Back in the saddle and griping about books and maybe some changes

Whew, we've had an entire month off school and now we're back!  I was worried it would be hard to get back into the routine, but we fell right back into it.  Huzzah!  This week we're learning about Robin Hood and Richard the Lion Heart (who was not a great king if you want to know the truth).  Our book of the week is Robin Hood (A Stepping Stone Book).  We've read several of the Stepping Stone Books and the more of them I read, the less I like them.  I know they are aimed at children reading them to themselves, but Indy's not at that point yet, so I have to read them to him.  They are sooooo basic in their writing and grammar.  I find it insulting to be honest.  Some of the sentences aren't even complete, but fragments.  This drives me insane.  I'm not even sure I want Indy reading them once he gets to that point.  The stories are also pretty much dumbed down and that's really irritating too.  I think I only purchased 2 other Stepping Stone Books that we haven't read yet and I'm not sure we will.  I may get different books to replace them.  Sigh.
I'm also thinking of replacing our Latin program.  Indy really, really likes Minimus (mostly because of the comic strip at the beginning of each lesson and the fact that it's based on a real family who lived in Roman Britain), and I think it's cute, but I don't have a Latin background and find it hard to teach.  I've heard a lot of good stuff about Lively Latin and like the samples I've seen online, so we may switch to this and use Minimus as a supplement once our Latin knowledge has increased.   Indy really enjoys finding words in English that are actually Latin or Latin based.  It's become like a game.  I'm glad I decided to introduce it this year.  If we can keep it up, one day he'll rock the SAT's.  :)

Davis Dyslexia Therapy

So, last week we went to Stuttgart for Indy's dyslexia therapy.  I researched for a long time to find something that I thought would work for him and after reading The Gift of Dyslexia, I decided the Davis method was the way to go.  Finding a provider in Germany proved a bit more difficult, but we were fortunate enough to find someone who offers it in English (very important) and who could fit us in.  Actually, we could only get 3 days this time and will finish it up in Sept.  In just 3 days though, we saw amazing results.

One of the big things for picture thinking dyslexics (which both Indy and Mr. HH James Bond are) is that letters don't really mean much and "trigger" words like a, the, and, in, with, etc. have no no meaning to them.  Think about it, can you picture "the?"  Part of the therapy involves making the alphabet out of clay so he can hold the letter, flip it over, and see it in 3D.  Here he is making his upper case letters.

After making both upper and lower case, he starts to work on making models of trigger words.  The idea is that they look up the word to get a definition, then make something in clay that to them represents the definition (for children we simplify the definition).  The word "make" is defined as creating or building something from other materials.  He then has to come up with at least 5 sentences using the word.  Once the model is built, the word is then made out of clay and an arrow points from the word to the model.  Here is Indy's MAKE:

It's 2 boys making a wall out of blocks.  He points to the model and says "You are MAKE, meaning something created or built from other materials."  He then points to the word and says "You say MAKE."  He spells the word, touching each letter, then closes his eyes and spells is forwards and backwards (again touching each letter) and describes the model.

Here is MADE:

He used the same original model, but put a thought bubble around it with a person thinking about MAKE in the past tense.


Here is MAKES:

The idea here is that two figures talk about someone else, as in "He makes a good wall."

 There was more to the therapy, including setting the "mind's eye" which I did not get at all, but James Bond totally understood.  Indy really got the most out of defining trigger words with pictures.  He was reading the first night of his own volition.  Reading!  I almost cried.  The next day he begged to bring the book he had been reading to lunch.  Sure it was a Spongebob graphic novel (like a comic, but in book form and longer), but still, he was reading the word bubbles! Out loud to me and James Bond.  It was amazing.  This is an expensive therapy, but thus far it has been worth every penny.
We have exercises to do every day and he's super excited about reading now.  I can't tell you what a relief this is.  Hopefully this will make school a whole lot easier.

Dyslexia

School is on summer break!  Hurrah!  I'm not sure who's more excited, Indy or me (probably me).  One of the good things about homeschooling is that as a parent, I get to see what works, what doesn't and what, if any problems there might be with Indy's learning.  For a while I suspected Indy had a reading problem.  He wanted to read so badly, but it just wasn't coming together for him.  He struggled, he cried, I cried.  It was awful.  At first It thought there might be a problem with his eyes, so we went to the eye doctor for a check up.  His eyes were perfect.  I then started taking note of the specific issues and took to the internet to research what they could mean.  Over and over I came up with dyslexia.  It shouldn't have been  a surprise really, as Mr. HH is dyslexic. I did not want Indy to struggle the way Mr. HH has and started researching methods to help.  We went to his ped for advice (she verified the dyslexia, even though I already knew) and finally found the Davis Method.  Mr. Davis is dyslexic himself and devised this method on his own.  I picked up a copy of his book, The Gift of Dyslexia, which, if you're not dyslexic is a fascinating read.  I had no idea how it worked.  After reading this book, I knew this was the method that would work best for Indy.  On the main page of the website, they list the Davis Providers in the US and around the world.  There happens to be one about an hour and a half from us that works in English.  I contacted her and set up a consultation.  We spent a few hours with her so she could evaluate Indy and see if she thought this would work for him.  I already knew it would (I'm a mom, I know these kinds of things), and she agreed.  Of course our insurance won't pay for it, but we decided that any amount of money was worth it to help Indy read.  Mr. HH, who still struggles, would have paid twice the fee if it meant Indy wouldn't have the same issues he had while growing up.  We are going to Stuttgart in 2 weeks for Indy's therapy sessions.  I so hope this works.  Indy is crazy excited because he too is convinced (he concluded this all on his own) that he will be able to read better afterward.  Cross your fingers.  I'll let you know how it goes.