Blue Book

In order for these goals to be met, mastery of assigned Blue Book pages is essential. Mastery is most likely to occur when practice and/or review is done daily. Blue Book study has two aspects -- practice of current assignment and review of previously assigned pages.

As students progress through the Blue Book, much time could be spent with the Blue Book each day. However, Blue Book study must not become lengthy and tedious. It should be relatively short in duration but frequent in occurrence. Studying five minutes every day is better than studying 30 minutes once a week.

As the Blue Book is mastered, application to spelling and/or reading can occur much more easily. The Blue Book can be a very effective tool, but the ability of students to apply it is very much dependent upon their mastery of it. Mastery is more than just being able to recite a given page during the next therapy session. Mastery means securing the page in the student's long-term memory. The student who routinely masters assignments will be the one who will experience greater success in application of the Blue Book.

If a child seems to be having difficulty memorizing a particular page, parents can remind him/her to divide the page into parts, focusing on learning one part at a time. When one part is learned, then another part can be added, until the entire page is learned.

As parents become involved in assisting their children in learning the Blue Book, they will become increasingly familiar with it. As they become more familiar with the Blue Book, they may find themselves noticing situations when they can help their children apply a Blue Book rule to reading or spelling.

Time spent in the car can be a good opportunity for parents to listen to the Blue Book. Blue Book review can become a family activity. Other members of the family, in addition to the therapy student, can also benefit from the content of the Blue Book.

In addition to regular, ongoing Blue Book memorization assignments, students will sometimes be asked to use the Blue Book words in sentences. On these written assignments, as with other written therapy work, parents need to give minimal assistance. This assistance can include asking questions and giving clues when the child gets stuck. When age appropriate, students can be encouraged to use a dictionary if he/she can't recall the meaning of a word. Parents can encourage their student to spell words the way they sound. A child's spelling errors will help the therapist know what areas need additional attention.

Progress and success in educational therapy occur as the therapist, the student, and the parent team together toward the common goal of having each student fully develop his/her God-given potential. Consistent Blue Book review is one way of working toward this goal.