Well, the kiddos are in school now. We have actually nearly completed the first trimester but I'm just now feeling like my head is above water. It is going to be a tough year for poor Joseph. Jonathan has a definite advantage since he hadn't started reading in Russian yet. He was a little behind but seems to be staying up with his classmates okay. We do a little extra work at home during the week but still focus most of our extra energy on his physical limitations. Joseph on the other hand is really behind. They tested his reading level during the first week of school and found out he was reading at a "3" on our school's scale. This is the lowest level you can be to leave Kindergarten. His teacher (who I absolutely LOVE) talked to a 1st grade teacher about resources to help him and this teacher said he could just join her class for reading groups. To make a very long and not very exciting story short - Joseph joins this 1st grade class for reading groups, attends a reading recovery class with another teacher, and joins a different 2nd grade class for "specials" since he is in 1st grade when his normal class goes to special. He misses quite a bit of time with his "homeroom" teacher and so she sends that work home for him to do at home. Luckily math is not a struggle for him and he is on level for that so that stuff goes quickly. We spend about 2-3 hours a day on homework 4 days a week. Add football practice in there for Michael and Joseph and soccer for Charity and it makes for some crazy days. We were fortunate that all the practices were on Tuesday and Thursday so we can relax a little more 3 out of the 5 school nights. Now that sports seasons are done I hope we can spread the work out a little bit more and really focus on the reading. He has improved so much since the beginning of the year. I think it is possible that in 2 years no one will know that this kid isn't a native english-speaking kid.
No comments:
Post a Comment