Strong Start

Billy is a big boy. His size makes him a natural leader among his peers. He didn’t know his letters and he didn’t care. It wasn’t important to him. His size gave him all he needed –- the respect (and fear) of the other children. When Billy wasn’t happy, those around him weren’t happy. He [...]

My son started having behaviour problems in kindergarten and he was soon showing signs of having difficulty learning to read. His behaviour was already starting to result in suspensions from school. His kindergarten teacher was determined to help and she is someone who just never gives up and always involves parents! The school’s resource teacher [...]

Volunteer Coach Jen I recently became a Volunteer Coach because I experienced first hand as a parent what the program could do for a child and his family. When my son, Brad, first started to lag behind in learning early reading skills, I quickly started working with him at home with the guidance of his [...]

Evan was now in grade one and was at risk of falling even farther behind in the goal of meeting the standard in reading development expected of his age group. He still had not met the standard set for children at the end of Senior Kindergarten. The teacher wanted him to have help but there [...]

At the conclusion of the Spring 2004 session of Strong Start®, the children who participated gathered together with their Volunteer Coaches to celebrate their success. It was not an elaborate event. They just took a few minutes out of their classroom time to have cookies and juice. Their teachers couldn’t be there the whole time, [...]

In the winter of 2004 I worked with Jack, a bright eyed, kindergarten student. Jack and I worked together with the Sounds Strand. Jack was an enthusiastic participant in the program and we always enjoyed playing the games and reading together. On about the fourth session Jack was handling the pieces of a sound matching [...]

Volunteer Coach Diane Carlo didn’t like to read. Now in grade two, his reading level was quite low and he was at risk of giving up altogether. It wasn’t possible for him to get extra help at home. Mom and Dad were working long hours, trying to learn English and finding it difficult to meet [...]

Andrew, a grade one child, was struggling greatly in many areas of his schooling, especially learning to read. His teacher and the other staff members on the School Based Team met to put together a plan to help Andrew. He would be included with a group to be withdrawn from the classroom for extra help [...]