Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Another Crazy but Fun Day!

This morning, after dropping Em off at preschool, I went to Kt's school to tutor. I met my kindergarten student - he's cute! Then I stayed and talked to the woman who is coordinating the whole program. She is a parent of two boys who have both had learning issues. They are very bright, just had some processing issues. She is a wonderful resource, having been through so much and having to adapt to each of her children's learning styles. I love talking to her and I've been gathering lots of ideas for Em!

Em is my reluctant learner. I don't really know how else to describe her! She is very bright, but she will right out let you know if she's ready to learn something or not. In fact, she's that way with everything, not just learning. Take potty training, for example. I fought with her for one month. I had decided she was ready at 2 1/2 because I was tired of buying diapers, Kt had been fully trained by that age and she was already going on the potty, but wearing pull ups. She was unhappy about my decision, so she just wet her pants everyday and wouldn't bother to tell me!! I finally gave up after cleaning up after her all day long!! About 2 months later, she told me she wanted to wear underwear and that was the end of that. She was trained. And that's the way she is!!

Kt learned her whole alphabet, letters and sounds, when she was 2. Em, today, for the first time, and 4 years and 10 months, finally can name her letters (recognizing them) and their sounds. She is a little unsure of P, R, U and G, but after saying words that started with those letters, she got them. Two months ago she knew 7 letters, 5 of them were in her name! She has been working tirelessly on this big letter and numbers workbook. I can hardly get her to stop after 10 pages - she's eating it up.

Now, all of this is as much a relief to me as it is tiring. But it's an enjoyable tiring. If this is anything like past experience with her, she will do this absorption frenzy thing for about a week, and then go back to her old, "I don't want to do that!" end of story. I'm trying to take advantage of this open window and she is letting me - very exciting. It makes me not so concerned anymore about full day kindergarten.

After working with my new student today, I am so much more thankful that my children do not (so far) fit into that learning issue category. This little boy today knew much less than Em and he's in kindergarten now. Fortunately, he is so motivated to learn. I've never seen anything like it, so I'm hoping things will click for him like they just did for Em. I think the most rewarding thing about teaching is that you get to see the progress children make and how satisfied it makes them feel. There is nothing like seeing a big smile on a little boy's face when he knows the one letter that his name starts with!! and recognizes it in a pile of crazy cards. There's nothing like a 4 year old girl cheering, jumping on your lap and squeezing you with all her might because she finally earned the reading light she's been waiting for for over a year (because her mother made the mistake of setting a crazy goal!). I can't wipe the smile off her face! Especially now that I've told her that I'm telling all you she learned her letters!

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