By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Old math was hard enough the first time around. “New math” can almost look like a foreign language.
So help is being offered to local grandparents who are raising their grandchildren – and who need to brush up on new education strategies.
The Wood County Committee on Aging offers a tutoring program for grandparents raising grandchildren who are in elementary and middle school.
In Wood County and across the country, many grandparents – who thought their days of daily parenting were done – are now raising another generation of their family. And that means more senior citizens have the responsibility of helping their grandchildren with homework and studying for tests.
In 2010, an estimated 10 to 15 percent of children were being raised by their grandparents. That number has continued to increase, with drugs and alcohol being the cause 99 percent of the time for parents missing from their children’s lives.
Parenting children the first time around is hard enough. Doing it again as a grandparent can be even more daunting and exhausting.
It can also be mind-boggling with new ways of teaching English, social studies, science – and especially math.
“Math is a very big challenge,” said Danielle Brogley, director of programming at the Wood County Senior Center. “If you don’t have that abstract thinking, it’s hard. I have a son in sixth grade, and I can’t understand what it’s asking.”
The tutoring is provided for free by Bowling Green State University students who are majoring in education. It’s offered on Thursday evenings, while BGSU is in session.
Few grandparents have taken advantage of the tutoring, Brogley said.
“We know there’s more need out there,” she said.
The tutoring can be done with just the student, or with their grandparents joining in.
“They are getting cross-generational training, and I feel that’s invaluable,” Brogley said.
Working with college students also helps bridge the generational differences between senior citizens and young children.
“The style of parenting has changed,” with grandparents often being more accustomed to stricter parenting styles, Brogley said.
“I think the children have more of a voice now,” she said. “Everybody has to change to fit the situation.”
Anyone wanting more information or to make an appointment for tutoring may contact the programs department at the Wood County Committee on Aging at 419-353-5661, or 1-800-367-4935, or email programs@wccoa.net.
