It's been an interesting experience for me.... the teacher. There are things that Abby still struggles with, that, to me, seem easy and it's not always easy to stay patient when I'm repeating the same thing for the third time and it's work I know she can do. Her teacher wrote something in her report card that has become our mantra around the kitchen table....... have confidence in yourself Abby, you will always persevere...... I say this exact phrase to her many times as we work. She is her own worse enemy, it seems, but we all can be, can't we?
It's also hard in the sense that I have a reluctant student and an incredibly eager student on my hands and teaching them both is not always easy when we're here on our own. Maya is ripping through 100 words kids should know by the end of Grade 1 and a first grade phonetics workbook. She's finishing up pages and begging me to help her with more, while I'm trying to coax Abby through a second grade math book (and she's going into grade 4). To make things that much more complicated, both girls are now aware of the difference in their abilities. So it's a delicate balance to keep one encouraged and the other one challenged.
The other night Maya had to wait while I helped Abby work her way through a money problem. She grew more impatient the longer she waited until she finally snapped at her sister - Geez Abby, it's grade two work! Which led to hurt feelings and a long conversation about how we all have different abilities. It's much easier when Mike is home so each kid has our 100% attention.
I think at home summer school has really helped to boost Abby's confidence in her work in general. I can see her putting the pieces of math problems together quicker then at the beginning of the summer. We I grabbed this particular workbook I hadn't realized that it was a grade 2 book, but I think going over it has helped her a lot. I also found a second grade English book that has helped to reinforce the rules and reading strategies she learned in the empower program. It was an accidental step back for sure, but one I think that has done a lot of good.
Do you do an at home summer school with your kids?
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3 comments:
I had every intention of doing some summer work with the kids, but it lasted all of a day and that was that. We've had swim lessons four days a week where we're out of the house by 8:30am, and since we're out of the house already, we usually just continue on to the park, or the zoo, or to a friend's house (etc). By the time we're home again, it's late afternoon or evening and everyone is EXHAUSTED. And then I think I'll figure it out better for the next week. Or the next... Needless to say, school starts in three weeks and we haven't quite managed it. I'm in awe that you did! YOU ROCK! FYI, Emily isn't technically considered "behind" in anything, be she struggles with math and vocabulary homework, and it takes her up to two hours to do what SHOULD take more like 20 minutes. Because she makes up her mind that it's too hard, and then sits there and stews over it, whines over it, etc. Jared whips through his work and has been known to toss her a few answers for her own work as well (he's two full years younger, two full grades behind her, and manages to understand her work fairly well!). Trying to keep Jared challenged and motivated, while also trying to encourage Emily, AND keep Connor from pestering the siblings or destroying the house (and dealing with dinner usually as well) is enough to make me a little batty. That's my long-winded way of saying I understand your dilema!! It'll be interesting next year with all three in elementary school. Connor pretty much refuses to take part in learning his letter names/sounds or to do any writing or drawing, so Kinder should be interesting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We do daily homework on weekdays over the summer. We have workbooks, flashcards, and I bought a bunch of readers of various levels. There's always complaining but if they do good homework every day, on Fridays they get a small toy (a Lego man or a chocolate bar).
I think it helps keep them in the school frame of mind, although I'm not convinced it makes a huge difference in their school performance. This is my second year of summer homework - we'll see if it pays off in the fall.
maybe the grade 2 books do help her in taking a step back to the basics and really deepening that foundation on which she'll build on later.
yeah, I can see how the differences between the 2 girls can cause hurt feelings and balancing....I wish you luck!!!
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