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"Moody" and "unpredictable" are adjectives parents will often use when referring to their teenagers.

Don't wait for him to turn 10 before you reveal that you are not in fact the hired help whose job it is to clean up after him.

The teenage years require a delicate balance between the young person's need to gain independence, and the parent's need to retain authority.

There has been an explosion in the prescribing of medication for very young children, particularly preschool and kindergarten boys (Juli Zito , Univ. of Maryland)

Good parenting requires sacrifice. Childhood lasts for only a few brief years , but it should be given priority while it is passing before your eyes

Hurt people hurt people.

Children mimic well. They catch what they see better than they follow what they hear.

Relationships matter:  change comes through forming trusting relationships. People, not programs change people.

Children today are under enormous pressures rarely experienced by their parents or grandparents. Many of today's children are being enticed to grow up too quickly and are encountering challenges for which they are totally unprepared.

Wouldn't it be nice if children would simply listen and learn.

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Reading Rescue – theory – part 1

 

 

There are 2 basic approaches to teaching reading:

  1. phonics based
  2. whole language

The traditional theory of learning established in the 19th century draws on the notion that children need to break down a complex skill into its smallest components and then put the components together to perform the complex skill.

Example – the complex skill of skiing

The components of skiing:

  1. putting boots and skis on
  2. walking on level, snow covered ground with skis
  3. turning while walking on level snow
  4. sliding on a gentle slope
  5. stopping in a “snowplow” position
  6. left turn
  7. right turn

With proper instruction and some practice most people can learn to ski relatively well in a short period of time.

a) “Phonetic reading instruction” applies the same theory. Start with the  smallest component and build from there:

  1. teach the sounds of the individual letters
  2. blend the individual sounds together to make words
  3. put individual words together to make meaningful sentences

Children are taught to dissect an unfamiliar word into its parts and join the parts together to read the new word. The child learns a decoding formula that can be applied whenever he encounters an unfamiliar word.

b) “Whole language reading instruction” is less structured and less focused. It stresses the flow and meaning of the text and emphasizes reading for meaning and using language in ways that relate to the child’s own life and culture. “Sounding out” words, so central to phonics is not stressed in whole language. Instead children are encouraged to decode each word through its larger context.

Next posting “Politics of Teaching Reading

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  A teenager’s brain is not just an adult brain […]

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