Taking the BIG Out of It
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. I cried at the end of Facing the Giants. I’m not ashamed to...
Special Needs Child vs Struggling Learner
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. Every parent worries. Does my child have special needs? A rather...
Schedules, Calendars, and Coffee. Oh My!
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. Get yourself a cup of coffee and let’s talk. Fact: Homeschooling...
A Powerful Learning Tool Called Hope
In this final letter of the Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. It’s taken me a long time to write this...
Counting the Costs
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. A parent recently sent me an update on her children. The family...
Apples
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” certainly...
Calling in the Troops – How To Identify The Cause of Learning Struggles
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. Many times, we recognize that a child is exhibiting signs of...
Snapshots of Struggling Learners
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. It’s Monday, the beginning of another typical home-school week....
Welcome! It’s Going To Be Okay
In this Vital Mercy series, Dr. Brenda Murphy shares letters to help calm the fears, answer the questions and steer parents on a path to successful teaching and learning with struggling learners at home. Welcome! It’s going to be okay….It started getting better the...
Four Alternatives to Traditional School For Your Child
Four Alternatives to Traditional School For Your Child With the recent upheaval from the pandemic, many parents are still wondering what the best environment is for their child’s education. Are their children safe in a public school environment or should...
It’s Not Just Academics; It’s Life!
What can we do when the math facts won’t stick, and the words on a page are “Greek” to the child trying desperately to read them?
Spotlight on Success
A “special needs child” is defined by their different, non-typical educational and behavioral needs. A “child with a special need” is a unique, precious, perfect creation of God.
Why Worry?
Every child has special needs: to be loved and taught and nurtured.
What if it’s not ADHD?
Marty walks around the classroom, daydreams instead of listens, and turns in half-finished assignments if he turns them in at all. He gets off the school bus, runs to the house, through the door, up the stairs, to his bedroom and immediately whips out the video games....
How a Falling-Through-The-Cracks Kid Benefits from a Microschool
So, who is a falling-through-the-cracks-kid? Jimmy. He sits behind the 30 students in his 8th grade math class, disengaged, and counts down the minutes until class is over. At the beginning of class when the teacher passed his desk, he asked for clarification on his...
What is ADHD anyway?
According to the American Psychiatric Association, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder. A study conducted by the Center for Disease Control between 2012 and 2014 found that over 10% of American children ages 5 – 17 have...
Is it Dyslexia or Something Else?
Is it Dyslexia or Something Else? Jeremy is in 8th grade and hates reading. He is the slowest reader in his class and is embarrassed to read out loud. He always has to read and re-read chapters in his textbooks to make sense of the information and to retain it -...
Microschools: A Contemporary Twist on Education
What are microschools? Microschools are the contemporary cousin of the one-room schoolhouse - a true alternative learning experience. Microschools come in all sizes--with as few as 5 students up to 150. There’s never more than 15 in a class, an inviting...
Why Can’t My Child Follow Directions?
Jennifer’s teacher is concerned with her performance in school. She seems to be in her own little world during class. When called on, she responds by asking for the question to be repeated or saying she can’t remember the answer, even though the answer was just given...
What to Do When My Child is Not “Getting” Math?
Cooper gets very frustrated while doing his math homework. He has to do every problem more than once and still gets most of them wrong. He begins to call himself “stupid” and his distress brings him to tears. Cooper tries so hard but he doesn’t seem to be making...