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First baby on the way! A time of great excitement and more than a little trepidation. I think all new parents feel this way, but one young woman I spoke with recently had an additional fear that most new parents don’t have to consider:  “What if I can’t help my child with his homework when…

Legs swinging, feet kicking – at the dinner table, at the homework desk, any time seated in a chair.  That was my M.O. as a child.  I wasn’t even aware of it, but obviously my mom was, because I heard the infamous, “Sit still!” very often. I still have a tendency to fidget with my…

At Starbucks not too long ago, I overheard a group if young teenage girls talking about a softball tournament they had just participated in. They talked excitedly and knowledgeably about the game for a while, and then the conversation turned to school. One of the girls said about her performance at school, “I’m really lazy…

I’m not really a football fan, but I have to admit, the sound of football on TV brings a smile to my face.  It signals the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer, but each new season, especially Fall, seems like a new beginning – a fresh…

Ten-year-old Hannah spent 6 weeks of her summer working 3 hours a day in an intensive learning program at our center.  As we sat down to begin her retesting, I asked her how she was feeling about what she had learned. “I’m very happy that I came,” she exclaimed.  “I can’t wait to go to…

In a couple of hours, my brother-in-law, who was born with Down Syndrome, will fly home from Los Angeles to New York on his own.  This is quite an accomplishment for a guy whose parents were told when he was born, not to even bring him home from the hospital. Rob has been all over…

While in Colorado recently, one of our Distance Learning parents invited me to speak to a group of parents and teachers.  There was a kindergarten teacher in the group who was literally moved to tears by the plight of smart but struggling students. She shared that, as a classroom teacher she could see when a…

Mission Possible!  That’s our theme this summer at the learning center, and what fun it is to watch students carry out their missions in reading, meeting new people, developing new skills, and problem solving. On all the doors around the center, staff has put up inspirational stories about people who have persevered and met their…

I’m a great believer in the American Dream.  I grew up in a family where anything was possible.  We didn’t have a whole lot of money, but my parents always told us kids that we could do anything we put our mind to. As I’m writing this, we’re just coming up to Fourth of July…

I’m looking out the window at Southern California’s June gloom, so I know summer is right around the corner. While the end of the school year and homework often comes as a relief to parents, many also become fearful that their kids will lose ground over the summer break. For the next couple of weeks,…