Friday, January 12, 2007
Tears For Fears Inhouse Concert
The big drama last night was Princess coming to me in tears because she will fail her spelling test today. Let me back up, since beginning her new school Tuesday, Princess has had to work on spelling each night as well as math. Not a bad homework load, much better than the 2 hours a night previously. However, the state we lived in just last week taught that words for a second grader should be spelt phonetically rather than correct English. I have yet to figure out why. She was just beginning to touch on regular spelling. So, fast forward to the 10 spelling words that were the fixture of my evenings this week. She does great, she can do all kinds of exercises with them, until you remove them from her sight and she has to spell them.So she realized quickly that she would be failing her spelling test. This set off a rather scary "I'm like my mother" panic attack. My little achiever doesn't care that she can't spell, she is upset because she isn't going to excel and make an awesome grade. I took a novel approach last night, I agreed with her. Yep, you're going to fail it.
As TLG would say, BLINK----
Princess couldn't believe that I said that. I had her full attention at this point. Here was something that mother couldn't and wouldn't fix. Whoa! The Man and I then pointed out that this was new for her and through hard work, she would eventually spell like a pro. However, until then, it was her job to do the best she could. Even if she fails. She sucked it up and took herself off to bed after another trail test (that she would have failed).
So......The Man dropped her off at the school bus stop and then ran home, jumped in his truck and drove to the school. (I LOVE THIS MAN) He caught up with the new teacher and after assuring him that we were concerned and explained the problem, he asked what we could do more to help her achieve her goals. The teacher was awesome, gave some suggestions and is now aware of the situation in case Princess breaks into tears over a spelling test. He was also home before the bell rang, so Princess never saw him.
Tonight we will begin intense spelling lessons for my sweet, control-freak daughter, who is so much like me in this area that it's scary. Also, my school starts back tomorrow, my book has yet to arrive so I wonder if The Man will go talk to my professor too?
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you know what? I had this problem with my daughter when she was younger. She was going along just fine with spelling - and then they decided that phonetic spelling was the way to go. This totally upset her process of learning the words.
What did I do? I literally told her to ignore the phonetic approach and just learn them at home in whatever way she could master. Some kids need visual stimulation to learn spelling. Others need the auditory (phonetic). Sometimes the phonetic approach really messes with their little heads.
If you need any suggestions on different techniques - email me. Been there - done that and glad it's over.
And The Man sounds SO awesome. Bless him for going to her school and making sure Princess was none the wiser.