Trouble with Reading, Spelling, and Grammar (oh MY!)

Hello Dear CM’ers,  

I have a 10 yo about whom I have written before with regard to reading ability.  She has always loved books and “reading”, but at 6 years old, when I began teaching her to read, I realized she wasn’t really ready.  She just did NOT get “c” + “at” equals “cat”.  It just didn’t make any sense to her.  So I just kept reading out loud, etc, and letting her look at as many books as she wanted.  We did Sonlight’s Language Arts for one year which frustrated her for many reasons, but mostly because the reading selections were cumbersome and silly to her (and me!).  So then we purchased Delightful Reading and worked on that until she got annoyed that she wasn’t allowed to read the whole selection for each lesson, but one section at a time.  She lacked the ability to do that, so when I let her try, she just got discouraged.  At the same time, she got irritated when I tried to do the lessons as written with her because she wanted to be able to read everything.  *I feel this isn’t making much sense-bear with me*  I realize that she’s a bit of a perfectionist; she wants to be able to read it all without taking steps to learn the smaller parts first.  SOOO, I backed off and just let her read whatever she got her hands on to read herself.  I also got some really great readers from Rod and Staff that she loves; Busy Times and More Busy Times, but at 10 years old, she’s reading these readers meant for 2nd grade and she still struggles with them at times.  I have recently started having her write narrations even though her spelling is terrible (I held off on spelling, hoping to get her reading level up first.  We are using Spelling Wisdom this year though, which we both like) to see how she comprehends reading on her own.  She’s reading Mark 1 (assigned in Module 3) and then writing her narrations.  She’s getting the passages, which is encouraging, but I’m still concerned about her reading level.  I’ve considered going backwards and delving into a more regimented reading/phonics program for a year to see if it could get her up to speed, but I keep hoping that the CM method will come through.  I’m discouraged too because I also have 3 other children behind her that I have to school/manage during school time, and I want her to be able to read what’s slated for her (in this case Detectives in Togas for Module 3-which she could not read on her own without tears).  As it is, I still need to read most of her assignments to her.  Selfish-yes.  Unwarranted?  That’s what I’m asking.  Is she still just a struggling reader, or is there something I’ve done wrong that I can fix to help her?  Also, we’ve been using Grammar Land this year, which she thinks is great, but again, I’ve stepped back from that hoping to get her reading up to par so she can complete the assignments on her own a little easier.

So what I’m asking is, given this background, what can I do to help her “catch up”?  Like I said, she loves books, loves to read-even writes stories!, she just has made very slow progress, and I’d like to help her move along.  Now’s the confession part: I’m beginning to worry that this will cause problems for her soon with friends, not to mention strangers.  The girl turned 10 in Nov., but stands 5’2″ and looks like she’s 14-for REAL.  So the mommie in me wants to protect her from embarrasment.  There, I said it! 

Blessings to you for reading such a long, disorganized post!

LillyLou