Officially Irritated... and Confused...

If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you have probably realized that we've has issues with The Girl and reading for ages now. She is still working on reading. She seems to be making good progress (we're using Reading Pathways right now for fluency), but I have noticed something over the past year that really irritates me.

She can read. And she says she can't. What I mean is that she'll tell me what something says without really thinking about it, and then she'll say "I was just guessing." It is like she wants to deny being able to read. And I am not the only one that has noticed this. Even The Boy has commented on it ("Mom, do you think she really looked at that paragraph, and picked out the word bicycle by guessing it?"). She also searches for things on my sister's iPad, indicating that she's spelling out words she claims she cannot read. And she'll sit for an hour looking intently at a book, tell me what it is about (which indicates comprehension, right?), and then say "I was just looking at the pictures."

WHY is she telling everyone she can't do it if she can? Nerves maybe? (And no, I do not have money for more testing, or tutors right now).

Thanks for letting me vent! I'm just going to keep going on the path we're on until she does read, or at least until she admits she can. And I think I'll maybe give her the Sonlight reading test and add in readers just below whatever level she scores at as well. Or maybe it is just time to get back into Reading Horizons.

On a brighter note, she's moving up from junior-junior roller derby practices to regular junior roller derby practices! Instead of skating with 7-10 year olds, no contact, she'll be doing full contact with 10-17 year olds! And she is super excited! We don't expect her to make the team roster (they try to rotate) any time soon, since our schedule limits us to one practice a week at this time, but at least she'll be raising her skill level, and she won't be bored at practice any more!

And On the Agenda...
The Girl will finish Life of Fred Farming today, and then go into Goldfish, although she's been talking about Saxon again. I think I should probably give her the placement test for that first and see where she really is now. And she decided she needs to learn cursive writing, right now, so I wrote out all the letters for her, and she's been working on it ever since!

The Boy has his first struggle with a Bridge (i.e. test) in Life of Fred, but did well enough on the second attempt to pass. I may have him do a third Bridge though, because I really don't want him moving ahead if he's not getting it. And he's trying out some writing work with Thinking in Threes this week. I have come to the conclusion that as good as Writing With Skill and Writing With Ease are,  that being the curriculum-tweaker I am, I prefer to use them as tools, not necessarily as written.

We watched some more of Mankind: The History of Us All yesterday, and read from Harry Stottlemeier's Discovery, as well as Black Ships Before Troy. I'm going to read to The Girl from A Child's Story of the Animal World about salamanders and millipedes, both of which she found in the backyard this week. The Boy has some more physics videos to watch, and some studying for the National Mythology Exam.

I'd like to work in some nature studies again, but we'll just see how the week plays out!