About Denise

Currently, I teach art for a home school co-op and substitute teach. In addition, I teach a Sunday school class for 4-year-olds at church. I absolutely adore working with children! I began caring for two little girls and a baby at age 12. Their mom worked nights, so I did the cooking, bathing and bedtime routines. I spent the night there and then and got them off to school. As a teenager, I took care of two special needs individuals, one was 7 the other was 16. I taught for 7 years, have been a nanny for 6 and tutored for two. One of the students I tutored went from a reading at level F to level G after just two sessions. I have fun and creative ways to make learning easy and enjoyable! I taught my own girls to read CVC words at three years of age. They started blending sounds when they were just beyond three and learning site words by three and a half years of age. They also fully understood one to one correspondence by age 3. I attribute their success to the Montessori methods of teaching and to a peaceful, loving, and nurturing environment. I so enjoyed making Montessori lessons for my children and watching them explore and learn. I have also worked with children who have had autism, ADD, ADHD, ordinary behavior issues, sensory integration issues both hyper and hypo and more. I believe that all children have an innate desire to please adults. I feel that rewarding positive behavior is much more effective than focusing on undesired behavior. Additionally, I believe that children want to learn and will LOVE learning as long as they have positive experiences. Personally, I have ADD and sensory integration myself. My oldest daughter has both as well. We are both "hyper sensitive" I have extra patience with her and other children because I have had to create my own coping mechanisms throughout my life and I understand the difficulties of conforming to meet the expectations of my peers and authority figures. I struggled tremendously as a child. Thankfully, I had some amazing teachers who were not only patient, but went above and beyond the call to make a difference in my life. That is why I have always wanted to teach! I love when I bump into or am looked up by former students who tell me how I impacted their lives. It is a joy that money can't buy!