Today when I dropped my Emily Grace off at school one of her two teachers had me pull to the side so we could talk a second. I was like...uh oh!! What did I do?! Funny how in life it continues to flashback to when YOU were a kid and automatically thinking its YOU and not your little!
My Emily Grace is the apple of my eye! She is a kind hearted, do gooder and I LOVE this about her! She can remember things from when she was Ava Faith's age...which always blows my mind! But we have had a few challenges...her leg which you can read about HERE. And then this year I noticed I couldn't get her to work on her alphabet with me.
The kid LOVES puzzles! When she was about 18 months old we bought her an alphabet puzzle from Target. She would do it over and over and over again! We would sing the ABC song with her each time and she did fantastic! Last year she would scribble write...which at 3/4 we figured was normal! She LOVES the activity books where you practice writing letters, numbers and doing the connect the dots. Well, I noticed early on this year that no matter HOW hard I tried I could not get her to work on her alphabet. And when I mean work on it I mean...look at a page and tell me WHAT letter it was. Numbers...seem to be fine. Letters...I figured, "well, it's because I'm her mom and she is being stubborn with me." which isn't uncommon in our household! YIKES!
I would try to get her to write her name...she does her first name just fine but never writes Grace. We discussed this at the parent teacher conference early on and I didn't worry too much about it. But...the problem is still there. Her loving, amazing, brilliant teachers have desperately been trying to help my bundle of love. And its not working. So here we are. At a stand still. Awaiting to find out what we can do next to help her. I would be lying if I didn't tell you I bawled my eyes out this morning. I am sure most of you can relate in not wanting your children to ever hurt or struggle. She desperately wants to learn to read. We have been buying level 1 reader books and were going to start in this Summer...but I need help! If you have any ideas I would completely appreciate them!
You, my readers are amazing and when I was at a loss today. The first thing I though was well...I can share my vulnerability with YOU!
I am going to attempt to make a seek and find jar with the alphabet. When I DO I will post the tutorial here. Maybe it will be able to help someone else out too!
Have a blessed day!
2 comments
Aw, I wish I had known last night so I could have given you a hug! As a former first grade teacher, I didn't really worry about kids not picking up reading until the Spring of first grade. However, that was 20 years ago and it does seem like things are happening earlier these days. Just keep working with her, but make it fun so it doesn't become something she resents doing. Kindergarten will be awesome for her this coming fall and I bet you'll see huge growth in this area!
ReplyDeleteLeslie L
Given her age I don't think there really isn't anything to worry about. If she is inclined to math and patterns she might not lean reading via phonics. She may be one who does better looking for patterns in sounds and sight. Emily Grace is a long name and it may be longer than her attention span can handle at this age. Really, I don't think there is anything to worry about, other than making sure she is in a program that recognizes that mathematical children generally learn reading differently that verbal children.
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