THE WDS

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Newsletter September 2021

The Whole Dyslexic Society

September News

SO PROUD OF US ALL !

We did it ! we raised $13,000.00 in one month and we know of more donations on their way !  So many wonderful people supported our Walk and Talk the ‘DYS’ Out of Dyslexia with likes, shares, posts, donations, bids on our Auction items, listening to our 4th series of podcasts, People of Passion and ordering our Gift of Dyslexia Pins!  Even the list is exhausting ! The entire Board could not be more grateful. We look forward to spending your donations wisely, improving the outreach, getting DLS into schools, providing bursaries and keeping our community together.

YOUR BOARD:

Its time to congratulate the whole Board.  This fundraiser would never have happened without the technical skills of Laura O’Neill. She is the most overworked and underpaid Administrator anyone could wish for.  Our Ontario Facilitators gave us a geographic/historical introduction to their area which you can see on the WDS Facebook.  Lovely to be able to travel vicariously!

Here is a Facebook post from Sharon Roberts, and I resonate with every point:

“I did it .. 301,000 as of 7 this morn. This is what the walk taught me:

1: Accountability is important. Thanks to all who supported me financially and Facebook.

2: Even though I feel I am slow, I can still do it.

3: Giving to a cause over rides any feeling of discomfort.

4: Being around nature is refreshing even if humidity is at 80 percent.

5: I have the beginnings of a good habit ...that is rewarding.”

It appears Sharon managed Boston, Paris and Scotland in one day... Copenhagen and Vienna had to wait till the next day !

Nadine encouraged donations, hiked and paddled and swam and not even a knee injury deterred her, that’s dedication ! 

Julie almost single-handed filled the Auction site with fantastic items!  Tristan published our podcasts which created a 3,000% increase interest, while Paddy, Gisa and Sue added donations they were delighted to report lost inches.

Just to illustrate what we are made of:  at the time of our Sept 9 Board Meeting, Laura got delayed in traffic and ended up on the Bowen Ferry.  She simply ran the Zoom meeting from her truck on the ferry!  We are all relentless, only 9 days after our fundraiser we are planning what’s next ... so if any of you have a request… if there is anything at all that we can help you with, please just let us know!

PREVENTION

Davis Learning Strategies Workshops:  One workshop took place in July – Nadine and Sharon attended it and one took place August 30/31 for an entire school in Saskatchewan which is VERY exciting.  Tiffany Klassen is a Davis Facilitator in Hepburn and hopes to be able to support the teachers.  We are delighted to have been able to support them financially and hope this is the first of many schools to use the DLS. Julie’s Montessori Pre-School has been using DLS for over a year now.  As soon as one little boy was through the gates, first full day of school, he asked “can we do clay today?”   Learning really can be fun!

OUTREACH

September 1, Surrey Schools Summer Pro D – Sue was lucky enough to be invited to present at this Pro D and thanks to the organiser we managed everything online without too many technical difficulties!  They seem very interested in the DLS, so fingers crossed !

COMMUNITY: RESOURCES

Homeschooling/Homelearning/Online Learning

So many of you are contemplating the new school year and deciding what is best for your children.  Sue would like to let you know that she is restructuring the rest of this calendar year to be available to work with those of you who decide to homeschool/homelearning or are taking Online schooling courses, adults too. 

August 30 – Sept 3 – Back to School Refresher week

These weeks will be Homeschool/Homelearning/Online Learning Support weeks:

Sept 13-17,  27 to Oct 1;  Oct 11-15,  25-29;  Nov 8-12,  22-26;  Dec 6-10

She is happy to look at the curriculum/courses you are following and together decide on words to master, concepts that need to be understood through mastery.  She can cover spelling, time, Math, grammar, sentence structure, master any foundational concept such as geography, terms in science, French, technical terms … basically just have fun with learning so the information stays. 

She’s excited – she loves taking Davis programs a little further, and looks forward to hearing from you.  She hopes this lightens the load and wants to remind you there is a Resources page on the WDS website which we will constantly be adding to. Contact Sue HERE.

Reading:

FYI: One of our adults just pointed out that he enjoyed reading screenplays because all the white space allowed his imagination to create the film… who knew !?!

Films:  We are adding films to the Resource page . We always recommend that you either watch the film first, or watch it with your child as there are many various degrees of sensitivity.

Netflix:

  • Agriculture - Kiss the Ground, The Biggest Little Farm

  • Sea Life - My Octopus Teacher

  • Forests - Fantastic Fungi and Judy Dench – Trees (YouTube)

YouTube:

Travel and History -

  • Secret Scotland – Susan Calman – (YouTube) this is the first episode.

  • Around the UK – Susan Calman – (YouTube).

The Ideal Education:  I just found my favourite person, the late Sir Ken Robinson, talking to Sadhguru about education. It’s long, 1 ¾ hrs, but there’s something about listening to wise men that makes the time fly.  I hope you enjoy it. Watch HERE.

So here’s to a new school year that turns out to be even better than you could imagine – please let us know what you need – take care and stay well.  We are all in this together, please send us your comments and items for the Newsletters… take care,

Sue, Laura, Julie, Nadine, Sharon, Paddy, Gisa and Tristan.

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