Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a national holiday we celebrate in the United States.  If you’re an immigrant to this country, do you celebrate Thanksgiving?  Do you enjoy the turkey, mash potatoes, dressing, cranberries and pumpkin pie?  My son who recently moved to the Netherlands, will he be eating Thanksgiving dinner on the last Thursday in the month of November or will he be going to work?  For many people in the United States, Thanksgiving is their favorite holiday.  It is a time when friends and family get together.  Many people get four days off from work, Thursday through Sunday. 

Thanksgiving is a time to think about what we are thankful for.  When I walk my dogs around my neighborhood in the early evenings, I am thankful for such a peaceful neighborhood.  I am thankful for the beautiful homes that have not been damaged by wars or weather.

I am thankful for the parent volunteers in my classroom.  As I’ve said before, I am a kindergarten teacher.  This year we started with 39 children in our all day kindergarten classrooms with no help from hired aides.  Now, we are down to 32 kindergarten children in our classrooms.  I am thankful for the wonderful parent volunteers.  They make this overcrowded situation doable and enjoyable.

And of course, I am thankful for my wonderful family.  I am thankful that they are healthy and safe.

One of my favorite activities is reading, I am thankful to have the skills to enjoy reading.  Fisher Hill workbooks are geared to help Spanish-speaking teens and adults develop reading and comprehension skills so they can enjoy and use the gift of reading.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to see all of our workbooks for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.

Image courtesy usatoday.com

Children with Reading Difficulties Part 2

In Part 1, I talked about my older son who had a reading difficulty.  Now, I will talk about my younger son.  He too had difficulty learning to read.  Like my older son, Peter also went to Mommy and Me classes starting at the age of six months.  At four, I enrolled Peter in a Montessori school which he attended for two years.  Having a late birthday (October) I did not enroll him in kindergarten until he was 5 years 11 months.  I gave him the extra year because he was not interested in the ABCs.  Being a teacher, I had tried teaching him his letters.  I tried doing it in fun ways but he was not interested.  Having difficulty learning the ABCs is an indicator that a child may have difficulty learning to read. 

In first grade, Peter could read the basal reader which was a whole language book (not phonetic).  He could read those stories!  But when it came to Hop on Pop he could not read it.  He had memorized the stories in his basal reader.  Peter was never very interested in school.  In high school, he dropped out.  We took him to a private school where it was one on one but he still was not interested.  When he should have been a junior, he took the High School Proficiency Test and passed.  Now, he could go to junior college.  He did that for a couple of years but what he really enjoyed were computers.  He had part time jobs starting at age 16 working at different computer places.  At nineteen he got a full time job at Talend and then at 22 he got hired at Twitter.  After two years at Twitter, he is now working for Books.com and living in the Netherlands.  He very much enjoyed both Talend and Twitter and I am sure he will enjoy working for Bookings.com.

Both boys are now avid readers, especially Peter.  He’s always got his nose in a book whether its fiction or a computer book.  Steven always has his nose in a science book. The last two trips we went on: one to the Amazon rainforest and the Galapagos; the other to Africa, Steven brought a big heavy chemistry book that he was constantly looking at.

It’s amazing the adults your children become.  Both of my boys had difficulty in school but now they are doing fine.  I have seen the same with their friends who also had a rough time in school.  Most of them are doing well.  What’s the secret?  I believe it’s parents!  The parents who continued to give support to their kids through thick and thin, their kids are the ones who are now doing well. 

Our series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker is an excellent place to begin for Spanish speakers who need to learn how to read and spell in English.  This series uses a very systematic and explicit approach in teaching the English speech sounds which are necessary in learning to read.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to see all of our workbooks for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.

Children with Reading Difficulties

Does your child have a reading difficulty?  Both of my boys had difficulty learning to read.  I was surprised when this happened.  I had read to them since they were babies.  We visited the public library and checked out books.  They went to toddler story hour every Thursday morning.  Yet, they had difficulty learning to read.  If your child has a reading difficulty, this can make school difficult for them and you.  It’s hard for them to read their social studies book or their science book.  I remember reading those books with my kids.  “OK.  You read a paragraph and then I’ll read a paragraph.”  Homework was not a pleasant time in our family.  In fact, it caused great disharmony at home.  We never gave up though, year after year we struggled along.  When they were in  junior high and high school, I hired college students to help with homework.  They were lucky to get this extra help from me and tutors. 

Now the boys are twenty-six and twenty-four.  The oldest one who was in RSP (a branch of Special Education) in grades third through sixth is now getting his PH.D in Organic Chemistry.  In high school, I had him reevaluated and from this evaluation he was able to get extra time on the SATs which is a test that is required for most colleges.  He took the SATs three times before he got a high enough score.  In college, I told him “Cs get a degree.”  In the first two years of college, I was happy to see Cs.  When he took Organic Chemistry, he got an A and had found his niche.  Oh, happy day!  It took him seven years to get an undergraduate degree.  With his slow reading, he only took three classes a semester.

In my next blog, I will talk about my younger son’s difficulty with reading. 

Many immigrants or migrants in the United States may have had little prior schooling in their home country and may only be able to read a few words in their native language.  When immigrants have access to language and literacy instruction, they can increase their literacy skills.  Which in turn will help them participate more in their community and the job market.

Our series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker is an excellent place to begin for Spanish speakers who need to learn how to read and spell in English.  This series uses a very systematic and explicit approach in teaching the English speech sounds which are necessary in learning to read.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to see all of our workbooks for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.

Image courtesy syracuse.com