…I find that rarely in life do we take the opportunity to acknowledge and share the stories of those who have made an impact in our lives and in those of our children. Today I would like to share with you a story of our daughter’s success.

I would like to premise this story by sharing that our family is not a stranger to the world of education. I have been a certified teacher in Broward County at the Elementary School level for the past ten years. My specialization has been in the area of Gifted and Accelerated Education. This past year we moved our family to Sunset Lakes and enrolled our child in the local public school for first grade. In June, at the close of the Kindergarten, our daughter was reading barely on grade level and was struggling with expressive language. By November of this past year, I had seen minimal improvement. I was so concerned that I actually went and purchased a duplicate copy of each of her school texts and workbooks and was spending an hour nightly trying to “make up” for what my daughter was obviously lacking and “not getting” in her classroom.

As any teacher will tell you, the hardest child you will ever teach will be your own! Every night became a battle of wills at home and I watched helplessly as my gregarious and outgoing child became less and less interested in learning, which translated into more and more of a struggle. I am embarrassed to say that I even went as far as volunteering weekly in the classroom [I work full time] to create personalized lessons for the children, including weekly vocabulary words and extension activities – anything I could do to help my baby learn became my mantra. I was so frustrated that I had Dolch word identification lists plastered around my home. Ironically, nothing seemed to work. We struggled with the basic spelling lists that included words such as “of,” “off”, etc.

Finally, I decided that my child’s highly visual and spatial learning modality was not being met in the traditional learning environment. There was not a phonetic base to the teaching of reading and writing and my normally responsible and motivated child was constantly forgetting her homework and resorting to memorizing books rather than actually learning how to read them. We made the decision to look for alternatives. After much research, we chose to come to Montessori Academy and were VERY blessed to be placed in the Pine Room with Ms. Yoly.

Whereas most parents and children would be nervous about starting school in a new environment and making friends, my fears rested in “can she do this?” “All of the other kids appear to read so well, will my child keep up?” “Will her self esteem with academics worsen when she compares herself to her more advanced peers?” Fortunately… I was dead wrong

Now I realize, it has only been since November, but my child almost instantly made 180 degree turn with her academics. Her sense of responsibility returned! We stopped fighting each night! Now I can’t lie… Sponge Bob still trumps homework every time, but this time was different. – she felt success and the homework had a purpose. It wasn’t just busywork. Each night as we alphabetized states, we would play puzzles of the USA and find the states. When the third graders studied the Everglades, she made us take a family trip to the Everglades and create a diorama at home so that she could learn about the Everglades too. Her spelling words now include words like “whistle,” “weight,” and “wait,” and you know what… she is averaging a 100% or one wrong in most of her tests! Last week at the Barnes and Nobles Family Night, I found myself shopping for books on a second grade reading level AND she can actually read them!!!

This past Sunday as I was cleaning house, I stumbled across my dusty, unused Dolch list and I casually threw the second grade word identification list in front of her just to see how she would do. Not only did she read every word correctly, but she self corrected her errors. When she read the word “many” as “man” “e,” she paused and recanted [knowing the rule] and said “many.”

I know our girl has a long way to go, but I think these improvements affirmed what I already knew to be true. Put a child in an environment where learning is encouraged and allow them to learn in a way that best fits his/her learning style and he/she will thrive. I cannot commend Ms. Yoly enough for being a remarkable and loving educator. She is a credit to her profession and a rare gem that I hope is highly valued by Montessori Academy.

Thank you for supporting our daughter and making her feel motivated, safe and happy. But most importantly, thank you for doing your job well and providing my daughter with a sound education. That peace of mind is invaluable to me…