What a Difference a Year Makes

As the title states this last year for Lauren has seen huge changes in her abilities and health. When we began school last year it was very clear she did not have the skill sets listed in her profile and was way behind in basic abilities for her age.   I had purchased Preschool books for her to trace letters and given her a pencil to do this with.  She had no ability to hold the pencil let alone trace the letters. 

So we quickly regrouped and gave her a crayon and I downloaded single lines to trace from online resources.  Over time we added to the number of pages she would trace, changed the direction of the lines and then moved to U's, V's, O's and squares.  As she progressed and was comfortable with holding a crayon to draw we switched it out for a pencil and started back with initial lines and moved forward to the following letter and shape skill sets.  Ultimately, the year ended with her ability to write and know all her letters and her numbers through 20.  This was major progress for her.  We were also having to deal with her ability to do her work without purposely creating trouble for herself or messing up. Lauren had to learn to deal with her own ability to control herself and channel her energy into positive activities instead of the negatives she had such a propensity to operate in.  She learned that she could make good choices for herself instead of giving in to negative behaviors for attention.  It was a trying year for all of us, but the results are really on display this year as she is excited about her new found abilities and about learning.

Last week I posted that I had brought out our well used copy of the phonics program Sing, Spell, Read and Write.  To familiarize her with this we just spent time each day watching and listening to the introductory phonics song on the video.  This week begins the lessons and she was so excited about this as she proudly announced to Kevin when he got home yesterday "I'm learning to read!!"

Her phonics lesson included tracing then writing a page of capital and small A's, then naming the pictures with the a as in apple sounds.  Next she had to cut these out, which was more than a little challenging to coordinate the scissors.  Finally pasting them in place then on to her phonics teaching video as she traced in the air the letters being drawn and pronounced. She enthusiastically repeated after the teacher the letter sounds and then sang the phonics song.  Lauren was really pleased with herself by the end of her time and wanted to do more work!!

Learning to use scissors

Making progress!

Gluing appropriate pictures for the a sound

Air tracing letter shapes along with video teacher

a,a,a, apple, b,b,b ball... singing with phonics video

Lauren's phonics lesson for the day

So each day we will keep building on the achievements of the last and introducing more subjects to help her not only catch up with her peers, but excel as her skill sets grow.  Have already been through this with Amber years ago, so I am confident of Lauren's ability to catch up and even exceed age group requirements and educational needs. I think she will surprise herself in what she is able to do.

Cameron has continued to help Hannah with her Bible and Science lessons.  Today they were drawing giraffes to go with the Genesis lesson of Noah's Ark.

They continue to surprise me with the drawings they produce