Demi's Progress

I'm so proud of Demi's progress in school!

When school let out for Christmas break, Demi's special ed teacher gave us a list of things to work on, including working with coins, counting, writing, and reading. She gave us three new readers to work through, two with new words and a third review one.

Just about each day of Christmas break, we worked at least a little bit each day on homework. We're making progress on the coins - she knows all of the coin amounts, but she had trouble identifying them. Writing is a struggle. She can pretty much do all the numbers and capital letters (with a couple of exceptions) and we're starting on the lower case letters. Her progress in reading is the easiest to measure, since each reader has a definitive test before moving on to the next. After finishing the 10th reader, she has about 30 words and can sound out countless more.

Over Christmas, we saw Demi's grandmother (a 3rd grade teacher in SD) and a cousin (a kindergarten teacher in CO). Both of them said that Demi was way ahead of the kindergarten classes they knew. Their kindergartners were still working on letters and wouldn't get to blending sounds into words until the spring. (I believe that's a function of GA's preK program and an excellent school district.) I was so proud of Demi when she could read each of them a story from her reader! She's working so hard!

I remember a year or so ago when I heard about another Kabuki child reading in kindergarten. I was so surprised, amazed, and encouraged. I feel the same way with Demi. That's what makes me continue the regimen that she has. Anything I can do to help her body and mind function better will help.