Conversation between Hannah and her grandma Betty

The weekend of May 25 was not easy. It was my husband's death anniversary. So we went to visit my mother-in-law in El Paso. We also went to visit my father-in-law at the cemetery. On the other hand, Hannah had a wonderful time with her grandma. I was impressed about her maturity. HEre is a dialogue:

Grandma, do you feel lonely (without grandpa)?
Yes Hannah, I was married to him for 70 + years. So I miss him.
So why don't you find a boyfriend?
No Hannah, I don't need a boyfriend.
OK.... Then you and my mom need..... Botox! (laughing).

How much is going on in her head thinking about death and life? If this is not maturity, what is it?

Accelerated Reading....

Accelerated Reading (AR) is a program developed by Scholastic. The program is designed to promote/help with reading fluency. Specifically, children select books that are at various levels of proficiency, as determined by grade level. For example, a book that is 2.3 is at the second grade, third month of school grade level.

Kids read and then they take a test. Picture books have 5 questions. Chapter book tests have 10 questions.

Our challenge is reading chapter books. I tried finding books that would be of interest to Hannah based on topic (e.g., books about dogs, for example). But clearly I did not choose the right book since the Puppy series is at a higher level of proficiency. We also tried expository textbooks, example, books on science like the life on penguins in the Antartica. Way tooo difficult.

Hannah likes Ivy and Bean the series on the two friends who are very different from each other. It's a wonderful series.  But getting her to read several chapters on one day is the challenge. So what to do? I decided that besides working with her wonderful tutor, she needs more support, like Kumon. We went there today and Hannah had no trouble concentrating. She was focused. Should we try it? I know it is drill and kill, but they will also work on the basics to give her some confidence, which is what she needs. Any feedback? Any thoughts?

This year....

This year, we have gone from over editing to little writing. So it has been hard to keep Hannah motivated to write. It is interesting to see that in my teaching, I seem to find strategies to help my students become motivated to write (or at least I believe so). However, when it come s to my daughter, I struggle to get her interested in writing.

In part, I attribute this problem to her struggles with concentration. It is hard to write when you can't concentrate. She is doing better though. This summer, no Argentina trip. So she will be going to summer camp and hopefully to the Writing Project at CSULA. This should help her with her reading, which is good, understanding (which is what she struggles with), and writing.

I am proud of her accomplishments. A girl who can deal with obstacles and so many life losses is to be commended!