Wow, last posted two years ago. At that time, Zach had just gotten his Irlen glasses. For some reason, his eyesight has "improved" with the Irlen lenses. He has not had to change his lenses because his "degree" has stabilised... He has been with DAS for about 6 terms now - the improvement is nothing to shout about... but it's better than no support I suppose.
Stacey is on her third pair of Irlens now... she's had to change her lenses twice as she grows and needs new colours. In her P6 year now, she now has new accomodations of larger exam papers (printed on A3 sheets instead of A4) with the corresponding enlarged print, as well as the usual extended time which she always had.
I've stopped teaching Melody - she has since started with DAS - and while her mom says she wishes the progress could be faster (understandable since she was having individual lessons with me, while it's only group lessons in DAS), she is still pleased that Melody is coping reasonably well in school.
In the last few months, I have taken up a new student for OG - little Cloud. She is a K2 student right now, preparing to go to Primary 1 next year. I started lessons with her in March, so tomorrow will be 4 months so far. Tomorrow we will have had 25 lessons in those 4 months since she sees me twice weekly. It should have been more but there were interruptions due to holidays and such. Still, I am pleased with how far she has come. A totally reluctant not-quite-reader, she was somewhat anxious and lacking in self-confidence... today she has blossomed and become a much more confident reader. We are making our way to the magic-e words tomorrow and she has already learnt how to read Rabbit words. Her letter formation has improved by leaps and bounds and she hardly makes mistakes now with writing her letters, although she still gets a little confused by where on the lines some letters sit or stand.
I have also taken on another student, Kay, a P5 boy with Asperger's Syndrome. I don't give him OG lessons though... I tutor him in Maths and hope to prepare him for the PSLE next year. I'm open to taking on children with mild ASD as I have come to learn a great deal about ASD and SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) since my own chlidren have them.
Life has become more and more packed as I take on more kids... Zach is now much more mature and already in Sec 1. He travels independently and settles down to his work on his own. He helps me around the house as well, and doesn't need me to "chauffeur" him around anymore. :) With Stacey in Sec 1 next year as well, I expect only to be running around after the little one now... and so hope to have more time to teach. And maybe I will have more time to update this blog as well.
Showing posts with label age 5. Show all posts
Showing posts with label age 5. Show all posts
Friday, June 28, 2013
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Stopped for the "time being"...
Received an SMS from Donny's mother today... saying that the children (my two godchildren, Donny and his sister Elvy) had been sick and was on medication and it made them drowsy, so she asked to stop lessons "for the time being"....
And I just can't help but feel that she just doesn't realise how important it is for Donny to catch up. He's already in K2, and there is still so much where he is lagging far far behind in... his reading skills are sadly lacking, and he will definitely have trouble coping with being in P1 next year.
So fine, it's just as well I suppose. My own Stacey has ballet exams coming up, and she's got extra coaching classes on Sundays from next week until mid-march... so I'll stop lessons then, for the time being, and if she cancels yet another class when the ballet exams are over, I think I shall just give up.
If his mother cannot be bothered to make his lessons a priority (and these are lessons for which others would have to fork out about $600+ a month), then there's really nothing I can say. As it is, I am only seeing him once a week, which for him, is sadly insufficient because he is lagging so far behind... and she can't even commit to that one hour a week. As the godmother, there is little I can do or say other than to pray for the child, and pray that he doesn't become one of those demoralised children who struggle so much with school that in the end, they seek out bad company and find themselves in trouble both in and out of school. Sigh.
And I just can't help but feel that she just doesn't realise how important it is for Donny to catch up. He's already in K2, and there is still so much where he is lagging far far behind in... his reading skills are sadly lacking, and he will definitely have trouble coping with being in P1 next year.
So fine, it's just as well I suppose. My own Stacey has ballet exams coming up, and she's got extra coaching classes on Sundays from next week until mid-march... so I'll stop lessons then, for the time being, and if she cancels yet another class when the ballet exams are over, I think I shall just give up.
If his mother cannot be bothered to make his lessons a priority (and these are lessons for which others would have to fork out about $600+ a month), then there's really nothing I can say. As it is, I am only seeing him once a week, which for him, is sadly insufficient because he is lagging so far behind... and she can't even commit to that one hour a week. As the godmother, there is little I can do or say other than to pray for the child, and pray that he doesn't become one of those demoralised children who struggle so much with school that in the end, they seek out bad company and find themselves in trouble both in and out of school. Sigh.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Lesson cancelled... again.
Argggghhh!
Today, the godson's mother sms'd me to ask if today's lesson could be cancelled because his friend's mother had called, and the boy wanted to attend his friend's birthday party. I'm sure she would have asked his opinion (and which 5yo would choose to have a lesson over attending a birthday party?!?) before sms-ing me.
So that means, in this last many weeks, he's still only had 2 lessons with me. At this rate, I think I won't bother continuing... she obviously doesn't think the lessons are a great priority, and I'm just wasting my time. Grrrrrrrrrr!
Today, the godson's mother sms'd me to ask if today's lesson could be cancelled because his friend's mother had called, and the boy wanted to attend his friend's birthday party. I'm sure she would have asked his opinion (and which 5yo would choose to have a lesson over attending a birthday party?!?) before sms-ing me.
So that means, in this last many weeks, he's still only had 2 lessons with me. At this rate, I think I won't bother continuing... she obviously doesn't think the lessons are a great priority, and I'm just wasting my time. Grrrrrrrrrr!
Friday, January 23, 2009
Starting with the Godson
The Godson, Donny (not his real name), is now 5+, going on 6 at the end of the year. He is currently in his 2nd year of Kindergarten.
He comes from a not so well-to-do background... parents are not superbly educated, and find managing their finances a great challenge. As a result, his education has been of a sub-standard level. From the time he was little, he was looked after by a nanny - an elderly lady who is not very educated and speaks only Chinese. He only started attending Childcare a while back, and even then his learning can be described as slow at best.
His teachers complain that the child writes badly - that is, his handwriting is atrocious and very untidy. His letter formation is also weak. He is falling behind in terms of reading and spelling... a situation made worse by the lack of intelligent conversation (as opposed to very functional interaction between caregiver and child, mostly consisting of instructions and scolding) outside of school.
So when I learnt about his situation, I volunteered to go to his house once a week, seeing as to how his home is near my in-law's place... and I've since had 2 lessons with him... the pace is slow. The child is unused to speaking good English, and so, the sounds are so unfamiliar. It takes a great deal of effort to curl his tongue around the sounds and produce a halfway decent sound.
An initial informal assessment shows a child who is unable to blend, and does not seem to have any notion of blending, despite having been in Kindergarten 1 last year. He doesn't know many of the basic sounds of the vowels and consonants. The words that he read successfully, he recognised by sight, not the results of phonemic awareness. He cannot consistently differentiate between a capital letter and a small letter (or uppercase and lowercase letter). His letter formation is awkward, and has to be re-taught.
So in the first lesson, we started on just the first 4 sounds in the OG scope and sequence, developed by Ron Y... and did another 4 in the second lesson. I also incorporated handwriting, as well as some blending and reading using the cards. To motivate and encourage practice, I got him to make his own set of sound cards... he possesses 8 so far. He picked up the keywords readily enough, although he struggled with "wagon", not having seen one in Singapore. But it's a start.
He also picked up the notion of the "headline", "belt-line" and "foot-line" readily enough, although it looked like he might have learnt some of it in school. So we plod along. Progress is slow, in part due to the only-once-a-week lessons, in part due to the fact that there is little home support.
He comes from a not so well-to-do background... parents are not superbly educated, and find managing their finances a great challenge. As a result, his education has been of a sub-standard level. From the time he was little, he was looked after by a nanny - an elderly lady who is not very educated and speaks only Chinese. He only started attending Childcare a while back, and even then his learning can be described as slow at best.
His teachers complain that the child writes badly - that is, his handwriting is atrocious and very untidy. His letter formation is also weak. He is falling behind in terms of reading and spelling... a situation made worse by the lack of intelligent conversation (as opposed to very functional interaction between caregiver and child, mostly consisting of instructions and scolding) outside of school.
So when I learnt about his situation, I volunteered to go to his house once a week, seeing as to how his home is near my in-law's place... and I've since had 2 lessons with him... the pace is slow. The child is unused to speaking good English, and so, the sounds are so unfamiliar. It takes a great deal of effort to curl his tongue around the sounds and produce a halfway decent sound.
An initial informal assessment shows a child who is unable to blend, and does not seem to have any notion of blending, despite having been in Kindergarten 1 last year. He doesn't know many of the basic sounds of the vowels and consonants. The words that he read successfully, he recognised by sight, not the results of phonemic awareness. He cannot consistently differentiate between a capital letter and a small letter (or uppercase and lowercase letter). His letter formation is awkward, and has to be re-taught.
So in the first lesson, we started on just the first 4 sounds in the OG scope and sequence, developed by Ron Y... and did another 4 in the second lesson. I also incorporated handwriting, as well as some blending and reading using the cards. To motivate and encourage practice, I got him to make his own set of sound cards... he possesses 8 so far. He picked up the keywords readily enough, although he struggled with "wagon", not having seen one in Singapore. But it's a start.
He also picked up the notion of the "headline", "belt-line" and "foot-line" readily enough, although it looked like he might have learnt some of it in school. So we plod along. Progress is slow, in part due to the only-once-a-week lessons, in part due to the fact that there is little home support.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
