Author: Laura Godfrey

The COVID-19 pandemic is escalating everywhere. By now, most of us know the steps we have to take to protect ourselves from the virus – staying home, washing our hands, maintaining a physical distance and wearing a mask as a precaution buying groceries. In the midst of this, we are trying to cope with our new reality the best we can.

Adults, families, teens and young children in the CanLearn literacy program keep learning.

We know that learning puts us in a positive frame of mind that helps us stay positive, optimistic and hopeful. Over the past six weeks, we now understand that learning is the emotional PPE for our learners and our staff. The choice to keep learning rather than succumbing to gloom and doom of these unsettling times is important to all of us.

Last week, we were talking, reading, writing and learning about hope together. The more hope we can cultivate today, the better equipped our learners of all ages will be to cope and thrive in the months ahead.

The purpose of this blog is to share a few examples of the numerous positive and hopeful thoughts the participants in our programs shared with us.

“This time has been pretty difficult for a lot of us. Hopefully, when this is over, life would go back to normal, and we would appreciate more, complain less, be more kind to one another and better people than our old selves. I pray this world will find peace and safety.”

“Thanks for the great idea to make and mail cards. My kids each made one for their Grandparents. They all loved them! My Mom said she almost cried! Their Grandma and Grandpa said they put theirs on their fridge. My Mom called on Wednesday, and my Husband’s Dad called last night to say they got them!”

CanLearn has been helping adults, youth and children with learning, attention and literacy for the past 40 years. Learning doesn’t disappear during difficult times. It just changes direction. It becomes a powerful coping strategy, and it helps us hold on to hope.

So, be well, wash your hands, keep your distance, wear your PPE and KEEP LEARNING.

 

 

Release the Stress

Because stress is not good for learning – or living. Your kids may be as stressed as you are about life in the pandemic, so start with ways to lower the stress.

This document from the Alberta government looks at frequently asked questions that kids have asked. It will provide you with some ideas about talking to your kids about COVID-19. You can download it here. COVID-19 Information for Kids (PDF)

Instead of talking about isolation, think of this as ‘cocooning.’ We have a unique chance to spend time with our families, an opportunity for parents to model the critical life skills we want our kids to know: patience, compassion, flexibility, and creativity.

 

Set the Scene for Daily Work and School

Because most of us do best with a routine, set up a general work and school schedule to follow Monday to Friday that includes kids’ school assignments and parents’ work from home can keep everyone on track.

For example:

9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon – Work and school

12:00 Noon to 1:00 PM – Lunch

1:00 PM to 3:00 PM – Work and school

 

Times within the schedule can be changed to be flexible. Based on online work and school meetings, kids and their parents will have to share digital resources. Parents may be able to flex their time before kids are awake and after bedtime. This will provide time to support schoolwork during the day.

• Design your schedule around the developmental needs of your kids.
• For children age seven and under, blocks of supervised learning of 30 minutes at a time are recommended.
• For most older students, 45-minute blocks with 15-minute breaks for stretching and refocusing are ideal.
• Elementary children will need supervision and encouragement; junior and senior high students may be able to work with less supervision and support.
• 45-minute blocks usually work best for adults, too. But whether we can do it depends on our boss’s expectations!

 

A morning schedule could look like this, depending on the age and needs of your kids. Use different colours for younger and older children.

 

9:00 AM to 9:30 AM – School assignments OR 9:00 AM to 9:45 AM – School assignments

15-minute movement breaks – walk around the block, feed the fish, teach the dog a trick, fold the laundry.

9:45 AM to 10:15 AM – Assignments or skill development. (For younger kids)

10:15 AM to 11:00 AM – Assignments or skill development. (For older kids)

15-minute movement breaks.

11:00 AM to 11:30 AM – Assignments or skills development. (For younger kids)

11:15 AM to 12:00 – Assignments or skills development. (For older kids)

• Build lots of movement activities into the schedule. Kids are used to recess and daily phys ed. Of course, movement is good for adults, too!
• Post the schedule where everyone can see it.
• Be flexible and adapt the schedule to your family’s needs.
• Be sure that TV and digital games are turned off during the work or school day!

 

Have Fun Together

Use games as learning activities that add fun and develop skills during the school day. For instance, word recognition and decoding – Bananagrams, Scrabble, Quiddler, Snap-It-Up.
Sound and letter recognition – Family Literacy Activities for Parents and Children Ages 5-7 by Nada Jerkovic can be downloaded here. (PDF)

 

Extra Resources

Calgary Public Library – Digital Resources – Tumble Books and other great resources are available on the Library website.

Alberta Guidelines for Ongoing Learning

Calgary Zoo Live Panda Cameras

Calgary Public Library – Story Time for Little Ones

Resources for Learning at Home

 

With so much uncertainty at the moment, it is easy for kids to feel worried and anxious. Kids struggling with anxiety, ADHD, ASD or another condition may be particularly vulnerable given pre-existing challenges with self-regulation and emotional control. A child with poor self-regulation skills may have trouble handling stress and frustration or adapting to change, often resulting in anger, anxiety or challenging behaviour. Many parents are unsure of how to help. The good news is that just like learning to walk and learning to read, self-regulation can be taught! As parents, you hold the key to helping your children develop self-regulation skills. When children learn how to calm themselves down when they’re feeling upset, handle frustration without outbursts and adjust to changes in environment and expectations, they will not only feel better about themselves but will be better prepared to handle the challenges of life more successfully.

At CanLearn, we focus on helping parents develop a warm and responsive approach to teaching children self-regulation skills, guided by establishing structure and routines, setting clear goals and expectations, as well as modelling, positive reinforcement and regular opportunities for practice. In addition to the teaching of specific self-regulation skills, parents who participate in our programs are provided with a chance to share, problem-solve and connect with other families who are facing similar challenges.

Given the current circumstances, helping children find ways to cope with their emotions and adapt to new ways of life will be more critical than ever.

Interested? Want more information? Give us a call at 403-686-9300 ext. 102 or contact Jaime Gaber.

You can find more information about the Calm Kids Happy Families program here.

 

Online Resources and Apps that Support Self-Regulation and Coping Skills

Resources For Parents

Rethinking Challenging Kids-Where There’s Skill There’s a Way – YouTube Video

Think:Kids teaches Collaborative Problem Solving – Website

Lives in the Balance. Dr. Ross Greene – Website

 

Apps For Children

Breath, Think, Do with Sesame – Website

Calm (For adults and children) – Website

Headspace for Kids – Website

DreamyKid (Helps with self-confidence, anxiety, and bedtime settling) – Website

Stop, Breathe & Think Kids – Website

Moodtrack Diary (Two versions: social and private; more suitable for adolescents) – Website

 

 

This free online program is for youth in grades 7 – 9. Teens will get together to make friends and participate in fun growth mindset activities.

Why?

• You are stuck at home, missing out on many things.
• You have to navigate all your school work online.
• It is easy to start feeling isolated, disappointed and anxious.
• Playing video games all night and sleeping all day won`t help.
• Learning about growth mindset will be helpful to you!

A growth mindset helps you develop:

• Perseverance
• Grit
• Positive thinking
• Resilience
• The ability to learn from mistakes

The program will run every Wednesday for 10 weeks, from 3:00 – 4:30 PM. The start date is April 29, 2020.

There is no cost to participants!

 

Interested?

You can register by contacting us at 403-686-9300 Ext. 128 or email us.

 

The program is funded and supported by:

A question for you:

If you had to describe how you are feeling during these unsettling days in just one word, what word would that be?

 

Stressed? Overwhelmed? Isolated? Insecure? Trapped? Anxious? Tired?

Positive? Optimistic? Hopeful? Good? Fine? Bored?

 

As we go through this time of social isolation, financial instability, risks to our health and more, it seems impossible to describe how we feel in a single word!

Last week, we asked this question to all adult learners in our programs. Many of them are struggling with what is the “right” way to feel right now. The goal of this emotional check-in was to ensure that our learners’ emotions are acknowledged by themselves and others. Mixed emotions are okay during uncertain times, and there is no “right” way to cope with a pandemic. Another goal was to highlight the importance of learning to maintain their emotional well-being.

Adult learning programs at CanLearn are built on an emergent curriculum approach. This approach focuses on being responsive to learners’ interests and needs and creating relevant and meaningful learning experiences. Our program facilitators have always been committed to this approach in their day-to-day work. Now, they have come to understand and appreciate it at an even deeper level. They know that it will go a long way in making sure that, once the shutdown is over, our learners come back to their in-person programs feeling positive and able to learn.

This blog intends to share instructional materials that we have used to help adult foundational learners in our programs not only to continue developing their skills in reading and writing but also to nurture their emotional well-being. They are based on current event articles, informational texts and human interest stories related to our “new normal.”

 

Reading

Keep in mind that, depending on your learners’ reading level, you may need to rewrite some of these articles in clear language.

• Where to Find and Apply for COVID-19 financial reliefs – Website
• Coronavirus New Words – Website
• More Coronavirus New Words – Website
• Scams Related to COVID-19 – Website
• Stop the Spread of Rumors – Website
• Humour and Coronavirus Anxiety – Website
• School’s Online – How Do I Help My Children Learn! – Website
• Panic Buying – Website

 

Writing

Writing can calm a worried mind. Encourage your learners to write about:

• How they spend their time.
• What advice they would give to others.
• How do they take care of themselves, mentally, physically, and emotionally?
• What they did to help someone and how it made them feel.
• What are they grateful for?
• What do they cook for their family?
• How do they play and learn with their children?
• Send notes of gratitude to health care workers, grocery workers, truck drivers, etc.
• Write sidewalk chalk messages of hope, support and resilience.
• What keeps them up at night?
• What are the possible silver linings of this situation?

 

Emotional Support

• Make a mix-tape song list with your learners as your soundtrack for these surreal times.
• Create a self-care challenge with your learners.

 

Other Tips

• Keep in regular contact with learners through phone, text, or email.
• Use simple tools such as Zoom, Skype, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, What’s App so that you can meet with your learners “face-to-face.”
• Send your session plan in advance as much as possible.
• Use texting for a supplement to instruction.
• Make sure that your texts and emails are short and written in clear language so that your learner can read it and respond to them.
• Coach learners to ask their Internet provider for deferred payment or reduced rates of service.
• Practice real-life questions and conversations; the more authentic the content is, the more valuable it will be for your learners.

 

Facilitating adult foundational learning from a distance is not perfect. It can be exhausting both for learners and program facilitators because it requires a lot more mental focus. There is something intangible about in-person learning that just cannot be replaced. However, learning through Skype or Zoom or FaceTime has become our reality in the upcoming weeks. As practitioners, we have to work out our practice and ensure the content of our programs remains relevant and authentic. We all must learn side by side with learners in our programs.

 

We will get past this.

 

It is tough, but we are going to be okay.

 

Stay safe and healthy. And stay home.

 

 

Peter Jarvis is a well-known researcher in the field of adult education who spent many years writing about why learning is so important. In one of his books, he suggests:

“Learning is food, ingest it, and it will enrich the whole human being. We cannot exist without learning. Learning is almost synonymous for living.”

As we continue to navigate our new normal, we are becoming increasingly aware of both day-to-day challenges and far-reaching implications of the current situation on our emotional well-being.

COVID-19 has brought with it a pressure that families with children had never experienced before.

Containing the preschool balls of energy with no regard to social distancing and keeping them occupied is the tough place to be as a parent. With school classes now being offered online, parents are worried if they will be able to rise to the challenge of supporting their children`s learning. The Internet is full of suggestions for online activities; however, one cannot but wonder about the potentially harmful impact of too much screen time on children`s health and well-being.

“Am I doing this right?” is the most common question we heard from adults with children who participated in the past two weeks.

The purpose of this blog is to offer insights and share some family learning tools that our literacy practitioners have been using to support the emotional well-being of our program participants.

Our first tip for parents is to take 3-4 deep breaths and remember that if they are not taking good care of themselves, they will not be able to take care of their children. As such, we remind them to stay positive and know that they are strong enough to get through this.

(So, before you read any further, take 3-4 deep breaths and remember that the only way we can fully be there for our family is to be there for ourselves fully.)

The next step involves helping parents develop an awareness of how family learning can help their family continue to learn, hope and grow. Family learning is an important strategy for maintaining emotional well-being and preventing potential mental health difficulties in the future.

What we at CanLearn call family learning refers to a whole range of activities through which parents and children improve their understanding of the world by learning together as a family. Family learning activities are unplugged. The focus is on helping parents to develop a learning attitude for themselves intentionally and to begin modelling it for their children. This helps children build the attitudes, behaviours and understanding that they will carry with them into the classroom, into their adult lives, and into their own future families. Seeing their parents learn and learning together as a family will be crucial in helping children not only cope with the circumstances of our new normal but also seamlessly transition to classroom learning once the situation gets back to normal. Continuing to learn as an adult will be crucial in helping parents stay resilient and equipped for the time when nobody can predict what the future will bring.

In addition to encouraging families who participate in our programs to engage in family learning at its own pace and adapt to its own needs, our facilitators have been guiding, modelling and sharing family learning activities that parents can use with their children at their dinner table, in their living room, while preparing meals or taking walks outside.

Many of these ideas are on our website:

Download ‘Just Play’ (PDF)

Download ‘Phonological Awareness’ (PDF)
Here are more ideas for families with older children:

• Write letters or postcards of encouragement and send them to a nursing home or your elderly neighbours
• Create a family cookbook
• Write Mad Libs together (for instruction go to www.redkid.net)
• Make a list of different ways you can use a word
• Have each family member put a “mystery object” in a paper bag and exchange the bags. Each family member then reaches into their bag and comes up with a list of descriptive words describing the object (at least four words, more if possible). You can then write a paragraph describing the object and end it with a sentence saying what you think the object is.
• Pick a country and write a paragraph for 15 minutes of what you would like to do there on a trip. Read your stories.
• Read an article together and then write it in your own words (paraphrase). When you are finished, compare your version with the original.
• Interview a family member and ask them about their life. Write their biography.
• Gather ten coins and make calculations using these coins.
• Make a poster of 5 words you find tricky to spell. Put the tricky part in a different colour (e.g. beautiful)
• Play multiplication ping pong with one person batting the question and the other batting back the answer.
• Put the numbers 2, 5, 3 and 4 on separate sticky notes. Make as many different odd numbers between 4,000 and 6,000 as you can.
• Figure out if you would rather have 3/5 of $10 or 75% of $10. Explain your thinking.
• Go outside for some fresh air while making sure that you practice social distancing.

 

We will continue to share family learning ideas and activities in the upcoming weeks. We feel it is so important!

We are faced with a situation that has no end in sight. Across the country people’s coping skills have been pushed to their limits.

One of the difficult things about this situation is the feeling that we have no control over it. We are all worried. Telling yourself to stop worrying doesn’t work – psychology studies tell us that if you tell yourself not to think about a glass of milk, you will probably have trouble doing that.

Because our thoughts are connected with our emotions, it is not easy to think positively during these times. The more negative thoughts we have; the more we believe them, the more we believe we can’t cope.

And this is where this blog comes in.

At CanLearn, we strongly believe that all of our learning programs have a role to play in helping adults, children and families in facilitating their emotional well-being during these times of uncertainty, a role that complements the work of other professionals involved.

Last week, our staff spent time connecting with our learners, figuring out technology tools and determining why it was important to continue running our programs, as well as what aspects of our program we needed to change and how could we make change happen.

First and foremost, we are very pleased about the positive response we have received from our learners, as the majority of them have accepted our invitation to continue their programs with eagerness and gratitude. We feel that it is not enough to simply say that we want to continue supporting our learners online; we need to figure out what that means and how we can achieve it while keeping in mind that now is a time for action rather than talk.

For the time being, our literacy programs will focus their learning goals on emotional literacy – building resilience and approaching life’s challenges with optimism and hope.

“Optimism means having a strong expectation that, in general, things will turn out all right in life, despite setbacks and frustrations… optimism is an attitude that buffers people against apathy, hopelessness or depression in the face of tough going.” (Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, 1995)

With the quote above in mind, let us describe a few learning tools we are going to use in our literacy programs:

Writing

We will encourage to our learners to put their thoughts on paper.

Studies have shown that writing about distressing experiences can help people make sense of them and reduce negative emotions. Likewise, writing about positive or hopeful thoughts helps us to become positive because we put our attention on hope. This kind of writing leads to optimism. We will embed a variety of activities that will facilitate:

• Gratitude writing – writing about things in their lives-no matter how small they are- for which they are grateful. These could include healthy family members, sunny skies, a friend to talk with online;
• Visualization writing – visualizing what things would be like when things get back to normal and writing about it in positive terms, with as much detail as possible, noting the colours, sounds and sights that you find in your visualizations.

With adults writing can come in the form of journal, while with children it will come through drawing, art and play activities.

Conversations that facilitate thought shifting

We will help our learners challenge their worries with questions such as, “Is there anything at all good about the situation? (E.g. we live in a country/province that has resources to help people navigate the situation).

Laughter

Maintaining a sense of humour is important to our emotional survival in the days, weeks and months to come. We will plan activities to encourage our learners to incorporate laughter in their day, to immerse themselves in humorous books and movies and engage in light-hearted interactions with their family members.

 

Our staff will continue to proactively reflect on the both opportunities and obstacles we are likely to encounter and we will carefully navigate these as they arise.

We keep Maya Angelou’s quote in mind “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
 

Protecting health and safety for all learners, clients, staff and volunteers is a top priority for CanLearn.

The CanLearn office is closed as our staff work from home. All of-site our community and in-home programs have been put on hold.

However, our family and adult literacy programs are not cancelled. In order to support our program participants continue to learn during the times of uncertainty, we have made modifications to our program delivery models. The programs will continue to run on-line.

With everything being cancelled to deal with the COVID-19 situation, what are we doing choosing to continue literacy programs? How and why, in the middle of an unprecedented situation, are we expecting our learners to respond? Isn’t it wise to just wait till this ends?

Reflecting on these questions, we came up with a number of reasons why it is absolutely crucial to continue learning during the times when we all have to stay home.

First and foremost, we want to help our learners maintain a tiny but important sense of normalcy during the times of turbulence and help them stay resilient and hopeful. During the times of anxiety, fear and uncertainty, it is important to connect. Due to social isolation, the COVID – 19 emergencies can have a significant negative impact of both adult and children’s emotional and psychological well-being. Parents are likely to experience stress and anxiety and may not be able to support their children’s learning as they would in normal circumstances. Adult literacy learners may experience challenges to focus on the things that are positive in their life. Continuing to learn will offer our learners a sanctuary and an opportunity to down everything else even if for a few hours each week.

Our on-line world and news are full of frightening COVID-19 stories. This is an opportunity to help our program participants learn to consider the sources of their information and to beware of the large amount of misinformation.

The outbreak of COVID-19 raises questions and concerns for all of us. We are all learning as we go and that’s OK. Opportunities for learning are endless. We can help parents learn how to talk to their young children about COVID-19 at a developmentally appropriate level. We can help parents try to make the “new normal” fun for their children. A good example is learning to wash hands long enough for two renditions remind of “Happy Birthday” song. Now is the time to strengthen digital skills and learn FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts and WhatsApp to stay connected and keep learning.

We are still there for our learners, determined to stay connected, optimistic and hopeful. One of the most important roles that we have is to help them imagine the time when our programs are able to run in-person again and when our world will be back to normal.

So all can learn

Forty years ago, in 1979, the doors of CanLearn Society opened to provide services for students with learning disabilities. Our Founder, Dr. Neil Hutton and his partners, established a multidisciplinary centre for diagnosis, treatment, research and education to address gaps in our educational system.

A lot has happened in 40 years; Calgary has grown and changed, and so have our clients’ needs. Now each year, over two thousand children, youth and adults with learning, attention, literacy and social-emotional challenges pass through our doors.

Thanks to supporters like you, we don’t have to turn anyone away that needs our help. Instead, we can work with them until solutions are found. Individuals and families access the services they need and leave CanLearn changed forever. For the first time in their lives, many of them report feeling hopeful about their future. An impressive 95% of our clients say that they had a positive experience at CanLearn.

Over one in five Calgarians struggle with learning, literacy and attention issues. So for every individual that we reach, many still need our help. Every day in Calgary, children struggle in school, parents feel powerless to help, adults falter at work and fear losing their jobs. With your support, we can help them overcome these challenges and move on to a life of purpose. Donate to CanLearn today to unlock potential so all can learn.

Thank you for your support and generosity. Here’s to the next 40 years!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have had some great stories over the years. This one is still one of our favourites.

When Colleen enrolled at CanLearn, her goal was to learn to read and write better, but she learned so much more. Colleen learned she is intelligent, and with the right support, she can learn anything, “Everything I am today started because of the trust that was built between the people I met and the hope they gave me. In the program, I found my voice and my confidence.”

Colleen went on to complete two degrees; a B.A. and a B. Ed. With her confident voice and knowledge of her learning needs, she learned to advocate for herself to achieve success. Then she began helping others with learning challenges find their voice and has been working in this area ever since.

Last year, Colleen helped set up a college in the United States, where she brought the voice of disability from the outset. Her journey has taught her that she has a unique and valuable gift to share with the world. Her insights and advocacy will bring about change for hundreds of thousands of people.“My life is proof that you can change a life through learning. Thank you will never be enough for what you have given me CanLearn; the gift of learning is the greatest gift of all.”