Kirk Lunde

My name is Kirk Lunde and I have been a tutor since October 2010. My family lives in a suburb just east of Atlanta, Ga. It includes two sons, an awesome wife and a dog. I grew up in a small town in northern Iowa. 

I had a 19 year career in healthcare, most of it as a pediatric respiratory therapist. After that, I was on an alternative pathway to become a special education teacher. When my son became ill and was no longer able to attend school, I became a stay-at-home-homeschooling-dad. Now, both of my sons are college age and reasonably healthy. 

When I tutor, I talk to all of my clients about neuroscience and multiple intelligences theory. Students need to understand that struggling in one, or more areas is normal. Students need help to define themselves by their strengths and passions, not their struggles. 

I use Mortensen Math® and base ten blocks to help students understand math. Using base ten blocks to do math makes it kinesthetic and visually obvious. We spend a lot of time talking about math concepts. Talking about math helps students overcome challenges and negative experiences with math. Combining the conceptual and multisensory teaching of math with neuroscience is what I call “Math Therapy.” 

“Math Therapy” includes understanding everyone has a relationship with math. This relationship is their experiences, their successes and their struggles. This relationship sometimes leads to math anxiety and even math trauma. “Math Therapy” developed from so many of my clients having low self esteem based only on their relationship with math. I can help students learn how to control and overcome anxiety and have hosted two webinars on Math Anxiety featuring author Vanessa Vakharia. 

In closing, adults need to understand learning math is very much like learning a language. If you wait until your child is behind to seek help, they will need remediation while their peers move on. Effective remediation can not be done in one hour a week. What I tell all my families is to play math games and have fun.