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
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tonight We Babysat Brianne

Image
How's that for a title? Very creative, I know. Let me know if you ever need me to come up with a witticism for you. Totally kidding here! :) Matt and Jen went out on their monthly Date Night, so we got a chance to have Brianne over for the evening. What fun! They don't really play with each other, just near each other. Hopefully that will change. Bathtime! This cracks me up. Brianne dive-bombed a rubber duck! Who knows what Noah is doing. :) So cheesy, this kid! She really, really wanted my camera. So the whole evening went well. Josh helped out, which was unexpected and wonderful. :) After her bath, Brianne was crying (I think she got cold) and I gave her to Josh while I finished up with Noah. Once we got her warmed up, she was fine. She is such a sweetheart, and we look forward to next month when we get her again for an evening. Oh, and we're so looking forward to our own date night to take place later this month! Somehow I think Matt and Jen are get...
Read more

365 Project, week 4

Image
A pretty normal week for us again!  We had lots of everyday moments in preparation for an out-of-the-ordinary week to come.  Here's how it looked:   Daddy time in the evening often involves an episode of Bonanza.  Little Joe is a favorite around here! Bath time for Seth.  Maybe it's because he's my second child, but I do not have anywhere near the amount of baby gear I had with Noah.  Baby bathtub? Nowhere in sight.  It's Kitchen Sink City for us!  For this reason, you may not see an actual bath picture, because it takes all my hands to hold on to Seth in the sink.  If I ever have a helper, we may see good future blackmail bath time photos. :) One afternoon Noah and I took his after-school snack to the dock.  Handi-snacks, anyone?  I, for one, love that they still come with the little red stick for spreading, just like when I was his age! Cowboys are his favorite these days.  What're YOU lookin' at...
Read more

My Gunniwolf

Image
If you've never read it before, The Gunniwolf by Wilhelmina Harper is a great children's story!  You get fantastic onomatopoeia ( what?!   that means words that sound like the noises they describe), beautiful illustrations, and an object lesson in obedience to boot.  PLUS, the kids I know seem to love it.  Bonus. Noah's school put on a literacy parade today, in which the children could dress up as a character from a favorite book. (If you ask me, it was just a chance to let the kids try out their Halloween costumes early. But still.)  Noah immediately wanted to be the Gunniwolf.  Knowing that any wolf costume I could find in the stores would come with a horrible scary face and be at least $10, we made his out of felt and glue for $3.25 with a much friendlier face. So, I have a little wolf on my hands.  And next Wednesday, our church's Patch the Pirate Club will be hosting a Noah's Ark party, where the kids can come dressed as any animal th...
Read more