"dlabe"

  Surprisingly the title of my post is not gibberish, or another language, or even a mistake.

  It is however, intriguing and a little amusing.

  When we started homeschooling A, we thought it'd be good for someone else to teach her every once in a while.  So I signed us up for a local home school group and Bestie and I arranged a time once a week for A to hang out at Bestie's house so they could do some academic things together.

  

  Fantastic!

  The other day when A was over, Bestie did a little "evaluation" of A's spelling, reading, and reading comprehension.

  What we saw from that was very intriguing.

  That's where the title of this post comes in to play.  Have you figured out what it's supposed to say?

  When A did the spelling part of the eval, Bestie noticed that A confuses her lower case "b" and "d."  It's not just a matter of "I got ahead of myself and got confused and wrote the wrong letter" kind of thing.  A actually thinks it's right.  She had written a word and used the correct letter, but started to change it because she thought she wrote it wrong.

  A honestly believes "b" is a lower-case D and "d" is a lower-case B.  Something happened when she was learning them and she learned them wrong.

  Whoa.

  

  So the title of this post is actually how A wrote the word "blade."

  Now, I have to work Hard not to borrow trouble from tomorrow, so I'm reining myself in.  Is it a sign that A has dyslexia?  Possibly.  Am I stressing over how to get a diagnosis for that?  I was, but I talked myself down off that ledge (thanks Bestie!).  

  It's now been broken down into smaller, more manageable steps for me.  

  For now I will continue to expose A to reading and books and writing.  I did a bit of research and found that letter-tracing games for my Kindle and iPod can be helpful, too--so I've downloaded some of those.

  I've known since A was 3 and "rhymed" like this: "the ants go marching 2 by 2, the little one stops to climb a tree," that she had some risk factors for being dyslexic.  That list seems to be growing, not shrinking, as she gets older.  However, for now, we are settling into a good home school routine and working hard to get her anxiety under control.  I think around the beginning of school next year, we will be able to address any potential learning disabilities.

  I'm sure this will be something I'll be addressing in later posts...I'm also sure you'll be on stand-by, anxiously waiting to hear what develops. ;)

  ~Alexis

Me, Homeschooling? Really?

  I mentioned a few posts back that we began home schooling A in December.  

  I don't want this post to be about our reasons for our decision (although I'll talk about them because they're relevant), but to focus on the wonderful progress A's made in such a short amount of time. 

  I am not an organized person.  There have been lots of times in A's life that I have thought I've got to be the worst mom for her because I don't run on a strict enough schedule, or I'm not tidy enough, or I'm too spontaneous.  One thing I never saw myself doing, Ever, was homeschooling either of my kids.  None of the aforementioned personality traits bode well for a homeschooling momma.  I did make one concession: if we were ever in the position where we felt we had to home school the kids, then I'd find a way to make it work.  In other words: I would do it if we were backed into an educational corner.

  

  Surprisingly that's not exactly what happened.  Over the past year I had become a bit more comfortable with the idea of homeschooling.  By this November, it was becoming apparent that A's anxiety was beginning to escalate.  Interestingly enough, I think it was due more to social and environmental anxieties than anything relating to academics.

  By the end of November The Hubby and I had made the decision to begin homeschooling A after her winter break.  It just made sense for her to finish the last 3 weeks of the semester.

  Unfortunately shortly after that, we came to the conclusion that the heightened levels of stress and anxiety were not worth enduring any longer.  So, as of December 2, A was officially a home schooled kiddo.

  Here are the changes I've seen in 2 months:

  

   While she's still melting down, her recovery time is amazing! Just last Monday I had to carry her, kicking and screaming, to the van, but by the time we got to where we were going (about a 20 minute drive) she had settled down and was able to participate in the activity.

  Yesterday she had a meltdown, but in 10 minutes she apologized.  Voluntarily.  As in, with no prompting on my end.  If you couldn't tell, I was floored!

  Her reading comprehension and fluency has taken off!  She wasn't having problems, but she has improved so quickly that I have to say it looks as though her anxiety was preventing her from reaching her full potential.

  Her self confidence is improving.

  She's happier.

  I've been able to see that social anxiety is much worse than I realized.

  I'm also seeing how severe her anxiety is.  My bestie has told me many times that had The Hubby and I not parented A the way we have over the past 5 years (using the strategies from "How to Talk so Kids Will Listen and Listen so Kids Will Talk" and a few other wonderful books about connecting with kids), she wouldn't be as well adjusted as she is.

  There are times I hear her say that and I think "yeah, ok," but lately I've had a glimpse of how severe A's anxiety is and I can see the truth in that statement.

  There have been days (and will be plenty more, I'm sure), where I think "what was I thinking?!" but those are the days I can look back on journal entries, and this blog post and remember that we made the right decision!

  ~Alexis