what's normal for K reading?

[hilaryblair]

Hi everyone. It's been "one of those days" so bear with me.

Background info: I have a young kindergartner with a mid-September birthday. I also have a 3 yr old, 17 month old, and twins on the way (just to clarify there are many distractions in our home). We are on week 23 of MP K curriculum. She has done so well all school year...typical dutiful firstborn who loves to please, receive praise, and appears that she was made for workbook work. We took a break from school last week, which was our first week off since a family vacation in September (trying to finish before babies come in the spring).

Over the last 4-6 weeks, I've really noticed a decline in her work - handwriting not as lovely, making more careless mistakes, less attentive, etc. I honestly thought it was just because we needed a break but then it occurred to me last week...I took her to the ENT and her ears are filled with fluid again. From past experiences (before previous 2 sets of tubes), my sweet girl becomes a bit of a cranky pants with these ear problems, so I fully recognize this is probably playing a bit of a role in our current issues.

My concerns though are mainly with reading. She is definitely more of a math-oriented student, picks up the concepts with minimal instruction, and does so well with her work. When it comes to reading, I wouldn't say she is struggling, but it definitely is not coming as naturally to her. I've heard that with most kids it's almost like there is a reading "lightbulb" that all of a sudden comes on and that is something we definitely haven't experienced. She does great with simple short vowel words and hasn't had trouble with the stories in FSR thus far (we are halfway through Book C), the Red Readers, or Fun in the Sun. However, sight words just don't seem to be sticking. She can read them alright, probably using context clues, etc. She even does flashcards without much trouble. But OH the dictation. We do the dictation lists at the end of the lesson and the last few weeks she has gotten 4-5/10 wrong on the CVC list. I have had her practice writing the words I know will cause her difficulty and doing flashcards leading up to the dictation activity. Is this normal? I don't want to frustrate her or discourage her which is probably where we ended the day, unfortunately. I want to help her master the words she is struggling with - do we not move on until she does?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts you might have to share!!!

[SaintJude7]

back off

I know there are others on here who will say, "Plow ahead. They need to learn to work." But in my experience, when a child hits a wall, you are better off backing up. In the beginning the novelty may have been carrying her through. Now that that has worn off, she may not be ready for the daily grind. One of my children has done this with math, and two with reading. There really is no reason to push through. I understand that you want to move ahead now, because of the babies coming. But, unlike in schools, you can move at her pace. Otherwise she gets the message that reading is hard work and something to dread. I found that when I returned to just reading aloud and answering their questions as they came up, in a few months they were ready to move ahead and suddenly everything was clicking. And then they became these voracious readers. I think that most studies have shown that, when someone wants to learn to read and is developmentally ready, it only takes about 20 hours of instruction. And by second grade you can't tell who was an early reader and who was a late reader. If you teach her that reading is enjoyable, that will be a greater lesson than drilling flash cards.
In our family we homeschool around the year, so that we can take off as much time as possible when a new baby comes. I would plan on 3 months of doing nothing other than reading aloud once a day and then another three months of a bare-bones curriculum.
Blessings,
Jude

dd 15, ds 12, ds 10, ds 8, dd 5, ds 3, and dd 9 mos.

[wohiomom]

I have a 6 this past October Kindergartener. We're only on Week 13 since we switched programs in late September. We tried K last year (different program) when she was not quite 5 and hit a wall after 1st semester. It was her handwriting and reading but she was good with math. Even last May at 5 1/2 she couldn't write her name. Well the girl had her lightbulb over the summer between 5 1/2 and 6. Even with that dictation is a hard concept. The beauty of homeschooling is we can teach more and test less and adapt things. The 1st few dictations I asked her how she thought it was spelled even what letter does it start with okay write a lowercase one of those down then what vowel okay and if it's a word that wasn't a simple CVC like " the" I would go this is t h e. I teach the words orally more than dictate. We've done maybe 5 of these dictations so far since we're in the B book still and she need less help each time. She makes a game of it now with close your eyes mom and I'll tell you when I have it written down. Oh and I break the 2 pages over 2 days. 20 words is way too much at a time for my busy girl. So you could either wait and see if she needs 6 months to mature or try to see if it's just the dictation and adapt that some.

[Kimarie91]

I have a 5 1/2 year old son and we have taken about 4 weeks off from the workbooks after he kept telling me "I already did this one". He also did this in math "are we going to ever get to 10" I moved on in math, but the reading part seemed to be really frustrating him. During this break we've just been reading aloud to him and I use the Classical Phonics book and flashcards to work on words.

I felt like at first I wasn't doing things right and wasting a good workbook, but I see improvement and others as well so I feel going his pace and his way of learning is best.

One other thing. I thought his handwriting was terrible and he complained a lot about it so I backed off copywork and decided to pick that back up in the Spring. I was totally surpised by some of his bible class work he came out with a couple of weeks back! I thought someone else wrote for him, but it was in deed his own work.