Making The Mark: Reading Is The Key! Article

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Making the Mark: Reading is the Key!

Learn what one determined Mom did to help her child!

Author: Jyra

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Six years ago my son, then only two years old, was taken to Mexico by his father and to make a long story short, I was able to bring him home in February of ’05. I knew that my son would have lots of challenges adjusting to life in the U.S., one of which, going to school would be one of the biggest.

Kindergarten

Within weeks of arriving home, I enrolled my son into my district’s assigned public school for my area, and hoped for the best. It was really hard at first because most public schools are not ready to handle the needs of non-English speaking students, and our school was no exception.

Having only a few months of Kindergarten, at the end of the year the school decided to go ahead and pass my son to the first grade. That summer was crunch time so to speak and our family lived and breathed flash cards almost 24/7!

First Grade: The first time.

First grade began and my son did good for the first three months or so, then his grades began to decline almost immediately. When he fell behind, it was quick and hard. He failed the grade and had to repeat.

I regretted allowing him to be passed on to the first grade, but it was too late.

Summer Break

We read lots of books, at least three to four a week no matter how busy our lives were. My son already had a good grip on the alphabet, his English speaking skills had increased dramatically, and we concentrated on sounds.

While driving down the road we played games using signs.

When we left the house we would pick out three letters and each time we saw any type of sign with any of the three letters we would say, “Punch Letter ABC I got it!” I would praise my son by saying, “You found the ‘P’ in stop, WOW” or “You found the ‘D’ in Wendy’s”.

We practiced color words like red, blue, green, and the sounds. My son would call friends and family just to read things to them. And before I knew it, my son was reading words, putting sounds together, and preparing himself to enter the first grade with the skills he needed to pass.

First Grade: The Second Time

I was so afraid when school started again. I kept watching those papers that the teacher sent home, all of his grades, we studied for spelling tests every night, and the teacher’s requirements were strict too.

The teacher always picked out a weekly story to be read every night and she would send home a separate small book to be read daily too. The first nine weeks were a little tough as the reading assignments were increasingly harder quickly.

At the beginning of the year all the children were tested to evaluate their reading level, and my son was assessed as having the lowest needed to enter the first grade … a level 2.

Now

February is almost here and there are only about four months of school left in this year, give or take a few days.

My son has jumped from reading on a level 2 to reading on a level 7 this year! He can speak English the same as every child in his classroom and his report card shows a big “O” for reading, which means ‘On Grade Level’.

Reading is the Key!

My job requires me to work with children in the county from the ages of birth to five years of age and ultimately help parents prepare their children for school entry.

Had I not have had this experience with my son I don’t believe that I would be able to do my job proficiently. I don’t think that the parents who allow me to work with their children would believe me when I say “read to your children everyday”.

It’s almost unbelievable to me that a child who spoke no English, not even one word, could be as prolific in the language as he has … and I work just like everyone else does. It’s not like our family had loads of time to work with him, but we made the time.

Anyone who has a child that needs some extra help in school, no matter what subject, will benefit greatly by sitting down with their child for just twenty minutes at least four days a week.

We did it and finally my son doesn’t feel lost in class anymore. His report cards have been phenomenal. He’s on grade level and he’ll go on to second grade next year … ready! And that’s what matters.

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Making the Mark: Reading is the Key!