Assessment 2019-20: Ladybug

Ladybug is another of my children who had a rough start to her school year and a fairly successful end.

At first it was the year of broken windows.

I despaired of it ever getting better.

But it did.

Between her CBT/Play therapy, CBD oil, COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, and her ongoing heavy supervision, Ladybug is earning some responsibilities and freedoms that bring all of us joy and peace.

It was an amazing year for Ladybug's academic progress.

I'm honestly stunned at how much she got done in spite of near constant interruptions by Brother at the start and then her own interruptions in the middle.

Ladybug participated meaningfully in Morning Meeting, Academy, and American Rhythm.  She did present some behavior challenges in American Rhythm, which translated into not knowing the steps or routines as well as she thought she did, but she didn't have to be restricted from any of the shows or rehearsals.

Reading/Literature:  Ladybug's ability to read words exceeds her comprehension.  For this reason she finished the second guide of the Storytime Treasures set by Memoria Press.  The reading was sweet and fun, and the reading comprehension, figurative language, and grammar lessons were quite challenging.

In addition, Ladybug has a very small personal library of 4 books which she gets to read from at quiet time.  Two of the books are classics--one a fairy tale collection, and the other A Wonder Book for Boys and Girls.  These two books challenge her reading skills and stir her imagination without the formality of school lessons.

She does not yet have the privilege of accessing our bookshelves on her own, but we are willing to gather books for her to enjoy in her free time, and she does so with reasonable frequency.

For much of the year, she was not allowed to participate in evening read aloud time due to negative behaviors.  However, in the late Spring, we gave her a chance to prove herself, and she succeeded.  She joined our Little Kid Read Aloud group quite successfully, and since then has had opportunity to enjoy the delightful books we read together at that time.

Ladybug also worked through First Start Reading Book E and Core Skills Phonics Grade 3.

Spelling:  This is Ladybug's Waterloo.  We started the year with Core Skills Spelling 2, which she finished,  and Simply Classical Spelling 2, which she did not.  The latter is very parent-intensive, and we lost 1/2 hour each day when she refused to get up in the morning for school.  

I did purchase Explode the Code 3 and 3 1/2, which she completed almost independently.  These books gave her lots of review of skills which elude her mastery.  She completed the books just fine, including the test pages at the end of each book.  Outside of the workbook, though, all bets are off.  It's as if she'd never seen or spelled the words before in her life. 

This is not to say she's not improving. 

She is!

She spells more words correctly this year than last.

Given how hard and how much work spelling is for this little girl, this is enough.

I am proud of what she has learned.

Writing:  Memoria Press Simply Classical Writing Book 2 Read Aloud Edition.  This was a "class" with Mister Man.  We read the assigned literature (American History themed) and did a workbook page that taught about sentences.  Due to time/energy constraints, this class was put on the back burner, and we only completed about half of the book.

I do see her remembering on her own to capitalize the start of a sentence and punctuate the end of a sentence about half of the time.  If she's writing on her own, she identifies the correct starting and ending places of sentences about half the time as well. 

This is a significant improvement over her sentence-writing skills at this time last year.  I am pleased to see this improvement.

Handwriting:  New American Cursive Book 2--completed
          Simply Classical Copybook Cursive Three--completed
          Evan-Moore Daily Handwriting Practice Contemporary Cursive--13 of 36 weeks completed

Math:  Ladybug exceeded expectations by finishing 4 of the 5 books that comprise Rod and Staff Grade 2 Arithmetic.  I expected her to finish only 3 of them, but she caught on to addition with carrying and subtraction with borrowing faster than I anticipated.  She can only do these two functions in the familiar form of her math workbooks, so I'm eventually going to have to have her try the same kinds of math problems from other books, so she can learn to recognize the concept even in other printed fonts.

She can do simple addition and subtraction regardless of the written form, and she's slowly coming to understand how place value works at the thousands level.  She can tell time to the quarter hour on an analog clock, and she recognizes the measurement terms inch, foot, cup, pint, and quart.

Personal Devotional:  Ladybug finished Book of Mormon Stories and Stories from the Doctrine and Covenants this year.  She illustrated each story and dictated a narration for each one to me.

P. E.:  Ladybug is incredibly physically coordinated.  I wish I had time, money, and inclination to help her be a gymnast, but I don't, and she's too fragile psychologically anyway.  She can run quickly, climb rapidly, balance beautifully, and stretch, tumble, and turn gracefully.  She hikes with us, races, jumps rope, bikes, gardens, and plays in a myriad of healthy ways.

I must mention here that this summer the younger kids are all playing a food game.  They each have taken "control" of a certain type of food, i.e., nuts, meats/protein, fruit, etc..  At meals, they assess what's on their plates and if the type of food that one kid "controls" is part of the meal, they have to "pay" that person (basically, they wave hands at each other and say, "Paid!"). 

Is it irritating?

Yes.

Is it educational?

Yes.

So I bite my tongue and answer their questions about added sugars, fruits vs. vegetables, and what exactly is protein.

Handiwork:  Ladybug took to crocheting like a duck to water.  She loves it. (Thank you again, Grandma!)  She's made a pair of slippers for Baymax, a blanket, a bookmark for Super Star's birthday, and a scarf.  She's currently working on a crocheted stuffed animal (of dubious form :) ).  I'm pretty sure her goal is to crochet a present for every member of the family.

She really likes to give presents.

I look back at what Ladybug has learned and accomplished this year, and I am stunned.  Nearly all of it has been done since January because that first semester was almost a complete wash.

I can't really call this her 3rd grade year (which would match her age-leveled peers), and given the fact that she is emotionally far younger and physically she is small for her age, it won't hurt to let this be a second round of 2nd grade.  It is not yet necessary to track grades for her (other than what I have to fill out on our state adoption and medical papers every year), so I'll simply say that she has made dramatic emotional, social, behavioral, and academic strides this year.