I had a chance to chat with Jordan’s lead teacher at school… I don’t get a chance to have quiet one-on-one time with her often. The classroom is FULL of assistant teachers and kids. And right now the classroom is down a part-time employee so that leads to a very overwhelmed lead teacher. So I completely relished in the opportunity to chat with her.
I was curious about Jordan’s progress with reading. I see signs here and there, but I haven’t pushed it very hard. Her brother was a hard core reader by now… but I’m trying not to obsess or compare. Every child is different. What surprised me was how Jordan’s teacher reacted to my questions. She told me Jordan had to work on a different skill before we focus on reading. The first thing she needs to be able to do is LISTEN.
Apparently Miss Jordan sits down to lesson time with her friends and is so busy talking that she finally quiets down just when the lesson is wrapping up. She’s missing some great opportunities to learn because she’s a social monster. Her teacher tells me that is isn’t a problem… YET. I guess we have a bit of time to work on this before Kindergarten.
In the meantime, I’m taking advantage of quiet time to work on letter sounds and words. Our book time before bed is officially my time to work on word sounds and encourage Jordan to use those sounds and deduction to identify words. Tonight she did a fabulous job figuring out the words “alligator” and “jaguar” while we read a Curious George ABC book. She’s willing to buy into this reading process when she slows down… but I make high speed children. I take full blame for that tendency.