Look First, Learn First

Posted by Patty | 0 comments

You know there are times when we wish to really bury the past. It haunts us, reminds us of what was, and terrifies us of what could be. And it colors everything we do, because it dictates who we are and what we have become.

For me, my past placed a deep shadow on the subject of reading.

I have a mild case of Dyslexia, nothing major and I can normally work around it by being careful. Re-reading sentences that don’t quite make sense, using spell checker religiously, and having my wonderful husband read things for content.

However, learning to read for me was a nightmare. My mom ran out of patience LONG before I learned the alphabet. And when there was no where to turn for help, reading became a “painful” learning experience. Back then, Dyslexia wasn’t known, and learning disabilities were spoken of in back rooms only. So for me to have such difficulties, well let’s just say it’s a miracle I don’t have a complete block when it comes to picking up the written word.

Now though I love to read. I love making my escape in far off lands, fighting dragons, falling in love with Romeo and finding buried treasure. And so when I began homeschooling, my greatest desire was to instill in my children that same love and desire. My oldest two girls were public schooled for a while and so someone else taught them the basics. I soon discovered though that my second child was facing the same difficulties as I did. She could sometimes recognize the high frequency words, but she couldn’t spell anything, she couldn’t read words in order and she couldn’t sound things out in the proper order. In short, she couldn’t read and her teacher didn’t care enough to work with her. She was falling more and more behind and so we brought her home to learn.

But remember what I said about the past and wishing to bury it? I soon found that I was ill equipped to teach her something that I had such ill memories of. I would lose patience so quickly, and the more frustrated she got, the more tense I became. So I had a good talk with myself and did what any good mom would do–I put it off until I knew what the heck I was doing!

I searched the internet for the answer–Hmmm, PHONICS right? I knew any good reader needed to under stand phonics so that’s where we began. I took a full year to review her phonics. I used Phonics Pathways, Flash cards, White boards, and the like. My patience was tested beyond my limits, but I had learned from my mom–to just back off. As soon as frustration was setting in, we packed it away for the day. It was a VERY slow process. And I never thought we were getting any where. After about 12 months of frustration and self-doubt (for both me and her) I went looking online again. I just knew there had to be an answer that I was missing.

What I found was Back on the Right Track Reading (www.righttrackreading.com) . It was a remedial reading program that took you through the next step. It helped you review the sounds, and then place them together, in a different way than Phonics Pathways (which took the Ba Be Bi Bo Bu approach). But this new program took it to their hands! You used 2 inch tiles that you wrote the sounds on. And you used them to work on taking the step from just saying the sounds to creating words. By using this hands on approach it took the need for my daughter to have to visualize the words in her mind and actually had her creating them in her hands. There was no need for her to keep it straight in her mind–as long as they were straight in her hands. She could just keep at it until she got it right. Her frustration level was reduced instantly!

Over the next school year my daughter went from barely being able to read (not necessarily comprehend) an early 2nd grade level–to a mid 6th grade comprehension level. Being able to switch gears and teaching style made all the difference. I have learned that for her, anything that I can get her to do hands on, is an instant success. Anything that she has to do internally is a long drawn out process. Her dyslexia has created a need to not only see things, but to work with them. Since this discovery, I have taken this into the other subjects that she struggles with. Such as math–every lesson is now done with manipulatives.

So what about the past? Do I still wish to bury it? Well yes and no. It’s not very pleasant memory-wise, but that memory did teach me to walk away when I was out of my depth. To look first, learn first, then teach it. Being a parent to a struggling child has its challenges. We just have to take the time to find out where the problem lies and keep looking for that solution.

Patty has been married to the love of her life for 14 years and has 4 kiddos she lovingly refers to as her monkeys. She is constantly threatening to run away to the Circus–unfortunately, she keeps being informed she’s already there! She loves throwing together this and that to create a unique learning experience that encourages a love of learning. Come feed their school mascot Shiver and check out her blog at Shiver Academy.