Milestone time: last week Jon moved to the Grade 6 textbook.
Was it only three years ago this month, in Grade 3, that he moved into the second of two Grade 1 readers?
In the recent past, each new textbook comes with a very dull tradition: standing in the local copy shop and make a 120% duplicate of the 550-pages (with an iPod this time, whew!) for home use. While we read at home every weekend, Jon hasn’t been allowed to take the text home for years now: the texts are long out of print and the school has only one copy of them (since very few kids at his school have made it to this level). So his teacher slips us the book ahead of time and I get to work.
Reading and spelling are where Jon soars academically. His spelling lists have wild words like oceanography and veterinarian on them (in his tests, they must be used in a sentence!). We’re at the point in reading where his reading skills are actually bumping their little heads on the ceiling of Jon’s intellectual comprehension, but that tends to lead him to further intellectual development, so it’s all good.
It’s been worth all the time, hard work and tantrums so far.
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Bev says:
April 1, 2008 at 6:14 am (UTC 0)
Yay, hooray, that’s absolutely brilliant!
Grandma says:
April 2, 2008 at 8:42 pm (UTC 0)
Awesome! Go, Jon, Go!
Peter says:
April 10, 2008 at 9:59 am (UTC 0)
Just for the record: it seems as though I’ve mistated Jon’s reading level: Jon got his report card (Jon’s in an Individual Education Programme or some such, which means he doesn’t get grades, just lots of descriptive comments) and for the record, he is considered mid-Grade 4. I don’t know why the Grade 5 book was considered mid-4, it’s probably has something to do with new concepts in educational theory.
In the end, all that really matters is that he keeps moving on, progressing through books, and comprehending as he can. Whatever it means today, Jon is reading a book that was considered Grade 6 level 20 years ago. And getting chapter books read to him at bedtime. One of our big stumbling blocks is because his left hand is so stiff, he can’t really use it effectively to help hold a book, so independent reading is limited to generally younger books that can open flat.
BTW, Jon’s current spelling list this week is all -tion words, including: civilization, authorization and fascination.