Posts by Kathy Sieg

Building trust with our kids and students is important but takes some intentionality. One way we can do this is by giving genuine compliments. Kids are able to tell when we are giving false praise or empty compliments just to make them feel better. So rather than using empty words and teaching them not to trust what we say, let’s find things we can genuinely praise them for–building trust that our words have meaning! We can compliment our students on natural abilities, strong character, personality, hard work, good choices, fun ideas, and countless other areas. Be observant and creative, and
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Building self-esteem in our kids can be accomplished in a variety of ways, but one of our Reading Tricks teachers shares a simple way of intentionally doing so by purposefully letting our kids overhear our conversations. Rather than talking about our kids’ struggles and learning differences in a way that makes them feel insecure, let’s have conversations they can overhear where we are talking about their strengths and gifts. We could mention their abilities in sports, music, or art; or we could even make specific comments about growth in areas they struggle with, i.e., hard work or improvement in their
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If you are a parent or teacher who has experienced that sinking feeling of recognizing you have a child who learns differently than your other kids, you understand our Reading Tricks’ founder’s experience of discovering her son’s learning differences and the journey that ensued (shared in our video blog today). Dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and language processing disorder are just a few of the language-based learning differences you may be experiencing–with or without knowing it. Recognizing the differences your child has is an important place to start. However, after becoming aware, knowing what next steps to take can be extremely overwhelming.
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Building trust with our students and kids is something that takes time and great intentionality. In our video blog this week, our Reading Tricks founder shares a hard but life-changing tip she’s learned on how to build this trust. She talks about how her students are extremely sensitive to feeling like they are being laughed at, whether or not they actually are. This could be caused by the actual experience of being laughed at by others; or it could just be because of the insecurities that come from their learning differences. Either way, it is extremely important that we as
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