Tammy has to fill in a form at least once a week – a basic one requiring full name, full names of parents, residential address, postal address – that sort of thing. The aim was to improve her handwriting and to drill basic self-knowledge. Not once have I been completely satisfied. Either her hand writing was not neat enough or she did not plan the space well and used lettering that was too big or she started in the middle of the block instead of flush left. Or she left out something… or she used a lower case letter instead of a capital letter…. or she had some information wrong.
But there has been steady improvement! At least she knows her parents’ names and her address and telephone number. Filling in a form is so simple and yet sooo difficult! It has proved to be way more difficult than I anticipated last year! We’ll keep forms on the weekly programme next year and hopefully Tammy will move on to different formats like filling in bank deposit slips. And hopefully she will progress to using a pen instead of a pencil!
Filing papers with names has also been on the weekly schedule. I write names on separate papers and underline the surname and she then files the papers in her “Filing file”. Tammy has known the alphabet for a long time, but filing the papers has proved to be a real challenge. Even here at the end of the year, she still makes mistakes. This is another skill that will remain on the weekly time-table. Filing two or three papers alphabetically might just become a daily task. I want to make sure that before our journey together comes to a halt, that she is really able to file 100% . I think I can let her fill in forms on behalf of “other people” (she can look up their addresses and telephone numbers in the telephone directory) and then file the forms in alphabetical order. Filing according to date should also appear on the programme!
Speaking of dates and times: Tammy has been able to read a calendar for at least two years. She knows a month has 30 or 31 days- and can even use her knuckles to work out which months have 31 days. But when asked how many days are left between today and 3 December, or how many weeks are left until Christmas, she is totally floored! More intentional calendar work next year!
Tammy has been able to read a clock for about three years. She is pretty certain of international time and knows that 17:00 is five o’ clock p.m. But despite lots of practice, she still gets confused when asked what the time was x minutes before or x minutes or hours after. I had really thought that we had cracked those: we did lots and lots of adding or subtracting minutes, with and without a physical clock at hand…. and yet her marks for this section of the exam paper was only 2 out of 7! I could have cried! Another skill that she will crack in the end, but I am preparing for a year of focussed effort!
On a positive note: counting money was also on the weekly schedule and she CAN NOW COUNT CASH!! Hurrah! Praise the Lord. For this section of her math exam, she scored 100% Her measuring of lines and dividing them into three and four also got 100% Drawing lines according to given lengths (e.g. draw 2 lines of 10 cm and divide them into 4 columns) was another weekly activity.
Weekly repetition pays dividends and we are going to crack the time, calendar, forms and filing challenges! Among other challenges that will rear their heads!
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