17 November 2012

Julia and I are on a very crowded plane winging towards Baltimore.  Babies are crying, my carry on bag no long fits comfortably in the overhead bin, the  pretzels are so small that I wouldn’t give them to a toddler for fear of choking, and the leg room -- well, I’ve never been happier to be a mere 5’5”.    We are traveling Southwest and the upside is price.  The only upside is price.  I am grateful that I can afford to go to the east coast three times in as many months (wedding, thanksgiving, christmas) but  . . . my thoughts are not very grateful.

Julia is missing two and a half days of school next week, so I asked that work be sent home.  What came home was disappointing.  Two books with questions written by the sub, not her reading aide.  The person who she usually reads with picks challenging books and writes good questions on sticky notes for Julia to answer as she reads each page.  The sub sent two books that are way below Julia’s reading level and wrote the most obvious questions.  We just went through one book in about 15 minutes.  The math sheets sent home are no better -- although some are too hard.   Yes, this woman is trying her best.  I do not doubt that.  And we are stuck with her until the end of January.  I sent an email about some math papers that came home -- one that had drawing and writing on it, and a variety of problems that are mostly too hard.  I am sure she was given this sheet and left to her own devices.  And then what?  I have no idea.  No one looked at the sheet before it was sent home?  

So, more of those sheets were sent home.  I asked at the conference for a math plan, and asked if she’d begin multiplication soon.  Multiplication sheets came home.  Two sheets on the concepts of multiplication and a number of fact sheets.  

I went to the Learning Store on Thursday and brought home some new workbooks -- some reading comprehension after short paragraphs which are pretty hard for what they say is second grade.  I may have to go back and get something easier but I’ll try slogging away at the one I bought for the week and see if Julia can do it.  I also got a money workbook and the easiest multiplication workbook that I could find.

We started talking about multiplication a few minutes ago.  I drew triangles and asked Julia to put them in groups of 2’s or 3’s.  We counted the groups and she was able to say, “there are 3 fours,” to which I replied 3 fours can be written 3x4.  Then she counted the triangles and could answer that there were 12 triangles and 3 fours were 12 and 3x4=12.  I think we have to do this for awhile before we take another step.

There is a big caveat here -- I have no idea if we should be working on multiplication right now.   I have no idea of what is next in math or how to introduce it.  

I think I was in the place a few summers ago.  Before Randall and Deb Rumpf.  I am cranky about having to go back to this place, this mindset.  On the other hand, I remember where we were when last I felt so alone and felt the responsibility to figure out what and how to teach Julia.  Julia barely knew a few sight words, she was reading by memorizing texts that we went over and over, she could hardly write her name, her first name, and there were no numbers, no time, no past and future, and David had a very short time to live.  

Today, Julia reads.  She counts, she adds and subtracts.  She spells and wants to write stories.  She can talk about tomorrow and yesterday, and we -- she and I -- are a stronger family.

And I see I am finally and still an optimist.  Low, sad, cranky, frustrated, but resilience and strength is returning.