To the zoo on her 16th birthday

Tammy turned 16 today.  To celebrate we had no school except Bible and then we went to the zoo.  The weather was great: slightly overcast,  but not too hot or humid.  We did not get to see all the animals as they were working in the bear’s and the tiger’s enclosures.  But we did get a good look at the lions!  The Pretoria zoo is one of the best in the world.  It is quite big and we walked A LOT!   I wish I had taken more photos.  (Tammy took one of nearly every animal, but of course I do not have her camera with me, so I can’t blog her pics.)  She did not flinch when we looked at the snakes in the reptile park, but said a firm “No thank you” when I suggested the critters.  I guess no one needs to look at spiders and scorpions on one’s birthday!

To go to the zoo, was Tammy’s choice for an outing.  At first I thought whom we could invite to go along (her mom works full time again), but in the end I decided it would be best if we went  on our own.  I’m glad we did, because in this way Tammy was really relaxed and we talked a lot.  When she is in a group, she is inclined to withdraw and not to participate in conversations.  I told the lady at the entrance that it was Tammy’s birthday, but when she asked Tammy how old she was, I almost had to prod her to answer.  Old habits do not die easily and I think she is just used not to answer immediately, unless I prompt her with an “immediately”!  

After the zoo we went to jewellers to have her ears pierced.  I asked her a while ago what jewellery she was going to wear for her big party ( a Hollywood dress up party this Saturday).  She wasn’t certain, but that’s when I noticed that her ears were not pierced.  I asked her whether she would like to have her ears pierced and she was very enthusiastic!  So after ensuring me again and again, that she was certain she wanted pierced ears, we went into the jewellers.  She was shown the different studs and again she was quite certain which ones she wanted: she immediately chose gold ones with shiny red centres. 

Next we went to Clicks to buy surgical spirits for her newly pierced ears and then we had a cold drink before heading to the beauty parlour.  What a fun day!  Happy birthday Tammy – only two more nights before your big night.  I can’t wait to see you in your evening gown! 

Here are some pictures of our day:

(PS.  Look closely at the last two pictures: can you spot the difference?)

15th Birthday!

Tamerin turned 15 last week. She has grown so tall and is slimming down very nicely. She has lost about 5 kg since last year. Water aerobics seem to be paying dividents - even though she still has bit of a spare tyre around the waist, it is so much better and I am really proud of her. A major goal is now to improve posture: she and I are inclined to slouch. I let her stand with eyes closed in front of the mirror. When she opens her eyes, I let her focus on a pelvic tilt to see what wonders that does to her posture and how much better her clothes look. (She is to remind me to stand up straight, but she has never done it. None of us wants to look like an old woman!)

I could not attend her birthday party on the Saturday, so I packed a picnic on her actual birthday and her mother, her grandmother, Tammy and I had a lunch in a park.

One of the gifts I gave Tammy was a book by the Jonas Brothers. In it there are interview type questions to each brother e.g. "What type of ice-cream do you like best?" "What is the best movie you have ever seen?" Before we went on the picnic Tammy practised some of these questions. Asking questions is just as difficult as formulating answers! She asked us these questions at the picnic. At first she was hesitant, but soon warmed to the idea. This could become an annual event!

You might have noticed that she no longer blogs. That is because, all of a sudden, she can no longer copy and paste her diary onto her blogs. It is quite a shame - she has kept a journal (with my help of course) for two years and her sentence construction, spelling, typing etc. have improved much. However, the diary thing has become a bit boring: its always more or less about where they went and what they ate, and perhaps about what school work we did. She never writes of own accord about how she felt.

I now want her to write dialogues. She is still inclined to have conversations with imaginary people. I do not want her to "speak to herself" because she does this in front of other people and other children, especially, just think she is "mad". I do recognize her need to express herself in conversation though, and therefore creative writing will now be "conversations".

By the way, the PACE she has to do this week is just about homonyms: underline the correct word: e.g. flew/ flue. (Who needs to know what a flue is? Certainly not Tamerin.) This goes against all I have tried to teach. I believe these exercises will just confuse her in the long run. She did a few of these underline exercises and did them quite well, but I think that is because she has known these words in context for a long time. She has never confused "eight" and "ate". Generally she even gets her "their"and "there" right.

Anyway, I have made a list of the new vocabulary in the book and will teach these words to her separately - I am convinced if she learns earn and urn at the same time, she is bound to use the wrong word! Who needs to know about homonyms anyway? As long as you know the words and can spell them and use them correctly in context.

God, please help me to make the right teaching decisions for Tamerin!

Tamerin's birthday and reading

Tamerin's 14th birthday was a great occasion. We went to see the South African stage version of High School Musical and she and friends were enthralled. Such a happy day. She blogged about it here. (To any South Africans who might be reading this post, the show is well worthwhile.)

I gave her a Zac Efron (the main actor in the HSM movie) book and below are a few short video clips of how we go about reading it. As we did last year, we still:

1. Match words (look at the word and hear it and match it to the correct word on the base sheet).

2. Choose and show words (hearing the word and finding it, without an example.)

3. Sight read the words individually (flash cards).

4. Write the words.

5. Read sentences.

The words are chosen from text she wants to or needs to read: i.e. they are most of the new words in a particular piece and include words I know she has struggled with before.

What I find very satisfying is that Tammy is now better able to split up a word in syllables and read it syllable by syllable instead of just guessing the word. When we come to a difficult word, I write down the "bits"and we practice saying it, bit by bit. Not only does it help much with pronunciation, but I find that in the end she can actually spell words like inevitably, mischievous, initial, relationship. (Bearing in mind that she is supposed to be mentally handicapped, this is quite an achievement.)

Pronunciation is improving - very slowly, but surely. The HSM dialogue she and her brother did on her birthday party went quite well, but unfortunately the video clip is not too clear - they were pretty much silhouetted against the light. I will keep the clips though, as they will help me to evaluate progress in speech later this year. It is already light years better than 20 months ago, when I first met her.

"Gabriella" arriving at her new school.

Matching words

Choosing words

Flash cards

Writing out new words

Reading Zac Efron's Annual.