For being a girl that had no interest in reading (not properly, anyway), and couldn't add 2+2 without using her fingers and still messing up... B has made a ton of progress over this summer. While I am prepping her for the start of public school on August 17th, we have come to the conclusion that this year will not be very revolutionary to her personally. Her new teacher sent home a letter to all the new students (with the invite to the school open house). And her primary concern for this school year (the whole year mind you, not just the first quarter) is to encourage your child to develop a love of reading...
The problem with this proposition when it comes to B? Today, she started book 2 of the Wizard in Oz series (the Land of Oz)... This is her independent reading book for now, which she reads a chapter a day of. She is also currently working on The Tale Of Snowball Lamb (classic literature), Viking Tales (history reading), and The Burgess Book Of Birds For Children (science reading). All of the above books she reads at the rate of one chapter per day, even on weekends.
As for her arithmetic skills, she can now do 4 digit addition and 3 digit subtraction with no problems. She can do multiplication via addition, which is still way ahead of the public school system. She's made enough progress over the summer that, at the very least, she'll be ahead of most of her class academically. She's also had countless mini-science and health lessons, and can compute basic arithmetic in her head and add and subtract money of various denominations with no problems...
Socially, her attitudes towards a lot of things in life has turned around. We no longer deal with the "I'm not getting my way tantrums" or the "I'm not going to share" moods, except for the first evening she returns from her mom's house. By the next day, she's happy and cheerful and running around and ZoKo and her are best pals (for the most part). Honestly, that's been how things are with her for a long while now. I just had to point it out because some days it still amazes me how much she's blossomed over the last year or so...
And, in case you're wondering if I'm "overwhelming" her with all that reading I mentioned above, she's on a break now, you know, free time. So, what's she doing? Reading a book to Sparkie and Beanie (two stuffed skunks). Yep, that's right, she's reading during playtime. As for her comprehension levels, we had problems at the beginning of the summer. In fact, she was so bad about skipping full lines, substituting random words, and mumbling through the rest of the page, that I started making her read her classic literature outloud. Loud enough that I could actually hear her. And she had to speak clearly so I could understand her. And if she messed up, she had to restart the paragraph. And, yes, it took her a few hours to read a page or two. At first... And, after endless hours of whining and whimpering, after about a week, she stopped fighting and decided to try harder. And within two weeks, she was making about one-fourth the mistakes that she originally was. And by the end of the third week, she was consistently making no mistakes at all. So, after a month of her having to read her classic literature out loud, I told her that she didn't have to read it out loud anymore and congratulated her on the phenomenal changes and progress she'd made...
And now? Now, she chooses to read out loud (so the stuffed animals can hear her). And she chooses to read during her free time. And she chooses to talk for hours on end about the characters and plot in her current books. And she chooses to draw her own illustrations for her favorite parts in some stories... And she chooses to be happy and smile and be enthusiastic about reading... The point is, it's all her choice now. And I couldn't be more proud of the choices she's making. To listen to a girl that used to cry and whine about having to read one sentence out loud speak so clearly and read with such enthusiasm for an hour to some stuffed animals that ever so patiently hang on her every word is nothing short of a miracle, as far as I'm concerned. As for everyone else, maybe it doesn't mean anything. But it means something to her, and to everyone close to her, so, isn't that all that really matters anyway? Just a thought...
PS - For anyone wondering, spending over $50 on school & lunch supplies for a child that you have no doubts about needing one-on-one time and emotional support and rewards/praise that she won't get in the public school system is nothing short of depressing. I've spent hours crying over having to let her go back after all the progress we've made. I'm hoping that her teacher this year is more willing to compensate children for their efforts than her one last year was. But alas, all I can do is hope...
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