I love children....absolutely love them. I happen to be especially fond of my very own children. Another thing I love is homeschooling. Just having the time to spend with your child and observe their learning process is a true gift. I've been fortunate enough to be able to homeschool my children the past million years. Well, maybe not that long, but it is a really cold day and today it feels like maybe it's been a million years. (I don't like cold)
My four children are all unique in their own way and with that comes different learning styles, different interests, different strengths, different weaknesses, different quirks, different.... Oh, you get the picture. They are...well...different! Over the years, I have laughed, cried, banged my head on the wall and celebrated with them. Teaching them has certainly kept me on my toes. It seems what works to teach one child a subject doesn't always work on the next. Imagine that!
Currently, I only have one student left in our homeschool. She happens to be 9 and she happens to be our only girl. I find myself in a strange, new land. I am only working with one, which is turning out to be quite fun. I am working with a girl, which is turning out to be not as hard as I feared....but not exactly a picnic, either! I am also working with a child that has some auditory processing issues, which is turning out to be very interesting and often a source of laughter.
We are finally moving along in reading and this year her understanding is growing by leaps and bounds. The pace has picked up so much, I am constantly working to keep appropriate level curriculum on our shelves. I look at this as a good thing.
One thing we are concentrating on is her speech. She can say the words, but many times she just doesn't hear the right word/sounds in the first place. So, we stop what we are doing, focus on each other and repeat the word until it sinks in. She keeps a good attitude most of the time. ;o)
There is one area, in particular, that remains a struggle. Remembering new words is a chore. They can even be common words...words that she hasn't used often. The past few days have had some entertaining exchanges and we have laughed ourselves silly.
My four children are all unique in their own way and with that comes different learning styles, different interests, different strengths, different weaknesses, different quirks, different.... Oh, you get the picture. They are...well...different! Over the years, I have laughed, cried, banged my head on the wall and celebrated with them. Teaching them has certainly kept me on my toes. It seems what works to teach one child a subject doesn't always work on the next. Imagine that!
Currently, I only have one student left in our homeschool. She happens to be 9 and she happens to be our only girl. I find myself in a strange, new land. I am only working with one, which is turning out to be quite fun. I am working with a girl, which is turning out to be not as hard as I feared....but not exactly a picnic, either! I am also working with a child that has some auditory processing issues, which is turning out to be very interesting and often a source of laughter.
We are finally moving along in reading and this year her understanding is growing by leaps and bounds. The pace has picked up so much, I am constantly working to keep appropriate level curriculum on our shelves. I look at this as a good thing.
One thing we are concentrating on is her speech. She can say the words, but many times she just doesn't hear the right word/sounds in the first place. So, we stop what we are doing, focus on each other and repeat the word until it sinks in. She keeps a good attitude most of the time. ;o)
There is one area, in particular, that remains a struggle. Remembering new words is a chore. They can even be common words...words that she hasn't used often. The past few days have had some entertaining exchanges and we have laughed ourselves silly.
A few days ago:
Me: "Did you feed Phineas?"
K: "Yes, I fed him 5 pebblets a little while ago." pause from her....because she is thinking that doesn't exactly sound right.
Me: pause from me as I decipher...."Um, you mean pellets?"
K: "Yep, that's it. Pellets, pellets, pellets....." She has made a point to say this word about 50 times in the past few days.
Then, today we were playing a little game of lip reading. I am not sure what even started it, but it was my turn to read her lips. I could only make out, "You are...." So, I gave up and she said, "You are.....(ready for this one?)...... dee-lick-eee-us." Now, as soon as she said it she knew it was wrong. All I could come up with was "delicious", which she quickly assured me was not the word she was looking for. It nearly drove her (and me) crazy as she tried and tried to get the word that was stuck in her brain out of her mouth. She told me it meant crazy, but I couldn't even begin to guess. (probably because she was saying dee-lick-eee-us and many versions of that sound over and over and over) At one point she just looked at me and said, "Help me!!" Yes, this went on for over 20 minutes. We would start getting back to her work and she would start saying the word all over again. This was a child obsessed with figuring out what she wanted to say. Finally....after what seemed like eternity she gave me the clue I was searching for. She said "re-dee-lick-ee-us". AHA!!! That's it! "Ridiculous?", I guessed. "YES!! YES!!", she cried.
She was so relieved. You could see it all over her precious face. She was giggling and sighing all at once. I think I even saw some sweat on her brow. We found the word and I was glad that we could now get back to our lessons. Then... she said it. What did she say, you ask? She said, "Whew, sometimes I just forget how to nounce words!!"
Me: "Did you feed Phineas?"
K: "Yes, I fed him 5 pebblets a little while ago." pause from her....because she is thinking that doesn't exactly sound right.
Me: pause from me as I decipher...."Um, you mean pellets?"
K: "Yep, that's it. Pellets, pellets, pellets....." She has made a point to say this word about 50 times in the past few days.
Then, today we were playing a little game of lip reading. I am not sure what even started it, but it was my turn to read her lips. I could only make out, "You are...." So, I gave up and she said, "You are.....(ready for this one?)...... dee-lick-eee-us." Now, as soon as she said it she knew it was wrong. All I could come up with was "delicious", which she quickly assured me was not the word she was looking for. It nearly drove her (and me) crazy as she tried and tried to get the word that was stuck in her brain out of her mouth. She told me it meant crazy, but I couldn't even begin to guess. (probably because she was saying dee-lick-eee-us and many versions of that sound over and over and over) At one point she just looked at me and said, "Help me!!" Yes, this went on for over 20 minutes. We would start getting back to her work and she would start saying the word all over again. This was a child obsessed with figuring out what she wanted to say. Finally....after what seemed like eternity she gave me the clue I was searching for. She said "re-dee-lick-ee-us". AHA!!! That's it! "Ridiculous?", I guessed. "YES!! YES!!", she cried.
She was so relieved. You could see it all over her precious face. She was giggling and sighing all at once. I think I even saw some sweat on her brow. We found the word and I was glad that we could now get back to our lessons. Then... she said it. What did she say, you ask? She said, "Whew, sometimes I just forget how to nounce words!!"
this post approved by K
1 comment:
I know it's not the same, but K is so like that too. In fact, for dinner we had Meatbulbs and Noodles. :)
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