W and I were skimming through a Summer Bridge workbook yesterday and decided to do a few pages. We jumped around the book, stopping at whatever looked interesting. I'll admit, I didn't have very high hopes since we did absolutely zero academics this summer. W didn't pick up one book.
First he unscrambled a bunch of 8-12 letter words, matching them to a word list. This is something we've attempted in the past, but he couldn't grasp (which I attribute to the dyslexia). He also alphabetized several sets of 4 words that had the same first 4-5 letters (e.g. events, eventual, evening...). We usually hit a wall or 2 with this kind of exercise as well. He flew through both activities with no help. I was so surprised. How did it all just...click?
W's always had an issue with the letters in words. Lately though, I've noticed him enjoying picking apart different words he sees. A few months ago for example, he saw the word "platter" and said that if you switch the "p-l" for an "s-h" it's "shatter". This may be a basic concept, but for W it's a huge revelation. Being aware of letters, patterns, phonics rules, and how it all fits together has been our main focus for over 2 years since I discovered he has dyslexia. It's been 2 years of hands-on, mostly whole-language, multi-sensoral learning, getting his reading level to at least match his actual grade level. I feel confident that it just might be working.
He also played around with US time zones, circling the correctly spelled word (which is a great activity for him), and some basic fraction review. For a summer of no academics, he was certainly not lacking in skills. We'll use the Summer Bridge book today, tomorrow and next week. We'll start AO on the 12th. I'm so happy September is here.
K's first week of college is going well. She loves it and has decided she'll have a 4.0 average. Gotta love her confidence. She and J are both going away for the weekend. K is spending Labor Day weekend with her boyfriend and his family in the Poconos. J will be at her best friend's beach house. The rest of us would be going to my mom's for the weekend, but they they still might have no power out there. The hurricane knocked out all power and a huge tree fell in the backyard. Almost a week with no power? I wish they'd move back to Queens.
J is excited to go back to school. Her knee is feeling great with all that physical therapy. Tomorrow she'll complete 4 weeks (9 sessions) - and there's 4 more weeks to go. Thankfully she has no more pain. This year in school she's taking more advance ballet and modern dance. She's so ready to get back.
No comments:
Post a Comment