I am sitting here with chamomile tea and a coconut washboard (cookie).
School is going well, I just have to keep up with the books and checklists. We have had some interesting conversations about Arabs and Muslims and Islam and all the other stuff coming out of #1's mouth. I am just glad he is at home and we get a chance to correct him.
#4 and 5 are learning to read. Have I mentioned the difference between teaching a boy and a girl to read? OH.MY. Night and day. No joke. The teaching children to read road has been twisty and long. We have tried probably 10 different reading programs on #1. #2 learned to read along the way of #1 not learning to read. #3 essentially learned to read in a week. No joke. With a flashcard method he was learning 50 new words a day. #4 seems to be liking Let's Read but doesn't want to write. #5 doesn't want to do phonics but wants to write everything.
Can I tell you that this girl writes better (penmanship) than her 9 year old brother? Boys and writing, hmmmm, liken that to pulling teeth without novacaine, feeding broccoli to #2 and mushrooms to my DH. They don't like it, they gag. They would rather scrub toilets, ok?
#5 comes up to you and says, "Mom, I don't know how to make a H." I show here in the air with one of my fingers and she writes it down. She draws pictures that have wind currents in them. NIGHT.and.DAY. She says, "Oh, mom, here is C-A-T and I drew a picture to go along wif it."
I can really see God's planning here. If the girl would have come first I would have totally thrown my hands up in the air with #1 and his learning difficulties. I had to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait until that developmental switch in his brain clicked. I had to wait until the kid was 11 before he read.
I have friends who have girls. They write beautifully. They write novels. I have watched secretly longing for just a little bit, teensy little bit of that fine motor skill to be magically transferred to my sons.
still waiting
but that daughter of mine...this is magic.
And magic is needed on this gloomy, grey day.
1 comment:
HF definitely knows how to put the kids in order to make us survive :-). Teaching my kids to read is one of the scariest things for me (and I fail miserably at it). But you're right, Addy just picked it up easy.
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