Thursday, March 15, 2012

Teaching Language Arts

One of the things that made me question homeschooling is the very vivid memory I have of my Mom trying to teach my sister how to read. Prior to my parents starting to homeschool we were in public school and my sister was in Special Ed. The teachers had told my Mom she was doing great. She was in 3rd grade when we were taken out of school and she couldn't read at all. I remember lots of screaming and crying from those days when my Mom worked intensively with her trying to help her learn how to read. I did not want to go through that!
Fast forward many years later and my parents are on the tail end of homeschooling with only 3 left at home. I remember a conversation with my Mom a couple of years ago when she foresaw this end of homeschooling and she said, "I don't know what I'm going to do when I don't have anymore kids to teach to read! I may have to go volunteer at the local school." My thoughts were," What?! You want to keep going through all that again when you don't have to?!" I couldn't understand it.
I think in part I do now. I can't tell you there has never been crying or yelling on one or both of our parts as occasion warranted due to his disabilities but, as Daniel gains speed and ability to read, the feeling of accomplishment is awesome! Not just for him but for me to. I taught him that and no one else did. I taught him a life skill that will effect all other areas of his life, and he will benefit from for the rest of his life. That is such an awesome feeling! I can't wait to start Reagan, but I must be patient as she is just not ready yet.
A skill that goes along with reading is spelling. I've been interested to learn that speech also plays a significant part in spelling. Which makes sense when you think about it. When you can't remember how to spell a word right off the bat, you sound it out in your head and spell accordingly. Hopefully spell check knows what you are trying to spell and corrects any imperfections from there. :-) Daniel and I have been working on different blends of letters and sounds lately and he is at a spot where he is working on the "r" combinations. Cr, dr, br etc. These were some of his words today-
Crab    - he spelled cab
Dress   - this one he got right
Drop    -he spelled dop
Drum   - he spelled dum

This is because he doesn't say his "r" sounds properly. He doesn't hear it when he says it, so why would you put an "r" in there in his mind? I just find it fascinating to see how our minds work, especially his in particular. So here's my scientific discovery for the month.

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