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I feel like I'm failing as a teacher
- This topic has 20 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by
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Well, at the moment he is obsessed with legos! He is a big animal lover too but I think he mostly just needs adventure in a book, something that will really catch his attention from the start.
This is really a good thing. This will spur him on to be a better speller. It will help him want to be a better reader. My oldest son(10) was a good speller when he was younger but for whatever reason all of a sudden he couldn’t spell. My younger son(9) is a great speller and is always telling him how to spell something. However, my oldest is better at vocabulary. He always has been. He understands it even if he doesn’t know the word. So, if my other son wants to know the meaning of a word he will ask the older one. 🙂 We all have gifts in different areas. Some things we have to work on others come more natural. He is just seeing an area he wants to work on more.
My oldest loved the Geronimo Stilton books. Those were the ones that spurred him on to read. It is a mouse that has adventure all over the world. They are funny and will teach him different cultures and things that he could read and want to research on his own. This is what my son needed. He loves adventure books. He wanted to have a little mystery behind it. It gave him a background for the countries we were studying and then he was spurred on to read other books. He just started reading everything. So, maybe you can find some adventure books that will capture his attention and give him a little mystery.
My sons also like lego books and loves animals also. 🙂 HE was just researching African Clawed Frogs. He looked up all the info on the internet and is going to do a report on them. We got him the Lego Builder books, if he doesn’t have these then that is something he may like. Sorry if someone else may have suggested it. I didn’t have time to read all the posts. 🙂
HE just told me he also like the “How to train your dragon” books also. This spurred him on to reading about the “Viking Tales” and other books like it. 🙂 The Geranimo Stilton books spurred him on to read almost everything about Egypt.
Geronimo Stilton books taught him about… Chinese numbers, Mt. Everest, Different animals in the Amazon, Eygpt, King Tuts tombs, and that camels spit. 🙂 LOL… These are a few he just told me.
Sometimes we may feel like a failure but in the end they say our children will be 3 years ahead of ps kids. They can’t learn everything but at least we know where they are at and how much they know. If they are in ps they get pushed along and may never really recover. I still have problems that need attention and I went to college. LOL…
Blessings and I hope you find your happy medium.
Thank you so much chocodog! I will look into those for sure!! He started reading one of the Boxcar Children books this morning and said it was really good so we will see.
I really need to work on not caring what others think and I have been doing better. However, seeing my son so embarrassed about his spelling really got to me. Thanks so much for all the encouragement and advice everyone!
You are not failing! You are a loving, concerned mom who is seeking out ways to help your son.
Our children will all have areas that they struggle in. As moms, we want to remove the struggle. It is hard to see them embarrassed. But I think we really need to teach not only help them overcome the difficulty but also show them how to be content with where they are.
My daughter (7th grade now) was a late reader and is a horrible speller. One day the neighbor girl and her friend peppered her with questions about homeschooling and gave her an oral spelling quiz. They were being very unkind. They were mocking her. I was furious and yet wise enough to use it as a learning experience. Being a poor speller has caused her to be humble in the areas that she does excel so as not to cause others to feel bad. Oh, and she is now a vorocious reader!
My 5th grade daughter stuggled with a speech impediment. It has given her a compassion for those who are different. And yet, it was hard to see people laugh when she said certain words. Children to be cruel.
I’m just saying don’t waste the struggle. It is a good opportunity for character building.
And now some practical advice…
Spelling – we tried everything. My daughter said what has helped her the most was learning to type and having an email account. Your son may be young for an account. With my daughters I monitor their accounts and anyone they email is approved by me. But, even if he used yours and sent emails back and forth to grandma (or someone who would consistantly write to him) it can help.
Reading – Try reading aloud an exciting book (The Bears on Hemlock Mountain) and then when he is hooked just let it sit around. I’ve done this a lot with books I want my girls to read and invariably I find them reading them. And, I didn’t tell them to!
Hope that helps!
I didn’t have time to read all of the posts – so this may have said already. I totally agree with the posts about getting books on his interests. My son loves legos & American History & those really are the books I started him with – now he’s reading through classics, several at a time. I find him awake reading late into the night. I did want to say – sometimes disappointment spurs us forward. Sometimes feeling inadequate in an area challenges us to try harder – peer pressure is tough on kids – but it is also pretty good at this – as long as you help him keep a healthy perspective about it. I sometimes have to remind my daughter when she has little girls at co-op, in the neigborhood, or even at church that act a little haughty and make her feel bad that sometimes children do this when they themselves are trying to feel better about something. I remind her that it is not the biblical way to treat people, but it is more important for her to model the right behaviour to her friends and to try hard to let the hurtful things go by. This is something we are dealing with so much right now – she is 8 & the little girls seem to be picking out anything they can harass at this age. For instance – she’s really good in her gymnastics class, but she doesn’t support her neck well on her headstands and wobbles – so I do not allow her to do headstands. Another girl – who is also good at gymnastics & usually her very good friend has teased her about it a few times. Just a few thoughts I had..hope it helps.
A spelling program that is rather inepensive and very effective is Sequential Spelling. It really helped my son to see the word milies, chunks, and similarly grouped words.
For books, my son at that age was just getting into reading on his own for pleasure. Some he liked were The Matchlock Gun, My brother Sam is Dead, and anything about spies. There were these cute books, grrr, I can’t remember the titles – but the subject had something to do with cats and mice and solving myteries…i’ll see if he remembers the title.
Also, funnily enough, with an older sister, he read all the Junie B. Jones books, and would laugh out loud at them (me too, frankly). He also has read several dear America series, all the magic treehouses and all the Nancy Drew series. We’ve read just about all the first 19 of Boxcar children. I love those stories, too. Anyway, hope that is some help for you. Hang in there, and trust in your love for your son.
Blessings as you journey…
Amy
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