Letter Reversal Game

Sunny has such a hard time with letter reversal.  Her biggest problems are "b", "d", and sometimes "p".  So yesterday we were on a lunch date.  Yes, my daughter and I go on more "dates" then my husband and I do, but that is only because he doesn't need a babysitter when we go out.  She loves it and I do too so back to the purpose of this post.  We always play Tic Tac Toe while we wait and of course my mind is bouncing ideas around the whole time.  Then I had an idea.  Why not play with "b's" and "d's"?  So we had our own crayon color and I choose "d" and Sunny was "b".  That wasn't very hard because we could just look at the color but then Sunny decided to spice things up and said, "Let's make it more interesting and use the same color Mom?"  Since I was sitting across from her I had to write upside down.  I actually had to stop bouncing ideas around and concentrate on Tic Tac Toe!  We had so much fun.  If we wrote our letter the wrong direction then the other person could use it.  It took that silly game to a whole other level.  If you try it, let me know what you think.  Remember, try it with different colors first and then with the same colors.  Happy Playing!

Cooking and Dyslexia

Following directions, paying attention, and time management are areas of opportunity when it comes to children, especially with dyslexic children.  Sunny loves baking and especially eating her creations.  Well, actually we all do.  So lately I have been giving her more freedom in the kitchen as long as she tries to read the directions, follows close attention to what she is doing (we don't need any fingers in the mixer) and doesn't add raisins to anything.

Sunny knows she is easily distracted and has a problem with time, so she has to remember to set a timer.  I think one of the most important things we can teach our kids is to use all of the resources we have available to us now.  That will make us more productive and our lives less stressful.

My Mom, when I was about Sunny's age, had her ring finger get stuck in the beaters while she was mixing something.  I remember how calm she was as my Dad cut the beaters and saved her finger.  I think of it every time I use a mixer.  It is not a toy.

Sunny also has a great understanding of fractions.  She knows how to convert measurements when we are missing the right measure device.  She also knows how important it is to follow directions.  She has to try every thing she makes no matter what!  She also has to plan ahead and make sure we have what she needs.  

The best part is that she gets to enjoy her creative side. I enjoy spending time together in the kitchen and we all enjoy helping her eat what she has made.

Decisions Decisions Decisions

So here I am......

I have taken full responsibility of my children's education.  That is so overwhelming, exciting, scary, stressful, and so far I love most of it.  It is very important to me that if something was ever to happen to me, and they had to return to the school system, that they would be on track with their classmates.  I also want them to enjoy learning and to enjoy the freedom of choosing what they would like to learn about.  However, right now I have to focus on helping Sunny get caught up with her reading and writing.  

At this point she is about two grade levels behind.  Once I found out she was dyslexic, I had to completely redo her curriculum.  I finally understood why we were working so hard and barely getting anywhere.  Kind of like a stationary bike.  I have been researching and researching and researching every reading curriculum I could find that would help with her dyslexia.  That is where the "overwhelming" comment above came from.   There is so much out there and yet nothing that seemed to fit our needs.  Then I found a new program called Discovery K-3 by Reading Horizons.  I watched as many videos on their site as I could and the more I watched the more excited I got.  I was trying to decide between the Discovery program and another "well known" dyslexic program so I had Sunny watch the demos with me.  Immediately she told me "No!" for the other program and "Yes please get it" for the Discovery program.  

The Reading Horizons website has so much helpful information on it.  I recommend looking at it to anyone with children that are learning to read, dyslexic or not.  It also has information for older kids but I am not as familiar with that area.  After spending hours on their site I decided to give them a call today .  They were so helpful and even let me see the inside of the online curriculum.  I was even more impressed.  With all of our moving around and school changes, Sunny has many holes in her education.  The program will assess her at the beginning so we can see where we need to start.  I will know more about the program in a few days and will let you know all about it.  I am so excited.  I finally feel like I have a plan and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  There are so many advantages of dyslexia but we just have to get through the reading obstacles.  

  

I Finally Took The Plunge!

So where should I start....
I was born and raised inTexas and then I started my adulthood in Florida.  That is where I was married,  had my daughter Sunny, and then my son Logo.  Then my husband's job moved us back to Texas for a year and then he was promoted to Canada.  We have been living in Canada for a year and a half.  I have become a pro at packing and unpacking.  We do not clean out the closets every summer, we just move and get too tired to pack so that is how we "unclutter" our house.  Okay, so the company does the moving for us, but I have to do the prep and the unpacking.  So that is me in a nut shell.  Not really but you will get to know my crazy sense of humor as we go.

I finally took the plunge......
Yes, I finally took the Blogger plunge.   We found out about two months ago that my 8 year old daughter was dyslexic.  I had an idea that she was since kindergarten, but it took that long to go through all of the hoops, waiting until she was old enough for testing and just waiting to see if she would "grow out of it".  So for the past couple of months, I have read as much as I can about dyslexia and have tried to truly understand it as much as possible.  I started homeschooling Sunny and Logo this school year.  I was not planning on homeschooling but the school was not helping her enough.  I will discuss that part of our journey at a later date.  Sunny is extremely creative, artistic and someday will be an amazing song writer.  Logo is 5 years old and has his own story but you will have to wait to read all about it at a later date.