Spelling from Greek and Latin Roots

Just a thought for parents looking for a spelling program for their advanced speller.  Perhaps you want to look at a program that teaches spelling from Greek and Latin Roots?  It ties the spelling words into in interesting and logical framework and may spark an interest in your student learning those languages as well!

Google away and see what you find!

Here are a few of my finds:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Greek-and-Latin-Word-Root-Spelling-and-Vocabulary-Program-805577

https://www.spellingcity.com/latin-greek-root-words.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/root-words-roots-and-affixes

reading The Spark: A mother's story of nurturing genius

I just finished reading this book, The Spark, by Kristine Barnett, (about her son, Jacob (Jake) Barnett), and loved it.  I gobbled it up in one sitting and thought I would just mention it here in case you haven't had a chance to read it yet yourself. The book brought out what I have seen, time and again -  that connection between the sensitivities/excitabilities/the deep diving that we see in the gifted -  and then those same qualities are somehow seen through a different and intensified lens with those on the ASD spectrum.

Now, I have to say, that was not the point of the book.  The Spark tells the story of Jacob, his diagnosis of autism and how his mom didn't give up on him, but managed to reach him - and many others - by tapping into and connecting around areas of strength, interest, passion.   I was gratified to see the mantra that I've been saying a lot this year - if they are struggling, make it more difficult - played out in the extreme with Jacob (as he moves happily from his grade 3 class into college level astronomy and math courses).  It is a fascinating fact that for gifted kids, and adults, a challenge is as good as a rest and stimulation is vital to happiness.  How many of our kids today are struggling with "school work", with behaviour, because they are bored?  This point was driven home last year when I took my wiggly nephew for a walk to the park (after he couldn't sit still in the house) and he turned from distracted  5 year old into a kid with laser beam focus when he were offered a ride on a mini dirt bike and then allowed to drive it with shaky balance around the park.

It reminds me too of this quote I read a few months ago:

"A noted scientist observing that "early voyagers fancied that the coral-building animals    instinctively built up the great circles of the Atoll islands to afford themselves protection in the inner parts," has disproved this fancy by showing that the insect builders can only live and thrive fronting the open ocean, and in the highly aerated foam of its' restless billows.  So it has been commonly thought that protected ease is the most favourable condition of life, whereas all the noblest and strongest lives prove on the contrary that the endurance of hardship is the making of men, and the factor that distinguishes between existence and vigorous vitality."  - Cowman (Streams in the Desert)

So there we have it: work hard. The other side is play hard.

Kristine did exactly that.  She encourage play and a childhood rather than endless therapies (or endless classes or endless programming or endless drilling). The mix of challenge and play that Kristine talks about is exactly what I see gifted kids wanting and thus recommend - hard work and then time to integrate that work/learning with play, rest, sandbox silliness.

All in all, an accessible, inspiring read about real lives, about raising twice exceptional kids, living with courage, faith, and a spirit of abundance.

Enjoy!

Carmen

Embrace the Shake

Following up on the thought that where perfectionism can limit, embracing limitations can be a source of creativity and freedom, this 10 minute Embrace the Shake - Ted Talk talks seems like a good follow-up to [Welcome to] the Dark Side, last week's post.  It is a reminder that struggle, limitations, are a gift in life - that your weakness can be your strength.  So counterintuitive, like the meek inheriting the earth, last being first, power made perfect in weakness, foolish things confounding the wise.

Many - most? - gifted people are asynchronous in their development and sometimes their huge strengths are matched by huge weaknesses. They may be able to remember anything but be less advanced in logic and reasoning.  Or be hugely good at math but struggle with processing speed and working memory; excellent hockey players with massive physical literacy who struggle to read; or may be extremely logical and well-read, but then struggle with social cues.  What does this mean for them? How are these weaknesses a gift?

In the Bible, the passage 2 Corinthians 12 refers to Apostle Paul, and his 'thorn in the flesh', saying is is what keeps him from being conceited. Somehow, humility trumps perfection every time. What a lesson. I wonder if humility gives us eyes to see ourselves and others clearly?  Does it open our eyes and ears to God?  Perhaps true humility allows us to embrace our faults, live with an inner peace and confidence, rather than obsessing about ourselves, or exhausting ourselves by maintaing and projecting/defending an image?  Integrating our strength and weakness. Hmmm...wholeness.  A beautiful thing.  Shalom.

Carmen

[Welcome to] the Dark Side of Giftedness

It is early February and an exploration of the Dark Side seems appropriate for those of us living on the Wet West Coast.  So when I was sent an article recently about the dark side of giftedness - how gifted children are frequently misunderstood - I found it timely for a reposting here.  I encourage you to take a moment and give it a read. Marcello Di Cintio ends his article with a quote and a poem, (bottom of this article too) saying "Unless their heart is intact, no learning can happen".  True of all people, not only the gifted. 

What a precious thing to steward as parents and educators: the intact hearts of the young, as they bring us the treasure of themselves, offering openly and fully their enthusiasm, optimism, passion, and curiosity. And yet so many are wounded so early. So quickly and easily crushed, discouraged, disappointed. (And not uncommonly, crushed by parents and educators, friends, careless and rushed despite best intentions.) While my heart wants to scream and protect and wrap in cotton all the children I know and knew from any pain - the pain of bullying, or abuse, of neglect, of illness, disease, distress, disability - children are 'wired for struggle', for challenge.  As humans we need it, crave it. In our world, we will never be free of it. It is thrown at us or we throw ourselves at it, one way or another. 

Perhaps gifted individuals, often so sensitive to injustice, with that extra capacity to feel and understand, are more quickly and deeply wounded than most. It seems so, in my experience with gifted students. They certainly often have incapacitating anxiety and the perfectionism they deal with can be like a sucking mud around their feet. But again, they are certainly not alone, not in their need of an intact heart and not in feeling the pain of growing up, the pain of living. 

I often come back to an experience in an art class, where the instructor, Wendy, had us spend an hour drawing from a model... only to have us then (unexpectedly) tear the work into pieces, reassemble it in a new way and then create a piece out of that.  It broke my heart a little to tear up what I had worked on, this perfect piece that I was proud of and that had a piece of me in it...but having to work with the torn drawing, having to problem solve, having to make something new from the wreckage struck a cord in me.  I learned not to hold perfection as quite so precious, to be willing to risk and to see new ways to make the broken even more beautiful than the perfect - more accessible, more interesting, unexpected, and even more lovely. 

 My job sees me constantly work with gifted children in crisis, families in distress. So I am constantly reminded and remind others that brokenness and wounding are not the end. If our lives are made and built around our strengths, that strength is made accessible by the humility, the compassion developed in brokenness. And when healing completes the circle, a person of such translucent beautiful strength remains, with so much to offer the world.  

I always figured my role in life was going to be a re-builder of sorts but I didn't quite know what that was going to look like. Now I think that perhaps that is what we are all called to, at times, whether we are on the outside or inside of a life that has broken down. To rebuild and not discard. To rebuild along side that person, even if it is oneself, to put shoulder to the work, to clear a weed or pass a brick.  To not give up and abandon the work. And sometimes,  to lay a hand upon a brow and reteach a thing its' loveliness.

...sometimes it is necessary

to reteach a thing its loveliness,

to put a hand on its brow

of the flower

and retell it in words and in touch

it is lovely

until it flowers again from within...

From Saint Francis and the Sow by GALWAY KINNELL 

Carmen

"Daring Greatly" by Brene Brown

I have been reading and appreciating a new-to-me author this spring, Dr. Brene Brown, who writes very powerfully about shame, vulnerability, intimacy and how to live a wholehearted life. Earlier in the year, I sent a link to her TED talk and I've just finished her book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent and Lead.  You may be wondering how vulnerability, shame and learning services all fit together but there are huge, huge connections.

In Learning Services the discussion often circles back not to our belief that we will eventually find something that works for our students, nor to the belief that the students will grow into the strengths and abilities they need to be successful in their lives.  No, the biggest challenge we face as an LS team - and I include teachers and parents as well as consultants in that team - is how to keep the child's sense of worthiness intact while everything comes together, or while we sort out adaptations that allow them to work around their area of challenge and lean into their areas of strength.

When a person know s/he is struggling, different - and these kids know - it is so easy to feel worth-less, or “othered," lesser-than, unacceptable, isolated and ashamed. Even the gifted students we work with, who everyone tends to think live in the (spot)light, struggle. They feel like impostors, or focus on where they fall short, in areas such as OCD, anxiety, addiction or depression. 

The parents and teacher of kids with challenges also struggle with shame around what they think they did wrong or didn’t do right. I have talked to parents who wonder if the should they have gone pesticide or plastic-free, or screen-free, or dairy- and wheat-free. They can feel ashamed that they get angry or lose patience with their children or that they some days just don't like their kids very much. They can feel badly that they can't find the time or motivation to follow through with whatever lovely program has been suggested, or feel like they are done by the end of the day and would rather spend the one half-hour of free time in their day unwinding with a book or TV show rather than prepping for working with their children the next day.  Likewise, teachers and consultants can have shame around not wanting the extra work of writing IEPs, or yet another meeting, or because they feel pulled away from being there for their own family; either choice feels like the wrong one. 

Shame's message is that we are unacceptable, not enough.  We hear that the core of our self - not our actions, what we did or have left undone - is the problem. We don't talk about our shame and it festers. We pretend that who we are on Facebook is who we really are - witty and exciting and photo-ready, all the time - and as a result feel unknown and unloved in our deepest selves.  This becomes a pain that eats at us, until we lash out or end up numbing the pain with food or video games, or exercise or busyness, mindless TV or _______ (name your poison) to "take the edge off." Brown points out that in her studies she has found that numbing the pain also numbs joy and gratitude - the good things. Our lives become flat.  The internal message that we are not good enough creates walls as we hide from ourselves and from others. Brown talks about us rejecting and "orphaning" that part of ourselves, and losing our vulnerability, the ability for others to see us as we really are, and that steals community and intimacy and wholeness.  So how do we find the courage to be seen, to speak our inner thoughts and feelings around shame? How do we find wholeheartedness?

The secret to wholeheartedness, Brown says, is restore the beliefs that shame steals. We need to believe that we are worthy of love and acceptance.

As followers of Christ, this message of worthiness is also the message we want to send to our Learning Services students, to all students, really, and to ourselves.  We can say, "You may make poor choices and do things that are embarrassing, or you may do things or make things that are not as good as you would like them to be. I will forgive you and help you learn and I will not shame you. You may struggle and may be different from other people.  We all struggle. We are all different.  But in one way, we are all the same.  You are enough. I am enough. We have nothing to prove. We are each worthy of love and acceptance. We can each love and accept each other." This belief, these words, are the gift that we can give to our students and to ourselves because they are a gift that God has given us (Romans 5). We can forgive because we are forgiven, love because we are loved, accept because we are accepted.  

I hope you get a chance to read and enjoy Daring Greatly; it is a great tool for shedding light, for digging deep and for finding courage.

Carmen

  

Other books by Brene Brown:

I Thought it Was Just Me (But It Isn’t)

The Gifts of Imperfection

Boy's Adrift

Below is a summery  Boys Adrift by author Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D..  Sax also wrote Girls on the Edge, which I still have on order from the Library, but I've read the first one and I was interested by what Sax brings out.  Much was familiar, but there were some new nuggets and since I have written the notes, I thought I would share them with you, as well as recommend the book, in case you don't have time to read the whole thing. 

Sax discusses what he calls a "growing epidemic" of unmotivated boys and underachieving young men. I was intrigued, because a number of the emails we get in Learning Services have to do with unmotivated boys - boys who will happily play video games, and are often intelligent and capable, but who, as soon as the word 'schoolwork' is mentioned, squirm and manoeuvre to get out of having to engage or perform. I wondered if Sax would have any suggestions for these boys that would apply in a homeschool context.  I've summarized his thoughts below and will leave it to you to see if any of the suggestions are specifically useful to your students or children. If you are interested, these books can be ordered from our HCOS Learning Commons!

Warm Regards, 

Carmen

*****************

Sax pulls out what he considers to be the 5 main factors that are killing motivation in boys today. note: I'm going to risk leaving things out and oversimplifying in favour of keeping things relatively short and to the point. I suggest you read the book for the scientific research and studies that back up what is written here, and the qualifiers that point out this doesn't apply to all boys and that it also might apply to some girls. 

The Overall Problem: 

Boys no longer care about achieving, being independent, getting good grades, getting a job, providing for a family or going to college. If they do go to college, (and only 42% of college students are male in 2006) most won't finish their degree. 

The First Factor:  School

Challenge:

• Schools are focusing more on "head" knowledge, rather than "experiential" knowledge in the primary years; but if everything can be Googled, it impairs a lively and passionate curiosity, that desire to discover.  
• Boys are less developmentally ready to sit still and learn at 5 than girls are. The result is that boys are quickly self-identified  as "dumb" and form a negative opinion of school. 
• Boys (unlike girls) are less motivated by pleasing adults.  They are motivated by pleasing peers, by competition, by choice/control. 
• When asked to do something they aren't interested in, boys stop paying attention, and get irritated/frustrated. They withdraw.
• Boys are not reading. They need to read, for pleasure, to learn about the world, to comprehend. Instead, they are on screens, or playing video games. Comprehension levels for boys at grade 12 are dropping as a result. 
• Boys are not influenced/motivated by self-esteem in the same way girls are.  Girls need to be encouraged, but boys need to  be spurred on, challenged. 

Suggestions: 

• Consider holding younger boys back until they are ready (ie. start them in Kindergarden at 6 rather than 5)
• Allow boys to have more experiential learning; teach them to fix a car, let them play in the woods, build a shed, garden.  
• Prefer real experiences to simulated ones: (also a way of treating and preventing ADHD).
• Ask boys questions more about what they would "do" than how they would "feel".  (Has to do with how brain is wired).
• Some boys are motivated by competition. Encourage the right kind of competition. (Sports, academic teams, rather than individual competitions). Allow boys to be rough and tumble - physical - in the right setting. 
• Get the kids out into nature, direct contact.  Roll in mud, run, swim, explore the beach. Out-door "eco" schools (Waldkindergarten) are one of the fastest growing educational trends in Europe right now).

The Second Factor: Video Games

Challenge:

• Most boys are finding video games very appealing, highly motivating. Video games meet their "will to power" needs - that is, the ability to be master of their own destiny, controller of their own fate. This kind of boy will sit when you say stand and stand when you say sit. They want to be in charge.  
• Average boy playing games 13hrs/wk, compared with 5hrs/wk for girls. 
• Video games disengage boys from the real world. 
• Video games (violent) cause boys to have a more violent self image. More impacting than watching violent TV. 
• Teenage boys seem to prefer video games to girls. College boys will stay in their rooms, playing video games, rather than meeting people or attending classes, until they flunk out. 

Suggestions: 

• Monitor content.  Watch/play game with your son. If crime/death is rewarded or funny, veto it. (Ratings often don't accurately address this).
• Monitor time. ie. no more than 40 minutes on a school night or 1 hour on weekends.
• Monitor priorities: Makes sure family, faith comes first, school, friends, sports, then gaming. Don't let screen time replace valuable activities with family and friends. 
• Find alternatives: RaceLegal (legal racing), Motorcross lessons, contact sports, competitive sports, other opportunities (including academic) to truly determine their own course of action, make their own decisions. 

The Third Factor: Medications for ADHD

Challenge:

• White, affluent boys are several times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than girls or black/hispanic or low-income boys. The pressure on young boys to perform before they are developmentally ready can frame their normal behaviour as "disordered" and result in over medication with "academic steroids". (30% more boys diagnosed between 1987 and 2007)
• More difficult for clinicians to suggest lifestyle/parenting changes than diagnose a disorder; most diagnosis originate from teacher.
• Non-ADHD students, when given ADHD meds, show the same increase in performance as diagnosed ADHD students (on meds).
• Long-term (into adulthood) side-effects of ADHD medications may include: stunted growth, damage to the nucleus accumbens (bit of brain that turns motivation into action) resulting in loss of motivation. Interestingly, video games also stimulate this bit of the brain, giving the reward of accomplishing a great objective, without any of the reality. This means one can be hungry or guilty or convicted or aroused and he is less likely to do anything about it.  It has the same impact on that part of the brain as crack cocaine. 

Suggestions: 

• Change the school setting that is not working for your son. 
• Aside: Sax talks about moving to all boys schools; of course, in our collective situations, homeschooling is option we have chosen. Having said that, within your homeschooling practise, you can still consider changing up how "school" is done.  To me, if an environment/situation creates a "disorder" or a "dis-ease"  in you or your child, given the choice, it is always better to intervene and change the environment rather than medicate the person. 
• Look to see what other situations in life might mimic ADHD in your son...social factors, stress, depression, bi-polar, giftedness, sensory issues, diet, allergies/sensitivities.
• Resist trying ADHD medications with your child "to see if they work".  Get a qualified, in-depth assessment from a psychologist before putting your child on these medications.  

The Fourth Factor: Endocrine Disruptors

Challenge:

• There is a over-abundance of plastics in our environment, plastics which, when they break down, disrupt our hormones (the endocrine system); they mimic estrogens. Synthetic chemicals  seem only to mimic the female hormones. 
• Bisphenol A/phthalates found in rigid plastic bottles, as well as other sources of plastic, is leached into the food/water. These substances irreversibly disrupt brain development, specifically, memory and motivation. In animal studies, exposed males learned significantly less well, and more slowly; they were less curious. 
• For girls, there are problems with this: early puberty (commonly at age 9), leading to a whole set of concerns for them. 
• For boys, their puberty is delayed, so that they are entering puberty just as girls are ending their puberty. 
• Endocrine disruptors may cause ADHD, childhood obesity, brittle bones, learning challenges, reduction in distinction between males and females (boys more feminine, girls, more masculine), lower fertility rates in men, genital abnormalities in boys, testicular cancer.  

Suggestions:

• Don't give your child soft vinyl toys or pacifiers made from phthalates - look for products labelled PVC-free.
• Don't microwave food for your children in plastic containers. Use glass or ceramic instead.
• When using a microwave, place food in a bowl rather than on a plate...then plastic wrap can cover without touching. 
• Avoid plastic bottles for your own drinks and for your children's drinks. ** especially pregnant women
• Don't use clear plastic baby bottles. 
• Don't allow the dentist to put sealants on your children's teeth unless they are PVC-free. 
• Encourage companies to use, and then only buy, plastic that is PLA - polylatic acid, made from corn. 

The Fifth Factor: Rights of Passage

Challenge:

• In enduring cultures, men teach boys how to be men, (brave, sensitive, hardworking, gentlemen) via a separate community. This is no longer typical. There is often no way boys can become "culturally defined competent individuals" - no way to prove their worthiness, to be led to manhood. This recognizes that becoming a "real" man is not a biological fact, it is more - involving maturity, sacrifice, courage - the change from being primarily a receiver to primarily a giver/provider; the use of your strength in the service of others. 

Suggestions:

• Find (or be a) male role models for your sons...a coach or youth leader who reads in his spare time, who participates in Habitat for Humanity projects, or serves at church, provides for their families, is active in the community.  
• Find a community of men who will help guide your son into adulthood....an all male Bible-study, sports team, camps, boy scouts, all male missions trips etc. 

May your Rest be Blessed: Importance of Downtime

I've been chatting a lot lately with parents and teachers that will tell me their child or student, each obviously very bright, seems content to spend hours each day playing in a sandbox, or with lego, doodling or just daydreaming.  I love it!  We often know what we need, particularly when we are kids.  Maria Montessori once wrote that you should never give more to the mind than you give to the hands, which I have held onto and repeated to myself for the past 20 years - it just struck me as a truth, although I didn't remember any of the science behind it. But it makes sense, that call for balance.

I've always celebrated the gospel records where Jesus leaves the crowd to go off on his own.   Ah, the importance of downtime...time to pray, to rest, to meditate, to play, to do nothing.  We all know the spiritual directive for considering rest holy, but if you've forgotten the science behind why we need rest, (or if, in the season's busyness, need an excuse to rest) check out the link below, and enjoy all the neuroscience behind daydreaming, napping, taking long baths, playing with kids, or making snow angels.  

The Benefits of Downtime: Why Learners’ Brains Need a Break

It's Okay to Daydream: Scott Barry Kaufman on Creativity

May your rest be blessed.