Some Days . . .

My daughter and I had a lot of really rough days when we were starting out. Reading was the worst. She would put up mental blocks, telling herself that she couldn’t do the simplest task (such as reading G-E-T when she was already reading words like PLACE). I would get impatient with it, and the whole thing would spiral downwards into a yelling and crying episode (with a toss up as to who was doing which). Eventually, though sheer stubbornness on my side, we worked our way through it.

A year and a half later, Sierra is now reading at a second grade level, though her fluency is a little slow. Problems still occur, but things are much better. Typically, the days go smoothly, and when she does have a mental block, more often then not, we can quickly talk our way through it. Best of all, I can (usually) stay calm during them.

Unfortunately, we still have our days. Right now she’s throwing a tantrum because she refuses to try sounding out the word “feathers”. This isn’t the first time today either. “Years” was also a problem, though once she calmed down, she got it quickly. There was also math, where she mentally blocked the simple addition of 10 plus 15. (She rarely has any trouble adding two digit numbers together.) Right now, I’m writing this to try to keep from exploding. It’s working . . . marginally. To be honest, neither of us is feeling that great, and it doesn’t help that my youngest keeps fussing over little things here and there.

Hah! She just read “feathers” in less then thirty seconds, once she finished her ten minute scream fest. Sigh. To listen to us now, you wouldn’t know that anything happened. We’ll probably have another episode before school is done, but at least it’s calm for now.

Update, one day later: Success!!! No tantrums. No breakdowns. No scream fests. There was a touch of squawking, but that doesn't count, right? I love days like this.