Dyslexia...beyond reading and writing

Honeygirl was unofficially diagnosed with dyslexia five years ago. After a brief panic and visit to the local school , I quickly realized that the best option for her was for me to learn how to help her adapt and continue homeschooling.

In the following two years, we tried many alternative methods, helping her ot make connections and practice through baby steps. It was a lot of hard work for her, but by the end of fifth grade, she was reading ABOVE grade level. Most importantly, she has developed the ability to read for pleasure, something I had thought impossible a few years before.

The next two years, we focused on her writing skills. She needed special help developing her own way to organize her thoughts, as well as practice to strengthen her fine motor skills. She took to the keyboard like a duck to water. Two years later, she was writing organized stories and papers on the computer, and she had begun teaching herself cursive.

And I sat around, praising her and patting myself on the back. Ignorantly, I was guilty of assuming that since she could read and write, her dyslexia issues were gone. Yet this year HoneyGirl is facing new and different presentations, now in math. We selected Math U See, as Buzz has been having great success with it for three years now, and the workbook format is extremely helpful (less chance for copying mistakes). I was admittedly too distracted to pick up on it quickly, and fell into the habit of pressuring her to focus more and stop being lazy. The more I did that, the more frustrated she became. Instead of looking for the source of the frustration, I compounded my error in assuming it was just hormones.

Last week's illness gave me a little time to slow down enough to really see that her problem's were not for lack of trying. PreAlgebra, with all of its' parenthesis, powers, and negative signs is a mine field for a dyslexic to wade through every day. Conceptually, she understands well, but there are just so many things for her to visually take in it is overwhelming.

I got some great advice from a dear friend (a special education professional and homeschool mom). This year I need ot help HoneyGirl not only to develop new adaptation in math, but to find productive ways to channel her frustration on a daily basis. Most of all, I need to slow down and trust her input. This year is critical for her self-esteem, and accelerated academic pressure from Mom is not going to help.

After an infamous Bee Family pow-wow, we decided to give extra time to math. We are going to try some different tactics, like using red to make parenthesis stand out, etc. until we find one that works. We are also going to start allowing her to use a calculator for basic computations when learning new concepts, so that her energy can be focused on the skill at hand, instead of being misdirected into long division,etc. I am giving her my undivided attention from 11-1 pm for this, as it is a strong learning time for her. While it probably wont' ever take that long, having a larger block of time is helpful so she doesn't feel rushed.

Honey admitted that she has been struggling with lots of anger, because she is just so tired of having to work five times harder at everything. She agrees that she needs an outlet, and after much discussion, wants to take up running. We talked with one of the moms from the co-op who is a physical therapist and marathon runner, and she was happy to work up a program to get her started out right.

We have that great dog-friendly park with grass trails that is all but vacant during mid-day. This week, we went twice after math; her running ahead with our Bernese/Rottie mix, and me walking behind iwth our overweight Golden Retreiver. She and Bear played ball in the field when they were done with their 2-mile walk/run, waiting for us. It's a win-win all around.

On a positive note, she has decided that she wants to counteract her feelings of frustration with math by stepping up and taking more individual responsibility for her other subjects after last weeks' success. After our walk on Wednesday, she sat down at the computer to work on her spooky narrative. After an hour, she was still typing away when Buzz and I went out on errands. She was still writing, hours later, when we returned, proudly printing off her three page rough draft. (it was a five paragraph assignment!)

I am constantly relearning that I need to bend myself to embrace the positives that she creates, and let go of my own constructs. We've both been much happier this week, and of now small consequence, math was a breeze as well.