My Main Squeeze

It’s been a long time since I’ve sat and talked about my walk with the Lord over the past two years.

Since moving to Florida we’ve been on an amazing journey.  My darkest times were during our first year here.  We were renting a house, homeschooling in a far smaller space than we had done before and living in a gated community for the first time.  Yikes.  We’d moved from rural SC where peeing in the back yard was a sport in and of itself.  Now, we received nasty grams about the very way I’d potty trained three boys.  I cried.  I longed for our former home.  The kids missed their friends.  I missed my friends.  I wanted our yard, our woods, our life for the last 10 years.

I longed for the lifechanging Bible Study I attended.  I think I took one year off in my 6 years of having 4 children.  Those women there were my lifeline.  I grew, I cried, I loved and I was loved. Some of my best friends are still in my life because of our vulnerability shared during Bible Study.

There were nights of sitting on the porch crying with a friend from home because I’d had a child diagnosed with ADHD but had no answers, one wasn’t reading and I didn’t know how to help and one was dying to get out of the house and go to school.  My life was falling apart.  I felt like a failure as a mom.

The first year was dark, yet I knew Florida was where God wanted us.  Why?  He was certainly the only one who knew!!

As the first year morphed into the second light began to shine.  We discovered LearningRx through a friend in our homeschool group.  It was there I began to find answers to help my kids.  The folks there were kind and seemed truly interested in my children.  They offered hope.

Fast forward to today as I sit reading The Purpose Directed Business by Ken Gibson.

For those of you who’ve read The Purpose Driven Life you know what an impact that book can have on your life.

“It’s now about you.”

And it isn’t.  Those words offer so much freedom.  Freedom to be messed up, sad, happy, uncontrolled, hopeless, hopeful and most of all totally dependent.

Today, I sit and read feeling excited.  I’m excited that the man who founded the company God has used in my life is a Christian.  I’m excited to be a partnering parent with LearningRx.  I’m excited that none of this is really about me or about cognitive thinking skills (although high on my list), it’s about God.  It’s about what He wants to do through me, in me and for me.

He’s my Main Squeeze.  And I say that with the upmost respect.

To the one who knows me like no other…..“Thank you dad!  Thank you for stirring in me a desire that comes through you to reach other moms and children for your glory!  Open the eyes of my heart to see and love those you put in my path.  Expand my territory.  Be huge.  Be God!!”



Unlock the Einstein Inside – LearningRx

Did you know you can download Ken Gibson’s book Unlock the Einstein Inside for free? Are you like me and love free things? This is one of those must reads for moms, anyone looking to get Sartre or understand the brain better.
Click here to download the free ebook!

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


One Mom’s Journey from Self-Doubt to Hope and Solutions (and Chocolate!)

After successfully homeschooling her daughter from Kindergarten through 9th grade, Elizabeth discovered that her daughter was struggling with her schoolwork.  It was the first time ever!

It seems a common thread among homeschool moms to question our decisions when we hit a bump in the road.  The questions buzz like a swarm of bees.  “Did I do something wrong?” “If she were in public school would she be struggling like this?” “Did I choose the appropriate curriculum?”

I think, for most homeschool moms, our default mode is to question ourselves when we stumble.  However, looking back on my own homeschooling adventure I believe there is always a purpose in the stumbling.

Elizabeth began to search online for answers. That’s where she learned about one-on-one brain training at LearningRx. When I met Elizabeth at the LearningRx center in Jacksonville, FL I was touched by their story.  Many people have never even heard of brain training, but Elizabeth could see right away that it held the solution to whatever her daughter was facing.

I had the privilege of meeting Elizabeth on her first day at the center.  Her daughter was shy and a bit nervous as they waited for their trainer.  I encouraged them both by sharing that one of my children had been skeptical about brain training as well.  All it took was one day of training, however, and he loved it!

Toward the end of that same week I met Elizabeth in the lobby once again.  I asked how the week had gone.  She told me her daughter enjoyed it and was excited to return.  When Elizabeth had realized her daughter was struggling, she was naturally concerned. Now—just a few weeks later—this mom was filled with hope and anticipation. In fact, as we talked, she was smiling as she popped a Hershey’s Kiss into her mouth.

Now that’s happiness!!

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


What goes on behind the doors of LearningRx?

There are so many wonderful things that happen once you enter the doors of a LearningRx center.

Upon Graduation at the Jacksonville Center your hands go here:

These little guys cover the walls in the waiting room…..

As I sit and look at these I ask, “How can these be all over the internet, not just the walls?”

Since we homeschool we are at the center early and it is often a little quieter when we are there.  But after school?  It’s a hub of activity as kids are bussed in, moms bring kids in, parents talk in the waiting room or use the computers in the back.  Information flows like a stream.  I love all the activity and the one-on-one time I get with other moms.

I met another homeschoool mom this week.  Oh, how we need to encourage one another!  So much weight we carry upon our shoulders!

This month we are planning a MOMS NIGHT OUT at the Jacksonville center.  I can’t wait!  Here is their Facebook page!

Have a blessed and brainy day!

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


Cognitive Skills (LearningRx)

Understanding Learning Challenges….

When we began LearningRx I can honestly say I had no idea what cognitive skills really were. As we have progressed through the progress I am beginning to have a better understanding of what cognitive skills are. I describe them as the way I (or you) think and process information, the nutshell version. The bigger definition encompasses the active process of taking information in:
1. Attention
2. Processing speed (I always think of this when my kids are waiting for me to spit some thought out and they say,”Mom! What?”)
3. Working Memory. (Who couldn’t use more of this? Oil on the gears is how I think of this…holding onto information while we use it…like walking into a room and forgetting why you are there or completing a task)
All of these are called active processing.

Then comes higher thinking:
1. Logic and reasoning
2. Auditory processing
3. Visual processing
4. Long term memory

Then all this good stuff is stored in our knowledge bank (brain) so we can retrieve it when we need it. For all you parents out there think of remembering where your keys are, having grocery lists in our heads or remembering that one thing we forgot while running errands. In kids it shows in spelling, testing, writing or speaking.

If our skills are weak we can’t focus, homework takes too long, our reading is poor, or we have trouble recalling previously learned information. In my oldest child I have noticed a huge change in his self-confidence and his ability to control his emotions as well as his school work. He also takes more personal responsibility after 24 weeks of brain training.

I am excited and looking forward to the time I can train. My dream day now consists of a day where I can remember the things I need to do without feeling scattered and flustered. I’d be a better mom, wife and teacher!

Then I could eat bonbons and relax on the porch.

Have a blessed Easter!

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


A beautiful picture of what LearningRx has done in our lives!

She falls asleep reading now!

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


LearningRx – Another benefit

If you read my blog at all you know that I am totally sold on braintraining at LearningRx.

My daughter who is seven just recently performed her first Christmas musical.  She only visited the church with a good friend of hers and went to choir maybe a hand full of times.  By Sunday night she knew every word to eight different songs and stood on stage for an hour and a half while she performed.  I was incredibly proud of her.  I can’t imagine standing for that long myself but my girl did it!!!

I really think the work she is doing in Memory Hold at LearningRx is what helped her to remember the songs so quickly.  I was amazed.

We are in our 13th week at LearningRx.  My daughter is now asking to write in cursive and can read five and six letter words.  She sounds them out by herself!!  When we started she was struggling with three letter words.  I’m so excited with her progress!  My youngest son is only on week 5 or 6 and is knocking it out of the ball park.  The main area we are working on with him is his processing speed and his memory hold.

I’m so thankful God led us to a place where I feel like I am pouring into my kids tools they will use for a lifetime.  And I’m proud of their progress and determination.  The best part of all is they are having fun!!!!!

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


Day 12 – Openness and Reality

“What if I don’t like it?”

“What if I don’t like it after two days?”

“What if I don’t like it after a week?”

“What if I just absolutely hate it?”

“What if my tutor is mean and I hate it”

I got all these questions and more as I informed my third-born that he was beginning LearningRx yesterday.  He was determined to hate it.  He doesn’t like trying new things and is definitely my introverted one.  He sticks close to home, doesn’t spend the night at friend’s houses, doesn’t make a lot of new friends, and is happy and content playing by himself a lot of the times.  So yesterday we all teased him that we were going to remove his brain and give him a new one.  We all bet on the color of his brain.  He laughed and giggled and then got down to the business of brain training.  So what was his feedback when done….”I love it mom!”  He took his bag to bed with him last night.  They give you a bag with all your materials and games in it.  Shh…..don’t tell anyone.

So, I just found out LearningRx has a blog!  Yippee.  LearningRx’s Blog …. http://www.learningrxblog.com/

OK, enough of all the brain talk.

This weekend I had to laugh at myself.  Florida living is so different than rural SC living.  Here, lawns are manicures, bushes cut into shapes and being in the lawn industry MUST be the most profitable business here.  Men buzz around yards on the whirly-dirly lawn machines at 55mph while someone else is trimming bushes and branches and all that jazz.  Must take them 10 minutes per lawn.

Most houses have three car garages because everyone has a boat of course. (NOT US!)

Our house has a very nice garage with some cabinetry built in and some special fancy flooring.  My realtor was impressed but to me it’s just speck-ily flooring.

I was out there Saturday, in my PJs, vacuuming the rug that goes from the garage to the hallway into the kitchen.  It gets messy with football cleats, flip flops and puppy dog feet.  So as I’m busy getting the rug clean I notice the other grass and trash in the garage where my car us usually parked.  So I began to vacuum the garage floor.  Then, right in the middle of my vacuuming I stopped.  “I’m vacuuming my garage floor. Oh my goodness what in the world am I doing?” And I just had to stop and laugh at myself.  I used to say, “Get me out of this town.” when we lived in SC.  I didn’t want my boys growing up with their greatest achievement in life being the size of the buck on the wall.  Now I’m thinking, “Get me out of here…..I’m vacuuming my garage floor.”  I’m turning into a real country club woman!!!

If I post pictures of me in a tennis outfit on my way to my morning tennis match come shoot me.

PLEASE!!!

 

To read more LearningRx reviews and stories from other parents visit: http://www.learningrx-reviews.com/


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