Our Journey Begins

Welcome to my homeschooling journey.  I am the Nana (grandma) of a 9 year old girl that is going into the 3rd grade and has the reading capabilities of less than a 1st grader.  She has been in the public school system for 6 years now and has a 54 word reading vocabulary at the end of second grade.  She has been given the diagnosis (from the school) as developmentally delayed.

This summer her Mom and Dad put her into a private summer school in hopes of helping her retain what she had learned up until that point.  What I witnessed has prompted my determination to begin this journey.  I would pick her up from school and ask her what she had done that day and almost everyday she would say....I don't know.  What!?!  How could you not know what you had done?  The only thing that she could tell me about was coloring and math.  Coloring!?!  Come on, she can color at home.  Nana's frustration grew.  They took the kids to the library every week but not once did Tailee ever bring home a book. 

I have been watching my granddaughters since July of 2009 and have watched the struggles of Tailee.  She was a very late talker and when she did start talking it was basically bibble babble.  We learned to understand her way of communicating but always wondered why the delay.  First she was diagnosed as a mild form of Autism but after Mom and Dad had met with an Autism specialist he said that he didn't think that was the problem as she really didn't show that many signs of Autism.  In a sense that was a huge relief but in the same turn more confusion.

I watched as her younger sister tried to help her learn how to read and the frustration and anger that Tailee would display.  Then I decided to take the girls to the library myself because MayCee wanted a book.  I asked Tailee if she wanted to get a book too and she told me "no thank you".  Uhhhh....I don't think so and immediately said that yes she was going to get a book.  After obtaining help from the librarian to find a book that was very very basic and finding one we took it home and began the process of reading.  OMG....what had I gotten myself into!?!  I don't know who was more frustrated.....me or her.

In observing her I started wondering about dyslexia and began my online search for more information on this diagnosis that I had heard of but really didn't know anything about.  In my research I discovered that about 98% of the markers for dyslexia was Tailee.  Wow, could this really be the reason for all of this beautiful little girl's frustration!?!

I obtained a book called "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" and we began the process.  This book has helped her so much in learning how to sound out words in a way that she was actually saying the word really slow and then we would work on saying it fast.  In the meantime the library had ordered the first set of the BOB Books.  We began this set with the knowledge of knowing how to sound out words without separating each letter into a sound and then trying to put those 3 different sounds into one word.  The first day produced many tears from Tailee.  When I asked her why she was crying she would say "I don't know how to read".  OMG, my heart was breaking but I didn't want her to see me cry!!!  After lots of encouragement and lots of frustration she made it through the very first book!!!  Her face lit up like a little beacon.  She was so proud as was her Nana and couldn't wait for her Mommy to pick her up so she could read her the book. 

I had taught Tailee to read more in 2 weeks than she had learned up to the third grade.  Thus began our (Mom and Dad and I's) conversation on Tailee's need for one on one help and the subject of homeschooling was broached.  Thus begins our journey!!!!!

Hope you will come along to offer support for me and to share in my ups and I'm sure many downs.  I have to be realistic here!!  After all, this is a learning curve for me too!!

Thank you for stopping by and let's....Enjoy The Journey!!!!  :)