Years ago the first day of school was my dream. (Keep in mind that most of my offspring are masculine. ..argumentative, principled, opinionated masculine….) The first day of school was the bliss of a cup of coffee drunk in the quiet solitude of the living room, sitting in an armchair and gazing out the window. The job of referee, of peace-keeper, of maid and short-order cook had been shelved for a while.
Today I no longer feel this way. Due to the fact that I am Ricki’s schoolwork adaptor (for 80% of her classes), and much more, the school year ahead will be a busy one. This week alone I will have to talk to new teachers, explaining what (and how) we are doing, arrange her schedule, and much much more.
But that’s not the real reason I am sorry that the vacation ended. I dreamt of doing so many fun things with Ricki this summer. I wanted to bake, cook, do crafts, go to the beach, and much more. However, because I had set her up in several summer programs, and for various other reasons (including classmates who took her out a lot), we had few opportunities to share the activities that I had hoped to do with her. Of course, the bottom line is that she enjoyed the summer, and had a break.
At least one good thing. September is starting, and that means that summer and its heat should be ending soon. Now THAT I’ll celebrate! (Last week the temperature was about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, with about 80% relative humidity……)
4 comments:
That's great she had a fun filled summer.
If she doesn't have school on Sunday, then you can still do stuff with her then.
What does it mean to be her school work adapter?
What's "school work adapter"?
SORRY-THIS WILL BE LONG...
My daughter, even though she is high functioning, reads on about a second-grade level, writes poorly, and has trouble understanding abstract things. She has been integrated into a regular seventh-grade (as of tomarrow, eighth grade) classroom.
She spends about half of the school day in private studies with her aide, doing some/all of the following:
a. preparing her in advance for classes she will be integrated into
b. studying privately math, grammer, , and the like.
The other half of the day's hours are spent in the regular classroom. We do not expect her to learn all of the material, but one or two main points, new vocabulary words.
Now what is an "adaptor"? For her in-class work, notebook, and homework, she needs the regular class material ADAPTED to her level. For example, last year they studied "England" in geography. She learned about Great Britin, London, coal mines, the British channel, bagpipes, and a bit about the industrial revolution... She did not need to know detailed information about climate, inports, exports. When they studied France, she learned that in France they make wine, perfume... have long bread, and speak french. Last year when they studied Italy, she learned that their is a place in the world called Italy , and that there are gondolas there. When we flew to the USA last summer, her face lit up when she saw the plane-route map: "ITALY!!" She recognized it instantly! [And I regretted it was a night flight and she would not see the alps, at least from above.] So she gets a smattering of world knowledge from geography and science.She learns most of the material in dinim. Once she met my husband outside of shul and she saw someone with marbles. They had just studied that din that week, so it's no surprise that she piped up: "Choresh!(plowing)". [On-lookers nearly fainted from surprise...LOL]
And what does she learn that SHE needs? That's largely where the adaptation comes in. In preparing here texts, workbooks, and homework, I adapt the material to HER needs.
examples:
1. A picture of French vineyards: Write a sentence about the picture.
2. Pirke Avot... many times I went off on a tangent from the mishnah to related issues affecting her-carefullness with strangers, etc.
3. Digestive system.. the nose smalls food.
How do we know food is spoiled?
How can we keep food clean/ from spoiling?
So we worked a lot on writing sentences, new words, grammer, and living skills all in connection to what the class was studying.
So you adapt the stuff she learns onto her level? you have to prepare what she should learn from the material that the teacher will teach? But then who teaches it to her if the teacher is busy teaching the rest of the class more material?
But sounds like she has a great memory to be able to remember and associate stuff she heard with stuff she sees.
That sounds like tons of work for you to do. It's as if your the teacher making up all the material.
The aide who prepares her for the class teaches her, Toarah I prepare her at home for the next day. Homework I do with her.
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