Flint Tutoring Services
25 Mill St. L5M 1Y3 Mississauga, ON, Canada

Today I did my first tutoring lesson using Skype. It requires some creative thinking but I think it was a success.

I’m sure many parents are feeling anxious amongst other things about their child’s education. As a teacher with many years of experience, please try not to worry. Children often learn despite our interventions and not because of them. A few months of missing school will NOT have a lasting impact on their adult lives. Children in Scandinavia don’t start formal learning until they are older and still end up as fully functioning adults! I took my own two children out of school f...or 6 months at age 10 and 7 and they have both reached adulthood with no ill effects. Educational establishments will work out a system to recognize our older students’ achievements. Maybe we will learn from this to value not just academic achievements but other values too, like kindness and generosity and above all the value of people who do jobs that are not well paid but are critical to all our lives. I am self isolating myself after a trip to the UK so have plenty of time on my hands, so I will put up a few activities that you can try with your children. There’s so much stuff out there already, almost overwhelmingly so, so I will put just simple one off activities with an educational value, but above all, fun and engaging (at least I hope they will be!)! Enjoy the last day of March Break!

A post with suggestions for free online learning sites if children are off school https://swingeducation.com//20-online-learning-resources-/

This is my most widely shared post. And rightly so, it’s an important one. These are prewriting patterns, with the average (not prescribed) age at which child...ren are developmentally ready to achieve these patterns listed below them in years and months. Being able to process visual information and produce a movement in response (e.g. copying these prewriting patterns or letter formations), is known as visual motor integration. Note that an X is not typically achieved until 4 years 11 months, and a triangle at 5 years 3 months. If a child can’t form these basic shapes...then they probably won’t be able to form letters. It is quite concerning then that there are 3 year 7 month olds starting formal schooling, where they’re expected to write. Not only are their visual motor integration skills not developed enough, their hands are also physically under-developed. In addition, recognising letters, understanding phonics and beginning to read are all needed in order for a child to write meaningfully, skills which children starting kindy typically don’t have. We also know that when a child learns something that doesn’t hold meaning, it‘s unlikely to stick. So if you have a 3-4 year old who spontaneously asks or attempts to write letters, that’s great; otherwise, there is no need to initiate or worry about this. Unfortunately there is a misconception, particularly with the way that the current curriculum stands, that earlier is better. Earlier is not always better. Source: Beery Buktenica Test of Visual Motor Integration, 6th Edition #visualmotorintegration #vmi #letterformations #prewriting #writing #kindy #schoolreadiness #earlierisnotbetter #toomuchtoosoon #letthembelittle #letthemplay #prewritingskills #foundationskills #phonics #phonologicalawareness #earlyliteracyskills #literacy #earlyreaders #reading #occupationaltherapy #paediatrics #paediatricot #kidsofperth #perthkids #schoolbasedtherapy #teacher #teachersofinstagram #australiancurriculum #schoolholidays #knowledgeispower

Silly sentences! Great for developing detail in a sentence, identifying parts of a sentence, reading for sense and adding punctuation.