.

Teaching dyslexics to read is not an easy task. That is why I am glad I am not alone anymore. When I first had my son tested for dyslexia and told my suspicions were right, I was left pretty much on my own for teaching him. After much research, however, I finally found Reading Horizons at Home. This program not only covers all the rules of reading (and rules for things that don't follow the rules), but offers plenty of interactive activities to make learning more complete. It thoroughly teaches reading skills by having each lesson build on the next (so the learning is compounded). Then there are vocabulary lessons and library lessons to round out the education. The company also has books that include the vocabulary for each lesson so you can provide your reader with even more practice. The phrase "practice makes perfect" couldn't be more true when it comes to reading.

If you have a struggling reader in your home, it is worth checking out Reading Horizons at Home. I can assure you this program will make reading lessons more fun for your dyslexic learner and for you.

Recognizing frustration while studying

We all have our ups and downs, our good days and bad. If we pretended everything was OK, we were all the more frustrated that everything was NOT OK.

When it comes to helping my son with his schoolwork, it is essential I know when he's having a bad day or struggling through the work. If I keep pushing or insist that we get something done, everything will come crashing down.

Case in point: I had my son take a spelling worksheet with him to the babysitter's house to complete. When he gets home I usually check his work, go over all the successes and misses. I make a point to state that he did a great job, because I know with reading and spelling especially, he tries his best.

On this particular occasion, he put the wrong word in a blank to complete a sentence. I was trying to remind him that he needed to look back over his work to make sure things made sense, but he burst into tears. He hasn't done that in a while, so it surprised me and I started to try to explain that mistakes happen and I went on and on. But the crying didn't cease.

I should have recognized right away that he was not having a good day. Maybe he was tired or hungry. No matter what the issue was, I should have backed off immediately and let him have his moment of frustration. By insisting on going over this mistake, I made things worse.

As it turns out, he had tried extra hard on the exercise and even one mistake was more than he could take. He had read the word before the blank wrong and the word he put in the blank made sense with the wrong word. The mistake was more of a reminder of his dyslexia and how much it plagues him.

I finally backed off and hugged him and rubbed his back and said nothing. There's no amount of talking or explaining that can make a moment like that better. He knows he is smart and he knows he is talented in many other areas. He knows he is dyslexic and knows what that means, so I don't need to tell him all that again. I just need to let him get his frustrations out and then we can move on.

I find it usually helps to leave the exercise alone and go on to a different subject altogether.

Do you have a trick you use to help ease frustrations with schoolwork?

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Little reminder of time

Don't forget to Spring Forward today so you aren't an hour late tomorrow.

Happy Pi Day

It's Pi Day and you may be wondering why you should care. What's all the hubbub about Pi?

Well, for me, it's personal. I use Pi often when I'm at work because I work with circles a lot. I design medals that are circular and sometimes we put those medals on flat circular platforms that we engrave along the edges of. I'm constantly figuring the circumference of those circles I work with.

Pi also represents the part of math I like. I'm an artist and never took to math very well. It's very set in stone and has rules that can't be broken and just never seemed very creative to me. Well, besides my son's dad (who's studying to be a math teacher) telling me I'm wrong, Pi proved I'm wrong. Pi is irrational, can't be set in stone because it never ends, and several musicians get very creative with the use of Pi.



To see more pi music videos, go to piday.org. A violinist played Pi out to 200 digits. A pianist played a beautiful composition using Pi. And several other talented artists created tributes to Pi as well.


***


Pi Day is on March 14th because the first three digits of Pi are 3.14. Those are the only ones I work with. But there's more to Pi than meets the eye! Here's a few fun facts to help you celebrate.

Pi represents the relationship between a circle's diameter and circumference. The diameter is the width of the circle and the circumference is the distance around it.

The numbers of Pi go on forever because it is an irrational number. Those crazy mathematicians have got it calculated out to a trillion digits past the decimal with the help of computers, but it will never come to an end, will never repeat and will never die.

You can find the first 10,000 digits of Pi here. If you are feeling really ambitious, see the first 1,000,000 numbers of Pi here.

For more information about Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day, see the Wikipedia entry on it here.

The Wikipedia entry mentions that March 14 is also Albert Einstein's birthday. Is this mere coincidence or a time when fate took science into it's own hands? (Talk about irrational!)

Anyway, find ways to celebrate here or come up with some terrific ideas of your own.

Why? Because when you make math and learning fun, kids actually want more. Get creative with math and you might just discover new and fun ways to get creative with all your educational efforts.

P.S. My son actually jumped for joy when he heard it was "Pie" day. When I showed him a printout of the first 10,000 numbers of Pi, he was less enthusiastic until I decided we should celebrate with pie. Pie is circular after all.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Home schooling made easy

Modern technology has made my job as a home-schooling working parent much easier. Especially when you take into account my son's learning disability.

My son's dyslexia made using traditional books and worksheets a horrible experience for both of us. They caused him headaches, frustration and low self-esteem when he wondered why they were so easy for everyone else.

They caused me frustration because it was hard to find a different way to teach him, especially when I was at work. My goal was to have him do his homework while I was at work and then work with him one-on-one when I got home. Not being able to use books and worksheets easily made this goal next to impossible to attain.

When I first started my home-schooling quest, there were computer software programs like Reader Rabbit that I could use to provide my son with an entertaining, multi-sensory education. But as he got older the software was no longer useful. He told me it was too childish.

Then came the iPod Nano. I could download Discover Channel, The History Channel and National Geographic Channel shows onto it and he could watch and learn. I could locate all kinds of programs and TV shows on iTunes that pertained to what we were studying in art, history, science and more.

I also did a lot of Internet research to find software, online games, audiobooks and more to help with other subjects. As a bonus, he's learning the all-important lesson of memorizing user names and passwords.

Recently I've rediscovered podcasts. I never paid much attention to them before because I only thought of them as newsy things that didn't have much educational value for my son. However, there a lot of truly worthy ones out now with very valuable lessons. Many people I've spoken to recently about them didn't realize there are video podcasts out there now. Those are very helpful with cooking lessons. I found podcasts that teach foreign languages, math, grammar, science and more. Just go to iTunes, click on the Podcasts tab at the top and browse around to see what's available. I also found a lot of podcasts I wanted just for me (like getting a virtual tour of Europe).

Are there any different methods you use to teach your kids? Please share them with me.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Tax time a taxing time

It's tax time again. I've been gathering my receipts, documents and previous year's returns, sitting in front of the computer and repeatedly saying, "I don't know" whenever the TurboTax program asks me a question.

It's a reminder of how disorganized I feel this time of year even though I save all the documents I know I'll need.

It's also a reminder of how I need to teach my son about finances. It's a subject that was quickly mentioned in school when I was a kid. I think we learned how to write checks and then moved on to cooking class.

Many high school kids entering the world have no idea about the world of credit cards, mortgages, income vs. expenses, etc. Yet it is so very important for them to know. The reason so many banks are struggling right now is because of poor credit decisions (on their part as well as the part of the people they gave the credit cards and loans to).

Then there's the idea of running a business. I spent most of yesterday going over beginning and ending inventory for a business I no longer run (ended in 2008) but am still suffering the residual effects from. I never had any business training in high school or college and I found out the hard way that there's a lot more to it than great customer service.

As parents, we need to make sure our kids go out into the world with a solid understanding of finances and accounting. We don't want them ending up dirt broke, living paycheck to paycheck. Even people who make a lot of money can ruin their financial lives if they don't know what to do with it. Being successful in your career is only half of the equation. The other half is using that money wisely so you don't end up losing your shirt to creditors or losing your house to the mortgage companies.

I did some research and found a DVD that helps explain the basics of accounting. It's called Best Practice Institute's Accounting In An Hour - Get Smarter Faster DVD by Rick J. Makoujy, Jr.. High schoolers will definitely gain from this DVD that turns a sometimes dull topic into something they can enjoy and learn. It answers questions like: What is the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet? Why is budgeting so important? Why do some profitable companies run out of money? It is highly rated by those who have used it to get through a college course or those who simply needed to understand accounting.

For teaching the basics of investing and business to your high school children, there's an audiobook by Peter Lynch and John Rothchild called Learn to Earn: A Beginner's Guide to the Basics of Investing and Business. The authors state that the basics of investing are not taught in school and a failure to understand it can lead to tragic consequences. They cover the stock market as well as savings plans and 401(k).

For younger children, I found that simple finances can be taught with an allowance. My son was constantly asking me how much money he is owed from his allowance and we came up with a plan to let him know. He keeps a log of his chores and how much he gets paid for each chore. If he borrows money before "pay day" then we mark it off the log. There's also a great video on BrainPOP for younger kids about budgeting that helps explain income and expenses. (If you don't have an account, there's a free 5-day trial.)

Now that my son's a little older, I think I'm going to take his financial education a little further. One of the middle schools in the state had a lesson where the students started their own (fake) business. They had to decide what their business would be and work up financial plans to run it. They had to figure out how much the business was making and how much they needed to spend to keep it going. It was pretty basic, but taught the students a lot. They learned how to cut costs in order to stay in the black for one thing. And they also learned that it takes more to run a business than great customer service. That's information I could have used before I started my business.

If you have any other suggestions for teaching middle school students about accounting, budgeting and finances in general, I'd love to hear them.