Ug At and Op!

In the on going efforts to help Lissa's reading continue to blossom I have found a nice set of easy read books at the library. We get out one a week. The majority of the words in the book focus on word families.  Like 90 per cent will be words that use op in last weeks literary masterpiece..  As in hop, mop, top plop etc.  When we finish the book, I have been making simple board and card  games that keep the words in use for her.

It seems to be working pretty well.  I am still a bit concerned that retaining words is clearly much harder for her than it is for any of my other children, except for Fiona.  It is this facet of her learning abilities that has prompted me to have as many ways as possible to use/play with the words that we learn. Remembering the sounds of letters is still hard for her sometimes.  I have   verbal mini games I do for that too.

I have yet to find a good way to learn the more traditional sight words.  They typically are less phonetic and are harder for her to retain. But we are making progress and what we are doing she feel really good about.  Despite how challenging reading is for her, she has a very thirsty mind. She is very good at math and able to do things with numbers that surprise me.  I know too that reading readiness and mastery is most typically on a continuim.  Although our society pretty much expects full reading capability by 6, studies have shown that many children are not ready to read till later than 6.  And Lissa only turned 6 2 months ago.

As with all my kids, I fret over anything like this.  Does she have a learning disability that I should be looking into more closely?  Is this a legacy of the substances   that she was exposed to daily in utero?  Am I doing the best possible thing working on this with her myself or should I be turning to professionals?  And as usual, I can only say, I. don't. know.

I do know that at my core, I believe she is learning.  And that in a more traditional learning environment, her self esteem could well be at risk.  Here I have been able to protect that self esteem, to ensure that she remembers the things she is good at.  And that I also believe that in large part, people blossom in their own time.  I call it the Leo the Late Bloomer syndrome.  It is my favorite Leo Leonni book.