My Late Bloomer has Bloomed

[Jean in Newcastle]

It took her until 7th grade, but my late bloomer is blooming now.  Last year she was 2 to even 4 years behind in some of her language arts studies and content areas (that depended on her reading ability).  Now she's at grade level or above.  She's holding steady at about 2 years behind in math but I think that if she gains some confidence that she will start to bloom there too.  My mommy gut has been telling me that she was a late bloomer but I had many years of angst that I wasn't doing the right thing by letting her take her own time on these.  Now I'm glad that I did.  

[displace]

How great to hear! Great job!

[PeterPan]

I'm curious (just because I'm extrapolating to what could happen with my ds), was your ds like this as well?  And has your dd had evals yet?  Any label?  I remember when your ds got eval'd and couldn't remember about your dd!

 

No matter what, congrats on the progress and good news!  :)

[IsabelC]

That's lovely news Jean :)

[OneStepAtATime]

It took her until 7th grade, but my late bloomer is blooming now.  Last year she was 2 to even 4 years behind in some of her language arts studies and content areas (that depended on her reading ability).  Now she's at grade level or above.  She's holding steady at about 2 years behind in math but I think that if she gains some confidence that she will start to bloom there too.  My mommy gut has been telling me that she was a late bloomer but I had many years of angst that I wasn't doing the right thing by letting her take her own time on these.  Now I'm glad that I did.  

:hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:

[cherylswope]

Excellent. And so encouraging, as evidenced by the many "likes!"

 

"Slow & steady...." Aesop

 

 

 

Cheryl

 

Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child

[Lecka]

Great news!!!!!

[Jean in Newcastle]

I'm curious (just because I'm extrapolating to what could happen with my ds), was your ds like this as well?  And has your dd had evals yet?  Any label?  I remember when your ds got eval'd and couldn't remember about your dd!

 

No matter what, congrats on the progress and good news!   :)

Ds was not like this.  He has always been a rabbit in all areas.  The one area they match is that neither of them know their math facts - dd pretty much at all despite years and years of fun games, manipulatives, drills and mnemonics.  (Though she does know 6 x 6 if I do a hand sign associated with it - a mnemonic device).  Ds knows about half.  Both are visual-spatial learners.

 

Dd was evaluated by a COVD doc. and he didn't really find anything glaring.  She does some regressions that he could have worked on but that was pretty much it.  I decided not to pursue it.  We did some OT/ VT type stuff at home but she's my jock/gymnast and could do pretty much all of that with one hand behind her back.  No neuro-psych eval for her.  I'm still a bit bitter about spending all that money for ds and not really getting anything helpful out of it!  (Plus I haven't fully paid off ds' evals yet.)

 

She still hates history with a passion - including SOTW (sorry Susan!).  Her writing has gone from 0 to 60 by me backing off completely.  She decided that she's going to do a daily blog and is writing a thriller.  I promised to read it and not make a single editorial comment.  But honestly, I've only seen one stylistic thing that I'd suggest on how to set off dialog.  As she grows in confidence I might slip that into conversation somehow.   ;)   Her writing has gone from one forced sentence at a time last year of the variety of "My dog is brown and white" to complicated sentences full of suspense.  A lot of this is stubbornness and some kind of wall she throws up.  She had selective mutism as a very young child and it seems to have gone into some kind of an academic mutism.  So I have a dance of what I require and what I back off on.  Backing off doesn't necessarily mean that she doesn't do anything - it just means that we do a low stress minimum.  So I'm thrilled at this new development because it's a breakthrough she's made that I really have nothing to do with.  

[sbbulliv]

Yeah Jean!!

[MyLittleBears]

:party:  That's awesome!    

 

 

 

 

 

[Mukmuk]

Oh Jean, this is wonderful to hear!

 

Thanks for sharing this happy (ongoing) outcome. Kudos to your you AND your dd 😀ðŸ’.

[merry gardens]

:)

Thank you for sharing with us. It's good to read success stories.

[SandyKC]

Ds was not like this.  He has always been a rabbit in all areas.  The one area they match is that neither of them know their math facts - dd pretty much at all despite years and years of fun games, manipulatives, drills and mnemonics.  (Though she does know 6 x 6 if I do a hand sign associated with it - a mnemonic device).  Ds knows about half.  Both are visual-spatial learners.

 

Dd was evaluated by a COVD doc. and he didn't really find anything glaring.  She does some regressions that he could have worked on but that was pretty much it.  I decided not to pursue it.  We did some OT/ VT type stuff at home but she's my jock/gymnast and could do pretty much all of that with one hand behind her back.  No neuro-psych eval for her.  I'm still a bit bitter about spending all that money for ds and not really getting anything helpful out of it!  (Plus I haven't fully paid off ds' evals yet.)

 

She still hates history with a passion - including SOTW (sorry Susan!).  Her writing has gone from 0 to 60 by me backing off completely.  She decided that she's going to do a daily blog and is writing a thriller.  I promised to read it and not make a single editorial comment.  But honestly, I've only seen one stylistic thing that I'd suggest on how to set off dialog.  As she grows in confidence I might slip that into conversation somehow.   ;)   Her writing has gone from one forced sentence at a time last year of the variety of "My dog is brown and white" to complicated sentences full of suspense.  A lot of this is stubbornness and some kind of wall she throws up.  She had selective mutism as a very young child and it seems to have gone into some kind of an academic mutism.  So I have a dance of what I require and what I back off on.  Backing off doesn't necessarily mean that she doesn't do anything - it just means that we do a low stress minimum.  So I'm thrilled at this new development because it's a breakthrough she's made that I really have nothing to do with.  

Often the "mommy gut" is the best measure there is!!  Since you know your DD better than anyone else, it sounds like you're doing the perfect dance of requirement and backing off. GOOD JOB! :-D  

 

Not asking for any reason other than curious about what has been working--but did wonder, are you using any kinds of programs with your DD or are pretty much letting her freewheel it?  Mostly curious because it could provide valuable insight for parents I may encounter who have kids with stubbornness or anxieties that cause them to shutdown when faced with academic tasks.

 

It's so important for each parent to listen to that gut instinct, and I'm glad waiting has worked for your DD and you! CONGRATS! :-D 

[Jean in Newcastle]

For math, we've found the mastery/discovery approach of Khan academy has been best for her.  She can test out of those things that she already knows or gets instantly and can work more slowly on those things that she doesn't.  I do it with her so I can always stop and show her things in person as well.

 

For history we're going mostly visual - videos and interactive sites if I can find them.  I also plan to allow her to do some of her own research on things to find out the answers for things that I can't find videos/ sites for.  Books of all kinds, including historical fiction has bombed with her.

 

For science she's chosen Galore Park "So You Really Want to Learn Science - Book 2".  I was actually surprised that she chose that since in the past she's wanted 90% hands on.  But she's responding to their approach.  

 

For language arts she chose Write Source books.  They would not be what I would have chosen but she's doing them and that's better than her shutting down with everything else we did like R & S, Simply Grammar, Susan's book etc.  She's showing good grammar and punctuation usage in her own writing.  

 

For writing she's chosen to write a blog.  She was going to write various short stories but it has evolved into writing one page every day on the same short adventure story.  I'm just thrilled that she's writing.  We had down WWE or was it WWS - whichever one fit her grade last year.  It bombed big time.  She could do it but cried through the whole thing.  

 

Am I missing anything?  Eventually I'll probably add in a foreign language and logic but not quite yet.  

[Renny30]

Thank you for sharing that. It's encouraging. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

Oh, I forgot that we're doing Wordly Wise gr. 7 for vocabulary.  Today was the test because she had to read a passage that included the key vocabulary and then answer comprehension questions.  She absolutely hates this.  She whined a lot.  I was holding my breath a bit.  I mean I can require something but she can just shut down on me and she knows it.  But she did it.  And she did fairly well.  She whined some more when I had her go over it with me afterward but she didn't melt down.  I did corrections verbally and very low key.  She didn't really miss anything totally but there were a few things where she could have said a bit more.  I reminded her though that she likes 4 out of 5 of the weekly assignments.  She's on the fence as to whether this is good enough.   :001_rolleyes: