I have good memories of Thanksgiving growing up. Maybe 20 or even 30 of us for dinner in the cousins’ mountain cabin, usually with one or two foreign students with no place to go. We played games, caught up with family, sang “there was an old lady who swallowed a fly..”, took walks in the mountains and often had snow to greet us. We were a happy and thankful family. Once the turkey was too big to catch much less to de-feather. Thanksgiving was always a family time and our family shared our love with others, too.

 One of the most memorable thanksgivings for me was the year Sue and I had just become engaged. We sat alone beside the fire at the nearby lodge and shared our dreams of the future. After nearly 42 years of marriage we have much for which to be thankful. Sometimes we are tempted to think of the “stuff” we have. Mostly, though, I thank God for family, friends, work and a joyful heart. Make it a priority this year to stop and share your blessings with others. Give someone a Thanksgiving hug and be blessed in return!

Learning Tip:  Challenge students to be thankful for their teachers, every small improvement in learning, friends in school, and even for the privilege to attend school in a free country. 

Savings Tip:  Live a simpler life!  Consider eliminating extras in your life: cell phone minutes, land phone lines, Netflix (watch free movies online instead).  If you can do it yourself cancel yard services and get the exercise.   Avoid purchasing the latest gadgets and wait until the prices drop. 

 News Flash
Students can change poor grades to Top Grades before Christmas!  What a Christmas present!  Ask for the season discount.  Call 803-1354 for a free evaluation. 

We The People Are The Priority!

The elections are over, but the discipline of being responsible citizens is not. We have given our children and grandchildren a good lesson in how our constitutional republic can work without a violent revolution.

Now we must show them in a disciplined manner how to be in touch with our elected officials on a regular basis with intelligent input. The internet provides wonderful opportunities to keep in contact with elected officials. They will be listening. We must encourage them to do what is right not just what is politically correct.

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams

Learning Tip
Parents, take responsibility for your child’s education. If your child is getting poor grades, take the initiative and get tutoring help from Stilwell’s Learning Center. Once a child gets behind in class, catching up becomes difficult.

Savings Tip

Take your lunch to work one more day a week than you do now. Taking lunch just one more day each week will keep money in your pocket.

News Flash
Students can change poor grades to Top Grades before Christmas! What a Christmas present! Ask for the season discount. Call 803-1354 for a free evaluation.

When I was a child, phonics, prayer and scripture reading were still expected in public schools. Schools produced students who achieved. Nazis, Moslems and Imperial Japan had declared war against us and we fought hard to keep free from oppression. “Drug-free” schools dispensing huge amounts of “street drugs” like Ritalin were unknown. Ritalin had not yet helped to produce our drug-addicted generations.

Before the “anything goes” culture of the 1960′s, drugs, easy divorce, illicit sex, lesbianism/homosexual life-styles, abortion, media control, R-rated movies and pornography were either unknown, shunned or spoken against, even from pulpits. Today they are usually tolerated or considered normal.

These things disturb me! That’s why in my absentee ballot I voted for those persons and propositions honoring high moral values to represent me and the constitution of the United States of America. It is time to take back America and our freedoms! How about you. Make learning a priority and your vote significant! Our children’s future depends on it.

Learning Tip
Praise your children for any success, however limited. We all need encouragement! Always assume that children are working up to their capacity and find ways to enhance their skills. That’s our goal at Stilwell’s Learning Center, LLC!

Savings Tip
Don’t pay interest on credit cards. This is obvious, but as soon as you fail to pay off the credit card in full, high interest payments occur and start to eat away at your monthly budget. If the temptation to spend more than you can pay on a credit card is too great, get rid of the credit card.

 News Flash!
Students can change poor grades to Top Grades before Christmas! What a Christmas present!    Call 803-1354.

RESTORE AMERICA by RESTORING OUR HOMES

Our whole society seems over-extended. Fast food restaurants seem to flourish right now. America is plagued by the Tyranny of the Urgent that Charles E. Hummel wrote about.

I do not ever remember having this generation’s unproductive amount of homework. TV in our family was no more than an hour each night and most nights we were doing other more interesting things. No cell phones, Ipods or video games!

Almost every day, Dad and Mom told me they loved me. They told me that God had a purpose for my life and that trust was important. Gratitude was high on our list. Depression, divorce and sexual problems were rare in our community.

Boys were expected to learn differently than girls and vice-versa. Dad played with us in a hands-on physical, wrestling manner. Our familiy laughed a lot. We prayed together. We sang around the piano.

We were taught discipline and respect. Dad told us stories about his life, giving us a heritage. He taught me to work and that integrity was important and to learn from failures. He demonstrated courage and spiritual values in the face of obstacles. I was proud of my parents and my dad was the strength in our home.

Why am I dwelling on these things? I noticed several very intelligent students at Stilwell’s Learning Center LLC who exhibit the discipline and the love that comes from such an environment. I guess I want to believe that my boys, now men, remember our home in a similar way. What about you? We can restore American values by restoring our family values.

I tried baking bread in the middle of Africa. The ladies in the Methodist Mission compound gave me the recipe over the radio phone. I kneaded the dough with all of the ingredients and put the pan in the oven. Later, I heard the most unusual sound. It sounded like one of the drum beats in the village, but it was more like a “bump” and it was in the house. The “bump, bump…..bump, bump” continued. I finally went into the kitchen to see the oven door bumping open and shut. So, I opened the oven door and out spilled about 3 feet of the “blob”. I had inadvertently mixed up the recipe and had put too much yeast and baking soda into the mix and the bread had turned into a moving, living mass.

Studies now being done on the brain suggest that correct “recipes” for thought patterns really do matter. Creative endeavors are not likely to come from blobs of defeatist thinking that turns us into negative thinkers with negative, anti-social behaviors. At Stilwell’s Learning Center, LLC, one of our goals is turning negative, fatalistic, “I cant’ ” thinking around to become more positive, creative, excited thinking in order to change habit patterns in the brain. That will make a difference and get results! Sometimes we need to start all over with the learning, even at adult levels, because the wrong recipe for learning to read, write, spell and do math was used and accepted with no real benefit…just an over-sized blob of inflated learning that really didn’t fit into any sequential learning pattern. Don’t let that happen to you! Make an appointment with us at Stilwell’s Learning Center, LLC and we will diagnose your pattern of learning to get positive results.

Learning Tip
Read to your child. This is one of the most important things you can do. When you read to them, children learn that books are fun. They soon want to read themselves.

Savings Tip
Improve your credit score. A good credit score can save you thousands of dollars in interest on everything from a home loan to a car loan, and from school loans to credit cards.

Save $20.00 Receive $20.00 off your monthly fees at Stilwell’s Learning Center, LLC for every friend you refer to us who has this coupon or your signature on our office card or even a personal note from you.
Offer Expires: December 31, 2010

 

I challenge the need for excessive homework!  Every day I see some students with up to 4 hours or more of homework, much of which is of little value, in my opinion.  This creates discouraged students, who too easily give up without more individualized help.  Teachers, parents and students need to partner in the process for individual needs.   A homework discipline of 15-30 minutes of math drills or reading each day is good for elementary students.  Junior High students might need 45 minutes of homework from a different class everyday.  High schoolers might sometimes require 60-90 minutes per day of homework.  Students will eagerly finish homework with these guidelines and positive reinforcement.   Each child or teenager learns differently, yet all require certain key skills.  At Stilwell’s Learning Center, LLC we help students develop language and math skills and learn proper homework discipline.  The object is to discover the joy of life-long learning and be encouraged to apply it to our lives.  That’s how we get results!

Learning Tip Listen to your child.  Get your child to talk about the things he or she sees and does.  Good talkers make good readers.  And children will talk if they know that someone will pay attention and listen.   Savings Tip Combine your cable, Internet and telephone service.  Companies now offer combined services that not only cost less, but offer the convenience of a single bill.  These combined services can save you time and money.

]]> http://thestilwellslearningcenter.com/http:/thestilwellslearningcenter.com/video/feed 14 http://thestilwellslearningcenter.com/http:/thestilwellslearningcenter.com/video http://thestilwellslearningcenter.com/http:/thestilwellslearningcenter.com/video#comments Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:00:30 +0000 admin http://thestilwellslearningcenter.com/?p=418 Teach a person to fish and he will never go hungry.

(African proverb)

I admit I am part of a counter-culture in our society. For instance, with knowledge exploding every day, teachers, parents, politicians and school publishing companies often get sucked into the philosophy that we just need to teach more knowledge. The problem is that most of us need to have skills first to make use of the knowledge. Only then can knowledge be transformed into wise choices.

At Stilwell’s Learning Center, LLC, we don’t concentrate on historical or scientific data or even homework, unless it is absolutely necessary. Instead, we develop reading accuracy and along with it writing, vocabulary and comprehension skills. Students can also learn basic math, fractions, decimals, percentages, weights, measurements, basic geometry and much, much more. They are skills. With these skills a person could literally be self-educated by going to the library. Certainly, school grades will improve.

Take advantage of services offered at Stilwell’s Learning Center, LLC and see your student gain confidence with the skills he/she learns and applies. See our encouragement coupon below.

Learning Tip
Talk to your child. Even at the baby stage-during the first few years-you should talk to the child, not baby talk but real words. The more words children can say, the easier it is for them to learn to read.

Savings Tip
Get your books and DVDs from the library. Many libraries now have movies that can be checked out.