Life here at the real Dahl house has been a little crazy as of late, I must admit. I won't go into long lists of what we all have to manage each week to keep these active boys fed, to school on time, picked up, to swimming lessons and kids clubs, to clean clothed while also trying to keep on top of everything that needs doing at the studio... I will just elaborate on some of the unfortunate news I received from my son's teacher regarding how behind he is as a student this past week.
I will admit that I was surprised to learn that my son's reading level puts him back to the beginning of grade 1 when he is in grade 2. Same teacher as last year. No big warning signs on his report card last year- yes he has been in Learning Assistance for reading, but really, back to grade 1?
So I've been asking around about what best to do, what to look out for in the way of learning lapses or problems, sorting out what his learning style might be, and generally trying to keep him happy about school these days. It's not easy- again tonight he asked if he could quit school. Quit school? In grade 2? Yikes, we've got 11 more years of this school thing- somehow we've all got to make it through.
My research has led me here if you are interested in more on boys and literacy...
2 comments:
Start looking into alternative schooling options in your area now. My mom was/is a private educator and pushed a number of her students into these programs and with her help they succeeded greatly in their alternative education. The traditional schooling system just doesn't fit some people or work to teach them. I was one of those students, but unfortunately my mom and I didn't realize I should have been in an alternative program until my last year of high school. Too late. This is why I suggest you start looking now.
Good Luck!
It wasn't that long ago that we were right where you are now with our oldest son, Liam! He'd gone through 1st grade "reading" when it turns out he's memorized the books they were supposed to be learning to read from (in Ohio, it was sight words only, no phonics).W e had to do phonics boot camp at home (not a program or anything, just us covering up the pictures he was using as cues and showing him how to sound out the words), which got him closer to grade level, but reading was still NOT a joy for him, which broke our hearts, as my hubby & I are huge readers.
Long story short, the trick for us to get him hooked on reading was finding a series of books that he liked that was at his level and then buying (or borrowing) every single one (each one a reward for successfully reading and testing on the previous one). Our teacher turned him onto the "Henry & Mudge" series, and that was it. But it was the middle of 2nd grade before this happened. So many of the early reader books just had no appeal for him, and it got worse as he got older! If your teacher doesn't seem especially helpful, maybe appealing to a children's librarian or a kindly owner of a kid's bookstore could help you find the books that are THE ONES for your little guy.
Now Liam is a prodigious reader, reading way above grade level, so take heart, this too shall pass!
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