Adults Can Build Their Basic Math Skills at CanLearn

Numbers surround us and are an essential part of everyday life. In our daily lives, we may have to make correct change, calculate the length of a car trip, figure out and stick to a budget, adjust a recipe, and much more. For many people, working with numbers and math presents a challenge.

Numeracy (essentially, “numbers literacy”) is recognized as an essential life skill. Low numeracy impacts people economically, socially, and emotionally, acting as a barrier to employment opportunities and to further education.

Difficulties with numbers and math are often complicated by our messages and feelings. Many people carry messages that skill with numbers is a unique talent, one that isn’t available to them. Others experience a reflexive fear of math – a “math anxiety” that interferes with their ability to understand and work with numerical information. The acquisition of numeracy skills can also be impeded by learning disabilities and ADHD. However, with appropriate supports, learners can develop numeracy and math skills.

CanLearn is developing and piloting a new program to support adult learners in improving their numeracy and math. The goal is to work with learners to identify their strengths and needs, develop strategies for developing skills, and to build confidence with numeracy and math. These skills relate to everyday numeracy tasks and may also serve as a bridge to further education for those hoping to pursue upgrading at the high school level.

We are looking for adult learners who are interested in building their numeracy and math skills to assist in developing this pilot project. Through their participation and feedback, we will be working to develop and refine how we:

  • assess numeracy skills and needs
  • identify learner goals and learning styles
  • offer learner-centred instruction
  • help learners develop the skills and confidence that they want

 

If you are – or someone you know is – interested in gaining confidence with numeracy and math, please contact us by phone at 403 686-9300 ext.158 or by email.

 

 

CanLearn Update – July 2020

July 26, 2020

Dear Friends of CanLearn,

We hope this letter finds all of you safe and well. Thank you so much for your continued support and messages of encouragement. This is a difficult time for all of us, and a test of our resiliency and connectedness as a community. Every day, CanLearn’s work continues and, in many ways, it is more important than ever. Individuals and families need our help to identify strengths and overcome challenges with literacy, learning, attention, and related mental health challenges.

In mid-March, CanLearn closed its office doors and we moved as many services and programs online as we could. We are so thankful for the professionalism and agility of our team members. A great example is our literacy team. Under the skillful and innovative leadership of Nada Jerkovic, Literacy Manager, many of our literacy staff were piloting new delivery methods within a couple of days. In some cases, this new approach made our services even more accessible and preferable to certain families. This transition was not without its challenges. Not only did Nada’s team accomplish a smooth transition, but she began writing literacy blogs that were picked up provincially and nationally.

Please check our website for program information and for our weekly blogs.

In May, our Director of Clinical Services, Dr. Heather Baker returned from maternity leave and by mid-June, we had recommenced our in-person psycho-educational assessments with personal protective equipment and new rigorous safety protocols in place. Despite our challenging times, families are thankful that we are still able to help move their children ahead. We would like to thank Heather for her outstanding leadership and our partners in educational psychology for pulling together to discuss and form our community’s strategy on how to safely relaunch. We are collaborating and sharing strategies with our partners and networks at an unprecedented level. We are truly stronger together.

CanLearn continues to offer family literacy programs, ADHD coaching, adult literacy tutoring, learning and behavioural consults, social-emotional programming, and reading instruction for children. Our programs and services may look a bit different than before, but we remain committed to our vision of unlocking potential so all can learn. We continue to be sought out by learners, families and partners that need our help. We have every intention and indication that we will be here for Calgary long into the future.

Our Board of Directors are skilled stewards and have been working with the Senior Leadership team at CanLearn to weather this storm and emerge stronger than ever. A very special thank you to FCSS for providing us with funding to hold a successful strategy session in early May. The time spent together was invaluable and will shape the organization for years to come. Two Saturdays spent on Zoom will test anyone’s commitment to their organization! We’d like to thank Peter Zyla of Ventrek, for leading these sessions. There were a lot of laughs, tough questions, and deep conversations. We left with hope and a vision for the tough road ahead. We have revised our strategy to focus on priorities that are more about sustaining than growing, more grounded in our niche areas and less in new innovations and untested territory. We thank our Board, staff, and friends for so generously providing advice, support, opportunities and their precious time. It means so much to all of us at CanLearn.

Thanks to the amazing people behind this organization, we are moving ahead in the right direction, with two areas that require a careful eye as we move ahead. The first is our fee for service area which includes psycho-educational testing. The second is our fee-based clinical programs like Reading Pilots. We project many of our families will not be able to afford the fees associated with our programs and services in the upcoming year. This causes us great concern because our policy is to serve anyone who needs our help regardless of their financial circumstances. We generally raise these dollars through the help of donors, sponsors, and our special events (Peter Gzowski Invitational (PGI), Scotiabank Charity Run and our most recent addition- Strive to Thrive). With these events being cancelled or severely delayed this year, our ability to ensure that nobody is turned away will become more difficult. Exacerbating this situation is that we expect to have double the requests for financial assistance and a smaller pot.

This is where you come in. If you normally attend one of our special events or sponsor a CanLearn runner, we would love for you to continue to support us. If you have already done so, please accept our deepest thanks. If you have not supported CanLearn before, here is why you may wish to start. An investment in CanLearn means more:

  • Preschoolers acquire age-appropriate pre-literacy skills to make them ready to enter Kindergarten
  • Children are reading confidently and at grade level by Grade 3 and Grade 7
  • Youth complete high school
  • Individuals across their lifespan learn emotional and behavioural self-regulation skills to form and maintain healthy relationships
  • Adults embrace lifelong learning to help them move ahead with learning, work, and life
  • Individuals learn their strengths and how to turn their learning and attention challenges into advantages

If you are passionate about unlocking potential and want to help CanLearn’s individuals and families in need, please invest in us today.

We are delighted once again to be selected for Birdies for Kids matching grants which makes our donors’ gifts go up to 50% farther! Click here to donate until the end of August 2020. We appreciate anything you can do to help. Thank you for supporting our work and continuing to be an important part of CanLearn. We cannot do our life-changing work without you.

Your partners in unlocking potential,

 

 

 

Progressive Muscle Relaxation for Children

From the CanLearn Archives

Introduction

Today we’re going to practice some special kinds of exercises called relaxation exercises. These exercises help you to learn how to relax when you’re feeling up-tight and help you get rid of those butterflies-in-your-stomach kinds of feelings. They’re also kind of neat because you can learn how to so dome of them without anyone really noticing.

To get the best feelings from these exercises, there are some rules you must follow. First, you must do exactly what I say, even if it seems kind of silly. Second, you must try hard to do what I say. Third, you must pay attention to your body. Pay attention to how your muscles heel when they are tight, and when they are loose and relaxed. Fourth, practice during the week. The more you practice, the better you will get at doing these exercises and the more relaxed you will get.

We’re going to practice our relaxation exercises every day. Remember to just do what I say, try-hard, and pay attention to how your muscles feel.

Ok, let’s start. Get as comfortable as you can on the floor. Make sure you have enough room to stretch your arms and legs. Now, close your eyes and don’t open them until I say. Ready?

Hands and Arms

Pretend you have a whole lemon in each hand. Squeeze them really hard. Try to squeeze all the juice out. Feel the tightness in your hands and arms as you squeeze. Now drop the lemons. Notice how your muscles feel when they are relaxed. Take two more lemons and squeeze. Try to squeeze these ones harder than you did the first ones. Really, really hard. Now drop the lemons and relax. See how much better your hands and arms feel when they are relaxed. Once again, take 2 more lemons in your hands and squeeze all the juice out. Don’t leave a single drop. Good job. Now relax and let the lemons fall from your hands.

Arms and Shoulders

Next, pretend that you are a furry, lazy kitten. You want to stretch, so you stretch your arms out in front of you. Stretch them way up high over your head. Way, way back. Feel the pull in your shoulders. Stretch further. Now just let your arms rest at your side. Okay, kittens, let’s stretch again. Stretch your arms out in front of you. Raise them over your head. Pull them back, way back. Pull hard. Now let them rest at your side. Good job. Notice how you’re shoulders feel more relaxed. This time let’s have the biggest stretch. Try to touch the ceiling. Stretch your arms way out in front of you. Raise them way up over your head. Push them way, way back. Notice the tension and pull in your arms and shoulders. Hold tight. Now let them drop and rest by your side. Feel how good it feels to be relaxed. It feels good and warm and lazy.

Jaw

You have a giant jawbreaker bubble gum in your mouth. It’s very hard to chew. Bite down on it, hard. Let your neck muscles help you. Now relax. Just let your jaw hang loose. Notice how good it feels to just let your jaw drop. Okay, let’s try that jawbreaker again. Bite down hard. Try to squeeze it out between your teeth. That’s good. You’re really chewing that gum up. Now relax again. Just let your jaw drop. It feels good to just let go and not have to fight that bubble gum. Okay, one more time. We’re going to get it this time. Bite down as hard as you can. Good…you’re working so hard. Now relax. Try to relax your whole body. Let yourself go as loose as you can.

Face and Nose

Here comes a pesky old fly. He’s landed on your nose. Try to get him off without using your hands. Wrinkle up your nose. Make as many wrinkles in your nose as you can. Scrunch up your nose, really hard. Good job….you’ve chased him away. Now relax your nose. Uh oh, here he comes again. And he’s landed right in the middle of your nose again. Quick, scrunch your nose up again. Wrinkle it up hard. Hold it just as tight as you can. Phew, he flew away. You can relax your face again. Notice that when you scrunch up your nose, your cheeks and your mouth and your forehead and your eyes all help you, and they get tight too. So when you relax your nose, your whole body relaxes too, and that feels good. Uh oh, that pesky fly has come back, but this time he’s on your forehead. Make lots of wrinkles. Try to catch him between all those wrinkles. Hold it tight. Okay, let go. He’s gone for good. Now you can just relax. Let your face go smooth, no wrinkles anywhere. Your face feels nice and smooth and relaxed.

Stomach

Oh no! Here comes a cute baby elephant. But he’s not watching where he’s going. He doesn’t see you lying in the grass, and he’s about to step on your stomach. Don’t move. You don’t have time to get out of the way. Let’s get ready for him. Make your stomach very hard. Tighten up your stomach muscles real tight. Hold it. It looks like he’s stopped to eat some grass. You can relax now. Let your stomach go very soft. Let it be as relaxed as you can. That feels much better. Uh oh, he’s walking towards you again. Get ready, tighten up those stomach muscles. Make sure your tummy is as hard as a rock. Ok, he’s stopped again. You can relax now. Kind of settle down, get comfortable and relax. Notice the difference between a tight stomach and a relaxed one. That’s how we want to feel…nice and loose and relaxed. The elephant is coming again. This time he’s really close. Quickly tighten up your stomach. Make it as hard as a rock. Harder. Now hold it tight. He’s stepping on you. There, he’s stepped over you, and he’s gone. You can relax completely. You’re safe and everything’s ok. Now you feel nice and relaxed.

Now pretend you want to squeeze through a narrow fence that has splinters on it. You’ll have to make yourself very skinny if you’re going to make it, though. Suck in your stomach. Try to squeeze it up against your backbone. Try to be as skinny as you can. You’ve got to be skinny now. Good job…you made it through. Just relax and feel your stomach being warm and loose. Okay, here’s another fence. This once is even smaller. Suck in your stomach even more than last time. Make it touch your backbone. Get it real small and tight and as skinny as you can. Hold it. There’s you squeezed through that little narrow fence and NO Splinters!!! You can relax now. Settle back and let your stomach come back out where it belongs. You can feel really good now.

Legs and Feet

Now pretend you are standing barefoot in a big, fat mud puddle. Squish your toes down deep into the mud. Try to get your feet down to the bottom of the mud puddle. You’ll probably need your legs to help you push. Push down, spread your toes apart, and feel the mud squish up between your toes. Now step out of that mud puddle. Relax your feet. Let your toes go loose and feel how nice it is to be relaxed. Back into the puddle. Squish your toes down. Feel your leg muscles help push your feet down. Push your feet, hard. Try to squeeze that puddle dry. Okay. Come back out now and relax your feet, relax your legs, relax your toes. It feels so good to be relaxed. No tenseness anywhere. You feel kind of warm and tingly.

Conclusion

Let your whole body stay as relaxed as you can. Let your whole body go limp like spaghetti and feel all your muscles relaxed. In a few minutes, I will ask you to open your eyes, and that will be the end of this practice session. As you go through this day, remember how good it feels to be relaxed. You can practice these exercises at home and at school. The more you practice, the better you can do the exercises, and the more relaxed you will be. A really good time to practice is at night when you are lying in bed, waiting to go to sleep. All you have to do is remember squeezing the lemons, stretching like a sleepy kitten, squishing your toes in the mud puddle, the jawbreaker bubble gum, the pesky fly on your nose, the baby elephant stepping on your tummy, and squeezing through the narrow fence.

Ok, you did a great job being relaxed. You worked really hard. It’s time to do today’s activities. Very slowly, open your eyes and wiggle your muscles around a bit. Good job! Now enjoy the rest of the day!!