I flipped the calendar to April and realized we only have roughly 2 months of fourth grade left. And as always, it's mixed emotions. I feel like we are close to accomplishing another long school year and I feel nervous about summer. Summer break presents a great break from the rigor of the school year, but it always seems to be a con for all of the momentum we've finally got going.
Last summer, we opted to not enroll my daughter in summer school despite several recommendations to do so. It was a far commute, long hours, and not necessarily going to address the academic areas where she needs extra work. I bought curriculum and we had a loosely structured academic time each day. My older kids got in on the task, too, and helped when they could. It went well, but it seemed to be more of a maintenance strategy, not the strategy we needed to make progress.
This summer, I think we need to find something more substantial to use the nine weeks as a time to catch up on missing concepts and be more prepared for fifth grade.
Any suggestions?
Supplemental curriculum?
Private tutor?
Program at a learning institution?
Summer school?
Online programs?
Hi Amy, I'm a mother of two, one with autism and one with dyslexia. I'm also a private dyslexia tutor in the UK.
ReplyDeleteI would say that one good way of keeping her anxiety down would be to keep a routine to the day so that it minimises how much thinking she has to do about 'What's happening next?'. It lightens the memory load.
You are doing a great job in encouraging her with diving.
Have you thought about pets? My daughter is calmed by handling her hamster and I'm considering a dog.
How are your public services? I don't mean medication but here we have Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services who have helped me and my more anxious daughter to prioritise what the stressors were and to come up with sensible strategies. It really helped.
As for the summer, I don't know exactly what it's like in the USA and I don't know if you as parents are working. If you are at home you could use a programme such as Nessy Learning (quite expensive but comprehensive) or the cheaper Nessy Games (fun with a cute character that my daughter found motivating). (These are British games and I don't know if they would work for you.) You could incorporate this into your daily routine but 9 weeks is a long time and her interest is unlikely to last longer than two weeks even if she likes the programme.
I would suggest that a good tutor, two or three (hour-long) sessions a week if possible, will give her the exact work she needs and should build up her confidence over that time. (I believe it is known as the Orton-Gillingham approach over there!) One session a week is better than nothing but she may well forget the learning with such a long gap, as I did when I had driving lessons once a week! So three would be great, say Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. They will give her a reading pack to go through for a few minutes each day and maybe a letter or spelling pattern to practise, but not a massive amount of homework, so she can feel free to relax the rest of the time and follow up things she wants to. I can see that you have other kids and are probably a dab hand at this! You are doing a great job. Some kids are prone to anxiety and you can't always alleviate it as much as you'd like. I'm just saying this so you don't doubt yourself. If you know she suffers this way, you can keep her away from situations that make it worse, and make sure she can practise new skills in a safe environment.
I wish you all the best.
Stella Rainbow
Stella, THANKS for taking time to read and reply!
ReplyDeleteWe have a lab and she just got a leopard gecko. :-)
I love Orton Gillingham! I was just given the names of two tutors and emailed to find their rates/availability. Even though, I expect private tutoring to be a hefty price, I'm still thinking it's our best option. I like the idea of customizing tutoring to what she needs. That's a good point about frequency.
"make sure she can practise new skills in a safe environment" Good point!