I tend to underestimate her
January 23rd, 2007
I teach the 9 going on 10 year old girls at church right now. After the first class I realized I have been underestimating Ani’s reading abilities. She reads scriptures better than all but one of the girls in my class. Interestingly the one girl who Ani does not read better than is homeschooled. One night I spent some time writing words on a chalkboard for Ani to read. She read them all perfectly. She even figured out “pneumonia” with only the hint of me telling her the p is silent.
I’ve also been underestimating her spelling abilities. We gave up on Spelling Workout a few weeks ago because it was driving Ani insane. She kept telling me it was boring because she already knew most of the words before she did the “learning” workpages. She was almost all the way through book C (3rd grade level) when we dropped it. The same night I wrote the words on the chalkboard for her to read I gave her words to spell on the chalkboard. She could spell anything I threw at her including “millions” (the only word I can remember I gave her).
Tonight I discovered I’ve been underestimating her physical skills as well. She did a trial dance/gymnastics combo class at The Little Gym. She was GOOD at the gymnastics. She can do a forward roll and is working on cartwheels. She walked across the balance beam like nothing and didn’t have much trouble going backwards either. She didn’t care for the tap dancing and liked the ballet okay. Afterwards we discussed her options. She wanted to do gymnastics only so we headed to the gym where my cousin Carleigh goes. An instructor evaluated her and Ani will be starting as a level 2 gymnast on Monday (and Cameron will start as a level 1 the same day).
This is where a “canned curriculum” is SO limiting (not that you’re using such). When you take the lead from the child, hopefully it will keep you where she needs to be, and it can change so much more easily as her needs change. You may find that she doesn’t even need any formal “spelling program”. Simply reading will probably have her picking up all the new vocabulary and spelling, it seems. That’s how it was with my oldest. He didn’t ever have a science program, either, and he scored in the highest percentiles for testing. In fact, he mainly had math (starting around 11) as a formal subject only because everything came so easily and naturally for him through “living resources”.
Having her pursue some balance to her intellect through a physical element may be a good addition!
Have fun!
Cindy
That’s so great about the gymnastics. Will she be level 2 as in level 2 team? Will she compete.
Madison loved competing, but after two years, she was just so tired. She spent anywhere from 6-8 hours in the gym a week. It was very trying…both timewise and financially. It was so worth it, though, for what it gave her in confidence and self esteem. She is now taking at a small gym that does not compete…it doesn’t even have all the equipment that a big gym does. However, she is happy to be taking again and with her friends there.
This is all exciting.
That’s awesome! I discovered that I’ve been underestimating L lately, too. He’s capable of more than I realized.