It’s been an interesting week of parent-teacher conferences for the big guy. Also had his yearly speech review, so, a whole lot of good academic information for Suzanne and I to digest.
Reading: Improving…but still not where he needs to be yet. It’s been a challenge figuring out what exactly the problem is, or, better said, what one of the biggest stumbling blocks is. Here’s the best example I can think of:
spelunking
Christopher has a great deal of difficulty in recognizing sound blends…..he doesn’t see the sp- and think the sp sound and similarly, he doesn’t hear sp- and begin to write the sp- sound. Same deal with the ‘unk’, or, the ‘l’ for that matter. We’re dropping back and really drilling him on these sounds (phenomes) right now.
His reading, for all that, is coming along quite nicely…..we’ve been reading “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” together with Matthew and he’s doing just fine (except for the big words where he would need to sound them out) and he even corrects Matthew at times, so, that’s all good.
Speech: This was supposed to be the last year for Christopher in speech, but, the sound thing described above is the reason he’ll have one more year of time with the speech therapist. He still struggles with the ‘r’ and ‘wr’ blends in speech, but, that alone wouldn’t have been enough to keep receiving services. It’s nice (for us) that the speech and reading issues are coming together in a complimentary fashion….it’s also nice that we’ve finally figured out…
Testing: …that Christopher’s standardized tests are very inconsistent; we think it’s because, at times, he just doesn’t care if he does his best on a test (or an exercise, or an assignment). This attitude, I guess, is good for Christopher’s stress level but frustrating for parents and teachers. His teacher thinks that, in reading, his comprehension isn’t an issue, consistently, he scores high on those parts of the test and she’s amazed during class and during testing at how well he follows along.
The speech therapist? Her testing shows comprehension as a real weakness. MEAP’s(the Michigan standardized test)?…..he performed well enough in reading to be right where he needed to be (a little better than average for his grade level). Thank goodness he was interested enough to do well in that!
Math: Those MEAP’s? show him as advanced for his grade level. Am somewhat ashamed that I’m pleasantly surprised like that. We’re spending a lot of time on mental math right now; if we’re in the car he gets to try and answer multiplication facts or addition and subtraction problems….it’s coming along, but, not a strength. Apparently spatial math is; his teacher pointed out he was one of only a few that very clearly understood the geometry parts of the curriculum that the class just started working on.
Attitude: Certainly has a lot of that at home, and, this year, for the first time, it’s starting to creep in at school. When asked to change his attitude at school by the teacher, he does, and is very contrite about it, but, had to have a little talk about it with him. Also has had a few incidents of 'sensitivity’….made the last out at kickball and the kids got on him for that and he dissolved in tears…the teacher’s quote was “I sometimes forget because he’s so big he’s still a little boy” or something like that.
Whew….let’s talk about something other than school.
Teenage girl: Never thought my 9-yr old would be there, but he is. Loves the Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato crowd….just today saw a teen-beat type magazine at Target and begged and pleaded with Suzanne to get it…those posters will be all over his room shortly. Still loves to sing those Taylor Swift tunes everywhere.
Orchestra: ….went and saw the OHS orchestra on a field trip today. Was very taken with the bass, which is good, because Mom and Dad have always thought that might be a good fit for him (that darned size thing coming in again).
Sports: A five paragraph story for Matthew is simply summed up here by saying that he likes them when he’s playing in them but can give you a whole lot of crap about them before and after them. He’s not happy at all that he’s been signed up for baseball again this year, for example.
Neighborhood: Matthew plays with the boys…they do sports. And sometimes does what Christopher does…plays some made up games with a teenage girl and a kindergartner that involves houses and horses and islands and the level of imagination that goes into that is pretty decent. Very rarely decides to go play baseball, or football, or whatever (will be seen playing basketball though!). Lots of hide and go seek going on right now.
Animals: Nothing fascinates Christopher more than a book about animals. Loves to talk about animal facts and what they do.
