I'm in the most wretched mood! And let me tell you, I should never do something that requires a lot of patience when I'm already in a bad mood! It just makes things ten times worse!
How is it that when I was a teacher I had tons of patience, but I have none when I'm working with my own children?! Haley has had a lot of trouble with her letters, mainly identifying them. She was invited to work with a specialist in a small group setting everyday (a free program offered to Kindergarten students). I thought perhaps it may be a good idea. But the thought of her being pulled out of her normal class every single day for a half hour I just wasn't crazy about. I have tried to get a hold of her teacher to talk about it, but she has yet to return my call. Forget it! I have a degree in elementary education, I taught for 4 years...I think I can teach my own child her letters! Well, I'm finding out that it's a bit harder when working with your own kid.
I set Morgan up with some crafts so Haley and I could work without distractions. Failed at that! Morgan kept sticking pictures in my face or repeating the letters sounds real loud, asking for milk, having to go potty, she fell off her chair, brought a little book for me to read...which finally resulted in me taking the book from her and throwing it across the room. I know...weak moment for me.
So we were working on the words "at" and "look" for a while (they were on her homework page). She got all the letters in the word "look" with no problems, she sounded them out and then said the word. But she was really hung up on the word "at". We went over and over the letter sounds, okay, she has it I thought. Now, smoosh the letters together and what do you have? "Rat!" No, there's no "r" in the word. "Bat!" No, it there's no "b" either. It's "at" I tell her. So what's this word as I point to it again. "Cat!" she says. Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!! Very frustrating to say the least.
So we're working a lot with our big letter magnets on the fridge so I can "quiz" her every now and then. I'll have to get more creative, and start pulling out some ideas that I know I have stored away in my brain. I've got to get the "teacher" back out of me.
Now, just for a little patience!
3 comments:
sounds like me and my students when I am teaching perspective drawing. Sometimes you just want to say: "No Dammit! The line goes that way! Can't you see?"
Hi, Kelly,
wow. I try really hard not to give advice, but......
Long ago my Mom told me that she would not be my scout leader. She said that she would have way too high expectations of me and that it wouldn't be fair to me. Perhaps you would also be more patient with other children than your own.
About the time with the other teacher, ask Ryan how he felt when he went to another teacher during his class time. I believe it was also in Kindergarten.
Haley is a wonderful child and she will be great and will do great. She just seems to see things a bit differently from most people. The fact that she made "at" into "bat", "Hat", etc. just shows that she is seeing all the possibilities for "at".
Very true.
And I did ask Ryan about it...he said it had no effect on him. Good to know.
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