Little Learning Secrets

Is this actually for them… or for me? 🤔

I’ve been thinking about this ever since I recorded this reel.

This wasn’t some huge revelation. It’s something I’ve always believed.

But believing something and catching yourself in the middle of a busy session are two very different things.

This week reminded me that, when we’re trying to protect learning time, it’s easy to accidentally carry a sense of urgency into the room.

So I made one small shift.

I didn’t lower my expectations.

I didn’t do less teaching.

I just became a little more intentional about protecting the child’s experience while we worked.

Because intervention is about so much more than teaching a skill.

Yes, we need to think carefully about what we teach.

But I think we also need to pay just as much attention to how children feel while they’re learning.

Children don’t just remember what happened in a session…

They remember how it felt to be a learner in it 🤍

Anyway… those are my slightly rambling thoughts while I process this one 😂 Does any of this resonate with you, or have you ever caught yourself doing something similar?

Oops… 🤭

One of my students corrected me this week… 🤍

I told her we were helping her reading brain grow.

She looked at me very seriously and said,

“I only have one brain.” 😂

And honestly…

she was right.

She wasn’t being cheeky.

She was thinking logically.

It made me realise that sometimes the way we explain things makes perfect sense to us as adults… but not necessarily to children.

So I found a new way to explain it.

And…

I think I like this one even better 🌲😊

Sometimes the best teaching ideas come from the children sitting right in front of us 🤍

“I already know this…” 🤷🏼‍♀️

Let’s be honest… how many of us have heard this from children?

And honestly… they’re usually right.

They often do know it.

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about learning to read is assuming that once a child has learned a concept, it’s time to move on.

But learning a sound…

Using it confidently in a single word…

Retrieving it instantly while reading a whole page of text…

They’re actually three very different things.

That’s why structured literacy can sometimes look a little repetitive.

We’re not simply teaching something new.

We’re helping the brain become incredibly efficient at finding and using what it already knows.

That’s what helps reading become easier, smoother and more enjoyable.

So the next time your child says,

“I already know this…”

You could simply smile and say,

“I know you do. We’re just helping your brain get so fast at using it that reading starts to feel easier.” 🤍

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

We all want to measure progress.

And we should.

I use assessment data every single day. It helps me understand where a child is, what they’re finding difficult and what we need to teach next.

But I’ve also noticed something.

Sometimes the things that make me smile the most aren’t the things I can put into a graph.

It’s the child who has a go before asking for help.

The one who reads out loud without apologising first.

The child who makes a mistake… and keeps going anyway.

None of those moments appear in a standardised assessment.

But I don’t think that makes them any less important…

They’re often the moments I remember most 🥰

That’s one of the reasons my progress reviews always include both.

The data tells us what has changed.

The story helps explain who is changing alongside it.

And I think children deserve to be seen for both 🤍

People say the little things don’t matter.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Every session, I glue one of these into each child’s book.

It would definitely be quicker not to.

From the outside, it probably just looks like a piece of paper.

But it isn’t.

For some children, the sky, grass and dirt lines take away one small thing they have to think about.

For others, I’ll underline exactly where I want each word to go.

And for another child, I won’t do either, because they’re ready for that next step.

None of those decisions are random.

They’re based on what that child needs that day.

People often think progress comes from the big breakthroughs.

I’ve learned it usually comes from hundreds of tiny decisions that help a child put their energy into learning instead of everything around it.

Most people will never notice those little decisions.

The child will.

And for me, that’s reason enough to keep making them 🤍

Sorry not sorry… 🤷🏼‍♀️

Sometimes I make sure a child wins the very first game we play.

Not because I want them to think learning is easy.

And definitely not because I underestimate what they’re capable of.

Because before I ask a child to do something that feels hard, I want them to experience success.

That first game isn’t about assessing what they know.

It’s about helping them settle, feel safe, build trust and think…

“Maybe I can do this.”

Every activity has a purpose.

Sometimes the purpose isn’t teaching a new skill.

Sometimes it’s helping a child believe they’re capable of learning it 🤍

It’s funny…

I spend so much of my day thinking about how children feel.

Whether they feel safe enough to have a go.

Whether they feel calm enough to make mistakes.

Whether they believe they’re capable.

Then I come home and realise I’m not really any different.

He has no idea what he does for my nervous system… or for me.

I guess we’re never too old to need something that helps us feel safe 🤍

When I’m listening to a child read…

I’m actually trying to understand something far more important than whether they got the words right.

I’m trying to understand what learning feels like for that child.

Reading accuracy tells me what a child can do.

But how they approach reading tells me how they experience learning.

Those are two very different things.

I’m noticing what happens when something feels hard.

Whether they keep going or give up.

Whether they take a risk or play it safe.

Whether they look for reassurance or trust themselves to work it out.

Because those moments tell me what that child needs from me.

The reading is only ever part of the story 🤍

The most important thing I learn about a child will never come from a report.

Maybe that’s why relationships have always mattered so much to me.

Every child who walks through my door is so much more than a diagnosis, a learning profile or a list of goals.

Before anything else, I just want to get to know the little person in front of me.

Because when children feel safe, understood and genuinely known, everything else becomes easier to build. #
The relationship is never separate from the learning.

It’s the foundation 🤍

neurodiversity

Instead of trying to convince your child not to be scared…

Think about swapping phrases like:

“Just have a go.”
“Just give it a go.”
“Just sound it out.”

…for language that helps them see that getting something wrong is safe 🤍

Some phrases I naturally find myself using are:

👉🏼 “That’s okay. We don’t have to know it yet. We’ll figure it out together.”
👉🏼 “Good spotting. Let’s have another look.”
👉🏼 “That’s alright. That’s how we learn.”
👉🏼 “Hmm… let’s see what this is trying to tell us.”
👉🏼 “Not sure yet? That’s okay. Let’s work it out together.”

Children don’t become confident because they stop making mistakes.

They become confident because they learn that mistakes don’t change how the adults around them respond to them 🤍