Kids went to church for the second time. Avery went to child care and big kids went to class (which is all combined in summer.) They learned about Olympia Brown, a UU suffragist who was the first woman to graduate from theology school. They are really happy to be back there. Who knew?
Monday, Avery went to Goddard and here is his DAR. (Daily Activity Report).
Naim and I also took a quick assessment for dyslexia. Not surprisingly, the results showed some evidence of auditory processing weakness and working memory also. It is not an official diagnosis. We talked about dyslexia and what that means. He seems to be somewhat relieved by the idea. Many moons ago, I was certified to administer several different LD assessments. My licensure is outdated now, but may see if I can get my hands on a more formal battery. I’d rather do that than go through the whole psychologist/IEP route. It isn’t like there is too much different we can do anyway. There is not too much “magic” to this than what we are already doing. But he is starting to notice that other kids are far ahead of him, so I think it gives him a reason as to why that is. He is also bored with the K – 1st level reading and I have looked for more mature and interesting yet easy materials for him. There is a program I am looking at called “Reading Horizons” that is made for older struggling readers. It uses the Orton Gillingham method, which is phonics based but with a few different approaches. It is pricey, though. We continue to do our extra 15 minutes of reading at night. We have done much with iPad apps such as Starfall, Reading Rainbow, and Bob book apps. He does well with computer game stuff. I wish reading rainbow would level their books. It is a great app but it is hard to find a book easy enough. I have Avery on there at age 3 and it even gives him hard books.
Big kids morning school:
- We did a review of Ch. 13 and did the test. This was a definite goof on my part. After a week of camp, I should not have given Naim the test, yet. He missed half the problems. I think if I gave him about 2 or 3 solid review days, he would have done OK. He did understand it before. Aaron got all correct. He has some wacky ways of doing math problems but always gets the right answer. He does it all in his head so it is hard to figure out what he is doing. Sometimes I have him talk through it and what he comes up with is rather ingenious. So be it. But he is not going to be a “show your work” kind of guy. Naim and I will find some time to go back over the test. They will hit all this material again when they get to addition and subtraction in 3 digit numbers.
- They both did 2pp. in Sylvan
- Naim did lesson 1 in FIRST GRADE! HOP. We did the DVD and the workbook. He said, this is going to be too hard for me, but he did fine. It was a lesson on the digraphs ch and sh.
- The HOP website was not working so I could not download Aaron’s worksheets. So he read “This Book is Broken” to Naim. (ETA: fixed and he later did the worksheets for lesson 4.)
- Aaron started his new HWT book. The first few pages were just easy hand-eye lines and figures.
- Naim warmed up in handwriting with a toy of Avery’s where you stick these button peg things in holes to make pictures. I had him alternate hands and stick them in and pull them out. He does so much better in handwriting with a fine motor skill warm-up. He worked on Pp on the iPad apps.
We later went to the library to sign up for the summer reading program. I wanted to do it last week but our usual library is under construction till next year and was closed. So this one we took the bus to. I read Naim a few books, one about an immigrant who fled her war torn country and was a “boat person” refuge. It lead to some interesting discussions. Since that bus comes, like once a century, we decided to walk the two miles home. The first 1/3 of the walk is nice because we get to walk along the duck pond. Some other people gave the kids leftover bread to feed the ducks.
Filed under: Aaron, Avery, Class/Camp, Handwriting, Home, Language Arts, Math, Naim, Physical Education, Spirituality | Tagged: Goddard School, HOP, HWT, Math in Focus, Sylvan, UU, Zaner-Bloser | Leave a comment »
Acquara Independent School 