A new Beginning

We have finally reached a decision regarding Diane's schooling. We have enrolled at our new school. Diane will start attending classes after Spring Break, but we will start with our new curriculum tomorrow. We met with her support teacher and the Learning Centre teacher on Friday and had a tour of the school. It is such a cute little school in the country. There is a resource room with curriculum and library books. There is also a parent portable, for those days that she is only there for a couple hours of learning assistance. I can hang out in the parent portable and use the computers or just sit and read a book. I love that the hallway walls are decorated with children's projects and that she will get to play in the playground with her new friends at lunch and recess. She will attend one day a week and the rest of the lessons at home on the other days. The curriculum is fairly straight forward and it looks like we will receive a lot of support from the school.
Diane is a little scared of the upcoming changes. A few days ago she had a minor meltdown and started crying. As we talked about it, I realized that she is terrified of not being able to do it. I assured her that we had prayed about the changes, and that I have received complete peace about this. If I have peace about this, then she can also have peace and trust the Lord too. She agreed to pray about her fears and trust that the Lord will guide her.

The testing for Dyslexia will start soon, and then we will know in what areas she will need the extra help. Currently at home we have really simplified the plan, sculpting words with clay and reviewing the Dolch sight words. We have worked through the book 'The Gift of Dyslexia'. The last half of the book has sessions that we have worked through to re-train her brain. One of the most difficult things for Dyslexics is the fact that we have so many ways of writing every letter. Consider all the ways you see the letter 'a', every book, sign and personal printing. Now layer each of those letters one atop the other. This is how she sees every letter, and so of course she is confused and her printing is very wobbly. We are having to slowly and methodically remove that image and replace it with the letters that she forms with the clay so she can really feel and see it. This is called 'symbol mastery', and although it is painstaking work, we have already felt progress in her reading.
Although we are closing a chapter in our homeschooling venture, I believe that the new changes will be a perfect fit for us. Thank you, all my friends and family for keeping us in your prayers.