The girl who couldn't write 'bat'....

[lougle]

In April I took DD2 out of school after (among other things) it took half an hour to write the word 'bat'. That half an hour was filled with yelling, screaming, and tears, both of fear and frustration.

I haven't asked her to do any writing between then and now, so as the first homework in the new school loomed large, I was terrified apprehensive and wondering if it would be a 'bridge too far' after a successful first week at a new school.

She astounded me. Not only with the amount she was willing to write, but with her handwriting, her spelling (sometimes helped, other times not) and her perseverance.

We only had the pencil slammed down around four times and she yelled at me three times. Which is a vast improvement.

I thought I'd show you

Hmm..technical issues.

She's gone to bed happy!

I printed off some info and we read it together to decide what was interesting (she wanted to include the length of the beak and didn't believe me that googling hadn't given an answer). Then she wrote it.

I was so impressed. She had a mini-moment about 'colour'. She'd written 'colir', so I said nothing. She said 'it's wrong'. I said 'don't worry. Your teacher will see you need extra help with that word.' She said 'I don't know how to spell it'. So I said 'c-o-l-ou-r'. She gave me a ??? look, so I repeated it twice and said 'what sounds do you hear?' She said 'ir'. 'ir'. I hear ir, 'colir'!!!!

Then she muttered 'but I know it's wrong because it's too short '

I nearly wet myself laughing at her muttering, but I told her the spelling.

Such a tricky balance between letting it be their own work and helping.

Brilliant lougle and well done to Dd2

Dd3 does that with spellings too, she knows they are not right but doesnt know what to do about it!

Good luck for tomorrow

I am thrilled for you both &

What an incredible achievement for her (and you).

I hope she is happy there and it works out well
x

Thank you so much. It's so nice when people 'get it'.

That's brilliant :)

That's a massive amount of progress!

Well done to your dd2. :o

When she gets up in the morning tell her how proud all the mumsnetters are of her and Michaela Strachan better watch her back!

Good grief. That's a fabulous piece of work

That it very impressive.

That's super, really amazing progress. I'm also impressed she's joining up.

Wow, that is fantastic!

Just shows what our children can achieve when they get the right help and support. Well done lougle - amazing achievement and I'm delighted for you both .

Brilliant stuff! It sounds like she's feeling a lot more confident in herself.

Congrats to mini-Lougle and to you Lougle. If I remember rightly you were doing the headsprout program?

To be fair she's not getting 'support' - she's just in a smaller school, but who knows, perhaps that's all she will need?

This morning, apparently, she decided her homework was worthy of showing the HT so she took herself down to her office to show her, then showed her teacher, who gave her a sticker, and her TA. That sort of thing just couldn't happen in a school of 400 as she was in before. She wouldn't have dreamt of it. I suspect the new school feels more like 'her' school.

She also showed her grazed thigh to her teacher (caused by disobeying her mother at the park and trying to share a zip wire seat with another child, despite warning she'd get hurt ) and her teacher's response was to tell all the children about DD2's ouchy and allow her to sit on a chair rather than the carpet (right up DD2's street, as she requested 'either a wheelchair or crutches at the weekend ).

She starts yoga before school on Wednesday -it's a free weekly before school club, paid for by the school sports grant, for all the juniors.

Streaky, yes to head sprout, although for dd2 the phonics bit is revision as she is a fluent reader. She really needs to move on to the comprehension, which we'll do shortly.

That's brilliant

So glad that it's going well. The right setting just makes such a huge difference.

It really does .

Sometimes the best support is so subtle you don't notice it's happening .

She sounds as though she's getting just what she needs and her progress is a reflection of how well she's responding to it. Long may it continue .

Lougle
Sometimes a thread like this reminds us all how marvellous an ordinary set of mainstream teachers can be for our dc

What a difference the 'right' school makes. I want to send them