New name and look

Hello!  It's been four months!  I got a little busy this summer.  I tutored five students and started several posts, but then never finished them.  Plus, I've been trying to figure out the new direction I wanted to take my blog.  My blog used to be "The Notes of a Substitute Teacher."  Well, I'm not substituting this school year. My friend, who normally helped watch my son twice a month is having a baby.  My sister, who also helped watch my son twice a month, is too busy this school year.  I tried looking for other babysitters and prayed about what to do.  The answer I got was, "You need to focus on your son right now."

The reason why I'm focusing on my son is because he is delayed in his speech.  This is a really personal and hard topic to discuss.  I will go into it more later, but for now, he helped inspire my new focus for my blog.  I want to empower myself and others that...YOU are your child's best teacher!  Yes, their teacher at school or church is wonderful, hard-working, amazing, etc.  However, YOU know your child the best.  If your child is struggling in school, I believe that parents should do everything in their power to try to help their child.  To me that means lots of things:

1. Talk to your child's teacher.  I would recommend sending an email to the teacher about setting up a meeting where you could discuss how you could best help your child.  If you're both very busy, just email back and forth.  Showing up to a teacher's door at the end of the day isn't the best idea.  Give your child's teacher the chance to think about it and get some ideas together for you.  Also, getting ideas at Parent Teacher Conferences is helpful, but remember, teacher's are in a rush then too.  A meeting or email is best.

2. Advocate for your child.  Talk to your child's teacher about getting them the help they need. If they need special education, push for it.  Please don't be prideful about your child going into special education.  If your child needs the help, don't prevent them from getting it. I can relate to this.  My son's specialist is talking about him going into a special education for Preschool.  I started crying.  I thought, "This is all my fault.  I'm not working enough with him.  I don't want him to be thought of not smart or marked for life in his file.  What are people going to think?  People are going to think that I must be a horrible teacher/mother because my son has to have special education."  I know that those thoughts are wrong.  That is Satan trying to put me down.  I know that no matter what happens with my son's speech in the next few months that I'm going to fight for him.  If that means that he needs to go to special education, then that's wonderful news!  That means he's going to work with specialists that know a lot more than regular ed teachers or myself. 

3. Research!  Is it just me or do you "Google" ten times a day?  Double that if you are a new mom and your newborn isn't eating right or sleeping.  Can I get an "AMEN?!"  Anyway, back to the research...I've had several parents tell me that they're not sure how to help their child learn how to read.  Google (or whatever search engine you use) is a great place to start.  You could type in: phonics, fluency, comprehension, or phonemic awareness.  You could try looking up the Core Standards.  Okay, don't freak out.  I know there's a lot of drama about the Core Standards.  I'm not taking a side.  All I'm suggesting is that it will tell you what your child is suppose to be learning.  Maybe it will give you some key phrases or words to research. Also, Pinterest is pretty much amazing too. :)

Our story:  When my son was eighteen months old.  I started to worry about his speech.  Yes, I did the typical "compare your kid to another kid" thing.  Stupid, I know.  I tried not to worry, but then the amount of words (I should say the lack of words) he was saying was very low according to the books/websites I was reading.  When I discussed it with my son's doctor, he said not to worry until he was three. I had several family members (and still do) that told me that he's fine and to not worry about it.  I kept trying to not worry about it, but I just had this impression that something wasn't right.  So one day I just had the feeling to do some research.  I looked for help in my city and that's when I found the best program ever!  It's called DDI Vantage.  It's an early intervention program for children under the age of three.  They took my information and said they would come to my house for free to test him.  I knew I could trust them because they are funded by programs through the state.  Anyway, they showed me that he had a severe language delay.  So now a specialist comes to my home to help teach my son.  The cost is based on what your family's income is, so the price is great.  So my point is, do research!


4. Move schools, get a tutor, or home school.  Please don't take these decisions lightly.  Also, my advice on getting a tutor: I worked for a well-known tutoring center and would NOT take my child there unless I couldn't find someone else.  The reason why is that they have the teacher teach three students at the same time and they use scripted lesson plans.  You are charged $50 an hour (back when I worked there) and your child is not even receiving one-on-one help.  They are given a lot of busy work so the teacher can teach the other two students.  I would take my child to a licensed teacher if at all possible. 

Anything else that you would like to add??

So "Yay!" to a new name and look for my blog.  My goal is to give parents the knowledge and confidence they need to help teach their children.  Please join me on my own journey to do the same for myself.