Avery's in 2nd Grade. She's doing great in school. But things just don't always come as easily for Avery in school as they do for Samuel. And this is where my frustration begins for my poor daughter. She's so smart. She got her 3 week progress report sent home last week, and she's making straight As, except for a 74 average in Reading. Arg!
Ask anyone who's spent any amount of time really listening to and talking with Avery, and they will tell you that she has an amazing ability to remember the finest details of a situation. She can remember what someone was wearing on a specific day, how that person looked and what the mood was of their encounter. Her earliest memory is from when she was 18 months old. Hector accidentally caught a little bit of her tummy in the zipper of her flannel pajamas. Almost exactly a year later, we were in our new house, and Hector went to zip up a new pair of pajamas, and Avery started screaming about how she didn't want Hector to zip up her tummy like he had before in the other house. We both just stood there, shocked... She remembers names too, which is a gift that I wish I possessed. When Avery was 3, she broke her collar bone. In the ER, I couldn't go into the x-ray room with her because I was pregnant with Isaac, so I had to call Hector to come to the ER from work. Months later, our entire family was going to see my sonogram done for Isaac at the hospital, and Avery asked me if I thought Scott would be there. Who's Scott? She proceeded to tell me that he worked at the hospital and was wearing a white shirt, white pants and white tennis shoes that day. You know, Scott? And that's when Hector told me that in the midst of all of her own pain, Avery asked the lab technician what his name was, and whether or not he was scared. His name was Scott, and no, he wasn't scared. Scott, the lab technician who comforted my daughter in a time when she was scared and in pain. And she remembered his name and what he was wearing. But while Avery's ability to remember a name and a face and the mood of a situation is simply amazing in my opinion, it doesn't really help her all that much in school.
Some of you may remember that I blogged about the 2nd Grade Reading Vocabulary words last school year when Samuel was in 2nd Grade. This is a list of words that gets sent home on Friday. The student is supposed to memorize the list of 20 words over the weekend, and should be able to read them to the teacher on Tuesday at school, while also possessing a general knowledge of what the words mean. Samuel struggled with them a bit. But if he could read through them once with my help, by the 2nd time, he could read through them on his own.
Poor Avery... I suppose it doesn't help that her birthday falls during the last week of the school year, so she is one of the youngest children in the class. And she really doesn't like to read either. She loves to be read to, and she loves to talk about what the people in the book are wearing and feeling (sigh), but she doesn't like to do the reading herself. I read to her every night in bed. We are a reading family. So, 2 weeks ago on Friday the Reading Vocabulary list came home and I started going over them with her that same night. By Monday night, she was doing really well with the list. She only missed 2 words the next day when she read them aloud to her teacher. But this past Friday night, this is the list that came home from school:
These words have left both of us feeling defeated. She read through the words twice on Friday, 4 times on Saturday and 4 times yesterday, and she's still missing half of them. She can't remember the SH sound in machines. Europe completely throws her for a loop. And you can just forget about successful, canals (which she pronounces Can-Les), and earned (which she pronounces Ear-Ned).I feel frustrated for her. It's not like she's not trying. She is! So here's my dilemma. You will notice that I have not signed the paper yet. Signing the paper "means you have gone over the words and your child can read them." Do I sign the paper tonight if she can't read all of the words to me? Do I sign it but also send an email to the teacher, so that at least she will know that Avery's trying? What do I do?
On a funny side note, last night at dinner Avery was reading through her list and when she came to the word earned, she stopped and said "Agh!" out of frustration. And Samuel said in a totally joking voice, "Wow, that's cool that agh is one of your reading vocabulary words." We all couldn't stop laughing...
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