She has grown in so many ways and is a pleasure. However, I still have some concerns. Homeschooling has allowed me to see where she has some educational deficits.
Every year I have asked to have her speech and every year they have said that her speech is fine. Last year her teacher requested a speech evaluation with the same results. I am looking at getting my own speech evaluation. When she reads for me I often have a hard time understanding what she is saying. It is frustrating for both of us.
Larissa has unmedicated ADHD so my lessons are designed to work with that. We do short lessons and constant reviews. Larissa is retaining the lessons, Emma is not. I am not sure. I believe that she has to engage with me more than she ever has with a teacher. I can see how in a classroom she could totally disengage and not do the assignments. She attempts to cheat with me, during reading she will try to get by with reading only the beginning and end of an assignment. Since we discuss the assignments one on one she is not able to get away with that, I imagine she did in school. I have determined that I need to get her evaluated. Either something is not clicking or she is totally disinterested in learning. She has not tired of homeschooling or asked to go back to public school,
She is working on reading me. Any time I am tired she will ask me if I am mad at her. I tell her no, I am just tired. I guess my tired look looks the same as my disapproval face, I see it as a positive that she doesn't want me to be mad at her, she seeks my approval.
It has been interesting to see the relationship between Larissa and Emma grow. For the most part they get along real well. Emma had her feelings hurt the other day when Larissa wouldn't play with her. Larissa also wasn't engaging in school work either and I realized that she must have had a bad night and needed more sleep. I sent her to bed and she woke in a better disposition and played with Emma. Emma has been learning to read Larissa and is getting better about accepting that sometimes she is not feeling well. Today Larissa went to bed for a short time with a headache and Emma was more understanding about it then she has been in the past.
One of our huge issues has finally resolved, her early morning rising and waking of the household. She is still an early morning but she now gets up quietly and comes down without waking everyone. She is allowed to watch some cartoons until everyone else gets up. She wakes at 6 and the baby gets up at 8ish so it is so nice that she doesn't wake him.
Funny, the other day I was looking at pictures of the girls when they first came. Emma came over and asked who that blond haired girl was. It was her, she didn't recognize herself from that time frame.
For the most part my concerns about behaviors have really diminished. She is still emotionally a lot younger but she is growing. At this time I am more concerned about her educational challenges and wonder if I can get some answers about that issue. Pretty amazing for a child who moved to 7 different homes because of her volatile tantrums.
Happy Birthday Emma! May this be a year of great growth and happiness.
Yay for progress. We have FL postcards to send but need to get them written.
ReplyDeleteThis is fabulous! The growth in Emma is just wonderful. I am glad you're homeschooling her, too. Imagine if she had kept going in school with these bad habits and study issues. A few more years and she would have been in hot water! I hope you can get some answers. Meghan has some of the same types of issues you listed, and her testing came back normal. For her it's just lack of motivation, not lack of ability. She will do only the minimum she needs to get by, and nothing I say or do will convince her to extend her effort.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Emma! You are a beautiful girl with a wonderful smile!
ReplyDelete