When your daughter comes home with a paper and she's written her entire name backwards, and didn't notice, it's time to think outside the box.
Either she's brilliant, lazy or something is wrong. Or maybe not.
I've looked up the warning signs of dyslexia. She fits the profile for all things having to do with reading, but with none of the other lifestyle signs I don't think that dyslexia is a true concern. So, what else.
Laziness has long been a factor of her inability to parse the written language. She gets frustrated extremely quickly and will readily give up and whine she can't do it. And yet, she tries on her own every day, so is she truly lazy?
Well, I think she's an artist. Letters are images to her brain. They work both ways for her and she sees what's supposed to be there, no matter how she's written it on paper. She has trouble with the fact that in reading it all has to be one particular way for it to work, as letters go in a row and words move from left to right.
She would rather memorize than figure out and she has the brain to do it. She can recite books, songs, and conversations, and she'll correct anyone who slips up on a lyric.
But I have to give her credit, because even with her memorization she is learning, and learning quite a bit. School is slowly focussing her eyes and her hands to the trials of the written language. Her handwriting is progressing beautifully, even if she does have to check each letter against a master. She can create it and put it in the proper place on writing lines. She is beginning to look -at- the creation of the letters instead of imagining what it she thinks it should look like. It's quite a step for her.
I do know this much. Once all this clicks, her world will bloom. She'll be reading for herself and more than that, her vivid imagination can be transferred to paper in more than a pictoral storyline.
I have no doubts that she will become the author in our family and fill our lives with stories that have no bounds. I can't wait.
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
Tuesday, October 7, 2003
Katherine is on an even keel
With her hand healing well (when she bothers to give it a rest), it was time to look at other aspects of school life.
So I scheduled a meeting with her teacher this past Monday. Parent/teacher conferences are not done until November, but that's a long time to wait to hear how school is going and I figured if there is a problem, this gives us a month to iron it out and see how things have progressed by November.
Thankfully Katherine had chess after school so she wouldn't be in the classroom, but our housekeeper is off for the week (her mom is sick) so I had the other 3 with me. How I hoped they'd behave and remain quiet. Mrs. Bayly set them up in the corner with some building blocks and dinosaurs and they were gold from then on. I was able to sit and listen and discuss and they didn't make a peep of trouble or disturb us once. Yay! for pure luck.
We started with talking about how she's doing academically. She's in the top of all the sections as everything is tailored to the individual kids. For sentence writing, she's in the group writing the greatest number. For spelling, she can choose from the hardest spelling list (meteorologist, anyone?) She can extrapolate, understand, comprehend beyond the obvious in readings and discussions. She's always thinking, she takes it upon herself to step up and answer questions, she observes everything in the classroom and is a sponge for learning. She often move too quickly in her studies, making obvious errors and can fix them when reviewing.
None of this is new.
We moved on to organization. She has none. She loses items, misplaces them, walks around with pens and erasers that belong at her desk, she forgets to put her folders in the right places or turn in her assignments at the right time. When starting a new activity, she takes forever to get going because she can't find a pencil and yet once she does start, she moved quickly through it going beyond the oulined expectations.
None of this is new either.
Socially, she has girl friends she sits with in class and boy friends she plays with at the playground. When I asked her later what the girls are doing during recess she didn't have a clue as she's too busy following the ball during a soccer game. Early in the year there were issues with other kids saying she was bossy. Mrs. Bayly recognized it not as the intense desire to lead (a la Rebecca), but as an organizational manager style. There was a discussion in class and tensions seemed to have eased. Why can't this desire to put things into order extend to her own personal space? We'll never know. She'll probably be an absent-minded genius, as Jeff commented.
I do worry sometimes that she's not making friends well. I can't pin that thought on anything in particular, but the idea lingers. She is so good-hearted and always believes the best of people and sees the good in everyone. The more cynical of her classmates might target her as naive and that worries me.
So, what can we do about all of this. I'm attempting to get her more on track at home, going over a checklist of items to be readied the night before. School clothes are not an issue, but having her homework done and ready to go is. At school, Mrs. Bayly will be adjusting the homework ritual so that assignments are put into their bags inside the classroom, rather than in the hallway where the cubbies are. Also, I learned that her homework notebook only need to come home on Mondays and returned on Fridays. This will avoid the mid-week "oops, I forgot it" and she'll have her spelling words available at all times at home during the week.
It's all good.
In other news, she's still really disappointed in missing swimming in P.E. I'm so torn. She doesn't have to wear bandages anymore on her fingers, but they are far from healed and months away from normal. I don't know whether swimming would be fine or be a whole new set of problems for her troubled fingernails.
And we've bought her 2 new sets of glasses. You can see them on her page. I have the feeling she'll be wearing glasses more and more as she commented that at the playground she often trips because she doesn't see items in her path. Now, that could just be because she's totally unaware of her own size and her physical movement, but I am wondering if she just needs to wear the glasses and everything else will fall into place.
So I scheduled a meeting with her teacher this past Monday. Parent/teacher conferences are not done until November, but that's a long time to wait to hear how school is going and I figured if there is a problem, this gives us a month to iron it out and see how things have progressed by November.
Thankfully Katherine had chess after school so she wouldn't be in the classroom, but our housekeeper is off for the week (her mom is sick) so I had the other 3 with me. How I hoped they'd behave and remain quiet. Mrs. Bayly set them up in the corner with some building blocks and dinosaurs and they were gold from then on. I was able to sit and listen and discuss and they didn't make a peep of trouble or disturb us once. Yay! for pure luck.
We started with talking about how she's doing academically. She's in the top of all the sections as everything is tailored to the individual kids. For sentence writing, she's in the group writing the greatest number. For spelling, she can choose from the hardest spelling list (meteorologist, anyone?) She can extrapolate, understand, comprehend beyond the obvious in readings and discussions. She's always thinking, she takes it upon herself to step up and answer questions, she observes everything in the classroom and is a sponge for learning. She often move too quickly in her studies, making obvious errors and can fix them when reviewing.
None of this is new.
We moved on to organization. She has none. She loses items, misplaces them, walks around with pens and erasers that belong at her desk, she forgets to put her folders in the right places or turn in her assignments at the right time. When starting a new activity, she takes forever to get going because she can't find a pencil and yet once she does start, she moved quickly through it going beyond the oulined expectations.
None of this is new either.
Socially, she has girl friends she sits with in class and boy friends she plays with at the playground. When I asked her later what the girls are doing during recess she didn't have a clue as she's too busy following the ball during a soccer game. Early in the year there were issues with other kids saying she was bossy. Mrs. Bayly recognized it not as the intense desire to lead (a la Rebecca), but as an organizational manager style. There was a discussion in class and tensions seemed to have eased. Why can't this desire to put things into order extend to her own personal space? We'll never know. She'll probably be an absent-minded genius, as Jeff commented.
I do worry sometimes that she's not making friends well. I can't pin that thought on anything in particular, but the idea lingers. She is so good-hearted and always believes the best of people and sees the good in everyone. The more cynical of her classmates might target her as naive and that worries me.
So, what can we do about all of this. I'm attempting to get her more on track at home, going over a checklist of items to be readied the night before. School clothes are not an issue, but having her homework done and ready to go is. At school, Mrs. Bayly will be adjusting the homework ritual so that assignments are put into their bags inside the classroom, rather than in the hallway where the cubbies are. Also, I learned that her homework notebook only need to come home on Mondays and returned on Fridays. This will avoid the mid-week "oops, I forgot it" and she'll have her spelling words available at all times at home during the week.
It's all good.
In other news, she's still really disappointed in missing swimming in P.E. I'm so torn. She doesn't have to wear bandages anymore on her fingers, but they are far from healed and months away from normal. I don't know whether swimming would be fine or be a whole new set of problems for her troubled fingernails.
And we've bought her 2 new sets of glasses. You can see them on her page. I have the feeling she'll be wearing glasses more and more as she commented that at the playground she often trips because she doesn't see items in her path. Now, that could just be because she's totally unaware of her own size and her physical movement, but I am wondering if she just needs to wear the glasses and everything else will fall into place.
That's Entertainment
When the days are quiet, the evenings are filled with the mutter of the television.
We've finally seen "Chicago" and I think the hype rather ruined it for us. While it was enjoyable to watch, I was to the point of expecting gold nuggets to fall out of the screen. Oh well. I'll toss it in the category with "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Fun to watch, but I wonder why everyone was tripping over themselves to see it.
On the other hand, we've discovered the treasure trove called amazon.uk. Michael Palin's "Around the World in 80 Days" was among the first of our purchases, along with Palin's "Sahara" series and "The Best of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends." All shows we've thoroughly enjoyed in the snippets we've caught on TV. We're still waiting on Palin's "Pole to Pole" and "Full Circle". Oddly enough, the channel I choose to watch the most on TV here is Discovery Travel and Adventure. I guess you can never know too much about the places you just might go to next. Of course I could do without the number of Las Vegas and "Most Expensive Hotel Rooms" shows they like to repeat ad nauseum.
The two shows I can't do without still are Survivor and CSI. CSI shows on Wednesdays and unfortunately they're still all old repeats. We're slowly purchasing the seasons on DVD. They are on sale here (real, valid, legal copies!) for double the price on-line so we stick with amazon. Survivor shows on Sundays and I'm loving the current series. Arg, me mateys, there be pirates afoot!
We've finally seen "Chicago" and I think the hype rather ruined it for us. While it was enjoyable to watch, I was to the point of expecting gold nuggets to fall out of the screen. Oh well. I'll toss it in the category with "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Fun to watch, but I wonder why everyone was tripping over themselves to see it.
On the other hand, we've discovered the treasure trove called amazon.uk. Michael Palin's "Around the World in 80 Days" was among the first of our purchases, along with Palin's "Sahara" series and "The Best of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends." All shows we've thoroughly enjoyed in the snippets we've caught on TV. We're still waiting on Palin's "Pole to Pole" and "Full Circle". Oddly enough, the channel I choose to watch the most on TV here is Discovery Travel and Adventure. I guess you can never know too much about the places you just might go to next. Of course I could do without the number of Las Vegas and "Most Expensive Hotel Rooms" shows they like to repeat ad nauseum.
The two shows I can't do without still are Survivor and CSI. CSI shows on Wednesdays and unfortunately they're still all old repeats. We're slowly purchasing the seasons on DVD. They are on sale here (real, valid, legal copies!) for double the price on-line so we stick with amazon. Survivor shows on Sundays and I'm loving the current series. Arg, me mateys, there be pirates afoot!
Thursday, October 2, 2003
And now, a moment to mention socio-economics.
Did you know (well, of course you didn't) that 34% of the population of the Philippines lives under the poverty level? That's 26.5 million people (about 4.3 million families).
Of course, that in itself is awful. But then you must realize that the poverty level here is not the ~$15K/year it is in America. Oh no.
Here, the poverty level is ~$300/year. And over a third of the population is trying to subsist on less than that.
(From Friday, 3 October 2003, Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Of course, that in itself is awful. But then you must realize that the poverty level here is not the ~$15K/year it is in America. Oh no.
Here, the poverty level is ~$300/year. And over a third of the population is trying to subsist on less than that.
(From Friday, 3 October 2003, Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Land of the Lost (and Forgotten)
While Katherine's hand repairs itself (and the nails are looking more icky by the day as they prepare to be released from their bonds), I wonder how someone can survive without the ability to remember anything. We learned yesterday that she cannot find her glasses. She strains in the evening to read her bedtime story so I asked to make sure that at school she could read fine with her glasses (while thinking we need a second pair for at home now). We hear that she doesn't know where they are as they aren't in the one place they should never move from.. her desk. Not her desk, not her chair bag, not her backpack, not her bookshelf at home. No clue where they went. Not good. She will be looking everywhere and asking everywhere. It's my own fault I never labelled the case.
Then this morning she left her science project at home so the boys and I made a trip to the school to drop it off. Only to come home and find her homework folder still on her desk with her list of read books for the week. I guess I should be thankful that I already had plans to go back to the school this afternoon for Rebecca's ECLC read-a-thon.
Then this morning she left her science project at home so the boys and I made a trip to the school to drop it off. Only to come home and find her homework folder still on her desk with her list of read books for the week. I guess I should be thankful that I already had plans to go back to the school this afternoon for Rebecca's ECLC read-a-thon.
Wednesday, October 1, 2003
The lost Mew
The kittens are growing and getting better each day. Bopis is a bruiser and 100% kitten, popping around, lunging at things, hiding climbing and chewing. Thank goodness their room is like a padded cell and she can only attack the toys they have and her brother. Poor Pomelo though, he's taking a bit of a beating from her, but he's starting to get the energy to fight back and even initiate some offensive periodically. The deworming, amoxocillan and vitamins seem to be kicking in well. He's gaining weight, his eyes are clear and his favorite activity is climbing onto Ian's shoulder and purring while the world goes by. The only issues we see currently are that he's losing some fur around his nose and chin and he's lost his Mew. He tries, he makes the attempts, but no sound is eminating. It's mildly surreal.
Update-o-rama
A little of everything.
Katherine's hand is healing remarkably well. Her fractured finger is slowly reducing its size back to normal and is quite a bit less purple. The other two fingers are great, with one nail seeming to start its peeling routine. I don't know how long it will hang on but about half has loosened up from the skin below. She's down to just the fingers wrapped and a bit of ACE bandage around her 2nd and 3rd fingers to keep them moderately stable. She's upset about missing P.E. (swimming) and being delegated clean-up duty during that time. I agree, it's not fair. She has dropped Tae Kwon Do in favor of piano lessons, but because of her hand, everything is off for the moment.
Rebecca is a Jekyll and Hyde. At home, well, she's oftentimes none too pleasant. At school, she's a charm. Yesterday after Daisies, two separate adults told me how mature she is, how helpful, how much she participates and how she always has something to add to the group. OK, maybe they're really just saying she's pushy and a blabbermouth, but I'll take what I can and I told her how proud I was of her being so good. Friday is supposed to be the Alphabet Read-a-thon with the ECLC classes. I'm planning on going for the second half which includes the picnic and read-a-thon, I hope Rebecca won't be too disappointed with that. It's a full day affair with activities solid from 7:30 to 2:15.
Nicholas has learned to say Yoda, Padme and Nice. We're getting there. Still no news about the speech therapist. He's starting to learn some sight words, including Nicholas, Jonathon, Mommy, Daddy, Katherine, Rebecca. And some letters including O, H, N and S. I didn't realize he knew the difference but in an exercise with 3X5 cards a couple weeks ago he got them right. I've started teaching him the letter sounds instead of the letter names in hopes that when we get to real sounding out, it'll be much simpler. I tried the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons" but he's not up to that level of focussing yet, so we're doing it informally and the letter sounds is something the book suggested.
Nicholas is still very much into Star Wars and lightsabers (or lightsavers as the girls call them). At the end of the Phantom Menace he always gets a little down, wondering why HE can't become a Jedi too. It's tough being three. Of course in his world he'd be a Harry Potter Jedi with Spiderman webs.
Jonathon is potty trained. All day and all night. The only drawback is that he cannot pull his clothes on and off (one of the signs of p/t readiness) so it's a mad dash for both of us to the bathroom if he's clothes. We still do a lot of naked time. He can also pedal his tricycle which is pretty cool and he's taken an interest in letters and numbers. When we were at the hospital he kept going over the letters in the big CASHIER sign, repeating them as I said them. Nifty.
Ian earned his wings on Saturday. He did his solo take-off, flight and landing and was summarily doused with creek water. He wrote all about his adventure so go read it there.
Monday night was an informal reception at the Ambassador's residence for new arrivals, departing personnel and community/office sponsors. Ian's shuttle wasn't due to leave the Embassy until after 5 and the reception started at 5:30, so I went to pick him up and we arrived at the residence in a torrential downpour. At least everyone there was soggy so we didn't feel out of place. There were enough people there I knew to make it pleasant and even while the lights flickered we all made the best of it. I finally met Dr. Ricciardone, the Ambassador's wife. She reminds me a lot of Ian's mom.
We're selling our house in Virginia. Yup, 6 months and the tenants got orders to move on, so rather than continue with the property manager, we're going to put the house on the market and hopefully make a big enough profit to become debt-free and take some hoped for trips. Everyone cross your fingers for us.
My parents have sent us great packages. This last one had new workbooks for the kids and I hope to break into them this coming week. Thanks!
I'm part of several gift exchanges this year, I figure there are some interesting things here to share, so why not. It's fun mailing items out to people, especially when they aren't expecting them. Are you wondering now?
Katherine's hand is healing remarkably well. Her fractured finger is slowly reducing its size back to normal and is quite a bit less purple. The other two fingers are great, with one nail seeming to start its peeling routine. I don't know how long it will hang on but about half has loosened up from the skin below. She's down to just the fingers wrapped and a bit of ACE bandage around her 2nd and 3rd fingers to keep them moderately stable. She's upset about missing P.E. (swimming) and being delegated clean-up duty during that time. I agree, it's not fair. She has dropped Tae Kwon Do in favor of piano lessons, but because of her hand, everything is off for the moment.
Rebecca is a Jekyll and Hyde. At home, well, she's oftentimes none too pleasant. At school, she's a charm. Yesterday after Daisies, two separate adults told me how mature she is, how helpful, how much she participates and how she always has something to add to the group. OK, maybe they're really just saying she's pushy and a blabbermouth, but I'll take what I can and I told her how proud I was of her being so good. Friday is supposed to be the Alphabet Read-a-thon with the ECLC classes. I'm planning on going for the second half which includes the picnic and read-a-thon, I hope Rebecca won't be too disappointed with that. It's a full day affair with activities solid from 7:30 to 2:15.
Nicholas has learned to say Yoda, Padme and Nice. We're getting there. Still no news about the speech therapist. He's starting to learn some sight words, including Nicholas, Jonathon, Mommy, Daddy, Katherine, Rebecca. And some letters including O, H, N and S. I didn't realize he knew the difference but in an exercise with 3X5 cards a couple weeks ago he got them right. I've started teaching him the letter sounds instead of the letter names in hopes that when we get to real sounding out, it'll be much simpler. I tried the "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 easy Lessons" but he's not up to that level of focussing yet, so we're doing it informally and the letter sounds is something the book suggested.
Nicholas is still very much into Star Wars and lightsabers (or lightsavers as the girls call them). At the end of the Phantom Menace he always gets a little down, wondering why HE can't become a Jedi too. It's tough being three. Of course in his world he'd be a Harry Potter Jedi with Spiderman webs.
Jonathon is potty trained. All day and all night. The only drawback is that he cannot pull his clothes on and off (one of the signs of p/t readiness) so it's a mad dash for both of us to the bathroom if he's clothes. We still do a lot of naked time. He can also pedal his tricycle which is pretty cool and he's taken an interest in letters and numbers. When we were at the hospital he kept going over the letters in the big CASHIER sign, repeating them as I said them. Nifty.
Ian earned his wings on Saturday. He did his solo take-off, flight and landing and was summarily doused with creek water. He wrote all about his adventure so go read it there.
Monday night was an informal reception at the Ambassador's residence for new arrivals, departing personnel and community/office sponsors. Ian's shuttle wasn't due to leave the Embassy until after 5 and the reception started at 5:30, so I went to pick him up and we arrived at the residence in a torrential downpour. At least everyone there was soggy so we didn't feel out of place. There were enough people there I knew to make it pleasant and even while the lights flickered we all made the best of it. I finally met Dr. Ricciardone, the Ambassador's wife. She reminds me a lot of Ian's mom.
We're selling our house in Virginia. Yup, 6 months and the tenants got orders to move on, so rather than continue with the property manager, we're going to put the house on the market and hopefully make a big enough profit to become debt-free and take some hoped for trips. Everyone cross your fingers for us.
My parents have sent us great packages. This last one had new workbooks for the kids and I hope to break into them this coming week. Thanks!
I'm part of several gift exchanges this year, I figure there are some interesting things here to share, so why not. It's fun mailing items out to people, especially when they aren't expecting them. Are you wondering now?
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