Learning With Busy Bee

Parents, this one's a lifesaver. 📓 The 5 properties of addition and multiplication - the rules that let kids rearrange and simplify numbers without breaking the math. Our students use this one-page guide to finally stop mixing up commutative and associative. Save it, print it, stick it on the fridge.
What's the math topic your child keeps tripping over? Drop it below - we might make it the next guide. 👇

Extended time shows up on almost every IEP I read.

It's not defined anywhere in I.D.E.A. There's no rule that says every student gets it.

Under 34 C.F.R. § 300.324(a)(1), the team has to build the plan around this specific child's actual needs, not a default menu of supports.

If a student is slow to process information, more time can genuinely help.

If a student can't decode the text at all, more time changes nothing. The barrier isn't speed.

Before you write "extended time" into another IEP, ask what the actual barrier is.

If it doesn't match, it's not an accommodation. It's a placeholder.

Written expression is one of the specific areas I.D.E.A. recognizes under 34 C.F.R. § 300.309(a)(1) when a team is looking at a possible learning disability.

There's a reason it gets its own category.

Writing asks a kid to spell, organize ideas, follow grammar rules, and generate content all at the same time. Reading asks for one thing at a time. Writing asks for everything at once.

That's why a kid who reads fine can still freeze completely on a blank page.

If a student struggles with writing, it's rarely laziness. It's usually too many demands stacked on top of each other with no support to separate them.