Yesterday at a baby shower, I ran into the mom of a former student who shared with me that her son, now 31, came to Stowell Learning Center when he was 7. She said, “We’re so grateful. I don’t think he would ever have learned to read if it hadn’t been for his time at the ‘Stowell Institute.’ Now he is a voracious reader.” This student, virtually a non-reader at the end of first grade, easily completed college, has a successful career, and is never without a book! Wow! I love hearing about our former students and I feel so…
Perseverance is Not Just for Athletes! Go Moms! I normally try NOT to watch ads on TV, but I’ve been quite drawn to some of the commercials aired during the Olympics. I’m not even sure what they’re advertising, but I love the commercials that show athletes as children going through both the excitement and growing pains (and real physical pains) of learning their sport. The thing I especially love is the tribute to the moms who are by their young athlete’s side all the way, crying with them, cheering them on, fixing up scrapes and bruises, and helping them…
Aren’t our Olympians amazing! I can’t begin to imagine flying down a hill on a snowboard, launching into the air, doing three backwards rotations, then landing flat on the snow at top speed in preparation for another trick. I marvel that anyone could learn to do that with all of the bumps, bruises, and breaks it must take along the way. As a competitive ice skater, my daughter once had a coach who told her that it would take 1000 falls for each new double or triple jump learned. A thousand falls! There is something to be learned from our…
CNN Analysis: Some college athletes play like adults, read like 5th-graders OK. So now that the Super Bowl Hype and parties are over…Oh, wait, discussions of the game, the coaches the players, the ads ought to be worth another week, right? We love our sports and our athletes in this country, and having a son who stepped very briefly into the world of professional sports, I have huge respect for the talent and tenacity that it takes to become a college or professional athlete. On Jan. 8, 2014, CNN Schools of Thought ran an analysis that showed that 7 –…
In the past few weeks, as the rest of the nation has hit record low temperatures, I have been extremely grateful to be living in Southern California where we believe 60 degrees is “freezing!” In So Cal, we not only have the mountains and the beach nearby, but we also have the “Happiest Place on Earth” AKA Disneyland. If you saw the wonderful movie, Saving Mr. Banks, you may know that Walt Disney had “classic signs of ADHD.” He also had dyslexia, a specific learning disability related to difficulty with words, particularly for reading and spelling. This year, the International…
My mom is a great gift-giver (and a great gift-wrapper)! This Christmas, one of the things she gave me was a pair of socks that says, “I am awesome!” If you’re like me, you’ve probably already disappointed yourself with regard to your New Year’s resolutions. But today, instead of beating myself up, I decided to embrace the message on my socks! Do you know how much better it feels to start the day saying, “I am awesome!” rather than, “Boy, I sure blew it yesterday”? Many children and adults with learning or attention challenges start each new day with good…
The Best Gift FROM Kids My grades are amazing! My grades are amazing! One of our junior high school boys came busting into his session at the learning center with this news recently. Now that’s a great gift! All the hard work that we, parents, and most importantly our student are putting in is paying off and he can see it! The changes that our students make come in all different forms, and grades may be the last to change. Often, the students who come to us have been through many tutors or therapies. They may be very reluctant to…