Dear Parents:
L to the Third Power!!!

What is “Summer Slide”? Have you ever even heard of this term before?? I just finished a Zoom meeting with a gal who has three adult children and nine grands–I asked her if she had ever heard of the term….guess what, she had not! So you are not alone. According to Scholastic, a whopping 48% of parents (who have children ages 6-17) have heard of “Summer Slide”. Image from Pexels Should you worry if your child takes the entire time ‘off’ during the months of June, July, and August?   Short Answer: There is no short answer! A Little…

While my intent is to help my readers learn, let me share what I have learned along the way in the long and winding road leading to a book’s publication. Getting a book into the hands of the intended audiences turned out to be far harder than I could ever have imagined. Writing the manuscript was the easy part. I’ve had the concept of this book in my head for quite a  long time, in fact, over 20 years! I hope the book entitled Calling All Neurons! will eventually be in your hands and the concepts explained in it…

WHEN? My new book entitled Calling All Neurons! How Reading and Spelling Happen will be published at the end of May, which coincides with the end of the school year. Timing of the publication is perfect for several reasons including: the opportunity for families and/or caregivers to spend more time with their children—hopefully, they will have time to read this book themselves and then share the book with their children as the intensity of ‘the school schedule’ will be ‘paused’. the notion that teachers will have more time to read this book (teachers, too, can press the ‘pause’ button)…

WHY DO I SUGGEST STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE READING/SPELLING/WRITING BRAIN PROCESSES? Let’s talk about this phrase: “Knowledge is POWER.” Don’t you agree? The more students of any age know abour how a task is accomplished, it’s got to have a positive outcome. Children and parents alike are often confused and upset when things aren’t going well for the kids at school. If you or anyone you know has experienced struggles related to mastering the written word, you can relate. Many of the struggling students I’ve had the privilege of teaching have told me of the trauma school days engendered for…

My first book Calling All Neurons! How Reading and Spelling Happen will be published this spring! You will be able to find it on Amazon and all your favorite online book retailers too. SO I WROTE THIS BOOK…WHY? Well…. It is my belief that all children have the right to be taught literacy skillls. According to literacy gurus, 95% of all human beings have the capability to learn to read and write (may not be at the high school or college level, but certainly learn to read and write at a basic level). Sadly, that is not the case, as…

A few months ago, I had occasion to correspond and speak with Lisa Hanifan, who by her own admission, was an “angry teacher” and a mom who later “felt guilty as a parent.”  You see, Ms. Hanifan didn’t know what she didn’t know. My colleague, Lisa, has NOTHING to feel guilty about—neither as a teacher nor a parent.  I ‘met’ her after a totally on-line conversation as part of the Facebook Group Science of Reading. We later had a nice conversation by phone. Ms. Hanifan’s experience more than validates the notion that ‘change is possible and change is good’. …