•  On Sep, 13, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Teaching the Dyslexic Child No 2 Dyslexia affects about 4% of children in English-speaking countries. Teaching the Dyslexic Child has particular challenges. The better we understand the facts about it, the better we can address the problem. Many children learn quickly through implicit teaching. They catch on.  But dyslexic children need instruction spelled out with […]

•  On Jul, 01, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Help With Creative Writing Help With Creative Writing gives step by step guidance. As parents you can help our older child with writing tasks.  It could be a creative writing task, a factual account, instructions on how to make something or a recount of an experience of their own. Creative writing tasks often challenge children, so […]

•  On Jun, 30, 2017
•  Mary Keating

A  is for Algebra A is for Algebra is an introduction to algebra. I asked my good friend, Dr David Perkins, to contribute this post. His bio details are at the end of the post. It’s not so hard  “If we are to believe television sitcoms, algebra is a branch of mathematics to be feared. […]

•  On Jun, 25, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Whole Language Theory Whole Language Theory dominated literacy teaching. In the 1960’s the movement towards the whole language approach to teaching literacy in schools gathered strength. There is a legacy of Whole Language Theory in schools in Australia. Easy to pick! Children are taught to learn words only within the context of a story or […]

•  On Jun, 18, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Cursive Script – Debate Cursive Script – Debate, yes the debate is in earnest. Writing in script is considered a waste of teaching time in some education circles. Associate Professor Dr Misty Adoniou said in early 2015 in The Conversation, available online “The research doesn’t find any benefits for cursive writing.” https://theconversation.com/profiles/misty-adoniou-107235 She added the […]

•  On Jun, 13, 2017
•  Mary Keating

Handwriting – An Intellectual Activity Why Handwriting is important.  More areas of our brain are used to hand-print than to type on a keyboard. And more areas of the brain are used to write in script than to hand-print. There have always been children with poor handwriting but the quality of teaching over the last […]