The Radiant Mission
The Radiant Mission
109. Home and School Tutoring Pods: Homeschool Support w/Joanna Meliti
Unlock the world of homeschooling with our special guest, Joanna Maliti, a passionate educator and co-founder of Home and School Tutoring Pods. Joanna shares her inspiring shift from traditional classroom teaching to homeschooling, driven by her desire to overcome the constraints she noticed within conventional education systems. Discover how her dedication to inclusive education and hands-on learning experiences shaped her approach, including a remarkable family adventure through 11 national parks that turned into a vibrant educational journey.
Ever wondered if homeschooling needs to mirror the rigid structure of a conventional school day? Think again. We discuss the flexibility and creativity homeschooling offers, where everyday activities like cooking and playing Legos become powerful learning moments. Joanna provides insights on understanding each child’s unique learning style and challenges the unrealistic expectations of lengthy school days, advocating instead for a personalized and adaptable education model that aligns with the rhythm of family life.
Eye tracking issues and their surprising impact on reading abilities also take the spotlight, as we explore how these challenges can often be misinterpreted as learning disabilities like dyslexia. Joanna shares compelling findings on the reintroduction of phonics in Tennessee schools, her insights into the world of homeschool pods, and the essential role of prenatal health. Join us to uncover practical methods and alternative education models that promise to enrich children’s learning experiences and cater to diverse educational needs.
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Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission Podcast. My name is Rebecca Twomey and we are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through this life and with your relationship with Christ. As you're navigating through this life and with your relationship with Christ, we have been in the series on homeschooling and today we welcome Joanna Maliti. Did I pronounce that correctly? Yes, you did. Perfect. She is a homeschool mom and the co-founder of Home and School Tutoring Pods in Strawberry Plains, tennessee. She has an MS degree in inclusive education and was a classroom teacher for 11 years. During her full-time teaching career she was a teacher mentor, k-3 team leader, school board teacher representative, language arts content writer and was awarded the Dean's Award in Education. For the past five years, she has been focused on tutoring students and supporting parents in their homeschooling journey. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with her husband of 16 years and six-year-old daughter and reading a good book with a biscotti and a hot cup of tea. I love that. Joanna, thank you so much for being here today.
Rebecca Twomey:Thank you for having me, this is really, really exciting, because there are things that you and I were chatting before this that we've talked about a lot with homeschooling so far, but we have not talked about the topics that you're going to really bring to the table today and I can't wait to hear more about, especially, obviously, from the tutoring pod side of things and what that looks like, but also from the student perspective and addressing potential learning delays or not learning delays or you know that side of things. So I'm excited for us to dive into some of this today.
Joanna Meliti:Me too. Thank you for allowing me to come on and kind of share some of that information so that we can help families feel more confident in their homeschooling, Because I feel like that's kind of an area that people get hung up on is can I do this? What is?
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely, absolutely. So stay tuned. I'm not going to ask about learning disabilities just yet. Stay tuned. I'm not going to ask about learning disabilities just yet. We're going to start at kind of the beginning with your transition to full-time classroom teacher, to homeschooling and to co-founding your home and school tutoring pod. So you know, time commitment for teachers and students and time with your own child is super important, I know. So tell me a little bit about what inspired you to transition from teacher to homeschool.
Joanna Meliti:So when I walked into the first day of teaching, I was this confident teacher that felt like I could conquer the world, and I kind of held on to that until the end of my first year and felt like, hmm, I think I need to know more. I went through my bachelor's degree and felt like there was this desire to learn and know more, so I started getting my master's degree and that was when I started the inclusive education. Well, as time went on, I noticed there were students who weren't doing well in school. They just weren't grasping. There were challenges. And so at the time, you know, met with the administrative team that was, and I taught in private schools.
Rebecca Twomey:Okay, I was going to ask that what types of schools did you teach? In Were they religious private schools or just private school?
Joanna Meliti:They were religious, so we had, you know, memory verses every week. We had chapel.
Rebecca Twomey:And so it was a great environment to teach in.
Joanna Meliti:I feel very fortunate to have that background.
Joanna Meliti:But, so I would go to parents and I would say you know, we need to explore something, that we're seeing and whatnot. So one of the reasons why I went from full time teaching to homeschooling is I felt like the system was failing kids. The parents, you know, were not able to support their child. But then, when they reached out to the resources of the county because private school students can get testing for the county, did your tax dollars pay for that? The school system a private school system or a public school system would say well, your kid is not two grade levels below, so we have no services available to them. So I would come in with this first grader and I would say they are not, you know, showing progress or whatnot, and let's do some testing. Oh, well, as long as they can hold a pencil, that's all we're expecting from them at this point. And it's like no, no, no, no, no.
Rebecca Twomey:We have to do more.
Joanna Meliti:So I kind of saw where the system was failing kids, um, I saw how much wasted time there was during the day, um, with a full-time teaching classroom. And I taught for 11 years before having my daughter and in those 11 years I said I would never send my child to school School Because of the time that they're away from their families, the pressure, the academic pressures that are put on them. You know, we had science fairs, history fairs, and then there's homework in the evening, and then there's just this we have to meet certain standards and meet certain benchmarks by certain times of the year. And I just thought this is so overwhelming to these little six and seven year olds that I would never want to do that to my daughter or my son. So I knew from day one that I would not be sending my child to a regular school.
Joanna Meliti:And then I remember teaching third grade and there was this lesson about it was it was a geography lesson in different landmarks and things around the country, and I thought how amazing would it be if we could actually go to these places and do things as a family. You know, but it's all abstract, you know, it's all like hypothetical, like, you know, if you were to go to this place, you would see that it's not real life. There's no desire to learn those things. One of the things that we did this past summer was we took our camper and for three months we traveled around the country and visited 11 national parks and it was like this is what school looks like.
Joanna Meliti:You can get those real life experiences and it makes them, you know, treasure it, and then they come back telling others about it and it just kind of like internalizes all of it. So, you know, I thought if I could be at home with my daughter and be her teacher, there would be opportunities for those like teachable moments, like we're in the moment we're going to teach and learn about these things, and then we can spiral, we can go back to things we've learned before, things we're learning currently and into the future. And so I just saw that, you know, being a teacher had its benefits, with my background in education, but I also had the heart of homeschooling and I thought how can I blend those together? And that's how Home and School Tutoring Pods was born. It was being a resource to families with my background but approaching everything with the heart of homeschooling.
Rebecca Twomey:That's awesome. So many things to unpack with some of the things that you said, the first being it's very interesting how you, as a teacher, observes these children are with me all day. These children are at school all day long and not with their mom.
Joanna Meliti:You know, they're.
Rebecca Twomey:They're not with their families, spending time growing with their families and I don't remember the exact statistic, but something like two hours a day maybe are spent with your actual family because kids are at school.
Rebecca Twomey:I know my mom mentioned that she was actually on the podcast a couple episodes ago because she homeschooled us and she mentioned one of my nephews, her grandson. He comes home at like five o'clock, you know, because he has school and then extracurricular stuff and and it's very hard for children. I mean think I think about it this way it's a work day for a child and it's hard for me to have a work day as an adult. So I can only imagine what it must be like for these kids to start their day at 7.30 or earlier. If they have to get up to get ready and then get home so late and have homework and extracurriculars and all these other things to do, it's not a lot of time to family bond. So that's beautiful that you were able to recognize it and say we're going to do things differently and I love the story of traveling and learning in person together as you're going around.
Joanna Meliti:Those are memories your daughter's going to have forever and ever yeah, there's things that she saw this summer that some adults don't even know about. We were telling some friends yesterday over lunch, you know about Yellowstone, and they were just like all we know is old faithful. There's so much more to it.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, and you know you mentioning the two hour kind of window that kids get after school. And what are we doing with that two hour window? We're feeding them, we're bathing them and we're putting them to bed. It's almost as if we don't have that precious time when they're at their best. You know they're tired. Um, they have all these demands I've been put on them all day to get in line, quietly, move from this space to this space, and they have, you know, this release of emotion a lot of times when they come home, and it's when parents feel the most challenged, um, so yeah, absolutely, yeah, it was one of those like light bulb moments when I was in the classroom.
Joanna Meliti:just you know, I understand why the families sometimes need to send their kids to the traditional classroom, but homeschooling has so many benefits for your own child and for your family. It's such a bonding experience. Like I get the pleasure of watching my daughter grow in her education.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, absolutely. One of the other things that I know was important to you is values and teaching your children values that align with your family.
Joanna Meliti:And.
Rebecca Twomey:I know one of the things with the school system and you were in a private school, but it's and I know one of the things with the school system and you were in a private school, but it's especially different in the public school system is your kids are going to be taught what the here you know. To the opinion of a teacher, let's say that they are super into something or have a certain belief system. That may there may be always an underlying tone of that belief where, when we homeschool, we do have that benefit of saying, like here's the beliefs that are important to us. I think you had an example about Greek mythology that you could share.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, so you know I was fortunate with teaching in private school that we didn't have a lot of like agendas and things that we had to, you know, kind of tailor to in the classroom. We could stay within our religious realm and beliefs and things. But I was talking with a teacher she was my neighbor and good friend and she taught in the public school system and she said I am becoming so frustrated. She said for an hour and a half in the afternoon she would have to teach Greek mythology to first graders and she said because of that she cannot go and do a pumpkin craft in the fall or, you know, do things that the kids would actually enjoy and make learning a little more enjoyable. And so instead the kids would become, they would, she'd have behavior problems. She said the toilet paper in the bathroom was, you know, thrown all about. She's like, cause they're bored, they're not interested in it, it means nothing to them.
Joanna Meliti:Not to mention, what are we doing with Greek mythology in first grade? You know, like why is that there? So you know I value we have our core beliefs as a family and you know we start our homeschool day with a devotional and memory verse that my daughter memorizes every week and we have prayer together as a family. And I feel like you know you can get that in public schools and, um, it's just as beneficial, but when you're doing it as a family, it bonds you and it's creating that um, just that wholesome environment, because we have like a thank you board and prayer board. Like, can we move something from our prayer board to our thankful board? You know, so are there things that we can instill in our child at home that hopefully they will continue to use as they grow and become adults? So, yeah, the um, yeah, the curriculum is also a very big thing too.
Rebecca Twomey:That's a very interesting about the Greek mythology. We have addressed a little bit of Greek mythology on the podcast. As far as from a biblical perspective, You're encouraging me because I now want to look more into why they would want to be teaching this to children. We know that this is pretty pervasive in the medical system. The Greek mythology, anyway, that's where it all started and so you've got. You've piqued my interest with that.
Rebecca Twomey:I've got to do some more research and maybe in the next series we'll talk about why the government wants children to know and understand more about Greek mythology. What are the pagan ties that they are promoting Light bulb moment here.
Rebecca Twomey:Now I want to talk a little bit more about your tutoring and that side of things, but first let's get a little bit into your experience as a teacher, because it is a transition I had. If you listen back, your natural learner, leah well, is you have to unschool yourself first when it comes to going from being a classroom teacher to homeschooling. So I would love to hear more about kind of your experience as a teacher mentor, how that influenced homeschooling and tutoring and do you feel that you had to do any mental unschooling of yourself?
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, you kind of really do, cause you're just set in a system. I mean, I was. I was only homeschooled one year, and that was third grade, and so I come from public school. I went to a private college, however, so I was used to getting up, going to school all day, coming home doing my homework and just repeating that process. So when it became time to homeschool, it was a mind shift of it doesn't have to start at eight, and we try I mean, there's research to say that children's brains kind of wake up at 10 AM. So to start school any sooner we're kind of doing them a disservice, you know, allowing them to kind of wake up and get going.
Joanna Meliti:So when I mentored teachers, a lot of the things that I had to do in the school system was you're seeing these things or these challenges with a student? What things can we do to help and support them? And so when it shifts to homeschooling and working more along with parents, it's more about helping them shift from the traditional schooling they're used to to what does homeschooling look like for you at home? And then what are, you know, good curriculums that you can use to help support your child, or different approaches. And then, as they get deeper into things, what specific challenges they're facing and what we can do to kind of remediate those. And so there's been.
Joanna Meliti:I had a mom, she was part of our pod, and she said we are just having a really hard time keeping up. And I said well, what are some of the challenges that you're having? She had her son enrolled in an online homeschool program but it was hours in a day that had to be done online and then he would have worked complete after, in addition to the pod said I feel like you're doubling up. You know you're doing twice as much. And she just kind of had the mindset that it had to be from, you know, nine to two or eight to three. It had to be this longer day. And so, you know, we sat down and we looked at where he was academically and what we could do to support him and get him where he needs to be.
Joanna Meliti:And then I feel like the biggest thing that parents need to hear is you don't have to start school at five, you don't have to be sitting down and doing things paper and pencil at five and even at six years old. So so it's helping them know what homeschooling looks like what are going to be some good practices to put in place for their child and kind of just how to organize, organize it all, navigate it. Um, I take for granted that I have the background of a teacher and kind of know how to like approach things and so, as I worked with more parents and kind of seeing the need for how do I do this, I don't know if I can do this Kind of working them through what it looks like. I had a phone conversation recently with a mom that was interested in the pod and she was pulling her kid out of school this year and she said kind of don't really tell me what are my first steps.
Joanna Meliti:And I said well, if your desire is to pull your kids out of school, you know you need to go through the process of that. I said but you don't have to start homeschooling next week. I said you can give yourself two weeks, because this was more of an emergency situation, you know she wanted them out immediately. I said give yourself two weeks to organize yourself. You know they're going to learn and they're going to do things in those two weeks. I said cook with them, you know. Give them things to play with that they can do engineering with Legos. Legos will count.
Joanna Meliti:And so she said I said the state. You know every requirement within the state you have to look at. But I said it doesn't have to be six hours of paper and pencil. No, homeschooling can look different for every family. And so we kind of worked through what that would look like for that family and she by the end, was like are you serious? That's what it looks like, cause they just mindset of like well, my kid has been used to going to school from eight to three and I need to replicate that. You know in some way. And it's not, it's totally different.
Joanna Meliti:So you know giving families ideas on best resources if they are facing some challenges you know, sitting down with families and giving them support if they need to talk to another expert about something more specific.
Rebecca Twomey:And you know.
Joanna Meliti:I know we're going to kind of dive into that a little bit later, but kind of using the science of learning to help families. So yeah, I really enjoyed being a teacher mentor, but I think I enjoy working with parents even better, I bet.
Rebecca Twomey:I bet Because there's a lot of things that you've learned that you can impart and pass along, and I remember learning this in. So I went to graduate school for English. I started out in English education and I changed my mind on that A couple episodes. I talked about how it is ironic I was homeschooled and then for a period of time I thought that I would be a teacher in the public school system, was in it briefly and then was like no way.
Rebecca Twomey:But one of the things that I remember talking about is that attention spans in college age students not even elementary school was around 30 to 45 minutes, and then after that they're checked out, right, and that's, I think, a lot of the reasons why they rotate kids' classes so frequently. Right, cause they're thinking all right, we'll teach on this, then we'll rotate to the next thing, and then to the next thing and to the next thing. But how? How crazy is it If we think about an eight-hour day for a child? I mean, how much of that are they really absorbing? And then to think about the history of school, right, you know, people weren't always going to school here in America. In the pioneer days they were certainly not going to school and attending school and learning. You know the same things that we're learning now school and attending school and learning. You know the same things that we're learning now. They were working with the family, working on the farm, building things, cooking all that.
Rebecca Twomey:And as those single room school houses started to come, what was that? A couple hours a day that they were going. And now here we are, 200 years later, and kids are going to school from seven to three or two, 30, whatever it might be. I would love to kind of hear your just even just opinion after being in this atmosphere and just to encourage, like you just did, just encourage parents that school does not have to be an eight hour day or even a six hour day. When I was homeschooled, my mom did not wake us up.
Rebecca Twomey:We woke up when we woke up, which was usually around nine, sometimes nine, 30. And we would start, just like you did, with devotional Bible study and then we would, you know, go get into our work. And however long it took us was how long it took us. Right, we had the lesson plan for the day, and I was very much the type that I want to just get it done as fast as possible so I could go work on whatever project I was in the middle of. I love to sew, I love to do crafts and, you know, make little pot holders and different things, and so it was get it done in an hour, hour and a half even, and that was enough because I was able to get through what I needed to get through. So I'd love to just kind of hear your thoughts on that.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, they. The thing that I think most families are surprised by is how much you can get done in such a short amount of time. I mean, we're talking about 11, 12, 15 minutes max for math. We're talking about 10 minutes for writing. We're talking, you know, we're doing what we need to to support and build our kids to where they need to be.
Joanna Meliti:And you know, a progression from kindergarten up. But when we talk about the time, I would say you know, we say with kindergarten, 45 minutes tops to get through what they need to do. But outside of that 45 minutes, you know it's funny we say what's the best curriculum for kindergarten? It's dress up clothes and face paint. You know, because there is so much value to play there. Their minds are still in this stage of wanting to be so imaginative. They're curious, they want to explore, they want to see what happens if I, you know, take a bucket of dirt and I mix leaves and sticks.
Joanna Meliti:And you know, and that's why I appreciate some of the other resources to parents.
Joanna Meliti:You know, like the outdoor schools and things like that, because it gives kids other options. But outside of you know, the paper and pencil work, homeschooling can be the zoo, it can be your backyard, it can be a play date, it can be them riding their bike, and so, yes, we have our state requirements when we're talking about those hours. Sure, sure, yeah, you know we are 180 days. We have to mark off that we did. But don't think that 180 days of six hour book work. I think there's value to picking up a pencil and writing a sentence, like we need to learn good finger spacing and letter formation. But outside of the little bit that they need to do each day, there are so many fun things. Play-doh, you know, you're working on this same hand, strengthening doing Play-Doh as you would holding a're working on this same hand strengthening doing Play-Doh as you would holding a pencil and doing handwriting, and I would argue that Play-Doh is even better. So you know, and there's a lot of, there's research that says if you are trying to teach something and you are doing it with, you know, paper and and pencil kind of a traditional way, it could take 400 exposures for that connection in the brain to happen. But if you do it with play, it could take as little as 10 to 20. So when you're integrating play and real-life experiences, that is all counting as homeschooling. That is the benefit of taking what a traditional eight-hour school day would look like down to 45 minutes or an hour and a half and addressing which is what needs to be done.
Joanna Meliti:When I homeschool my daughter she's six we address the reading and the writing, the math and all of that, and then outside of that, she gets to choose what does the rest of her day look like? And she found an Amazon box the other day and she drew out how it was going to turn into a car and she took her manipulator, magnet tiles or her toys and built this car with this box and a steering wheel. And I thought you know, my husband and I joke. We say homeschooling is done for today. You know, like that's such, that's such a degree, that's math, like you know. So in our family it's a joke check homeschooling done.
Rebecca Twomey:I love that. I love that. My daughter is almost five and she is very much the same way that she loves to create. You know she'll come to me. Hey, I have this little dolly, I want to make her a house, but it keeps falling down, and so we go over to her Duplo blocks and say, okay, well, what can we do to make this stronger?
Rebecca Twomey:Let's talk about the base and how to make this base stronger, and it's all play to her, but for me it's also a learning opportunity to teach her a couple of things about architecture, I guess, right Building structures and how things work. Yeah, love that.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, we call those teachable moments, that's right. Going off of what their interests are and turning them into teachable moments, and, like you said, without them even knowing. Yeah, so you know. The best part is subscriptions too, like the excitement that can still stay with learning because they don't even know that they're doing it. You know like oh, totally, and you're like so exciting.
Rebecca Twomey:You know you're going to learn about these different things.
Joanna Meliti:Or you're going to get the subscription box in the mail and it's going to, you know, inspire you to want to know more about something in the mail, and it's going to, you know, inspire you to want to know more about something. And it's just those, yeah, interest driven teachable moments, and it doesn't have to be paper and pencil for six hours.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. My, my little girl loves Play-Doh too. She could sit there for an hour and just make and create and do things. And it's so cool and just make and create and do things and it's so cool to watch her figure stuff out right and like figure out how to make, how to use this new piece or how to use this stencil to do something, or how to use the little cutter or whatever the case might be. She's into scissors. Right now she has kid scissors and it's great for her.
Rebecca Twomey:Dexterity right, she's learning how to do things and she will spend an hour dexterity right, she's learning how to do things and she will spend an hour just cutting things, just practicing. But it's cool to see how far she's come in just even I would say, the last month, with using scissors. You know it's like you don't think about that as a skill when you're an adult because you've been using them for your whole life, right, but to watch a little child learning how to use them for the first time and go from just making cuts to now she can cut things out or now she can knows how to cut off a tag on something or whatever the case may be, that's cool. I mean it's small, but maybe that might not be the thing that I would appreciate as much if I wasn't a homeschooling mom. Yeah, Scissors.
Joanna Meliti:cutting uses both sides of the brain at once, so you want to talk about two birds with one stone. If you give your kids scissors and have them cut, you're actually developing both sides of the brain at the same time. And so when I hear parents, oh, the scissors are kept up on the shelf, you know it's like a momentary use's like, please, no do it all the time.
Rebecca Twomey:You know, scissors are great to have um for kids, as long as they're not cutting the curtains or their hair, which usually there's always one kid in a family, right, that's the haircut. The hair cutter, yep I gotta explore that too funny.
Rebecca Twomey:well, I want to ask you about your background in inclusive education, because I know that that was something that was very significant in your career. I'm sure people are wondering what does inclusive education mean? So first you know, please kind of define that a little bit for us. But then can you share more about how you help support families that are homeschooling and perhaps have mild learning disabilities? Or just you know whatever knowledge you want to share about learning disabilities and school and homeschooling?
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, so when I I was after my first year of teaching kind of felt like I was a teacher, you know, standing on one leg, I didn't feel solid and I had these kids in my class that I felt like I wanted to provide more support for but just didn't know how. And so when I started exploring different avenues I could take for my master's, inclusive education was one of the things I stumbled upon and it's where you know, students could stay in my classroom and I could provide support. I was not a special ed teacher. Those are more pullout services, but it kind of just gives you as an inclusive ed teacher more resources and strategies and things so that you can support your students and maybe be proactive in them needing pullout services or kind of be another opportunity for them to get resources they need in addition to a pull-out service. So it's kind of maximizing my time with them. And so when I meet with families or talk with what challenges they might be having, my background in inclusive education first identifies possible learning disabilities that can be there, kind of like the markers, and then kind of help them navigate how they're going to go about finding out if their child has a disability, what resources are available and then kind of best approaches for them who are at home, like what curriculums are the best? So a lot of times I'll see parents asking for tutors and the biggest thing you know is you want when I tell my families, you want an Orton Gillingham trained tutor when it comes to reading or you want a systematic approach when it comes to phonics.
Joanna Meliti:I don't know if you're aware, but I know here in the state of Tennessee we've, for the past 10 years, have had declining reading scores, and so the initiative now is to bring phonics back into the classroom. So did they ever? They took it out of the classroom, we did and for 10 years had declining scores and reading. In fact, kindergarteners were coming in as better readers than they were leaving. So where the benchmarks grew throughout kindergarten, the kindergartners weren't able to reach those benchmarks and so technically, leaving kindergarten, they were worse off than when they entered as a reader.
Joanna Meliti:Wow yeah. And if you think about 10 years, you think about a kindergartner going in. 10 years later they're now a high schooler, and so for 10 years the system has failed them and giving them the instruction that they need. And and this is, you know, I, I was a teacher, and I admire teachers because they are given the resources and told to use them. It's not, you know, like they're given up to date knowledge or curriculum or strategies and things. Once you're in the system, you're kind of doing the knowledge or curriculum or strategies and things. Once you're in the system, you're kind of doing the best you can of what you have. And so now phonics is being brought back into the classroom. There's a lot of training, because I just had to restart my state certification and it was all on phonics, all on phonics.
Rebecca Twomey:That's so interesting. I wonder why they took it out in the first place. It was working, wasn't it?
Joanna Meliti:it was, um, I was, I was, went through school, whole language. So we're at, it's a, we're a whole language generation of here's the word, learn the word, kind of like a memorization type approach. Okay, okay, now it's more. Kids don't have word attack skills. They don't know kind of the structure of language.
Joanna Meliti:And so, with teaching in the private school and having my background in inclusive education, the importance of phonics, I mean. If there's one thing I could wish and desire for every family is that they would use phonics as part of their first kind of years of instruction for reading. Because there's a there's these, these growths and levels that kids move through, and what we're finding is that most kids that are struggling readers lack phonemic awareness, and so a lot of that is addressed through phonics, and so there's this, and so a lot of that is addressed through phonics. And so there's this kind of this desire to make sure that families that are homeschooling can see that there's a value to what we pick for curriculum. And then there's multiple ways that we can teach our own child. Even if they have learning disabilities, it doesn't mean that they have to have a label and there's only that label that's going to stay with them. And what's interesting too is we're very quick to put a label on kids, and I think it's, you know, part of the system trying to get funding and, you know, offer the pull-out services and things like that. But I'll have a family come and we'll'll be tutoring a student and we'll say you know, we kind of see these symptoms, these things. What does it mean? Is my kid dyslexic?
Joanna Meliti:I had a boy he was in first grade and I would do my reading with him and I had him and I was one of those that I like to observe the student for a good bit and then I'll go to the family and say, hey, I'm kind of noticing this because I'm not quick to jump to it has a learning disability. We all learn different. Kids are not linear. We got to give it time, we got to get to know the kid and I was noticing there were certain things that did not show as markers for dyslexia. But there was just something not right with his reading, like it was just off.
Joanna Meliti:And so I went to the mom and I said hey, you know, I'm kind of noticing a few things. She's like so glad you said something. She's like I think he's dyslexic, like it was her immediate response I think he's dyslexic and I'm like well, I'm not sure that he is. And she's like what do you mean? Like automatically assume challenges with reading, equal dyslexia, and that's not the case. That's not always the case. There's so much more developmentally that's going on with kids, not just with the brain that symptoms, so to speak, or markers, don't always match the label that we're used to giving kids. And so, with my background in inclusive education, I like to work families through that process of like what are you seeing and what could that mean, and what are the steps we can take to kind of support and get?
Rebecca Twomey:answers.
Joanna Meliti:A lot of families do want answers. They want to know what's going on and how they can then support. But definitely, you know, help with curriculum choices, making sure that kids are getting multiple exposures. Some kids can learn with seeing something seven times and it goes into long-term memory. Seeing something seven times and it goes into long-term memory. For some kids it needs to be 500 or a thousand. It's not always the same for every kid.
Joanna Meliti:So we have to look at, you know, are we exposing, are we giving them multiple opportunities to learn things in different ways? And if some of those challenges still keep arising, then you know, I kind of can coach families through what our first steps. Are we going to look at occupational therapy, physical therapy, vision therapy? Are we going to eventually get to the point of some further evaluation? But let's, you know, look at some other options. First, are we doing what we can to support at home? First, with hands-on learning and things like that. There's a gentleman, his name is Gardner. It's multiple intelligences. You may have heard about it through some training, but you know like I'm a visual learner, so if you try to tell me something and then walk away, I will probably only catch 50% of what you were trying to tell me. But if you show me and I even have the opportunity to do it myself, then I'm going to grasp that so much better. So it's also about finding what kind of learners we have. Is our kid more musical? Are they more tactile?
Rebecca Twomey:Do they like to?
Joanna Meliti:manipulate things with their hands, you know. So those are some of the things that you know I'll have families try out first, like let's look at how we're approaching things.
Rebecca Twomey:Absolutely. Learning style is super important because, like you said, some people are visual learners, some are auditory. I know my husband he could just hear something and he learns, but that's not how I am. Then there's also reading and writing, or the kinesthetic having to do, and I'm very much more like you where it's visual and kinesthetic in some senses. For me, I learn by doing and when I'm doing things. And kids are growing right and they, they're changing. They may not have figured it out themselves yet. It's not like they could say to us oh well, I need you to tell me, or I need you to show me, or I need you to play me a song and I'll learn.
Rebecca Twomey:They, they, don't know, and so it is up to us to help figure out what's the best way for them to learn right.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, so that's the fun part is we get to you know, get to know each kid, both you know, in this setting, as the teacher and parent of our own child. And then what I like about the pod is that parents have a resource to say. This is what I'm noticing. This isn't working. Can you help me?
Rebecca Twomey:Can you define for listeners what the pod is? What does that mean?
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, so we I know the term co-op is used a lot yeah, so we're not a co-op, a lot of co-ops kind of operate parents, moms, kind of run co-ops. This pod is another teacher and I kind of came together and we had this vision where we wanted to help families with their homeschool journey and have an opportunity to meet with kids on a greater scale. So, from the kind of it spurred from the pandemic, I had a family, I left the classroom, I was done teaching. Family reached out and said hey, my kids are in private school, I need to pull them out. Can you come and help tutor them every day, Kind of be their private tutor? And um sure, so I went in, I tutored several hours a day both their children and I was in that process talking to the mom about some of the things I was seeing with her daughter, wanted to recommend some vision things and I thought, wow, I think I could do this on a greater scale. I could probably help more families at one time.
Joanna Meliti:So the pods were created, in that each of our I guess classrooms you could say our pods there is a tutor. We're state-certified teachers but we're tutors because parents are their own child's teacher. But we help. We meet Monday and Wednesdays for four hours and we go through reading and we go through writing and we go through math and we have a lot of thematic type things we do. But we are tutoring. So I have 12 in my pod. I teach kindergarten first and so we start our morning with circle time and things like that and then I teach phonics and then I teach math and then I do writing and we do our themes and we have a garden. We're growing a garden at our location and so we go through that with them and then we do community service together. So we're making blankets this year for a local humane society. So the kids are in charge of measuring out the fabric, cutting it, sewing it, making them and then we'll donate them to the humane society.
Joanna Meliti:So these pods are basically tutors where the families can share the expense of having a tutor. So when we meet Mondays and Wednesdays, families know that on those two days we've supported them in reading and writing and math and their kids are getting the learning through someone with an experience. You know, we have the experience as teachers and so when we're working with these kids we can kind of navigate what kinds of things they need. How can we better support them? And then we go to the families and we say you know, on Tuesday and Thursday you can continue this by doing X, y and Z, because we have kind of like a tiered system so our families are not tied down to one curriculum. We believe that it looks different for every family but we're there to support and kind of work within these pods so that you know it's not like traditional school but they are working with someone that has a background in education you know we can help in that way.
Rebecca Twomey:Yeah, yeah. And now is this something that you imagine, Because right now you're in the same kind of grade space that your daughter is in. So do you imagine that you'll kind of continue that pod so that you're you know she's a part of what you're doing? Or do you imagine that maybe sometimes she'll be with another tutor for her pod, or what does that look like for you?
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, so we, um, I do see her with another tutor. I think there's benefit to someone else having my daughter being with someone else that can work with her and maybe use different approaches to learning, um, and so, yeah she'll. We have another tutor that does second through fourth grade, and then we have another tutor that works with fifth through seventh, and so, yeah, so they just kind of we kind of give grades just as a guideline. We just say, you know, kind of like, if you're trying to figure out where to place your child within our pods. It's kind of the general, but we move kids through pods too, so we'll, with reading, they'll come out of one pod and go into another and get what, get what's best for them within that pod for that subject, and so we're very fluid, um, and then we, a lot of parents, appreciate the community that comes from being together. Some parents just want the social interaction that comes with it, yeah.
Joanna Meliti:Some parents are like. Please help us know exactly what to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Joanna Meliti:Like they just don't have the confidence you know to to do it themselves, so they rely on us to guide and help them. Biggest question I get is what math curriculum should I use? And it's well, it's based on your child. So let's look at what their interests are and then we'll navigate those kinds of things with our families. But yeah, one of the families said they kind of don't follow what we're doing in terms of curriculum type things in the classroom and she said I just loved it, we would get to it within our own curriculum. And my son would be telling me oh, mom, we did that already at the pod and she's like great.
Joanna Meliti:Well, you know like it's either a review at that point for him or an opportunity to see it again and, you know, solidify some of those subtraction skills or whatever. So we have a wide scope, or range, I guess I should say, as to what our families desire from our pod. But we are all prior teachers, we all worked in classrooms, left to be home with our kids and have a desire to homeschool. So yeah, we just blend it all into one.
Rebecca Twomey:Y'all are like a super co-op because you're, you know, it's like the mom, you know I'm not trying to put anybody down here, but you know, moms that create co-ops I love and this is like the, you know, teachers, teacher moms that have a very similar. It's similar but different, right, because there's a tutoring aspect to it.
Rebecca Twomey:It's similar but different, right, because there's a tutoring aspect to it. There is a. You know you have a very strong educational background in schooling, so anyway, that's awesome. I love it. Now I want to go back to learning disabilities for a second. First of all, I have to know it's been eating me up to know what happened with the little boy who the mom thought was dyslexic. Did he actually have a learning disability?
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, so no, he didn't One of the. So I'll just dive into kind of the thing that is most amazing when it comes to helping kind of navigate. Does my child have a learning disability? Because, like I said earlier, I feel like there's a lot of labels that are thrown around and we're not addressing some other things first. Somebody kind of give a hypothetical situation to say student A Right, and you can just imagine this maybe as your child or someone you know and they are constantly losing their place when they're reading.
Joanna Meliti:This is a big one reversing letters. We always hear that, as my child is lexic, they're reversing B and D or P and Q. Their reading comprehension is not where it should be. They're substituting or confusing words when reading or they might see the same word twice and scramble the letters and things like that, or drop off an ending to a word or the beginning letter, or they have a short attention span, difficulty copying from a list that they see when does our mind go to? First we would say, oh, that kid is probably dyslexic, right like, especially with the letter reversals.
Joanna Meliti:So what I like to mention to my families that have some of these concerns is something called an eye tracking test, and this is what I did with one of the with the family that I tutored for when I first started getting back into teaching.
Joanna Meliti:I said, um, I want to recommend that you go get your child's um eye tracking test done. And they said, oh, they had their vision tested and it came back normal. And so a vision test will test to see like our depth perception and things like that to see like our depth perception and things like that Whereas a tracking test will actually check how our eyes are tracking across space, because one of the most common vision challenges with kids is tracking and 80% of a child's learning is visual. So if we're not addressing their tracking, then we're missing out on a big part of what we would think would be a learning disability, when really it's just a tracking thing. So there is a study it's out of the Journal of Child Neurology, it's 2017. And it says in there that 156 kids out of 327 first and second graders scored below the 50th percentile in eye tracking skills 50 percentile which then correlates to poor performance in reading and comprehension and um. So I'll, you know, advise families if you're seeing some markers of like I think.
Joanna Meliti:Think my kid might be dyslexic. They're reversing letters, they're not able to copy things. I encourage. I almost feel like it needs to be standard that they have a tracking test done at the same time, because it can answer so many questions as to why reading fluency and comprehension and things like that are challenging for some kids, and the remediation for that is vision therapy, and sometimes it's six weeks and that's it. That's. All it takes is six weeks of vision therapy and a lot of it can be done at home.
Rebecca Twomey:Oh, interesting, so you can have this done at the ophthalmologist but you just have to ask for it.
Joanna Meliti:Is that what you're saying? Yeah, you have to ask for it and the a lot of the you can also do it at home. There's tests that you can do at home. So, if your child holds their hand out straight, their arm out straight, and hold up their thumb, put their thumb up and you have them look at the tip of their thumb and have them turn their head to the left and to the right, you're watching their eyes to see if they stay at the tip of that thumb, right, you're watching their eyes to see if they stay at the tip of that thumb. If they turn their head and their eyes go to the right or left along with their head, then it's indicative of a possible tracking. Interesting, Okay, so there's some tests you can do at home to see if that's one of the things that needs to be addressed before just throwing that label of I think my kid might be dyslexic. Interesting, and you said vision therapy and there's things that you can be addressed before just throwing that label of I think my kid might be dyslexic.
Rebecca Twomey:Interesting, and you said vision therapy and there's things that you can do at home. I imagine it's exercises that are probably similar to that, where you're asking them to focus on something and practicing that over and over.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, so they they have, you know, just much like occupational therapy and physical therapy. Vision therapy is kind of like a once a week visit that you can go in and they'll, you know, do exercises and things, and they'll send you home with things to do and then you can do them at home that week and you go back in. The worst I've seen is six months of vision therapy. That's the worst I've seen.
Joanna Meliti:And so when you think about, like, how much we are remediating within those six months for that child to then improve their tracking, their fluency, their comprehension, their focus, coordination there's so much that can go into just eye tracking. When I had yeah, when I had a, when the mom came to me and said, oh, you know, I think my voice, my son's, dyslexic, and I didn't think that he was. He had the eye tracking test done and they'll give you percentiles. And if you were to put words in a column and this is what I noticed things, words in a column he could read them top to down, no problem when you put them from left to right his fluency dropped drastically, but he was.
Joanna Meliti:He was very, you know, he could tell you about pretty much anything. Very bright, he could write. I didn't see rehearsals in his writing. And so that's when we had the eye tracking test done and he scored less than one percentile. Wow, his eye tracking from left to right was pretty much non-existent, oh my goodness. And once, once he had his therapy, he was the one that had six months of therapy. The mom was just over the moon, excited. She's like I didn't know this existed, I didn't know this was a thing you know.
Joanna Meliti:To have eye tracking done to test and then to see that the remediation for that is, it's very short, it's very easy, and even if you're not having it done in office with someone there's, you know exercises and things you can do at home. Much like the thumb, you know being held out, you can get a popsicle stick with a sticker at the top and you hold it out and then your child will look at the sticker that's at the top of the hold it out and then your child will look at the sticker that's at the top of the popsicle stick and you start out small with short left to right head movements and while they're keeping their eyes on that sticker, and as they improve, then you expand to larger head movements to the left and right while they're looking at the sticker, and then you can move to angles.
Joanna Meliti:So now you're moving the popsicle stick to the top left top right, bottom left, bottom right, and they're following that popsicle stick and you're working on that. Basically, you think of it as like going to the gym for your eyes.
Rebecca Twomey:You know we go to the gym our muscles and our arms.
Joanna Meliti:These are eye exercises that improve them.
Rebecca Twomey:The eyes for tracking. That is very interesting. I have never heard of this before, so I'm learning as we're talking. It's very, very interesting. It has me wondering is this something that's always existed or been around, or do you think that this is a result of our lifestyles of kids watching TV, or what are your thoughts?
Joanna Meliti:It's funny. You ask that because my mother-in-law just came back from the eye doctor last week and she said they want to give me eyeglasses with prisms in them and that's one of the therapies. There are two different approaches to eye therapy One, they'll give you exercises and kind of improve the muscle, I guess, or whatever of the eye, whereas the other approach is glasses with prisms in it. And this is something I always encourage my families to research and choose what's best for them and their child. You know, because we all have different opinions when it comes to different therapies. And she said he wants to put me in glasses with prism. And I said did you have eye tracking challenges as a child? And she said, yeah, I remember them holding out a pencil and having me follow the pencil. And I thought, oh, I know what that is. I think it's been around. I don't know. I mean there's I'm sure there's research out there about what causes it. I feel like it's more prevalent. I think it's always been there, but I think we're seeing more of it. For sure.
Rebecca Twomey:But I know we're starting to understand it.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, I don't know. Also like W sitting, so kids that sit with their kind of legs spread out where they're not sitting, like with their legs tucked underneath them. They're kind of like flared legs to the side. It's called W sitting.
Rebecca Twomey:Okay.
Joanna Meliti:Pretty indicative of a eye tracking. So it's like that midline. Yeah, there's like that midline thing. Um, so I in my own research as a mom and trying to choose my prenatal vitamin, um had come across, uh, midline defects. You know, if we have marker, there's certain things to look for when kids are born. If they have a storks, what's it called? A storks kiss, I think it's called. Okay, yeah, anyhow, there's midline markers and so folic acid, from my understanding in prenatal vitamins can kind of mess with the midline development and that's what eye tracking w sitting and a few other things are from. It's the midline, the crossover brain hemisphere type things. So, yeah, I'm not. You know it's funny. You asked that question too because I had the same thought. Is it our vitamins?
Joanna Meliti:that moms are taking, you know, prenatal, that they are in those vitamins that are with the development of babies.
Rebecca Twomey:Like, yeah, that is very interesting and that's a definitely interesting conversation. We love talking about birth and pregnancy on this podcast too.
Joanna Meliti:So you're right on track here.
Rebecca Twomey:But you, you brought up folic acid, which we are told by the medical system to take a prenatal because you need folate. But folic acid is not folate, that's right. It's synthetic and people just don't. You know, don't think that through much. This is not a judgment. Because you're told by your OB you need folate and this has folic acid in it. But you're right, it's synthetic. It's not the same things. Our body doesn't process it. The same way it doesn't give us the benefits of actual folate, which comes from food, from actual food that we're eating. So if you're pregnant right now, definitely look into foods that contain folate versus folic acid.
Rebecca Twomey:There's more and more studies coming out of issues that are arising from mothers taking folic acid, which makes sense. It's synthetic. And man, I was just watching this video last night about how all of the big box store brands, supplements like Nature's Way, nature's Made, everything's called Nature something because it's greenwashed but they are all owned by pharmaceutical companies. Bayer and Monsanto is even affiliated with some of them. So it's very important when it comes to prenatal health to get your sources from actual food, if at all possible, and not from these synthetic pharmaceutical company created, lab made vitamins that aren't actually nourishing your body.
Rebecca Twomey:There's this illusion that it is because it's called vitamins and it. You know that's what the bottle says, but there are so many other great sources. You know that's what the bottle says, but there are so many other great sources. You know, I know Whole Foods has some good options if you're going to take a prenatal. I personally do not take prenatals. I take supplements that I know my body needs, right, like I take beef liver capsules, for example, or it just depends on what my body needs at that time. Because I don't think. I think that the prenatal is a marketing gimmick and every woman's body is different and we're all going to need different things. And if we can source vitamins from real food, we're going to do the best service to our bodies. But now I'm on the tangent.
Joanna Meliti:Well, and I think there's, you know. There is a connection, I think, to what we've been told, what we're doing and where we see things going with learning disabilities. I was taking a master's class I don't remember the name of it and there was a chart and it was learning disabilities and how they're on the rise. We see more and more of them. And then you take the vaccine schedule, look at that and how that's on the rise, and then you put those two charts on top of each other. They could be the same chart, you know.
Joanna Meliti:So there's a lot that I think you know. We do the best we can with what we know, but one of the things we do see is more kids struggling with learning. There's, you know, some of that showing up even in homeschooling, even though they're home with their parents. But it's the best place for them to be because even though moms are not quote teachers because they don't have that education degree my degree does not make me a better teacher than you you know, or you are going to see and recognize what's challenging your child.
Joanna Meliti:And then, as with anything, we're going to go and find the best resource on how to fix that or remediate it. You know, like I said, with vision therapy we're talking six weeks to six months and we are just doing so much with that therapy.
Joanna Meliti:So, that's one of the things about homeschooling is we're going to recognize some of those challenges early on. And early on you know saying I have a first grader that's having these challenges. I go to the county, have the test done. Well, we can't help them until they're two grade levels below. Well, by then they're in third, fourth grade and you have missed the window of maximizing the opportunity to get them where they need to be. And nowhere in my experience in teaching did I learn about eye tracking. It was by my own learning.
Joanna Meliti:Yeah, your own experience, my own experience. So it's you know. I think there's even opportunity for teachers that are in the classroom to know more about that so that they can help their students and send their parents to the right resources for that.
Rebecca Twomey:Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. As you can hear, joanna and I are having a wonderful conversation, but there is more to come. So please stay tuned next week for more from Joanna, and if you would like to reach her in the interim, you can do so at her website at homeandschooltutoringcom or on facebookcom. Forward slash home and school tutoring. And, of course, as always, we invite you to follow along outside the podcast at the radiant mission or the radiant mission podcast on Instagram, the Radiant Mission or the Radiant Mission podcast on Instagram, facebook and YouTube. And today we are going to close with Romans 15, 13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. We're wishing you a radiant week and we'll see you next time. Bye, everyone.
