Athena is the Greek goddess, primarily known as the goddess of wisdom and courage. My husband chose Athena because our son, TsukiMoon, might never thank me for the hard work I have done this past year and a half but my husband felt I deserved to be recognized for the effort it took to enable our son to read and write.
It the past year TsukiMoon, through consistent endeavor, gained the ability to understand what he reads and the skill to write. He went from a 4/5 year old level in language to an 8/9 year old level, in line with his peers. With these skills he can enable his own learning and wisdom. Mr. TsukiMoon said that it was because of my consistent work our son is able to do this. He felt my wisdom and courage enabled our son's.
What I did seems pretty straight forward; drive him 2 times a week during the school year and 3-5 times during the summer to the speech and language pathologist, Mrs. K. Mrs. K wanted us to do an hour of homework a day. It was going to be difficult; driving was easy, an hour of homework for a 7 year old was harder.
How can I make that much homework fun for a little kid? That was the question I asked. It was important for it to be fun or he wouldn't do it. How was I going to meet that goal with child who was; turned off by school, writing, or even holding a pencil?
First we needed the right tools. I went to Amazon and bought two kinds of pencils; Faber-Castell jumbo grip Ecopencils and Dixon Tri-conderoga pencils. These were the same pencils used at the speech and language pathologist. They are triangular and easier to hold then round pencils. TsukiMoon preferred the Ecopencils. Faber-Castell also makes triangular jumbo grip colored pencils and markers. I also got a lap board.
I put the lap board and some pencils in the car. Every time we got in the car to go somewhere he had to practice is writing before the car could move. He could trace over the letters that he had worked on class, once through all the pages. It took about 5 minutes, but this isn't enough to create an hour of work.
Years ago I read an article about the importance of movement while learning. It said that for very small children only have few seconds of learning interrupted by lots physical play. From the speech pathologist I learned a theory of fine motor skills: that large motor movement develops first then moves down the arm into the fingers. She was teaching TsukiMoon cursive and wanted him to practice the letters in the air, initiating the motion from his shoulder to aid the development of the fine motor.
I combined these two ideas. TsukiMoon and I would jump on the trampoline while writing out huge letters with the sweep of our arms. Outside we would laugh, jump, and playing games with the letters. What could have been difficult was a delight. He asked for time on the trampoline to practice his letters.
To help with reading I went to the used book store every few weeks to find "new" books that had come in. I bought every age-appropriate graphic novel I could find. Books that were graphic novelesque, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid series or Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel were also snapped up. The pictures compensated what he couldn't infer from the text. They aided comprehension of emotions and plot, which he couldn't get from reading words alone.
You might ask why not go to the library for all the books, and I did. What is nice about owning the books was instant gratification. We needed to keep him moving forward. If he wanted to reread a book-- it as there. He read them over and over again. Each time a better grasp was built. He needed more time then the library could allow.
All of this created an avid reader (no pictures now) and a child who can write; letters and words and can also express himself. Athena would be honored by his hard work and I guess, mine.
