Testing, Testing...Is This Thing On? Test Anxiety and Learning Disabilities

Now in Grade 3, my son has his standardized tests coming up.  He's been expressing some anxiety about the test for over a year now.  I really can't blame him.  I've gone through some of the test prep books, and some of the answers confused me - and I have my Bachelors Degree.

I understand the reasons behind the assessments.  The powers that be want to figure out if the curriculum is appropriate.  If the teachers are teaching what they're supposed to.

Pulling Teeth: More Adventures in Vacation Planning with the Goblin King

You'll all recall that about three weeks ago now, I wrote a blog about trying to settle the children's summer vacation with the Goblin King.  As you all know how cooperative he is, of course that went extremely well and we have the vacation done and settled.

Yeah.  Right.  Had you there for a minute, didn't I?

Ignorance is not Bliss: How Do You Teach Someone Who Cannot Learn?

I've said before that my eldest son, Puck, has a learning disability.  And my headline might be a little misleading in this regard.  My son can learn.  And given the right environment, with some accomodation, he actually learns very well.

The person who doesn't learn is his father.  He hasn't learned that negative feedback to a child with learning disabilities just lowers their confidence.  He hasn't learned that he is fairly consistently the source of negative feedback to my son.  

Twitter has a new fan

I had a completely different blog prepared for today.  But I was inspired to write something different.

I'm so very new to the Twitter community.  I've been on Facebook for about five years, but my real exposure to Twitter started only a few weeks ago.  My Facebook years have allowed me to stay in touch with people I would not normally have had the opportunity to.  It's also given me entertainment and media bites about my favourite celebrities and TV shows, general news about my local community, funny and viral videos and more cat and baby pictures then I expect people should reasonably be exposed to.