My 3 Boys are grown now. However, when I realized that the magnet school they were in, even though they had the best teachers and the best technology in the county, they were cutting back on phonics when the inclusion curriculum was put in place. I went to work seeking out resources for educational material. I found that there is a county depot where all the used equipment goes, including books. I found books on all grade levels, readers, history etc. I began reading things to them; stories in the afternoons and reading to then history lessons about how our great country was founded. I had "summer school" for them 3 days a week during summer break. My neighbor joined in with her 2 girls.
I also found online a set of books that as a 5th grader, my teacher had read to us in the afternoons as a treat. The series is 'The Sugar Creek Gang. I found it in paperback. it consists of about 20 books. It is all about kids and their adventures back in the day when America was built on Community. It is All Good Clean reading! No Monsters, Demons or Witches or anything of the sort. I do not feel a need to desensitize kids from things that they Should be afraid of. Each Chapter leaves the reader (or listener) clammoring for more!!
As a Para-professional and Parent Educator in Kindergarten, Pre-K and ESE Pre-K, I realized ALL Kids. not just mine, loved time spent reading to them. Just having them loving to hear stories makes the love of reading engrained in them. When they want to learn- They DO!! They need to be motivated by Love. When they see that you care enough to take the time to share time with them, they seem to come along in their own time.
One of mine was a late bloomer academically. The teachers kept harping on me to have him daignosed, evaluated, etc, etc. I fefused to have my child labeled. He is now a specialized mechanic on the U-2 Reconnaissance plane in the U.S. Air Force. One is an ordinanceman in the Air Force and the other is aiming for a doctorate in math/physics.
Just LOVE your kids! They are not all alike. They will not all develop alike. Each one is on their own Developmental time line. Mine developed artistically first. The yearning for academics came later. God did not make a single one of them alike because they each have very special and unique purpose in life. No one can take the place of a single one!!
Good Luck! ~Lisa aka DrMomCEO
