I’ve had it with summer homework.

amother

Sun, Jul 26 2020, 11:11 pm

My pre1a daughter was average at best at kriah. It was never easy doing homework with her but we managed. Then carona happened....

Her teacher gave extremely easy summer homework and my daughter has a hard time with it. I can’t go any easier because as it is it’s just one letter and one Nikuda
At a time. No words yet. We have a
Chart and she has to do six pages throughout the week and we get slurpees or ice cream on Sunday.

It’s such a battle to get her to do it and she does not do it nicely at all. I’ve had enough and am ready to jsut stop. She’s so behind as it is is my reading really making such a difference anyway?

rmbg

Sun, Jul 26 2020, 11:21 pm

So stop! When school will resume you will have her evaluated and take it from there. She will not progress under this kind of stress. It is more important that you preserve your relationship with her.

MiracleMama

Sun, Jul 26 2020, 11:25 pm

With all the mishugas going on in the world right now, people stressed over the virus, people stressed over the shut downs, people not even knowing if their children will go back to school, if schools will remain open through the year, etc., I think we need to really make our children's mental health A1 priority. If it's stressing you both, you don't need it now. If she will be a little behind, so what? Every kid will be a little behind the way things are going. It's okay. We all need to be happy and calm now. We all have enough stress, including our little kids.

amother

Royalblue

Sun, Jul 26 2020, 11:56 pm

Get a high school girl to come do it with her! If it's a set time everyday, she'll know that when Sara comes is time to do H.W!!
Sometimes kids behave better when not with a parent!
I personally don't think you should give up, it will just get worse...

amother

Pearl

Sun, Jul 26 2020, 11:57 pm

How much time do you have? There are so many fun Kriah games you can do that will take away the stress and let you two bond while laughing. Some take a bit of prep though so you have to see what you can handle.
Just off the top of my head, candy buttons or mini cookies on top of each letter and she takes it off, reads it and eats her treat. You can also make a copy of the page blown up and cut it out, put them on the floor on top of pieces of construction paper and call out a color, she has to jump onto that color construction paper and read the letter on top.

There are so many ways you can do it without growing resentment. I'm really passionate about the importance of kids having a consistent and joyful relationship with Kriah since it shapes their ability to learn Torah in such a big way. Skipping a year of Kriah is really far from ideal but so is building resentment towards it so it's a tough spot to be in and you aren't alone there.

amother

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 12:20 am

Morning is not an option. It is very hectic getting all the kids out and she is not a particular early riser.

I drop her off on the way to work at around 850 and pick her up on the way home and we walk in the door at 430. I have to make dinner, feed the baby then so that is obviously not a good time either.

We end up doing it at like 6ish. A game is a great idea but it involves a lot of prep. I can do it sometimes but not every day. Please share ideas.

When I was having a hard time with her when school was closed, I hired someone to learn with her May and June. She complained about it but she knew that at 3:00 Sarah was coming to learn with her. It was very hard in the beginning. She literally kicked and screamed and I had to hold her on my lap. When that girl went to camp I did not think it made sense to find someone else given how my daughter behaved in the beginning.

newcomer

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 12:26 am

Can she earn some kind of reward? Maybe break it into smaller chunks of time, let her earn a sticker for each short chunk, then when she gets x amount she gets a reward. Does not have to be tangible. Can be some kind of privilege or fun activity she likes etc

trixx

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 12:36 am

If its just one letter and one vowel. Skip the worksheets and play I Spy sound games. I spy something that starts with a... choose easy obvious things. The fork you are holding. Then play it with a cjoice of several objects in front of you. Bowl, fork and spoon. I spy something that begins with bo... has a middle sound or... (this is rhe hardest) ... ends with nnn.
This is phonemic awareness. She has to master it first before reading it off a paper.
This is fun, natural and easy.
Eventually you replace sounds with "buh like kumutz buh" to make the connection.
You play games where you remove one syllable and make rhyming words. Cupcake, let's take the cup and make it start with a fff, what would that be? If I take away cake and make it end with pan, what would it be? (Cup-pan) manipulating syllables. (Best to use Hebrew words but whatever. You can use easy ones she knows like morah, chanukah, shabbos etc)

avrahamama

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 12:39 am

I think all kids are going to be "behind" once school starts. I should hope the teachers and admins are prepared for a soft landing in September.

I think you can slow down or stop. Half a page a day. Or every other day. Or not at all. She's still quite young.

amother

Aubergine

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 12:47 am

As a pre one a girl I would have absolutely hated coming home tired and hot from day camp and then being pushed to decipher letters!!

I think my brain would have shut down.

Learning at that age needs to be disguised as play. If not. Forget it. It’s just not gonna work.

I think all kids will be behind next year. Maybe give it a rest until September

amother

Peach

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 6:04 am

Matching/ memory is a great way of practicing kriyah. Start with just letters, once she’s solid, add nekudos (first with just 1 example of each letter, then you can make it harder later). Both of you read the cards when you flip them.

amother

Pearl

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 7:13 am

Maybe you can do it by bedtime after baths? Just the two of you playing a game together. It doesn't have to be every night.

Other ideas would be printing a coloring sheets and assigning each line of the Kriah a color, when she reads the blue line she can color blue on her sheet, when she reads the green line she can color green etc.
Printing it out and cutting into cards to play match it. When she finds match she reads it.
Printing all the alef beis on one color paper and all the nekudos on another color. Put each in a bag of its own and have her take out one letter and one nekuda, read and put back.

Chinuch.org has lots of Kriah fun sheets that are great for her age.

Don't push her, make it fun, bond over it and shell enjoy.

Ema of 5

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 7:54 am

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

I was going to suggest a matching game. The prep is only a one time thing. Put letters and nekudot on cards. Each card either has a letter or a nekuda. Set it up so that all the letters are together and all the nekudot are together. Take turns flipping over one letter and one nekuda, and pronouncing it. She can do it in the kitchen while you are prepping dinner. Like peach said, you can even read them together.

silverlining3

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 8:22 am

OP, does she attend the schools daycamp? Do they offer tutoring? Contact them.

I always knew my pre 1A dtr is behind, in kriah and abc. During corona I actually experienced it on my own, it was extremely difficult for me, AND her, to learn. I contacted the remedial director from in school and bh was able to get a slot for abc touring. And now in daycamp she recently started being pulled out for kriah. Hoping she'll be up to par for the school year.

Otherwise, you say she put up with the HS girl you has before camp.hmmmm maybe try another girl and reward your dtr?
I feel for you. It's NOT easy.

amother

Peach

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 7:41 pm

Ema of 4 wrote:

Also a great game but not what I was thinking.
First week or two it’s matching with just a letter on each card. A kid has no chance of reading if they’re not solid on letters. Once she’s good, make both Alephs into kamatz aleph. a shvah under both gimmels . Etc. after a week or so add in another set of each letter with a different nekudah than the original set, so now you have kamatz Aleph and Aleph with a segol to recognize the difference. Etc.

Ema of 5

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 7:54 pm

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

That’s a great game!! I thought the child had letter recognition under control, and it was just the addition of nekudot which was difficult. But you are right, it never hurts to go back to basics and make sure the foundation is solid and strong.

trixx

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 8:13 pm

OP
This is an incredible link. Dont get overwhelmed, you're not a teacher. But maybe you'll get activity ideas or at least understand how reading works.

https://scenicrouteliteracy.co.....bais/

amother

Peach

Mon, Jul 27 2020, 8:31 pm

Ema of 4 wrote:

In my experience at least 90% of kids who have kriyah issues are because they’re not fluent with letters before nekudos are introduced. Idk OP’s kid, but I like to start from the basics, even with older kids, and make sure they have visual memory of the letters before we try to add a second aspect. At the end of the day the best way to build kriyah skills is to build a visual memory of letter+nekudah = sound.

I struggle with visual memory (I couldn’t tell you what color my husbands eyes are), and I struggled tremendously with reading in any language I tried.

amother

Blush

Tue, Jul 28 2020, 12:21 am

Trixx posted the most useful info and I am a kriah reading specialist.
Stop trying to get her to read. She needs phonemic awareness skill building.