Thursday, August 30, 2007

Lessons for little Miss know-it-all

One of first lessons Faith needs to learn is how to learn. While doing homework, I pulled out last week's spelling words to go over. "But Mommy, I already know those," she said. Well, she could have fooled me as she was not able to quickly read the words she thought she knew. While doing math homework, she wanted to know why the same problems were repeated on the page. "You learn by repetition," I told her, then explained what repetition means. Review is not a welcome new word in her vocabulary. Retention is another word she should master. I'm finding it difficult to be patient as she struggles to sit still and complete her homework without distraction. Does anyone have any tips for keeping her focused? We even have a hard time keeping her in her chair during meal time. So far, her teachers have never mentioned this was a problem so it could be isolated to home. I want to improve her concentration but without discouraging her. She's already getting frustrated as she sometimes tends to write letters and numbers backwards. Her kindergarten teacher said it was likely due to being left-handed. Last night Faith told me that her new teacher has asked if she's seeing the numbers backwards, but she says she's not. One line she'll write a three correctly and in the next equation it looks like a cursive "E." Perhaps we should practice writing letters and numbers repeatedly and I need to learn more patience as she masters reading and writing.

-- Liz Fabian

1 comment:

misty said...

Liz - the best thing you can do is make her practice. Daniel, too, writes some letters backwards - especially "n." I also break Daniel's practice sessions - he doesn't really have homework yet - into 5 or 10-minute segments. He can usually get through those without staring off into space, twisting in his chair, turning into a "kitty cat, momma!" Fait my not have the attention problem at school because she knows school is for business. But at home, she's got all her toys and her kitten and everything else she'd RATHER be doing than her homework!