Awards:
Alberta Literacy Award of Merit
Finalist for Canadian Postal Literacy Award
Member of:
Better Business Bureau of Southern Alberta
It was almost a year ago that I came across the website for Rocky
Point Academy
on the internet and I would just like to take this opportunity to tell you how
glad we are that we found this. Our son Martin was 14 ( grade 9) at the time and
was struggling greatly in school, as he had for
years. He was at the point where he didn't want to even go to school any more.
We were naturally very concerned and went hunting for yet another solution to
try out on him that would help him to succeed at school. My son and I went
to the information session last spring for Rocky Point Academy and I found that
he identified very strongly with a lot of things that Larry was saying. Although
Martin had been identified at school as having problems with writing and
spelling, it had never been labeled as a form of dyslexia. At the end of August,
before grade 10 started we were able to get Martin in with Larry for the course
and it just gave him such a boost. From the first morning, he
was in awe himself at what a difference it made in his
perception of his surroundings when he was "on point". At the end of
the day when we were driving home he recited the alphabet backwards! This from a
boy who that morning couldn't even say the alphabet forwards, never mind know
where any particular letter fell in the alphabet! Over the week it was
amazing to see what he was learning about himself . He came home the second day
and said "Now I know that I really am smart." Martin
loved working with Larry - they got along very well and Martin was glad that
there was someone else who has experienced the difficulties he has. Over the
week we saw some amazing improvements in many ways. He seemed calmer than we
have probably ever seen him. He knows now how to control
his wandering mind, and fidgety body. He is making better decisions than
before, advocating for himself at school and just generally has much
better self esteem. We have been working faithfully with him on the
homework and are glad that he made the commitment to this. The follow up work
is a very important part of the program. We are also thankful that Larry is
available to review some things with Martin at times and that Stacey
is available for phone consultations at times. We know that there are still many
things that need to improve but we see that there is movement in the right
direction, sometimes quite astounding movement in fact. One evening I remember
Martin was trying to look up a scientific word in the dictionary and he couldn't
find it. The reason was that it wasn't there. He could point out to me
though where it should have been! Just a couple of months before that he would
not even have attempted to look the word up at all. His
report cards from school this year have been a huge improvement over last year
and the teachers say they are seeing steady improvement. This has really
worked for him and if he's happier then so are we, believe me! Thanks for your
support, both of you!
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