So what do you do as a parent over the summer to keep the learning moving forward? We have to empower ourselves to keep teaching our kids. Here are some ideas. . . Remember students have been engaged on a daily basis during the school year in a structured practice on a daily basis. Students were engaged in keyboarding, decoding, writing, math, logic/reasoning, vocabulary development, reading, discussion, etc. on a daily basis. My students used HANDLE activities consistently from January to March.

If you want your child/teen to journal this summer, let it be via e-mail to a grandparent or relative instead of by hand.

As far as reading and decoding, students in middle school must read out loud for a total of one hour a day at this point. That might mean 15 minutes in the morning after crazy straw, blow pipes or blow soccer, face tapping and skull tapping. It could be another 15 minutes in middle of day, etc. Make sure whatever your preteen is reading, it is below his/her reading level when reading out loud.

We have parents also have to create a schedule for our kids and then just stick with it.

There is also a keyboarding course for a half credit that Merik can register for on FLVS - http://www.flvs.net/areas/flvscourses/Pages/Course%20Catalog/CourseListing.aspx?CourseID=77 .It is no cost to you.

There is also a 6th grade reading course that is offered through FLVS -http://data.fldoe.org/crsCode/68/Language%20Arts/Reading/pdf/1008010.pdf . Again, no cost to you.

You can not register as a Thinking Center Academy student with it, however, because we are no longer a McKay recipient program.You can just register as a homeschooler for now. Let me know if you need help with this.

I hope that this helps and you feel more assured. It takes work, structure and daily intervention for our kids to continue their progress over the summer.

What is Phono-Graphix®?

It is simply the most well respected reading method around and we have trained over 5000 students to read easier at The Thinking Center since 1998.

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Phono-Graphix® is a reading method researched and developed by Read America, Inc. It is based upon extensive clinical experience with children and rigorous research in the fields of reading, cognitive psychology, learning theory, child development, motivation theory, and linguistics.

Phono-Graphix® has been shown to be 98% effective in helping all readers regardless of learning disabilities, to bring their word identification and word attack test scores up to grade level after an average of 12 hours of one-on-one training.

Phono-Graphix® addresses the true phonetic nature of the English language.

The English written language is a phonetic code, meaning that each sound in a word is represented by a symbol or sound picture. This is surprising to many people, including teachers, who believe that our written code is chaotic. We can see that our code is completely phonetic, however, once we understand.

Written English uses some sound pictures that are one letter, such as those in the word cat; each letter represents one sound. Other sound pictures are made up of two or more letters, such as the oa in oat and theou in out.

Some sounds are shown with two or more letters.

There is variation in the code.

Most sounds have more than one way in which they can be represented. The sound 's', for instance, can be represented in these ways: sat city voice house

Sound pictures are sometimes reused. The same sound picture that spells the sound 'ee' in beach spells the sound 'e' in bread and the sound 'a-e' in steak.New readers must learn to try each possibility when they encounter unknown words with sound pictures that represent more than one sound.		There is overlap in the code.

Segmenting is the ability to separate the sounds in spoken words.

To understand and use our sound picture code, we must be able to access the sounds.

To read a sound picture code, we must be able to connect isolated sounds into meaningful words.

Blending is the ability to blend sounds into words

Phoneme Manipulation is the ability to pull sounds in and out of words

We need this skill because a sound picture can represent more than one sound. We must be able to try the various sounds that a sound picture might represent. For example, ow can be both "oe" and "ow." As the reader decodes an unknown word, for example brown, he or she may try "oe" first. When "broen" doesn't make sense, he must slide out the "oe" and slip in the "ow" to get"brown."

Children learn best as active participants in discovery. Phono-Graphix® lessons engage the child in active discovery helping him to build up solid understanding of the nature of the code and to become adept at the skills needed to use it

"The child only really understands that which he has created." - Jean Piaget

For more information, ask a Thinking Center Reading Specialist or Amy F. Weinberger, the Director.

Jake’s Story

Chiildren from the same families are take different journeys. There are many journeys that parents are familiar with and can easily go along for the ride. For example, when our daughter, Erin, was born nine years ago, it was beautiful. Everything went right. She nursed easily, she liked to be cuddled and loved being with people. Being out and about was fun for her. Her transitions were easy; her milestones normal. She loved learning and it seems easy for her to learn. When she walked into a room, she lit it up with her exuberance. It is because of her that her brother is as compassionate as he is. She has taught him patience, empathy and kindness, the gift of music and singing, tolerance for others, good school habits and a variety of other great things.

When our son was born seven years ago, it was also a beautiful experience. But his journey has been different and the ride a bit more bumpy and unknown. Yes, he was a healthy bouncing baby boy, thank G-d, but something in my gut told me that there was something a bit off. I remember telling my husband right after the birth – please call the O.T. (occupational therapist). “Why?” he questioned. I replied, “Because he isn’t flexible. His body is rigid. He seems uncomfortable with himself.” Now, I know he was only a couple of minutes old and the whole birth experience is quite traumatic for a baby. I mean just trying to get out is some kind of magic!

Jake was three months old when we visited our occupational therapist, Nancy Marsh. It was true – Jake had sensory integration problems. Now this might not sound like a big deal; it might even sound made-up. Trust me – it’s real and it affects the dynamics of an entire family. Matter-of-fact, I would go as far to say it could be a predictor of attention problems down the road.

Jake had so many challenges standing in his way to be successful. First, his language system was delayed. Frustration took the form of intense, long and exhaustive tantrums. We wished we would have taught him more sign language. Second, transitions and listening were impossible. Third, he couldn't remember sequences like the alphabet; he had trouble word finding and remembering a friend's name. He is dyslexic. Fourth, By 12:30 each day, his mental energy controls were spent. The fallout was traumatic. He had no memory of his tantrums either. That's when I knew it was chemical and I had to do what I was avoiding – medication.

As a learning specialist and CEO of The Thinking Center, I have had just about every intervention at my disposable to use. Jake has had speech and cognitive training, sensory integration diets, dietary changes, controlled environments such as home schooling and adjusted schedules. He has participated in The Listening Program®, reading intervention and a variety of behavioral management plans. I even went as far to co-create Camp Arrow for kids like him. All these interventions did paid off and were in the best possible order, but there were still missing pieces.

This year Jake finally turned seven and entered kindergarten at Goldie Feldman Academy. By the end of the 2^nd week of school, his teacher, Shonna Brady, was reporting lots of the same learning and transition issues that my husband and I and Dr.Horvat had documented. That was it. It was time for medical intervention. In September we started the journey of evaluation and then Ritalin with Dr. Kadison.

I picked Jake up from school that day. He looked up at me and said, "Mom, I could focus today. I did it!" I really couldn’t believe he said that. I was hoping something would help him but I couldn’t believe he could notice so quickly. Soon after, we also decided to have one more doctor on our team. We added Dr. Rehmani to our list. We switched to Concerta because the fallout at the end of the day with the Ritalin was a sudden crash and old behaviors were unavoidable. Five weeks into Concerta, his teacher told me over the phone, “Jacob can finally be the little boy he wants to be.”

So, who is Jake now - Jake is 13 years old, and an ingenious preteen who I love being with. He always has a logical plan and a solution. He is charming, funny, and lovable and we are enjoying his journey so much more. So, his sister, Erin - a little.

So, what is the lesson to all of this – always go with your gut, gather the best people around you, read and train yourself to know information, get a plan, go outside of the box, get your child the help he needs.