learning

Same But Different: Finding a K-5 School

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

When our then‑zoned elementary school closed a little over a year ago, the ripple effect was immediate. Our parent group began exploring every possible alternative, from moving to another county to researching private schools to digging into charter and magnet options. Watching that scramble unfold made me realize just how many educational paths families navigate today. It raised a bigger question about why so many different school models exist and whether choosing one during the elementary years truly shapes a child’s long‑term experience; ergo, this post.

In our metro area, there is an overabundance of school options; which for a parent isn’t a bad problem to have. When parents choose a school, they’re choosing more than just a building. It’s a community, a childhood environment, and the place where our kids will spend more than 1,000 hours each year.

Public, private, charter, and magnet schools all function differently, and knowing what sets them apart makes it easier for parents to determine the best fit for their kids.

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Back to School Month: New Beginnings

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

We’ve been doing Back to School month for three years. In that time, we’ve written about navigating new schools, new friends, and new teachers.

But while open houses and curriculum nights might seem same old-same old at this point, there are always small changes and new starts each academic year. And even if everything about school remained the same, our kids (and ourselves) are constantly growing and changing.

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Go with the Flow: The Just-Right Challenge

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Kids can seem allergic to focus when it’s something we need them to do: homework, chores, anything that feels like a requirement rather than a choice. And yet, that very same child who can’t stay with a worksheet for five minutes will suddenly spend an entire afternoon perfecting a dance routine, building an elaborate Lego world, painting with total intensity, or disappearing into a book.

In those moments, we unintentionally play the “bad guy,” interrupting the very focus we wish they had during everything else. That kind of deep, effortless engagement is the beginning of what psychologists call flow.

The term flow was coined by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi (Me-high Cheek-sent-me-high-ee), who introduced it in 1975 through his research on artists, athletes, and other deeply absorbed performers. He wanted to understand why people feel their best when they’re fully immersed in something. Through thousands of interviews and years of experience sampling studies, he found a clear pattern: people felt their greatest focus, enjoyment, and meaning when the challenge of a task matched their skill. Ergo, flow.

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Podcast Playlist: Attention and Learning

| Patti Webb

So fun fact, it’s very hard to find a podcast episode about kids’ learning and attention without it being centered around kids with ADHD. So instead, I wanted to share some podcasts about alternative ways of learning that help us (and our kids) strengthen our brains and executive functions.

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Back in the Day: Attention

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

No one can escape the stories from older generations about what life was like when they were growing up. They talk about walking miles to get anywhere, playing outside until the sun went down, or buying a soda for a nickel.

And sometimes, those stories come with the reminder that “back then” there was no such thing as ADHD, or food allergies, or emotional trauma, etc. If you’re lucky, they may even suggest that if parents tried a bit harder or used a little more discipline, children these days would be able to sit still and pay attention. Bless their hearts.

The truth is that the kind of attention kids (and adults) need to thrive today is not the same type of attention that was required 30 or 50 years ago. Our society/environment has changed so dramatically that the “old model” of attention (sit still, focus for long stretches, ignore distractions) is only one part of the picture now.

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