Winter is Coming (and so is Fall)

Winter is Coming (and so is Fall) Well summer is in full swing now and everyone is hopefully enjoying a nice break from school work.  However fall is on the horizon and that means new subjects and new challenges as well. A new school year approaches. One of the things that really helped my kids was getting a tutor part way through the summer break to brush up on some of their problem areas, especially mathematics and science.   These topics always seemed to be troubled spots for my children. I guess that means they actually do take after me. My younger daughter had ADHD and some Visual Perceptual challenges, so a summer tutor really made a big difference in her education- especially a special education tutor.  The young lady we hired was very familiar with my daughters problems, including dealing with seeing some words differently than they actually appeared.  There was much coaching done over that summer. I had tried to work with my daughter myself, but I had not the training or understanding of what we were dealing with at the time.  Eventually, what happened with us is what happens to a lot of parent child instruction.  It becomes extremely frustrating and stressful. Both parties are not completely sure whats going on and study time becomes and argument. While watching the special education tutor, I learned there are many ways to teach and not all children benefit from the same   methods.  In fact this tutor had some very exciting methods and plans that my child actually began to enjoy working on and feel positive about.  As a parent, I claim amateur status.  But I learned so much from observing the   tutor working with my Daughter.  I would highly recommend summer tutoring to any one. However if your child has a few extra challenges I implore you to , first give them a nice summer break and them get a head start on the school year. Not only will your child be better prepared, they will be emotionally more comfortable in that   agonizing start of a new school year with new subjects, new teachers, and new class mates.  Every child can use a little more confidence, but to my child this was invaluable.