Monday, January 7, 2013

New Development - Home Schooling

I have not written for a long time because we had a rough fall. My son who just turned 6 in November and was in first grade was having a terrible time adjusting to school this year. To make a long story short, we decided that the best thing for him was to remove him from his public school and to homeschool him.

We've been home schooling for about a month now and it's not easy work, but it is worth it. We have our happy son back (school was making him miserable) and he is progressing very well.

I do not know yet what we will do in the fall with regard to his schooling but we're just taking things one step at a time right now. However, thinking about sending him back to that school in the fall makes me very anxious. But I'm also not sure if its just that he needed some extra time to mature and grow.

We are not using whole language methods but are, as you would expect, using phonics. Our son is reading level G through Level J books and loves to read. There was a time that he hated reading and was resisting it at all costs this past fall, but we have helped him get passed that.

Interestingly, before my son left school, the teacher had evaluated him as a level C reader even though he was reading much higher levels at home and with his tutor and even though she had moved him to level D a bit before that because she agreed that the level C books were to easy. When I raised questions about the reading test, I was told that he had lost points because he was looking at the words instead of trying to figure out the story using the pictures. He was also downgraded for his reading because he didn't read "smoothly." Honestly, I wanted him looking at the actual words and I don't care how he sounds when he reads. All that really matters is that he can read and understands what he's reading.

After pushing the issue further, the teacher agreed to let him have some harder books and that she would retest him. Later on he passed her level E and level F test "with ease" and she felt level G would be a good working level for him. So, it seemed that she had realized that my son could read better than she had thought, but then she decided although he could work at level G, somehow wasn't really "fluent" (smooth) enough with his reading to really be considered a level F or G. It's all water under the bridge now though, as I let him read any challenging book he wants to when he reads with me with no one to criticize me for having him read books that are not "just right" for him.

Our daughter, who is 8 and who is in 3rd grade is still attending the school. She's doing really well, although we're still working on her writing and spelling. We're still breaking old habits in those areas because they let her write and spell however she wanted with little correction. Her spelling has improved quite a bit but I'm still trying to get her to remember to capitalize the first word at the start of a sentence and to put periods at the end of sentences. In fact, I'm not sure that she knows when she has written a sentence. But then I wonder if I'm being too critical or if this will just take more time.

3 comments:

  1. Holy cow. He lost points for looking at the words instead of the picture? That's just insane. What do they think reading is?

    Best of luck with your endeavors! As you know, we're also contemplating homeschooling ...

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  2. I agree with Fed-Up Mom. That is INSANE.

    My kids are 6 and 8, and I have homeschooled from the beginning. If you need any encouragement or help, please feel free to email me. I use a spelling program that is phenomenal, it works great with phonics-based learn-to-read programs (which I believe in). I'd be happy to talk to you about it.

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  3. Thank you both for the support. Sorry about the delay in responding back. I've been a bit busy lately.

    Btw, my son also lost points on his reading test because his reading wasn't fluent sounding but was choppy because he was sounding out words. The theory was that he couldn't possibly understand what he was reading because the choppiness would prevent comprehension. Yet when I asked him questions about stories he could answer the questions just fine, choppy or not.

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