(*Disclaimer: long post) I LOVE to read so naturally I thought my kids would come out of the womb doing it. However, they were actually both very slow to read. They didnt love it. In fact, until last year, Lily even said she hated it. Getting her to read a book and AR test on it was like pulling teeth. Sean had finally taken off about a year before. Despite my reading to them religiously since they were infants, they just were not motivated. I was kind of feeling like I somehow failed. They both had huge and quite impressive vocabularies. I was puzzled. Our amazing teacher friend, Teresa Durden Treloar tutored them both. Moving them to Bear magnet, we learned that reading, improving and AR testing was NOT optional. It didnt take long to see amazing growth. Im talking leaps and bounds. So heres my Bragging Moment! My encouragement to other worried moms: its not always where they start that matters and when they are ready, they will blossom. Lily and Sean eventually developed the love for BERKS..... and they always see me with a book. Lately they have become bored with their grade level books and are asking for more challenging books. My books. I allowed Lil to start the Divergent series. She read Divergent last week (please dont judge me). It took her 3 days. She AR tested yesterday and earned 100 % and 18 AR points. Thats a pretty big book for a 9 year old. Last night, she started Insurgent, the second of the trilogy, and is already finished. She will AR test tomorrow. I feel this is important to share because I used to make the mistake of comparing my kids to the progress of other kids. Last week I had a concerned mom talk to me and wonder if her daughter would ever read. Every child is different and they all blossom when they are ready. Today we got the ACT results from last year. Lily scored in the HIGH 90th percentile and Sean in the 90s in the National average for reading. Be encouraged and let your kids know you are pulling for them. They are not in a contest against other kids. I encourage mine to just compete against their last score, grade or personal best and try to raise the bar from there. I admit they may struggle in certain other areas. Many kids may. Math happens to be a tough area for mine right now. When Im tempted to compare, I have to remind myself that each child is unique, special and have room to continue growing in their weak areas. We also get so wrapped up in them achieving academically that we fail to realize there are other ways they are special. Encourage growth in non academic areas as well. All kids have gifts. Celebrate their strengths with them and encourage them in the weaknesses. ❤️
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:01:42 +0000
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