Posted in Homeschooling
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As I have mentioned in other posts, my son is dyslexic. Thank God, He has been helping us step by step along the way, and my dear almost-10-year-old is reading pretty well on his own, and his reading comprehension is great! But, in general this sweet boy of mine doesn't enjoy reading or writing. I've tried all sorts of reading materials from comics to joke books, to chapter books, science fiction, non-fiction...you name it, and I believe I've tried it. I realize that he needs exposure and practice, so I've had to be creative and think outside the box to "sneak" reading and writing into his daily activities. Now, there are times when Roboboy does spontaneously read. I have not been able to find a pattern in this. Sometimes his sister points out interesting "news" pieces from Yahoo news, and he'll read those. Sometimes he'll read something we're reading over our shoulders. Sometimes he'll pick up a book and read. Sometimes he'll read every sign he sees. And sometimes he spontaneously writes too. But I know that he needs consistent practice at both these things. So, we have a daily quiet reading time. Sometimes he reads the next chapter in a chapter book he's currently reading. Sometimes he obediently sets the timer for 30 minutes and reads a comic, or a joke book, a magazine, whatever he happens to be interested in reading at the time. We also do reading aloud, and he enjoys listening to great literature, and gets very engrossed in the stories. He has done very well in his listening comprehension, even when I have thought the language a little difficult or complex for his age level, he has coped better than I ever expected. Writing has been our biggest challenge. He struggles with his handwriting, and putting thoughts to paper seems to be almost impossible. They lack rhyme or reason by the time he tortuously transfers his thoughts from his head to the printed word. How to get this boy to simply practice more? The answer came from an extremely unexpected source: blogging. My dear son saw me blogging, and his older sister blogging, and begged me to set up a blog of his own. I must confess, I really had my doubts. Eventually I gave in. He wrote several entries, and sort of tapered off. But my dear hubby and I have been talking about how to help this boy along in his writing skills, and so, I have been having him journal short entries almost daily for the past two weeks. It's been very simple. I try not to stress him. I assign things like 5 sentences about his best friend, or a paragraph about his swimming lessons. He edits his own entries, and then I edit them before posting them. I have observed that they have needed fewer and fewer grammar and spelling corrections by me as they go along. My expectations are simple: begin sentences and proper nouns with a capital letter, punctuation at the end of sentences, correct spelling of words he's familiar with, asking me for help on words he does not know how to spell. It's not much, but it's a start, and I'm beginning to see results as he is willingly typing for his blog what would have been sheer torture to write out in longhand. Stop by his blog (The Adventures of Roboboy) sometime, and leave him a note of encouragement. He is always thrilled to get a comment, ...even if it's usually from his mom or dad. And if you've got any other ideas for getting my boy reading or writing more, drop me a comment too. I'm open to ideas!! |
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Posted by Anonymous
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