Exordium
So it began, closer to two fleeting decades ago than the time my mind is willing to accept has passed. The chaotic birth of my daughter, Haley, the first offspring of what would (quickly) become a clan of seven Lowders. “It will be easy.”, I boasted. “We’re teachers, we’ve got this!”, we claimed. “Our kids […]
Tidbit # 2
How to start the year on the right foot? I feel safe in saying that pretty much everyone experiences some degree of anxiety about the start of the new school year, and as one approaches the end of high school, the real and imagined pressures mount. And because gifted kids tend to have heightened emotional […]
Tidbit # 1: Permission to Be
The challenges of living, as an adult, with one’s own giftedness and raising a child who is gifted, are many. Of course, there is the predictable set of expectations that one has for one’s child, which can be amplified by the knowledge that the child is “gifted” and the more so as a projection of […]
Tidbit # 4: “The fallibility of innate talent”
Just the other day, I exchanged a lengthy text communication with a student who needed to write about a weakness he had overcome. He wrote me to say that he could not for the life of him think of any weaknesses. Thus far in his 17 years, he had had nothing but success in life […]
🌟💙 A Personal Family Update from Dr. Lowder: Celebrating Haley’s UNC-Chapel Hill Graduation 🎓🐏
Dear Scholars Academy Family, This past weekend was one of those moments as parents that feels almost impossible to put fully into words. Our oldest daughter, Haley, a proud Scholars Academy alumna, graduated with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Haley earned her Associate of Science in Exercise and Sports Science […]
The Physical Pain of Dysgraphia: What Parents Need to Understand
Your child closes the school laptop and walks away from an unfinished assignment again. Their hand looks tense, their shoulders are tight, and they say their fingers hurt. You have heard the school describe this as a focus issue, a motivation issue, even a behavior issue. From where you sit, none of that quite fits. […]
What Dyslexia Support Looks Like in Our Online Classrooms
You have already done a lot of work to understand dyslexia. You know it affects how your child reads, spells, and processes language. You have read articles, talked to teachers, and maybe sat through evaluations. What you may not have seen yet is what real support actually looks like inside a daily classroom. That gap […]
Concrete-Representational-Abstract: The Best Math Approach for Dyscalculia
If you have started looking for math support for a child with dyscalculia, you have probably come across the phrase Concrete Representational Abstract, often shortened to CRA. School pages mention it. Tutors mention it. Articles describe it. What is often missing is a plain explanation of what it actually means and why it tends to […]
Math Anxiety vs. Dyscalculia: Identifying the Real Problem
You watch your child get to a math problem and freeze. Their breathing changes. They look at the page like it might bite them. They guess at an answer that has nothing to do with the question, or they shut down completely. This has happened enough times now that the word “anxiety” has come up. […]
Why Memorizing Math Facts Doesn’t Work for Children with Dyscalculia
You have tried the flashcards. You have tried the timed quizzes. You have tried the apps that promise mastery in twenty minutes a day. Some weeks your child seems to know their math facts. Other weeks, the same facts have disappeared. The progress never quite holds. The frustration on both sides keeps building. If this […]