Now that the school year is winding down, I have finally figured out how to get Marcus & Raelea's school done each day. All year they have been a bit shortchanged because the schooling of the other kids took so much time. It has typically been like this in our house - kindergarten is VERY relaxed (read - not done many days)!! Nonetheless, Marcus and Raelea DO need to learn to read and that just isn't going to happen unless I sit down and teach them!
About a week ago it occurred to me that I needed to do the school for the two little ones BEFORE starting school with the older kids! I know, brilliant, right? Why didn't I think of this months ago, like last September? I'm slow! It's working like a charm. They are getting their schooling in every day AND I am less stressed about their reading lessons.
As long as we're on the topic of reading lessons, I've also figured something else out rather late in the game. Marcus and Raelea need to do different reading programs. We started the year with one program. When we ran into difficulties about halfway through the year I switched to a different program. This switch did wonders for Marcus' progress, but it proved difficult for Raelea (probably because of her apraxia), so now I am back to the original program for Raelea. It's all working like a charm. The other advantage to having the two of them doing different programs is that is eliminates the "competition" aspect of the whole thing. As in, "What page is s/he on?" and "Am I further ahead them him/her?"
So, although I figured these things out late in the school year they should benefit me for years to come :-) Even after teaching for 12 years I'm still learning that I have more to learn :-)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete