Zack's teacher is a no-nonsense kind of person. She's not mean or stern, she just isn't treacle or touchy feely. She's all about teaching and making sure the kids are grasping what she's sharing. Zack LOVES spelling and reading, but still takes his time in math. By taking his time, I mean he stews over it way longer than he should. Lately he has been struggling with word problems that ask, "How many more than"? or "How much taller than"? We are working through this, but I have to admit that it is so frustrating that his little mind isn't catching on to this more quickly. I bought a 2nd grade Kumon workbook to help him build his skills.
I am a HUGE fan of Kumon workbooks. Heck, if I had the money, I would have loved to have both kids going to Kumon classes from kindergarten forward. I think what I like most about Kumon is their line upon line precept upon precept way of doing things. I mean it makes sense to me that if you do something again and again and again and again, you'll eventually have the process so embedded in your mind that it will be rote. There are TONS of things that should be rote by the time we reach high school and certainly by the time we reach college.
Sophia learned best from the Kumon workbooks over the summer. When summer began, she could only write her numbers up to 5. By the end of the summer, she could write up to 40 unprodded. This was simply from working through the Kumon book. The best $6.95 I ever spent. As far as reading goes, we worked on this using The Victory Drill book in which there are 150 words on each page using the same phonics sounds. Page 1: mat, hat, bag, cat, sat, sat, map, and so on and so forth. This helped build her confidence.
I must admit, however, that for some reason, reading blends if very hard for her. She can sound out C A T, but can't sound it out as CA T. I'm not sure why this is, but my assumption is that it will come with time. The other thing I have noticed is that as I teach her the sight words she does will with pneumonic devices. W E spells, and she'll say we. But, have her just look at the word "we," and I get a blank stare. Each time she sees the word "we," I see her little lips moving in a whisper "W E spells..." Then she'll say proudly, "WE"! I'm not sure what learning style this is, but I do know she doesn't learn best by sight!
Sophia's teacher is PERFECT for her this year! As you know, it was suggested that I hold Sophia back in kindergarten, but I chose to work with her over the summer and let her go to first grade with the understanding that she may need to be held back this year. I think I made a great decision because if ANY teacher can get it all to click for her it will be this year's teacher, Mrs. Driskill.
Mrs. Driskill has been teaching for 32 years and for 20 of those years she has been teaching 1st grade at this same school in this same classroom. She has a total passion for what she does, and she has worked with all types of kids! I know that she is not one of those teachers that only likes to work with kids who "get it" right away. On what do I base my opinion of Mrs. Driskill?
Friday before last, I went to pick up the kids from school and Sophia looked up at me with her dirty little face and said, "My teacher wants to talk to you right away." We walked over to her classroom and Mrs. Driskill had set out some books and drinks for Zack and Sophia to enjoy while we went out in the hall to talk. She told me that Sophia had become so frustrated with her seat work that Mrs. Driskill sent her to work with the grandma who helps out each week. While Sophia was with grandma she got so frustrated that she threw her pencil. "Grandma" was shocked. I fully expected Mrs. Driskill to be very upset with Sophia and to label her a problem child.
That is not at all what happened. She asked about her kinder year and about the school she had attended. She told me that she often sees Sophia close her eyes and shake her head when she thinks she can't do something. She explained that she feels that Sophia doesn't think she can do it so she doesn't begin to try...that she is a perfectionist and since she can't get it all right like the person next to her, she freezes. She explained that she wants Sophia to see us as a team and that we need to squelch the behavioral stuff she was doing in order to avoid messing up. So, Mrs. Drikill had given her a red card, BUT she asked that I not discipline her. She said, "She is in that room right now wondering what we are talking about figuring that we are gonna both get on her case about this." "We need to surprise her by teaming up to let her know that her behavior isn't tricking us into believing that she can't do it."
So she called Sophia out into the hall and hugged on her while she told me exactly why Sophia got a red card. She explained that Sophia was not going to do this again because she is going to show us just what she can do with her magic pencil grip on her pencil. She then put a bright pink pencil grip on a pencil and handed it to her so she could take some magic home for homework time. I was the happiest mother alive during that moment! FINALLY, a teacher who gets it - gets her!!!!!!
She pulled a pink card the next day and had to stay in from playing with the next door neighbor after homework. I was so glad that Mrs. Driskill gave her a pink for frowning over her work because this wiped out the behavior entirely. She has had green (good) cards for 10 days running now, and she's doing so well on her homework too. Don't get me wrong. She still will have to work very hard to "pass" first grade, but at least now it will only be capability that may hold her back and not lack of progress due to behavioral issues. Thank you Mrs. Driskill!!!!!
God has indeed blessed us this year! Each morning I walk the kids to the corner and watch them walk the rest of the way to school, and as I walk back to the house I thank God for his wonderful provision. Their school is the best they've attended to date, and we all LOVE our home and neighborhood. They're never late to school. There's a sense of safety here. They have friends who are right next door daily. They/we are happy!
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