Reading instruction and public school

[Guest guest]

Carolyn,

Actually my son's classroom teacher has been a gem! She has listened

to me and what I know about my child and then observed him to confirm

what I have told her and is trying her best to use teaching

techniques that will help him. It IS the Head of Special Education

that made the comment about " not changing the whole curriculum just

for him " when I asked them to begin teaching him to read in

kindergarten. Apparently her idea is that kindergarten is just used

to teach letter recognition whereas the kindergarten in another state

that my first son went to did start to teach reading/word recognition

in kindergarten.

And in response to reading instruction.....I really did virtually

nothing to teach my older son to read EXCEPT I read to him starting

about six months old with baby books and have been extremely faithful

about reading daily to both boys and you can hardly walk through our

house without stepping on books we have so many they overflow the

many bookcases we keep buying! Anyway, he also was not interested in

reading aloud and still is not but the summer between first and

second grade he just caught on, like a light bulb turned on. He

began to devour books and by the end of second grade when he took the

CAT test he scored in his reading and comprehension at the TWELFTH

grade level!! Boy were we shocked! He continues to love reading

but chooses a nice variety and still hates reading out

loud!....except for all the jokes from his joke books! Carol