Third Term 2010 Plans and Good news

We have just started the 3rd term. After all the excitement of the World Cup, we (and many other people) experience a bit of a "Now what?"
Tammy and I made some plans for this term: she wants to learn about Phuket since her family are going there in September. I am trying to gather enthusiasm for another important theme that we had just started on before World Cup fever gripped us: SAFETY! Last term we discussed sexual abuse (hardly an exam or speech topic, but very important nonetheless!) What to do if there is a fire in the house, what to do if someone chokes, bleeds and a few other basie first aid topics, and improved usage of her cell phone are some of the safety topics that I planned, but that we have not yet got around to them.

First priority now is to evaluate reading, speed of looking up words, typing tests etc. - its report time again!

Yesterday at 12:15 Tammy asked me whether I wanted some tea - her hint that she wanted a break. As it was still 15 minutes from lunch time, I said "Let's first finish the chapter." We were busy with the last chapters of "Friends Forever" (A My Secret Unicorn Book). We both read the book out loud together and Tamerin follows with her finger. When we came to the end of the chapter, her finger of own accord moved to the next chapter, so we kept on reading. After a while I suggested we break for lunch and Tammy said "Let's first finish the chapter!!" This is a first! She has never asked to continue reading in lunch time! After lunch, she asked if could go on reading!

When I asked her questions about the story, a few 100% correct answers came out: "Why did they all shriek?" "Because a pine had fallen across the track." Wow! Tammy has never been able to put together a sentence like that. What a big improvement!

Something is happening language wise and this is what I have been praying for these past 3 years! Praise the Lord with me!

What shall we read next? Tammy wants to read "High School Musical 2", but I'm not so sure: on the one hand yes, because she is so interested, but on the other hand, the vocabulary is just a trifle too difficult and the language is not always the best. For example sentences with question marks pose as questions. This is a problem as I am trying so hard to get her to form proper questions, starting with a verb and not the subject! I am inclined to want to read another Unicorn book, just because she will be familiar with most of the vocabulary and should be able to follow the story easily.

And math's? She got 95% for her long multiplication homework of yesterday! She only made one small mistake: 0+ 4= 5! Oh Tamerin!

Thank you Lord for such progress! Thank you for the hope that you give us to keep us going! Thank you for helping Tammy! Thank you for her love.

Last day of school of First Term 2009

We had a wonderful last day of term last week: Tammy and her family came to our farm for an outing. First we had a lovely picnic on the stoep and then we climbed up the koppie (hill) behind the house. It is not very high or far, but it is quite steep.

Tammy and her brother climbing up the rocks. Since doing water aerobics, Tammy's general muscle tone has improved much and so has her balance and stamina. She climbed up with far greater ease than December last year when they first came to visit.

Tammy's grandmother and her mom.


On top of the world. Tammy still had a fever blister: she had tonsillitis last week. The spare tyre around her waist is slowly but surely getting thinner and thinner.

Ouma Vossie posing with the horse, with brother Shaen and cousin Lee standing by. Tammy has always been fond of horses, so riding had to be included of course. Hendrik was at home, so that worked out well. I wouldn't want to saddle and handle the horses myself.

Tammy on horseback. She has several toy horses. Last year we read "My secret Unicorn". Getting onto the real thing was a little intimidating, but Tammy seemed to really enjoy it.

Big smile before the dismount!

Shaen's turn.

While waiting their turns, the cousins had fun playing with the dogs.

Mommy's turn!

This has been a great term. There has been noteworthy progress in especially the following areas:

• Spelling and ability to "make out" words. Big improvement.
• Pronunciation generally and especially of "long" words like "electricity".
  
• Ability to use multiplication purposefully e.g. every day she has to calculate how many problems or sums she had by adding the amount in a column with the number of columns. (She usually did about 60 sums per day.) After counting and deducting the mistakes, she has to work out the percentage on the calculator. She also converted Rand to Dollars. We will do much more of this as their trip draws close.
• Ability to determine "highest" or "lowest" number.
• Ability to read the thermometer.
• Knowledge of sport (cricket and rugby) and awareness of political parties in South Africa (We have an election coming up.)
• Understanding of the meaning of Easter.
• General fitness and improved muscle tone, coordination and balance

Most noticeable challenges:

• Creative language (Speech and written language).
  
• Adding - this is a bigger problem than multiplication!
  
• To improve her posture
  

Have a Happy Easter. We will be back on 20 April 2009

Reading Abridged "High School Musical"

The reading of the abridged High School Musical story is going well. Both of us enjoy it! Tamerin does not yet read fluently, but compared to her reading ability a year ago, her progress has been very good. Comprehension is also much better. After we have read and discussed an extract, we watch the DVD, but only that particular part. She has watched the whole HSM DVD many, many times on her own before, but I do not think she has really understood the dialogue up to now. (English is not her mother tongue, however, she has always been taught through the medium of English.)

In my printed version I try to take out most new words - we now read just for the fun of reading and for the story. I have for instance substituted "learner" for "student", as she is more familiar with the South African term for school going children. However, of course there are also new words necessary to the understanding of the story like "audition" and "drama".

I also try to stick to the original dialogue so that it is exactly like the DVD, but this is not always so easy. In this video clip that I took yesterday she reads the dialogue of the basketball players discussing Sharpay. Until now she has not understood the reference to Sharpay as the Ice princess. In this exerpt there are still too many new words like "muttered". Today's had even more like "academical" and "accompanying", but I can't wait for Monday: there are no new words in Monday's piece. We are just going to consolidate for a while.

The sheet with loose words next to the page she is reading, is the sheet we used for matching, choosing and naming the sight words of this page. This method has worked well for her (and many other mentally challenged children I have taught before). I got the method from my sister in law whose Down Syndrome daughter learned to read very well this way. I will try to make a video clip of how we do it, but not next week...! No new words for a week!