Today, Younger Daughter finished reading Big Max. Her fluency is vastly improved, the word-guessing has almost disappeared, and she will even admit to being interested in the story. Hooray!
On the math front, she's slowly working her way through Singapore Math 1B, and I've been teaching her how to tell time. She was struggling with the idea of "a quarter of an hour", until I hit on the idea of using a pizza toy she has (which was designed to teach fractions.) I think this visual will stay with her (in this case, demonstrating that "quarter after 7" is the same as "7:15"):
And to cap it all off, Younger Daughter was hanging around our front yard when one of her classmates stopped by, walking her dog, and invited YD to join her! One of the great benefits of public school is local friends.
This is wonderful news, FedUpMom! I'm having success at home, too, and it feels good.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kim! What factors are leading to your success? Any advice about books, materials, or methods?
ReplyDeleteI found a great website
ReplyDeletehttp://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/
It has a lot of the old phonics books on it in PDF form, so I've been downloading and printing them and starting to use them a bit with the kids.
Also, just feeling like I've done what I can with the school and sort of semi-officially washing my hands of their directives has been helpful. I had a meeting with the classroom teacher and reading specialist last week and established that they are, as I had suspected, pretty much incompetent I don't need to listen to them anymore.
Kim, thanks for the tip! I'll post it here as a true link:
ReplyDeleteDon Potter Education Pages
I know the feeling about washing your hands of their directives. My policy these days with Younger Daughter is that I will make sure she learns reading and math at home, using techniques and curriculum of my choice. Anything she learns at school is a bonus.
Please feel free to send in any more materials or ideas that you find helpful!