Summer school is no longer called Summer School. It's Summer Camp! Changing the name must make it more fun.
The bus was waiting to pick them up a mile away from our house. No one told me. We finally figured it out. I have to drive them a mile down the road because it isn't the special ed bus.
There was a late notice for the FTDM for our foster children this morning. None of us had fair warning, but anyway..... the date is set. The kiddos go home on the 2nd of July. It's good.
Duckling has a fever and throwing up today.
Went to the pool for the twins swimming lessons as we have been for the last week and half at 4 only to find out they changed it to morning. No note. No call. No mention of it. They said, "It's okay, we'll give you a two hour lesson tomorrow morning." Great. The kids are in school during that time. I asked for part of my $$ back and they said no. That's 6 hours of lessons I paid for.
While we were at the pool someone took James' glasses. Why? I have no idea. They are THICK, coke bottle glasses. He's blind as a bat. It had to be a bully looking to play a mean joke. So, wondering what the little blind boy is going to do in remedial reading tomorrow. Sigh.
Speaking of remedial reading, I bought a reading program for James today online. It is from Sound Reading Solutions and it builds a foundation in auditory processing. After the last several weeks of having him read to me every day I realized just reading out loud was not going to improve his reading skills at all. He is able to do the mechanics of it and even understand the stories..... but his lack of processing skills are impeding his progress. Summer School er... Camp is short. Six days in June. Six days in August, so I have to do as much as possible on my own to help him make progress every day, not just two weeks of the summer.
Brianna finished her finals for this quarter tonight. She's homefree! Vanessa has a few more days. Christina graduated from Driver's Ed. They are planning a cannoe ride down the river with Natalie, Ellie, Dakota and all the rest of the gang who are finishing up this week. They are so ready for some fun.
6 comments:
Morning!
Are you working towards trying to eventually homeschool the twins again?
:)De
Yes... eventually I will homeschool James again. I have no idea what will happen to Missy. We have to have a working relationship to be able to homeschool . . .
I have been a homeschooler too long to just expect the "system" do what is the ultimate best for my kids especially when I encounter the attitude that says, "It doesn't matter which grade Missy is place....she's never going to do well."
These kids have learning issues coming out their ears. I have a strong hunch that what appears to be a low IQ in James is actually a sever learning disability. Especially lately, I have seen huge growth in him. It might not show on the MAPS test, and he can't be compared to other kids yet... but he will get there. I believe that eventually his IQ will test much higher than previously.
The school can only do so much for him. They have a lot of kids to educate and there's only so much time. I have to take it several steps further or he will just become a statistic in the classroom.
Missy too, but my hands are tied until we get some cooperation going.
oh. that was me. Not Brie talking.
Hi- have you tried the technique with James to stop the story every few sentences and ask him to retell it? I work with lots of kiddos with varying abilities. Another strategy is to do pre-reading activities with him. Activate his prior knowledge on the topic, help him visualize what he knows, what he guesses will happen in the story/what the story is about, scan for clues like illustrations, headers, etc. Get out poster paper and help him jot down his ideas. If he is slow with thinking/writing, focus on being his scribe for now, as you're focused on improving reading comprehension. You should also pre-read the story ahead of time, and pull out a few (no more than 7) key vocabulary that he needs to learn to understand/progress. Do analysis on the word: synonyms/antonyms, prefix/suffix, schema with picture or symbol to make meaning. When the word occurs in the text, pause and review. Make sense of it with that word analysis you've done. Finally, after retelling the story - post reading exercises - read it again as "readers' theater," or with puppets, make sentence strips and rearrange the story from start to finish, encourage sequencing words (first, then, after that, finally) and using new key vocabulary. Illustrating the story can be fun. If James and Missy are reading the same story, it can be fun to do the reader theatre together. Or have her guess at his illustrations, etc.
All these little scaffolding tricks can help reading "stick" better!
Sorry to hear about the swim fiasco...
Thank you. I certainly have not done all of those things. Will do so and let you know how it goes.
After three years of losing most of my swim lesson money because they close the pool anytime there is lightning in the western hemisphere and do not reschedule and I realized I'd spent over $100 for about an hour of lessons, I decided to teach them myself. In another lifetime and many pounds ago, I was a lifeguard and swim instructor. I generally hate how people teach beginners so I have no idea why I signed my kids up in the first place. Last summer my twins did more with me in 20 minutes than in their previous summer lessons where 40 kids each had two turns dunking under the water.
This is my first time reading your blog. I followed the link on your comment on Sarah's blog.
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