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conulyShe's finally learning to check her work as she spells. This doesn't necessarily translate to better spelling - the only two tests we've gotten back this year were a 40 and a 0, so... yeah - but she does now realize when words she's studied look wrong, and she does understand that she *should* review her words before handing her test in. So go her!
She also, I realize now, has become the master of the strategic mumble. Maybe this is what she was doing in class all last year? She was reading aloud the blurb of a book to me.... *dreamy flashback music*
Evangeline: After he kissed his elbow, did MumbleRumble become a girl?
Me: Wait, what did you say?
Eva: After he kissed his elbow, did MumbleRumble-
Me: Who???
Eva: *pause* Mumblerumble
Me: Can you try that again?
Eva: (slightly louder) mum
Me: Seriously? I know you're just mumbling so I won't know you didn't really read the word. Except I do know. What's his name?
Now, at this point, had I used that line on Ana, she would've acted huffy and upset and stormed that I don't know what she's thinking and she can do it herself without my help and basically done whatever she could to change the subject from her reading to... anything else! It's every bit as transparent as the mumbling! But Eva, you know, she knows when the game is up. (Edit: Although, to be fair, Ana probably wouldn't've tried the mumbling in the first place, even if she was having trouble reading it for some reason. I don't know what she would've done, since she's never had trouble reading aloud, but this doesn't seem like her style at all.)
Eva: Marvelrumble
Me: What's his first name?
Eva: Marvel.
Me: I don't think so. Let's chunk this into syllables. The first one is mar, what's the second? We'll cover the other word.
Eva: Vel.
Me: No.
Eva: V. I. L - oh, n. Vin. Marvin. Marvin Redpost!
Me: Thanks.
Other than that she swears she's *always* finishing before anybody else in the class and she's *always* bored. If this is true, we may send her in with some other work to do if she finishes first and has read her books, but things that she's not studying in school already. That would just exacerbate the problem, and we already *do* extra schoolwork at home. (Ana still isn't happy about that. She likes the results of doing math before she encounters it in school, but she doesn't like that this requires work.)
On the subject of homework, I'm finally enforcing the rule I should've been enforcing all along: I set a reasonable amount of time for Ana to do her work (an hour and 15 minutes, plus some time for reading), and when the timer goes off, she's done. I mean, I'm fair and if she only has two words left to write I'll let her do that, but whatever's not close to being completed gets put away and she can finish it in the morning if she wakes up on time but I won't have it eating up the entire evening. It's like when she was three and would dawdle all day over her breakfast. Now that she has a time limit, lo and behold, she's mostly fitting her homework within the time limit! Look, Ana, it *doesn't* take you three hours to do one spelling assignment, one math assignment, and a journal entry! And I don't need to sit on top of you and scream, either!
I knew I should've really done this at least a year ago, and I don't know why I didn't.
She also, I realize now, has become the master of the strategic mumble. Maybe this is what she was doing in class all last year? She was reading aloud the blurb of a book to me.... *dreamy flashback music*
Evangeline: After he kissed his elbow, did MumbleRumble become a girl?
Me: Wait, what did you say?
Eva: After he kissed his elbow, did MumbleRumble-
Me: Who???
Eva: *pause* Mumblerumble
Me: Can you try that again?
Eva: (slightly louder) mum
Me: Seriously? I know you're just mumbling so I won't know you didn't really read the word. Except I do know. What's his name?
Now, at this point, had I used that line on Ana, she would've acted huffy and upset and stormed that I don't know what she's thinking and she can do it herself without my help and basically done whatever she could to change the subject from her reading to... anything else! It's every bit as transparent as the mumbling! But Eva, you know, she knows when the game is up. (Edit: Although, to be fair, Ana probably wouldn't've tried the mumbling in the first place, even if she was having trouble reading it for some reason. I don't know what she would've done, since she's never had trouble reading aloud, but this doesn't seem like her style at all.)
Eva: Marvelrumble
Me: What's his first name?
Eva: Marvel.
Me: I don't think so. Let's chunk this into syllables. The first one is mar, what's the second? We'll cover the other word.
Eva: Vel.
Me: No.
Eva: V. I. L - oh, n. Vin. Marvin. Marvin Redpost!
Me: Thanks.
Other than that she swears she's *always* finishing before anybody else in the class and she's *always* bored. If this is true, we may send her in with some other work to do if she finishes first and has read her books, but things that she's not studying in school already. That would just exacerbate the problem, and we already *do* extra schoolwork at home. (Ana still isn't happy about that. She likes the results of doing math before she encounters it in school, but she doesn't like that this requires work.)
On the subject of homework, I'm finally enforcing the rule I should've been enforcing all along: I set a reasonable amount of time for Ana to do her work (an hour and 15 minutes, plus some time for reading), and when the timer goes off, she's done. I mean, I'm fair and if she only has two words left to write I'll let her do that, but whatever's not close to being completed gets put away and she can finish it in the morning if she wakes up on time but I won't have it eating up the entire evening. It's like when she was three and would dawdle all day over her breakfast. Now that she has a time limit, lo and behold, she's mostly fitting her homework within the time limit! Look, Ana, it *doesn't* take you three hours to do one spelling assignment, one math assignment, and a journal entry! And I don't need to sit on top of you and scream, either!
I knew I should've really done this at least a year ago, and I don't know why I didn't.
