Empowering Parents: Sibling Surprises

Edited by Nancy Weinstein

Editor’s Note: As the mother of two daughters who are so different and yet sometimes seem so similar, I am always drawn to sibling stories.

In this second post in our Empowering Parents series, Laura, mother of two girls, Julia, 8, and Leah, 9, describes why she chose Mindprint. She explains how her family continues to use Toolbox. To protect the family’s privacy, these are not their real names.

When we decided to give our children the test, we didn’t have any specific concerns about their learning abilities. We just thought why not find out if there is anything there, any specific learning strengths or weaknesses that we could work on, foster, and/ or support. Why not do everything you can to help your child whenever possible?!

And our two children are so different but only a grade apart. I thought it would be interesting to see how an educator would describe their very different strengths and weaknesses.

Despite my original concerns, taking the assessment wasn’t scary at all. And the results SO accurately described my children.  Their profiles are exactly the people I know them to be. Each story was different, and pinpointed their specific strengths and weaknesses. The benefit is now I have the right language to use when discussing their learning abilities with teachers and school staff, and it’s not just a mom’s opinion.  And depending on the teacher, I can give some appropriate suggestions for how they might be able to support my child the most.

We found our targeted Mindprint Toolbox and many of the games and apps to be most helpful. The Toolbox was super for finding summer workbooks for my kids. They are never very excited about doing workbooks in the summer, but we were able to find fun choices that didn’t seem like work. I didn’t realize that Extreme Dot to Dot America could work on essential skills while also being so much more fun than the traditional math workbook.

We also love the apps and games that are on the Mindprint website. You can click on any specific strengths and skills and pick apps, games, workbooks, etc. that have been vetted by their professional team. It’s a handy place to go for FUN educational materials that are tested by people we trust. I love that my kids can play games and learn something at the same time. Presidents v Aliens is absolutely one of their favorites.  Watching them play, I realized my kids know more about US Presidents than I do.

The best feeling is when I come across something my kids play or do a lot and see that there is benefit to it. We went through a long Minecraft period. I was thrilled to read that playing Minecraft works on abstract reasoning, flexible thinking, and spatial perception. All that time was not lost.

Choosing to do the Mindprint Learning Profile was a great decision for us. We have two good students, and we have found tremendous value in identifying and being able to describe the kind of learners they are. We now have the targeted, educational and fun, tools to help them where they struggle, and at the same time, encourage their strengths.

Final Editor’s Note: Since I couldn’t share a photo of “Laura” and her family, I decided to include one of my own so you could see just how my two girls, only two years apart, appear so different in so many ways.

 

 

This blog was written as part of our Empowering Parents Series. Parents come to Mindprint for a variety of reasons. Reading the stories of others is helping parents better understand how Mindprint can help their own families.

Other posts in this series: Empowering Parents: A Premature Arrival, Empowering Parents: Our Founder’s Story

Want more insight into your child? Sign-up for Mindprint here.