Progress

Progress seems to happen very slowly, or even not at all, and then all of a sudden. For the first several weeks of school, writing the number 8 trips Anya up every time. Which way to go from the top? It always gets loopy in the wrong direction. Distinguishing the b's and d's is trouble too: "big" is "dig" and "dip" is... "bip"? 

We practice. The whiteboard works well for the 8's. She can try, and mess up, and then erase it--which eases her frustration. Just a few a day. 

I find some ideas for b's and d's in the back of the reading curriculum teacher's guide. With your left hand, hold your pointer and thumb in a circle, and stick your other fingers straight up. Do the same with your other hand. Imagine an e between them, to spell bed! 

This doesn't work. It's too hard for her to hold her fingers like that, and imagining bed is just too complicated. 

We keep at it. She practices some more 8's. 

In math, we are playing all kinds of different games to practice pairs that make 10 (6+4, or 5+5), but 7+_ and 8+_ keep eluding her. The 10-frame gets lots of use. 

For reading, I find a free printout online: 

The picture of the fat diaper cracks her up, and she loves it... a fat belly that turns into a fat poop (sorry, six-year-old humor!). Every time we practice reading, we keep the poster out where we can see it, and stop to ask--is it a belly or a diaper? 

Then, one week, a few times the loops of the 8 go in the right direction without any trouble. She starts to make little snowmen out of them, with a face in the upper loop and buttons down the lower loop.

We play "jump on the phonograms" and she figures out a few of the b's and d's. But the reading monster refuses to eat a "plob" or a "glab." 

We take an extra week to practice addition facts before moving on to subtraction. But the Monday morning of that extra week, she suddenly seems to know "_+3=10" and "8+_=10" every time--as if forgetting about it all weekend made something click. 

Now, in late October, this week she hasn't made any mistakes with her 8's. They flow in even loops. 

We haven't consulted the belly and diaper poster in a couple weeks now, but I didn't notice the exact moment that the balance tipped from struggle to ease. 

On the whole, a single math or reading lesson or handwriting sheet can seem relatively unimportant. But, the slow path of progress reminds me that the unimportant-seeming repetition, and the daily discipline (even when the sun is shining and it sounds more appealing to skip at day), truly count.