May 3, 2025 • 29 mins
TD Flenaugh discusses the importance of stamina for children's academic success, particularly during end-of-year testing. She emphasizes the need for children to develop the ability to focus for extended periods, suggesting incremental practice starting from early grades. Flenaugh recommends daily reading sessions, think-aloud activities, and tracking progress with charts. For middle schoolers, she advises book talks and timed reading sprints. High school students should engage in practice tests and structured study sessions. She also highlights the significance of perseverance and the use of brain breaks and note-taking systems to enhance concentration and learning retention.
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Episode Transcript
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TD Flenaugh (00:00):
Stamina? Does your son or daughter have the ability
(00:06):
to sustain quiet, focusconcentration when it comes to
reading, studying or engaging ina task that takes skill and
skill and knowledge, if not,this episode is going to give
(00:28):
you the strategies and tips tohelp you get your kid on track,
or to give them that competitiveadvantage needed for success,
the skill of stamina. Hi, thankyou so much for joining the
falling for learning podcast. Iam TD Flenaugh. We have this
(00:52):
podcast to help parents andcaregivers with having the
resources, strategies and toolsneeded to make sure that their
children are on track forlearning and to stay on track
for success. Hello everyone.
Welcome to the falling forlearning podcast. It's another
little special welcome that I'mgiving you. This is one of my
(01:16):
solo episodes where we're reallygetting into a particular time
of the season. Okay, someadjustments need to be made at
time of the year when kidsaround the United States are
taking their end of the yeartest, their state test, that
really give them an idea aboutwhere they are when it comes to
(01:41):
being on grade level, having theskills needed to be successful
in school, and not just inschool, in the different
pursuits that they may have intheir life. And one of the keys
to the success is making surethat your child has stamina,
that is the ability to focus ona task. Some of these state
(02:06):
state tests, they may take aslong as two hours to do a good
job, a thorough job, and a jobthat is worthy of a grade level
score. Now, depending on yourchild's age and range their age,
and you know, you know range ofability, right? They may be on a
(02:33):
couple of different pathways.
First of all, they might be achild that is not able to focus
for two minutes, one minute,right? And you might have a kid
that is kind of medium aboutthis, right? But it's something
(02:57):
that you need to work on. Theymay already be at the age that
they are taking state tests andasked to sit quietly and get
work done. And they actually mayalready not be ready for the
test. You know, they're tooyoung, and they maybe have
another year or so. So eitherway that you are on this
(03:19):
spectrum of your child's age andtheir range of abilities. This
episode is for you, because yourchild is going to need this
skill. Now, a lot of people talkabout tests and talk about how
controversial they are and andhow they don't measure
everything. Yes, yes and yes. Ialso want to say that if you're
(03:43):
a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, aplumber, a licensed plumber, a
licensed electrician,contractor, so trade and
professional types of careers,you need to take some type of
test. And so testing is reallife, and it's real serious,
(04:06):
right? So I'm going to reallystart with just saying one of
the first things that we couldtalk about is how to make sure
that your kid can stay quiet fora certain amount of time. Now,
obviously this does not happenovernight. As they are in second
grade or third grade, you couldstart helping them build this up
(04:29):
again. They don't have to bethat young. They may be a lot
older, and still don't have thatskill. So we need to build it.
It is a skill. It's somethingthat needs to be taught number
one and number two. It needs tobe practiced. So you can't just
with, like most things that arereally worthy of your attention
(04:50):
and your time. It's not a onetime you're going to teach this
and then, you know, that's good- they got it not going to
happen. So. So they need topractice having concentration.
And when we're talking aboutconcentration, we're not talking
about something like your iPador your cell phone that has an
(05:16):
algorithm that is working tokeep you engaged. We're not
talking about that the test thatyour students have to take, your
child, the test that your youhave to take as a professional,
as an adult, they make sure thatyou don't have anything. Your
watch has to go, sometimes eventhe earrings gotta go, let
(05:39):
alone, you know, a cell phone oror something like that. It's
just you don't have those thingsto rely on to keep you engaged.
So it's something that you needto practice on without all those
bells and whistles, without thecell phone, without all of those
things, because if you don'twhen they need these skills,
(06:03):
they're getting low scores. Youwant your child to be in certain
programs. They don't qualify forthem. You want them to have a
scholarship somewhere. Theydon't, you know, they don't have
the skills, they don't have theacademic level to to do it. And
so really, that skill of beingable to build stamina, being
(06:26):
able to concentrate for longerperiods of time and focus on an
intellectual pursuit issomething that is a skill that
separates success from peoplewho are less successful. And so,
you know, it's something thatyou can recognize that your
(06:49):
child may have a challenge withand build them up in tiny
increments. You know, we'regoing to add a minute a week to
how long they could sit andconcentrate on reading a book.
They could sit and work on somemath problems. They can work on
(07:10):
whatever that intellectualpursuit is. You could even start
with something like drawing orartwork that they can do
quietly. So quiet is one of theskills, and then actually
concentrating on this particularthing while they're working on
the skill is important. As youknow, if you've been in a
(07:33):
particular test testingenvironment, you're not supposed
to be talking, so that could bethem whisper, reading, you know,
using their mouth to like mouththe words, but not saying
anything, you know, voiceless.
It also could mean them just,you know, keeping everything
inside of their head and helpingthem to do that. So I'm going to
(07:55):
talk about different methods,because everybody is different,
different methods are going towork better for different
people. So if you are someonewho you think your child maybe
not be able to do this, that isnot true. And you know, if they
have a diagnosed condition likeADHD or something like that,
(08:21):
they also can focus it justneeds to be something that
they're very interested in. Andonce you get them that thing
that they're interested in, theycould build that skill within
that particular interest areaand then build from there on
things that they're lessinterested in Okay, so it is
something that all kids are ableto do, but you need to find the
(08:46):
right combination for them.
Right? They might be a whisperreader. They might be someone
who's just keeping it all intheir head. They may be someone
who starts with reading fiveminutes per day, and then
building up to six minutes,eight minutes going five minute
increment in five minuteincrements going longer and
(09:08):
longer. You have to figure outwhat that right recipe or
ingredient of teaching yourchild is, but it is your job to
teach them, right. I know thatwe talk about, you know what
teachers are supposed to bedoing and all of that, but you
making sure that your child haspractice and concentrating is
something a parent should bedoing. Take my advice. You are
(09:31):
going to see the benefits whenyour child is able to
concentrate and focus on askill. So let's get into
thinking about the differentages and how this practice
looks, and you know how toimplement it into your family
The R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method andThe R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method life.
(09:56):
Workbook are your go to resourcefor helping kids to learn to
fall in love with writing, ithas the tips, tools, resources,
strategies and skill buildingactivities to help kids fall out
(10:18):
of writing and into loving towrite. Get your book set today.
Okay, so let's talk aboutelementary age and really
thinking about how to build yourreading stamina. So you want to
(10:43):
have daily reading sessions withyour child. And one way to get
into this is doing a read aloudand think aloud with your child.
You modeling how to think abouta text and to question the text.
All of those things are going tohelp your child when they are
reading by themselvesindependently, again, it could
(11:04):
look like whisper reading orjust keeping everything silent
inside of your head. So the nextthing that we're going to talk
about is tracking the progress.
So you might just start withfive or 10 minutes and build
that silent reading up and usinga chart to track progress. You
could give your child goals byyou know, you start in August or
(11:29):
September, you start in June,you start in May, and you want
to say in three months, youshould be able to read silently
for 30 minutes. Right now, youdo five minutes. And you might
even start with just seeing howlong it takes them to, like,
break concentration or to bedistracted, and then, you know,
help them build from there. Soyou could just start with five
(11:52):
minutes, or you could just seewhere your child is in this on
the skill level. So that is whatyou should be doing for
elementary schoolers who arereading doing, like learning to
build that reading stamina bydoing read alouds and doing
Think alouds, how to thinkthrough the tech. Now, when they
(12:12):
get into middle school, it'sreally important to, you know,
expand what they're doing bydoing like book talks or book
circles, because they don't needto think aloud, the read aloud
and think aloud in the same wayif and again, they may need it,
but if they don't, you'relooking at a shift, a think
aloud, I mean, a book talk withpeers and adults, right? Could
(12:36):
help them, you know, sustainwhen they're doing concentrated,
silent reading, because they areagain thinking about different
perspectives and makingconnections. So it gives them a
little bit more depth. So it'snot just you modeling, but
they're hearing other people'sideas about it, and they could
agree with it or disagree withit, but it gives them more to
(12:58):
think about as they're reading.
They can be, you know, chunkingthat text by doing that reading
log, like, I'm gonna read 10minutes a day, not 10 minutes a
day, sorry, 10 pages a day. Andthey could even do some, you
know, timed reading sprints,like seeing how much they could
read in 10 minutes or 15minutes. And think about breaks
(13:22):
that they may take to journal orwrite about the text. Jot down,
sketch different images they'rehaving related to the text.
Taking notes, expanding theirtime by doing more than just
reading, but then they'restarting to take notes,
annotate, draw, doing differentthings to help them expand the
(13:46):
amount that they're producingwhile they're reading. Because
before, it's just thoughts, andnow it's written. And again,
this can be flexible fordifferent grade levels. But, you
know, we're just talking aboutwhere you know, middle schoolers
could be. They don't have to bethere. And, of course, we know
wherever our kids are, we needto be able to help build on
(14:08):
wherever they are. When we'rethinking in terms of high
school, you want to talk aboutreading and journaling as
they're reading now, it might bea lot more in depth they are
thinking about literary devices.
They're doing dialecticaljournals and different things
like that, to document theirthinking, to connect different
(14:30):
texts to what they're reading.
So all of that is key in helpingthem to sustain their focus, and
again, they may be bringingsets, right? I want to say a
text set, a series of books orarticles, even videos that
(14:54):
relate to the same topic, willhelp them to sustain more focus
and. Build get, you know, getmore in depth knowledge about a
topic. Now, as much as we cangive them a choice of topics,
give them, you know, somepreferences, because when they
like it, when they choose it,they have some ownership of it,
(15:15):
and they have more interest init. So making your child
concentrate on things that theydon't like is going to be more
challenging, and probably is notgoing to work. So really try to
hook them in with things thatthey enjoy and that they like
and that they could read about,they could write about, they
could draw about it, so thatthey are in the habit of doing
(15:38):
longer type of study and, youknow, get more in depth and
knowledge about differenttopics. Let's talk about test
taking stamina. So I want toalso talk about, when I'm
talking about this, you know,Brain Breaks now, brain breaks
when you're in elementaryschool. May look like, you know,
(15:59):
marching in plays, you know,doing it a little chant. But
obviously, in a test, takingenvironment, brain break is
going to look different. Thebrain break may look like
sketching, drawing something,making a pattern. You may go on
a little mind walk right? Youknow, thinking about something
that you'll do after something agreat memory you had before. But
(16:22):
they should also think abouttiming. When it comes to Brain
Breaks five minutes or less, andthen getting back down to the
business, think in terms of whensomeone is running. They may get
too tired and they want to stopand they could stop running, but
they have to continue on theirjourney, but they could walk.
(16:43):
They could slow down and walk.
So a brain break is somethingthat they're doing. They're
still silent, but they are, youknow, jotting, like quick
journaling or something realquick resting their eyes. You
don't want them to go to sleep,but there's different things to
do just to take a break and thenget back down to business when
we're also talking about testtaking stamina. It really is
also about being quiet again. SoI'm going to bring up the quiet
(17:09):
one, the quiet thing again. Ifkids like the tap tapping on a
table or something like that,doesn't work in a testing
environment, but they could tapon their lap, and they could do
this fairly quietly. They couldtap on their shoulders. There's
things that they could do thatmakes it silent. So again, a
brain break or tapping orsomething like that may help you
(17:31):
concentrate. May help give you alittle break that you need, but
make sure whatever it is isn'tsilent, because you don't have a
right to disrupt other people'stesting and thinking with making
a lot of noise. And you know,and you know, professional test
taking environments like ifyou're trying to take an exam or
(17:52):
certification test, you getkicked out of it. And there's
big implications for that, andramifications for that, as
you're trying to build a career,or keep your certification, to
keep your job, or whatever, sokids need to understand that
they need to maintain the quietand then different ways to do
that. All of this talk aboutstamina. Again, I'm going to
(18:15):
bring up, you know, charactertraits that you're building,
such as perseverance. So youknow that your child is not able
to concentrate and they needhelp with it, but also talking
to them about that charactertrait that they're building is
perseverance, like pushingthrough even when you're tired,
even when you don't feel likeit, and even when things are
(18:37):
difficult, that is part of whatyou're doing when you are
building stamina in your kids.
Because, remember, if they'renot able to be quiet for a
certain period of time, orthey're not able to concentrate
for a certain period of time,that also means that they are
giving up when they feel likeit, and perseverance is able to
(18:57):
build that muscle so they couldcontinue even when they're
tired, or it takes them longerto get tired, and so that's an
important part of this, youknow, talking to your child and
training your child in the waythey should go, and telling
them, you know, what is it in init for them like this, this
skill of perseverance is goingto help pay lots of dividends
(19:20):
for them and for your family asthey get older.
So the test taking strategy formiddle middle schoolers, they
could take time to test to seehow they do with this like
practice test, whatever testthey're supposed to be taking,
most of them are going to have apractice test and giving them a
(19:42):
practice test and seeing howthey do with it, even talking to
them about how to structuretheir time. You know, sometimes
it's like, Okay, go for theeasiest things first. If you see
something hard, focus on thatfirst. So then you could do the
easy ones at the end. And again,they will be learning about
this. Is themselves like? Whatworks for them? Does it work for
(20:02):
them to tackle the hard thingsfirst? Does it work for them to
do the easy things first? So,you know, maybe a couple hard
ones, couple easy ones, theyhave to kind of learn that
whatever we're doing, we want toturn over the responsibility for
it to kids eventually, who willbe adults, so them learning
about themselves as they'repracticing. This does mean a
(20:25):
lot. So with high school, youknow, they have more than state
tests. They have AP tests,that's advanced placement. They
have the s, a T, the A, C, T,different tests that they can
take. Now, those tests are notrequired as much anymore, but it
will give kids a competitiveadvantage if someone else has
not taken it and everything elseis similar about their resume or
(20:49):
their application, the personwho's taking the test often gets
an advantage over others. Italso opens them up for
scholarship opportunities thatyou won't have if you're not
going to take the test. So keepthat in mind again. Decide
what's best for your child, anddiscuss it with them. What did
they prefer? And then, you know,if you're you know, whatever
(21:11):
test you're taking, get practicetests. Have some timed practice
test. Have some dedicated timefor practicing and when I'm
saying dedicated time is that atnight when the younger kids are
asleep, is that early in themorning when everybody else is
asleep, you know, or everyone'sout of the house during this
(21:31):
time. So I could reallyconcentrate with my child and
help them with this. So again,come up with a plan. See how
that plan goes. Adjust itaccordingly, because it is
doable, but it is not going toget done just out of want. It's
going to get done out of puttingplans in place and actually
going through and followingthose plans. When we talk about
(21:53):
studying stamina, because we'vetalked about reading, we've
talked about test taking, butstudying is something just like
your lifelong you may need to doand you need to talk about, like
studying. You know the structureof your study and how you're
going to study. Setting thosestudying environments, going to
(22:14):
the library, going to a coffeeshop, going somewhere, maybe you
just have your room making surethe TV is off and focused on
reading and writing. I have,like, a little dirty secret with
my with my studying. Well, Idon't know if it's my my
studying. If I have a task Idon't like doing, I do
(22:34):
sometimes, like, put on a showthat's not as entertaining for
me, and I will get that stuffdone while I'm working. Now,
it's not the same as studying.
When I'm studying, I have tojust, like, turn everything off
and just really focus on readingand do it really early or really
late so that I can get it doneand that there's not any
distractions and big noises andstuff like that, taking me out
(22:57):
of my zone of, you know,concentration. So using timers
and checklists will really helpget things done as you're
studying like, because sometimesyou're like, What should I do?
Or what was I supposed to do? Iforgot to do this. But having a
checklist, having a timer, givesyou a good range of things to do
(23:19):
in a set amount of time, you cangage how well you're
progressing, and if you have todo this more days, or you know
how, however things areprogressing, right? We start,
we're always talking aboutprogress checks and actually
looking at the progress, right?
So checklist, timers, chartingthe progress. It's important to
(23:47):
that's how you stay on trackwith a goal is writing it down
and then actually tracking thatprogress. You could do
predictions or goal settingahead of time, and then try to
see if that matches. If you'resaying, I'm going to study for
two hours. Like, what are yougoing to do? 30 minutes for
math, 30 minutes for this. Or ifit's all one subject, maybe it's
different topics that you'redoing, or different parts of a
(24:11):
project that you're working on.
So really helping them tostructure their study time? Are
they going to have, like, colorcoded things. Making sure
everything's organized is whereit's supposed to be, because
studying can definitely bedisruptive. We're like, Okay,
where's my pants? Let me get upand find a pen. So what book am
I supposed to? Let me go findthat book. You know, I need to
(24:31):
find a cord for my computer.
It's like, you know, you're1015, 30 minutes in. And really,
you know, work has gotten donebecause the materials aren't
even there. So being organized,having your materials in the
place where they're supposed tobe is going to get you to where
you want to go that actual timewith nodes in the book, you
(24:52):
know, reading eyes on this text,you know, pen to paper, you
know, typing in that document.
So really important to beorganized.
Another thing about studying isnote taking, systems like people
(25:14):
take coral Cornell notes, somepeople use, you know, the
traditional like Roman numeralswith note taking, they highlight
annotated text. They may usepost it notes. They may write
exactly on that text. But havingspecific things that you could
go back to later, or that you'vewritten or you produced while
(25:36):
you were studying is animportant gage of how well
you're studying, becausestudying is something that you
need to go back to, and you needto be able to recall that
information, explain it, makeconnections with that
information. And if you justread a book, and you haven't
(25:56):
marked up the book or made anynotes, then it is less likely
that you're going to rememberit. Studies show the things that
you write write down are goingto be things that are easier to
remember. So writing it downactually, you know, eliminates
your need to remember, you know,to actually read what you wrote,
(26:18):
but eventually, right? But ifyou're not writing it down, then
it's like, where did I see that?
Where did I hear what did itsay? And kind of getting things
twisted up or mixed up. So, youknow, writing down, taking
notes, annotating those arethings that you could be doing
to actively read yourinformation. That you could
start, you know, synthesize,like putting things together
(26:40):
like, these are the three partsof this thing. These are the
four parts. These are three mainthree main events. These are
three main steps to thisprocess. So those kind of things
that you're able to recall andtalk about and explain and
connect and transfer to othertopics or situations are things
that you're getting out ofstudying like actual,
(27:03):
productive, effective studying.
So let's get to our overview ofwhat we're doing today, just
(27:23):
really talking about howbuilding stamina and being very
intentional about it, teachingit for your children and
actually practicing it for kidsis very much something that you
should be doing. If you haven'tstarted this already, get to it
right. It's going to give yourchild the competitive advantage
(27:45):
falling for learning. Podcast isall about helping you get your
kids on track for learning andto stay on track for success,
and helping to set goals forbuilding stamina, getting to a
certain amount of time, I wouldrecommend an hour in elementary
school, eventually, by the endof elementary school, an hour by
(28:05):
the end of middle school, maybetwo hours, three hours for high
school, where they're able toconcentrate and focus on
studying, they may need to betaking brain breaks, adding
incremental progress, trackingthe progress as far as how long
it takes to, you know, to breakconcentration and and then
techniques for helping to buildthat concentration, like, you
(28:31):
know, writing down notes,tracking, you know, progress of,
you know, writing down notes,and also charting the progress
and how long you are building,setting goals like these are
clear ways to help make surethat you pay attention to this
(28:51):
goal and follow through with it.
Thanks again for joining us.
Have a great week. Thanks againfor supporting the Falling for
Learning Podcast, new episodesgo live every Saturday at 5pm
you can watch us onyoutube.com/@fallingforlearning
(29:14):
or listen on all major podcastplatforms such as Apple, Google,
Audible, Spotify and much morefor more resources, visit
fallinginlovewithlearning.com wereally appreciate you. Have a
wonderful week.
Stamina? Does your son or daughter have the ability
(00:06):
to sustain quiet, focusconcentration when it comes to
reading, studying or engaging ina task that takes skill and
skill and knowledge, if not,this episode is going to give
(00:28):
you the strategies and tips tohelp you get your kid on track,
or to give them that competitiveadvantage needed for success,
the skill of stamina. Hi, thankyou so much for joining the
falling for learning podcast. Iam TD Flenaugh. We have this
(00:52):
podcast to help parents andcaregivers with having the
resources, strategies and toolsneeded to make sure that their
children are on track forlearning and to stay on track
for success. Hello everyone.
Welcome to the falling forlearning podcast. It's another
little special welcome that I'mgiving you. This is one of my
(01:16):
solo episodes where we're reallygetting into a particular time
of the season. Okay, someadjustments need to be made at
time of the year when kidsaround the United States are
taking their end of the yeartest, their state test, that
really give them an idea aboutwhere they are when it comes to
(01:41):
being on grade level, having theskills needed to be successful
in school, and not just inschool, in the different
pursuits that they may have intheir life. And one of the keys
to the success is making surethat your child has stamina,
that is the ability to focus ona task. Some of these state
(02:06):
state tests, they may take aslong as two hours to do a good
job, a thorough job, and a jobthat is worthy of a grade level
score. Now, depending on yourchild's age and range their age,
and you know, you know range ofability, right? They may be on a
(02:33):
couple of different pathways.
First of all, they might be achild that is not able to focus
for two minutes, one minute,right? And you might have a kid
that is kind of medium aboutthis, right? But it's something
(02:57):
that you need to work on. Theymay already be at the age that
they are taking state tests andasked to sit quietly and get
work done. And they actually mayalready not be ready for the
test. You know, they're tooyoung, and they maybe have
another year or so. So eitherway that you are on this
(03:19):
spectrum of your child's age andtheir range of abilities. This
episode is for you, because yourchild is going to need this
skill. Now, a lot of people talkabout tests and talk about how
controversial they are and andhow they don't measure
everything. Yes, yes and yes. Ialso want to say that if you're
(03:43):
a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, aplumber, a licensed plumber, a
licensed electrician,contractor, so trade and
professional types of careers,you need to take some type of
test. And so testing is reallife, and it's real serious,
(04:06):
right? So I'm going to reallystart with just saying one of
the first things that we couldtalk about is how to make sure
that your kid can stay quiet fora certain amount of time. Now,
obviously this does not happenovernight. As they are in second
grade or third grade, you couldstart helping them build this up
(04:29):
again. They don't have to bethat young. They may be a lot
older, and still don't have thatskill. So we need to build it.
It is a skill. It's somethingthat needs to be taught number
one and number two. It needs tobe practiced. So you can't just
with, like most things that arereally worthy of your attention
(04:50):
and your time. It's not a onetime you're going to teach this
and then, you know, that's good- they got it not going to
happen. So. So they need topractice having concentration.
And when we're talking aboutconcentration, we're not talking
about something like your iPador your cell phone that has an
(05:16):
algorithm that is working tokeep you engaged. We're not
talking about that the test thatyour students have to take, your
child, the test that your youhave to take as a professional,
as an adult, they make sure thatyou don't have anything. Your
watch has to go, sometimes eventhe earrings gotta go, let
(05:39):
alone, you know, a cell phone oror something like that. It's
just you don't have those thingsto rely on to keep you engaged.
So it's something that you needto practice on without all those
bells and whistles, without thecell phone, without all of those
things, because if you don'twhen they need these skills,
(06:03):
they're getting low scores. Youwant your child to be in certain
programs. They don't qualify forthem. You want them to have a
scholarship somewhere. Theydon't, you know, they don't have
the skills, they don't have theacademic level to to do it. And
so really, that skill of beingable to build stamina, being
(06:26):
able to concentrate for longerperiods of time and focus on an
intellectual pursuit issomething that is a skill that
separates success from peoplewho are less successful. And so,
you know, it's something thatyou can recognize that your
(06:49):
child may have a challenge withand build them up in tiny
increments. You know, we'regoing to add a minute a week to
how long they could sit andconcentrate on reading a book.
They could sit and work on somemath problems. They can work on
(07:10):
whatever that intellectualpursuit is. You could even start
with something like drawing orartwork that they can do
quietly. So quiet is one of theskills, and then actually
concentrating on this particularthing while they're working on
the skill is important. As youknow, if you've been in a
(07:33):
particular test testingenvironment, you're not supposed
to be talking, so that could bethem whisper, reading, you know,
using their mouth to like mouththe words, but not saying
anything, you know, voiceless.
It also could mean them just,you know, keeping everything
inside of their head and helpingthem to do that. So I'm going to
(07:55):
talk about different methods,because everybody is different,
different methods are going towork better for different
people. So if you are someonewho you think your child maybe
not be able to do this, that isnot true. And you know, if they
have a diagnosed condition likeADHD or something like that,
(08:21):
they also can focus it justneeds to be something that
they're very interested in. Andonce you get them that thing
that they're interested in, theycould build that skill within
that particular interest areaand then build from there on
things that they're lessinterested in Okay, so it is
something that all kids are ableto do, but you need to find the
(08:46):
right combination for them.
Right? They might be a whisperreader. They might be someone
who's just keeping it all intheir head. They may be someone
who starts with reading fiveminutes per day, and then
building up to six minutes,eight minutes going five minute
increment in five minuteincrements going longer and
(09:08):
longer. You have to figure outwhat that right recipe or
ingredient of teaching yourchild is, but it is your job to
teach them, right. I know thatwe talk about, you know what
teachers are supposed to bedoing and all of that, but you
making sure that your child haspractice and concentrating is
something a parent should bedoing. Take my advice. You are
(09:31):
going to see the benefits whenyour child is able to
concentrate and focus on askill. So let's get into
thinking about the differentages and how this practice
looks, and you know how toimplement it into your family
The R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method andThe R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method life.
(09:56):
Workbook are your go to resourcefor helping kids to learn to
fall in love with writing, ithas the tips, tools, resources,
strategies and skill buildingactivities to help kids fall out
(10:18):
of writing and into loving towrite. Get your book set today.
Okay, so let's talk aboutelementary age and really
thinking about how to build yourreading stamina. So you want to
(10:43):
have daily reading sessions withyour child. And one way to get
into this is doing a read aloudand think aloud with your child.
You modeling how to think abouta text and to question the text.
All of those things are going tohelp your child when they are
reading by themselvesindependently, again, it could
(11:04):
look like whisper reading orjust keeping everything silent
inside of your head. So the nextthing that we're going to talk
about is tracking the progress.
So you might just start withfive or 10 minutes and build
that silent reading up and usinga chart to track progress. You
could give your child goals byyou know, you start in August or
(11:29):
September, you start in June,you start in May, and you want
to say in three months, youshould be able to read silently
for 30 minutes. Right now, youdo five minutes. And you might
even start with just seeing howlong it takes them to, like,
break concentration or to bedistracted, and then, you know,
help them build from there. Soyou could just start with five
(11:52):
minutes, or you could just seewhere your child is in this on
the skill level. So that is whatyou should be doing for
elementary schoolers who arereading doing, like learning to
build that reading stamina bydoing read alouds and doing
Think alouds, how to thinkthrough the tech. Now, when they
(12:12):
get into middle school, it'sreally important to, you know,
expand what they're doing bydoing like book talks or book
circles, because they don't needto think aloud, the read aloud
and think aloud in the same wayif and again, they may need it,
but if they don't, you'relooking at a shift, a think
aloud, I mean, a book talk withpeers and adults, right? Could
(12:36):
help them, you know, sustainwhen they're doing concentrated,
silent reading, because they areagain thinking about different
perspectives and makingconnections. So it gives them a
little bit more depth. So it'snot just you modeling, but
they're hearing other people'sideas about it, and they could
agree with it or disagree withit, but it gives them more to
(12:58):
think about as they're reading.
They can be, you know, chunkingthat text by doing that reading
log, like, I'm gonna read 10minutes a day, not 10 minutes a
day, sorry, 10 pages a day. Andthey could even do some, you
know, timed reading sprints,like seeing how much they could
read in 10 minutes or 15minutes. And think about breaks
(13:22):
that they may take to journal orwrite about the text. Jot down,
sketch different images they'rehaving related to the text.
Taking notes, expanding theirtime by doing more than just
reading, but then they'restarting to take notes,
annotate, draw, doing differentthings to help them expand the
(13:46):
amount that they're producingwhile they're reading. Because
before, it's just thoughts, andnow it's written. And again,
this can be flexible fordifferent grade levels. But, you
know, we're just talking aboutwhere you know, middle schoolers
could be. They don't have to bethere. And, of course, we know
wherever our kids are, we needto be able to help build on
(14:08):
wherever they are. When we'rethinking in terms of high
school, you want to talk aboutreading and journaling as
they're reading now, it might bea lot more in depth they are
thinking about literary devices.
They're doing dialecticaljournals and different things
like that, to document theirthinking, to connect different
(14:30):
texts to what they're reading.
So all of that is key in helpingthem to sustain their focus, and
again, they may be bringingsets, right? I want to say a
text set, a series of books orarticles, even videos that
(14:54):
relate to the same topic, willhelp them to sustain more focus
and. Build get, you know, getmore in depth knowledge about a
topic. Now, as much as we cangive them a choice of topics,
give them, you know, somepreferences, because when they
like it, when they choose it,they have some ownership of it,
(15:15):
and they have more interest init. So making your child
concentrate on things that theydon't like is going to be more
challenging, and probably is notgoing to work. So really try to
hook them in with things thatthey enjoy and that they like
and that they could read about,they could write about, they
could draw about it, so thatthey are in the habit of doing
(15:38):
longer type of study and, youknow, get more in depth and
knowledge about differenttopics. Let's talk about test
taking stamina. So I want toalso talk about, when I'm
talking about this, you know,Brain Breaks now, brain breaks
when you're in elementaryschool. May look like, you know,
(15:59):
marching in plays, you know,doing it a little chant. But
obviously, in a test, takingenvironment, brain break is
going to look different. Thebrain break may look like
sketching, drawing something,making a pattern. You may go on
a little mind walk right? Youknow, thinking about something
that you'll do after something agreat memory you had before. But
(16:22):
they should also think abouttiming. When it comes to Brain
Breaks five minutes or less, andthen getting back down to the
business, think in terms of whensomeone is running. They may get
too tired and they want to stopand they could stop running, but
they have to continue on theirjourney, but they could walk.
(16:43):
They could slow down and walk.
So a brain break is somethingthat they're doing. They're
still silent, but they are, youknow, jotting, like quick
journaling or something realquick resting their eyes. You
don't want them to go to sleep,but there's different things to
do just to take a break and thenget back down to business when
we're also talking about testtaking stamina. It really is
also about being quiet again. SoI'm going to bring up the quiet
(17:09):
one, the quiet thing again. Ifkids like the tap tapping on a
table or something like that,doesn't work in a testing
environment, but they could tapon their lap, and they could do
this fairly quietly. They couldtap on their shoulders. There's
things that they could do thatmakes it silent. So again, a
brain break or tapping orsomething like that may help you
(17:31):
concentrate. May help give you alittle break that you need, but
make sure whatever it is isn'tsilent, because you don't have a
right to disrupt other people'stesting and thinking with making
a lot of noise. And you know,and you know, professional test
taking environments like ifyou're trying to take an exam or
(17:52):
certification test, you getkicked out of it. And there's
big implications for that, andramifications for that, as
you're trying to build a career,or keep your certification, to
keep your job, or whatever, sokids need to understand that
they need to maintain the quietand then different ways to do
that. All of this talk aboutstamina. Again, I'm going to
(18:15):
bring up, you know, charactertraits that you're building,
such as perseverance. So youknow that your child is not able
to concentrate and they needhelp with it, but also talking
to them about that charactertrait that they're building is
perseverance, like pushingthrough even when you're tired,
even when you don't feel likeit, and even when things are
(18:37):
difficult, that is part of whatyou're doing when you are
building stamina in your kids.
Because, remember, if they'renot able to be quiet for a
certain period of time, orthey're not able to concentrate
for a certain period of time,that also means that they are
giving up when they feel likeit, and perseverance is able to
(18:57):
build that muscle so they couldcontinue even when they're
tired, or it takes them longerto get tired, and so that's an
important part of this, youknow, talking to your child and
training your child in the waythey should go, and telling
them, you know, what is it in init for them like this, this
skill of perseverance is goingto help pay lots of dividends
(19:20):
for them and for your family asthey get older.
So the test taking strategy formiddle middle schoolers, they
could take time to test to seehow they do with this like
practice test, whatever testthey're supposed to be taking,
most of them are going to have apractice test and giving them a
(19:42):
practice test and seeing howthey do with it, even talking to
them about how to structuretheir time. You know, sometimes
it's like, Okay, go for theeasiest things first. If you see
something hard, focus on thatfirst. So then you could do the
easy ones at the end. And again,they will be learning about
this. Is themselves like? Whatworks for them? Does it work for
(20:02):
them to tackle the hard thingsfirst? Does it work for them to
do the easy things first? So,you know, maybe a couple hard
ones, couple easy ones, theyhave to kind of learn that
whatever we're doing, we want toturn over the responsibility for
it to kids eventually, who willbe adults, so them learning
about themselves as they'repracticing. This does mean a
(20:25):
lot. So with high school, youknow, they have more than state
tests. They have AP tests,that's advanced placement. They
have the s, a T, the A, C, T,different tests that they can
take. Now, those tests are notrequired as much anymore, but it
will give kids a competitiveadvantage if someone else has
not taken it and everything elseis similar about their resume or
(20:49):
their application, the personwho's taking the test often gets
an advantage over others. Italso opens them up for
scholarship opportunities thatyou won't have if you're not
going to take the test. So keepthat in mind again. Decide
what's best for your child, anddiscuss it with them. What did
they prefer? And then, you know,if you're you know, whatever
(21:11):
test you're taking, get practicetests. Have some timed practice
test. Have some dedicated timefor practicing and when I'm
saying dedicated time is that atnight when the younger kids are
asleep, is that early in themorning when everybody else is
asleep, you know, or everyone'sout of the house during this
(21:31):
time. So I could reallyconcentrate with my child and
help them with this. So again,come up with a plan. See how
that plan goes. Adjust itaccordingly, because it is
doable, but it is not going toget done just out of want. It's
going to get done out of puttingplans in place and actually
going through and followingthose plans. When we talk about
(21:53):
studying stamina, because we'vetalked about reading, we've
talked about test taking, butstudying is something just like
your lifelong you may need to doand you need to talk about, like
studying. You know the structureof your study and how you're
going to study. Setting thosestudying environments, going to
(22:14):
the library, going to a coffeeshop, going somewhere, maybe you
just have your room making surethe TV is off and focused on
reading and writing. I have,like, a little dirty secret with
my with my studying. Well, Idon't know if it's my my
studying. If I have a task Idon't like doing, I do
(22:34):
sometimes, like, put on a showthat's not as entertaining for
me, and I will get that stuffdone while I'm working. Now,
it's not the same as studying.
When I'm studying, I have tojust, like, turn everything off
and just really focus on readingand do it really early or really
late so that I can get it doneand that there's not any
distractions and big noises andstuff like that, taking me out
(22:57):
of my zone of, you know,concentration. So using timers
and checklists will really helpget things done as you're
studying like, because sometimesyou're like, What should I do?
Or what was I supposed to do? Iforgot to do this. But having a
checklist, having a timer, givesyou a good range of things to do
(23:19):
in a set amount of time, you cangage how well you're
progressing, and if you have todo this more days, or you know
how, however things areprogressing, right? We start,
we're always talking aboutprogress checks and actually
looking at the progress, right?
So checklist, timers, chartingthe progress. It's important to
(23:47):
that's how you stay on trackwith a goal is writing it down
and then actually tracking thatprogress. You could do
predictions or goal settingahead of time, and then try to
see if that matches. If you'resaying, I'm going to study for
two hours. Like, what are yougoing to do? 30 minutes for
math, 30 minutes for this. Or ifit's all one subject, maybe it's
different topics that you'redoing, or different parts of a
(24:11):
project that you're working on.
So really helping them tostructure their study time? Are
they going to have, like, colorcoded things. Making sure
everything's organized is whereit's supposed to be, because
studying can definitely bedisruptive. We're like, Okay,
where's my pants? Let me get upand find a pen. So what book am
I supposed to? Let me go findthat book. You know, I need to
(24:31):
find a cord for my computer.
It's like, you know, you're1015, 30 minutes in. And really,
you know, work has gotten donebecause the materials aren't
even there. So being organized,having your materials in the
place where they're supposed tobe is going to get you to where
you want to go that actual timewith nodes in the book, you
(24:52):
know, reading eyes on this text,you know, pen to paper, you
know, typing in that document.
So really important to beorganized.
Another thing about studying isnote taking, systems like people
(25:14):
take coral Cornell notes, somepeople use, you know, the
traditional like Roman numeralswith note taking, they highlight
annotated text. They may usepost it notes. They may write
exactly on that text. But havingspecific things that you could
go back to later, or that you'vewritten or you produced while
(25:36):
you were studying is animportant gage of how well
you're studying, becausestudying is something that you
need to go back to, and you needto be able to recall that
information, explain it, makeconnections with that
information. And if you justread a book, and you haven't
(25:56):
marked up the book or made anynotes, then it is less likely
that you're going to rememberit. Studies show the things that
you write write down are goingto be things that are easier to
remember. So writing it downactually, you know, eliminates
your need to remember, you know,to actually read what you wrote,
(26:18):
but eventually, right? But ifyou're not writing it down, then
it's like, where did I see that?
Where did I hear what did itsay? And kind of getting things
twisted up or mixed up. So, youknow, writing down, taking
notes, annotating those arethings that you could be doing
to actively read yourinformation. That you could
start, you know, synthesize,like putting things together
(26:40):
like, these are the three partsof this thing. These are the
four parts. These are three mainthree main events. These are
three main steps to thisprocess. So those kind of things
that you're able to recall andtalk about and explain and
connect and transfer to othertopics or situations are things
that you're getting out ofstudying like actual,
(27:03):
productive, effective studying.
So let's get to our overview ofwhat we're doing today, just
(27:23):
really talking about howbuilding stamina and being very
intentional about it, teachingit for your children and
actually practicing it for kidsis very much something that you
should be doing. If you haven'tstarted this already, get to it
right. It's going to give yourchild the competitive advantage
(27:45):
falling for learning. Podcast isall about helping you get your
kids on track for learning andto stay on track for success,
and helping to set goals forbuilding stamina, getting to a
certain amount of time, I wouldrecommend an hour in elementary
school, eventually, by the endof elementary school, an hour by
(28:05):
the end of middle school, maybetwo hours, three hours for high
school, where they're able toconcentrate and focus on
studying, they may need to betaking brain breaks, adding
incremental progress, trackingthe progress as far as how long
it takes to, you know, to breakconcentration and and then
techniques for helping to buildthat concentration, like, you
(28:31):
know, writing down notes,tracking, you know, progress of,
you know, writing down notes,and also charting the progress
and how long you are building,setting goals like these are
clear ways to help make surethat you pay attention to this
(28:51):
goal and follow through with it.
Thanks again for joining us.
Have a great week. Thanks againfor supporting the Falling for
Learning Podcast, new episodesgo live every Saturday at 5pm
you can watch us onyoutube.com/@fallingforlearning
(29:14):
or listen on all major podcastplatforms such as Apple, Google,
Audible, Spotify and much morefor more resources, visit
fallinginlovewithlearning.com wereally appreciate you. Have a
wonderful week.
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