Classroom

As a parent, when your child is struggling, you may feel like you can hardly breathe.  You search for answers and will do almost anything to help, if only you knew what to do. When we got to the end of our parent night last week, one of the moms said, “Now, I can exhale!”…

My mom is always on the lookout for articles from my hometown newspaper that she thinks I’ll be interested in.  A few weeks ago, she cut out an article for me about Bonnie Landau, an Ojai mom who wrote a book for parents of special needs kids – Special Ed Mom Survival Guide:  How to…

I could tell that this teacher was a good one.  She had a real heart for her struggling students and provided accommodations and supports to help them be more successful in her classroom. But she wasn’t talking about her students.  She was talking about her daughter.  When it came to her daughter – smart, social,…

We were working on reading in phrases and she was going along well, when her face started to crumple, her eyes filled with tears, and she began breathing very quick, shallow breaths. The stress reaction was becoming full-blown very quickly. Just as quickly, when distracted from the task, 10-year-old Serena recovered and became her friendly,…

REAL Changes for Struggling Students Have you ever fallen short on a New Year’s resolution?  Yep!  I know I have.  New Year’s resolutions usually fall by the wayside because we don’t have a strong enough reason to make the change, or we don’t have a plan to get us through the tough parts of creating…

Don’t Let the Holidays Hijack Your Child! Keeping kids on track all the way to winter break How the Holidays Disrupt Homework Happy Holidays!  The calendar has finally caught up with the TV commercials.  So what does that look like for kids still in school for one more month and families still dealing with homework?…

Stop the Homework Battle and Get Your Confident Child Back This is my, “I hate homework face!”   If homework is a battle in your home, you probably see some version of this face on a fairly regular basis at homework time, though I’m guessing it’s not this orange! Parents just like you, exhausted by…

Parent Teacher Conference Tips Conference time can create all kinds of anxiety for parents. It’s not your turf. You’re not sure what to expect. Tips for a Successful Conference Here are a few tips: Go in prepared. Have your questions or concerns written down. Build rapport from the start by sharing something your child likes…

From Struggle to Flight Dragon’s Teeth in Maui is one of my favorite places in the world.  Here in the coves created by lava flow, you can see sea turtles battling the currents and undertow as the waves pound in and out.  They are incredibly resilient and just keep going no matter how much they…

Can you hear me now?? Wait…What?…You’re cutting in and out. Recognize this conversation?  Of course you do.  We’ve ALL experienced a bad cell phone connection. And it’s incredibly irritating, anxiety-provoking, attention-destroying, and short-lived.  We lose our comprehension as we unsuccessfully try to connect the dots, so we hang up and try the call again. But…