LisaTX wrote:
Well, I started a 30 day trial with Reading Horizons. It's an online program to help kids with Dyslexia and it uses the same method as the program we've been using. I thought it might be something he would like better and thought we would try it out. He just finished the assessments and one of them was the Lexile assessment. I guess that's what they use in schools. It gave me his reading grade level and it was........very discouraging. I feel like we've been doing everything for nothing. He seemed to have made progress with Barton, but either he just did bad on the testing or I've been imagining his progress. I feel so discouraged. I hope this program helps.
The "power of the test"! LISA DAWN! (Had to give you a middle name to give that proper weight!
) While tests can be a tool to help us evaluate, do NOT give it the power to discourage you. The only way to truly measure progress is to use THE SAME MEASURING TOOL for a period of time. Even when you're on a diet you need to use the same scale for proper assessment. It's your baseline.
You have told us of his progress here and there's no way he hasn't progressed. I'd have to go back and find those threads to give examples. Maybe you need to make your own assessment if there's not one you want to stick with. (It would be silly to try different ones until you found one that told you what you wanted to hear, right?) You could even record him reading to compare. Slow and steady wins the race. As long as he's practicing and improving I don't think there's a problem. Comprehension is important, tho'.
It seems to me that people in general, not just kids, think that things should come easy. The internet has made this even more of an issue. We jump from one thing to the next so fast that if something takes more than a few minutes we abandon ship. Reading/comprehending ever more difficult material and learning new math concepts are the basics of education. Communicating that which we've learned to others is how we measure knowledge.
I don't know why some homeschooling educators haven't come up with different reading materials. I've met more kids that have no interest in reading stories. I think they need the kind of reading that is practical. And fun. Clues to finding a hidden treasure.
Instructions on how to build something. A list of things they have to do before they can watch tv. More written
communication, period. A menu. KWIM?