pacing the lit guides with a struggling reader

[momgineer]

My 9yr old 3rd grader struggles with reading. She always has and I think she is slightly dyslexic but we have never seen a need to test her. She was 9 in November so is on the older side for her grade. We are using the Memoria Press 2nd grade lesson plans for her for everything except math and spelling for which we use Singapore and All About Spelling. She is working at the 3rd grade level in both of those. I am finding the 2nd grade lesson plans just right for her right now, but the reading is a bit of a struggle. She made it through Sara Noble without getting more than a week behind, but Little House was a lot harder. She just could not read all the assigned pages in one day. I did not want to get too far behind the other subjects because I love just going down the list in the lesson plans and I wanted her doing the narration/copywork for the comprehension questions each week. So we ended up having her read half the assignment and I read her the other half and that worked well. She is now starting on Beatrix Potter and the first book went well- we finished it per schedule, but I fear Mr. Popper might be another struggle.

My concern is mainly next year. She will be a 4th grader but doing the 3rd grade lesson plans (again with just subbing math and spelling). I know the Greek Myths and Christian Studies will be too much for her so I plan to read those aloud to her. My main question is about literature. I anticipate that the amount of reading will again be more than she can handle in a day (unless something majorly clicks this summer). Do you think it would be better to have me read some of the assignment to her and keep up the pace with the rest of the lesson plans or would it be better to just let her read aloud for 30 min a day till she finishes the assignment and then do the questions and just take much longer per book? If so we would not finish all the books in a year. I guess part of my question is what is the goal with the books? Is it for the child to be able to read the books on her own and then answer the questions based only on what she herself read? Or is it more along the lines of reading or hearing the story and working on analyzing the book with the study questions?

Thank you for any insight you can share.

[SaintJude7]

Well the definition of dyslexia is actually so broad that if your daughter has a problem reading or decoding language, then you can say she is dyslexic. Taking her to a specialist (and forking over the money to do so) will basically have you walking out with a piece of paper that affirms what you already know. And while there are many "reading specialists" who will gladly charge you more money to use special reading techniques, it pretty much comes down to teaching your child to read using phonics (which you are probably already doing) and using guided reading (which you are already doing) and having your child practice, practice, practice. Successful dyslexics find ways to compensate and accept that this is a skill that will always require extra effort.
I think that if you have the time to do the reading aloud, then what is important is that she is comprehending what is being read or heard. If you only cover what she can handle in 30 minutes of reading, she may feel like she is never going to get to the end, and it takes away from the enjoyment. For my son who is autistic, I have him read parts of assignments, and then I read the rest aloud. Because I understand that the sight of that whole page of text is so overwhelming for him. And we usually have to read selections multiple times. Another thing that helps is determining how far I expect him to read and then placing a post-it note at the end. That way instead of him stopping because he can't handle anymore (which can feel like a failure), he has succeeded in reading what was assigned.
But if you need to slow down for any reason, a pair of scissors and some glue are great for adapting those lesson plans. Just mount the squares on a piece of heavy paper. You can cut up copies, if you want your originals to remain intact.
Blessings,
Jude

dd 15, ds 12, ds10, ds 8, dd 5, ds 3, dd 9 mos.