First, my complaint:  I don’t like the direction that reading instruction has taken in this country, moving as it has toward lock-step teaching of phonemic awareness, incessant teaching of reading comprehension ”skills” (e.g. finding the main idea, making inferences etc.), and ”close reading” strategies (where the child is restricted to just what is in the...Read More

One of the most interesting ”learning styles” that I’ve encountered over the course of my teaching is the highly-spatial ”at risk” thinker (I’ll call them “Imagers”).   These kids are often ”at risk” for being diagnosed with learning disabilities, dyslexia, and even ADHD.  However, for the most part, they simply think in a way that is...Read More

Reading is such an important part of the educative process, and whether your child is engaged in a school-directed distance learning program, or you’re creating your own homeschooling or unschooling program, literacy activities (reading, writing, speaking, listening), are likely to be a major part of whatever form these programs happen to take. However, there are...Read More

I’m not a big fan of the ‘science of reading’ mainly because phonics or phonemic awareness as it is sometime called, is usually presented in a very boring way using flash cards (sh + ah + puh) or combining phonemes on computer screens in the context of a ”fun” cartoonish game. But when I was...Read More

The sudden appearance of a worldwide pandemic, and the closure of most schools across the United States, has left many parents scrambling to provide homeschooling for their kids.  While in many cases the schools have taken the lead in this effort and are providing online learning for their students, in other cases parents are more...Read More