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F R O M T H E E X P E R T S Learning Dear Christina, If there is any hope for our country, it is because of conscientious mothers like you who are discipling the next generation academically and spiritually. Who else would be caring as much about your daughter's academic success as you are? No one. That is half the battle. Your daughter knows that you will never ever give up on her no matter what. In this lies the key. Success is mostly perseverance and practice. You are demonstrating that. Your daughter is seeing that. Remember that more is caught than is taught. The academic progress is important but it is the character qualities that supercede all. It is the why of instruction that must be stressed. Why does she need to know this stuff? Of what earthly good can it possibly be? She needs to have an answer. We forget that when we teach, we first simply introduce the material. Is it embedded? No. Material becomes embedded only when application requires concentration. When are we most focused as adults? The answer? When we know our investment really matters. It is no different with students. They must know that their investment really matters. That is a tough sell especially for a young student. How do you provide purposeful assignments that really matter? There are two things that teacher training at any level cannot teach.
I have been in the classroom for over 25 years and I am confronted with these mysteries at every step. Every student is a challenge.
To discover such answers takes lots of prayer and lots of research. Have you talked to your daughter? Have you told her what questions are on your heart? Your letter is full of them. How would she respond if she knew you were struggling for her sake. This really matters to you, Christina, and your daughter needs to understand that. You are focused because you know your investment really matters.
What a beautiful place you are in. All kinds of questions and very few answers and an investment that really matters. It doesn't get much better than this. It is the searching, the seeking, the asking, the knocking, the finding and the perseverance. You are the artist and artistry has a price. You are doing just fine. Keep it up. I am glad that you find Reading Works an asset to your instruction. It is designed to build success into teacher and student alike one small step at a time. It also assumes the need for repetition. What has been introduced this year will be reintroduced again next year and the next and the next if necessary. I believe that, as you require your daughter to be accountable for using what you have introduced, she will begin to comprehend that what you have introduced is a needed set of tools. When you demonstrate how very important the material is by reintroducing it next year, we hope she will remember the need she experienced. Each time it is reintroduced, the material will become more familiar and more automatic. She will likely "cruise" through it the third and fourth time around. The goal is for it to become "second nature" to her, but it is not likely that will happen the first time through. Don't give up and when you find those answers you don't have at present, share them with a friend. I am sincerely yours, Encouragement
from Jay Patterson | Reading Works | Fun
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