Flabbergasted

Flabbergast: verb, to surprise someone greatly; astonish

That was me today. I have been patiently painfully trying to teach Seth how to read. To put it mildly, it hasn't been going well.  If you are familiar with the BJU press K5 curriculum, you are aware of Service Words.  These are words that are commonly used that are very difficult to "sound out" and so they must simply be memorized; words like the, here, come, said, and so on. Recognizing letters (and so therefore reading in general) does not come easily for Seth. We have been beating our heads against the wall over here a little bit. Until today! I was quizzing him on the words for this week, and after some pretty discouraging sessions, he suddenly quit confusing the words the and here. He was actually getting them right! I was thrilled. YAY! We were finally getting somewhere. Or so I thought...

As a final round victory lap, I held up the card which said the.  Seth gave me a blank stare. "Come on, Seth! You got this one right just a minute ago. You can do it," I mustered in the most encouraging voice I had.

"Move your hand," he said, "I can't see the number on it."

The what?

I looked at the card in bewilderment. Sure enough, there in the top left corner of each service word card is a number, so that the teacher knows what order they should be taught. The the card has a 4 on it. I held up the card so he could see the whole thing.

"The!" He announced, triumphant.

I held up the word here with my hand concealing the number on the card. He had no earthly clue. I uncovered the number in the corner.

"Here!" Victorious was the sound of his voice.

Folks, I'm here to tell you he memorized the number of each and every service word card so he wouldn't have to read them. He's not really learning to read.  *she sobs and crumples to the floor in defeat*

I truly do not know what to do about this situation.  And that's all I want to say about that right now.

Comments

Ruth said…
Well he's obviously a smart cookie to be able to memorize the number associated with each word! Could you make the words on the cards into some sort of game? It doesn't have to be complicated. For example if you write each work inside of what looks like a fried egg then if he reads the word correctly he gets to flip the paper with a spatula? That is one my kids have enjoyed. I mean I have the egg shaped papers flipped over and just the word on the blank side and if they read it correctly they flip it over to "cook" the egg. I will pray for wisdom and patience for you! I know what it's like to teach a child to read for whom it is a lot more challenging. My first two learned to read very easily, but it's far more of a struggle with my youngest. Hopefully the lights will click for Seth and Oliver in the near future! :) "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Also if some of the "service" words are actually ones that don't break the rules (could be sounded out), maybe skip those for now? I am not familiar with BJU's K5 curriculum, but I know that some reading programs include words as "sight words" (service words as BJU seems to call them) that actually are phonetic. Personally I stick with ones that are truly "rule breakers" like "the." Just a thought if he struggles with learning sight words at the moment.
September 25, 2018 at 8:33 AM
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