Welcome to The Reading Room & The Math Mentor Centre. Our primary goal is to help people who are struggling with Reading/Writing & Math. Simply put, our program equips people with life time learning tools!
No need to fight with your son or daughter about tutoring, we make the process enjoyable. We are the Place Kids Love to Learn, Island Owned & Operated & established in 2003. We are a husband & wife team dedicated to making learning fun & helping families.
Good News, we work with all people; from adults looking to complete their GED to children on the spectrum or someone struggling with anxiety. We love to build relationships with our students and mentor them through the learning process.
Our Values
Relationship Focused- We are relational by nature, our student teacher ratios never exceed 2:1. We believe learning is a vulnerable process therefore we set up our atmosphere to honour the kids on their journey.
Fun- Games are used to reinforce learning concepts. Trampoline dodge ball, soccer, table hockey and ping-pong breaks are given to help with motivation & retention.
Results Orientated- Rewards are given to motivate kids through the hard patches and to help them acquire the life-long Reading & Math tools they will need.
The Place......Kids Love to Learn.
Why do some students have difficulty Reading?
Children may fall behind in reading because of gaps in phonemic awareness and code knowledge. If left untreated, it may create a lasting reading disability. These problems have nothing to do with intelligence or ability but rather how children decode text into speech sounds to form meaningful words. Some children may have difficulties memorizing sound-symbol association or have visual tracking issues resulting in the child losing track of what has been read. The Reading Room addresses all these reading difficulties in a way that is fun, therapeutic and results orientated.
Why do some students struggle with Math?
There are many reasons why a child could struggle with Math. The reasons we most often see are;
- A hard time with focus therefore missing important steps in the process.
- Too often memorization is used as a major tool at the expense of understanding concepts.
- Lack of confidence, kids that have experienced setbacks become quickly intimidated which leads to avoidance and a stress response.
- Many do not see the connection between the theory and application.
- Students can have a hard time relating or changing their mind set in order to understand the process & patterns of Math.
Please click here to learn more about our Math Program
How can we help?
Our Reading Program is Phono-Graphix certified and phonetically based emphasizing the correspondence between letters and sounds and the ability to decode words. We also provide direct instruction and guided practice to include sight word recognition, reading comprehension and vocabulary skills.
We provide a free assessment in order to identify the gaps a child may have.
Who are we?
Our program has been recommended and referred by Parents, Resource Teachers and Speech Pathologists for over 10 years.
Shawn & Lori Bishop have been teaching and training for over 20 years. The path to their tutoring business has been unconventional. Lori has her BA in Communications & English from SFU. Shawn has a BBA from BCIT and a double Masters from VIU. More importantly than schooling, they have both have worked in the trenches.
Lori Bishop is the co-owner of the Reading Room & Math Mentor Centre. She has been working with children for over 18 years, specifically working with the Reading Room for 8 years. Lori worked in Social Services for 8 years where she worked as a program manager and assistant manager for teens and adults with developmental disabilities. Lori was an Educational Assistant for 2 years at Nanaimo Christian School. She loves children and has two of her own.
Shawn worked with high risk youth and teens for 4 years including a stint at a group home for high risk youth in East Vancouver. He has coached 4 seasons of baseball/soccer and has head coached football for 7 seasons. Shawn sits on the board of directors and coaches the coaches at Football Nanaimo. Shawn’s training and teaching background is in Human Resources (including Training & Development, Behavior Science & Performance Management & Assessment) Marketing and Corporate Sales. He has managed and trained at every job he has had since the mid 1990's. Shawn has a huge passion for growth and personal development for both himself and those around him.
Together they worked in Children’s ministries and ran the children’s programs at two of the churches they attended. They work with Heritage Home School Association, MCF, InDesign and Jordan's Principal. They have both completed their criminal record checks.
The Reading Room & Math Mentor Centre are Vancouver Island Owned & Operated
The Phono-Graphix instruction has been 98% effective at solving reading problems at any age, or ability level. It is researched based, developmentally appropriate, straightforward, concrete, powerful, creative and affordable. Source; www.readamerica.net
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