Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Waiting... not so patiently...

for academic success. Yep, my son (Benjamin) is turning 8 in a month, and he can't read. It isn't really his fault, and he isn't failing at some academic level - it just isn't expected. We did decide to hold him back a year in kindergarten since his language was not quite where it should have been, so he is a bit older than the other kids in his class.... but he's still in "nollan" or "zero-class" where the expectations are... well... just about zero. By the end of this  year, he should be able to recognize his name, know the basic shapes (we're talking square, triange, circle here, not diamond, pentagon or parallelogram) and count to 10. 

He's going to summer camp this summer, where he won't be able to read what activity he should go to next. Nor will he be able to write the obligatory Sunday-meal-ticket letter home, and even though I have already bought check-the-box stationery, he can't really use it without help. I don't know what he will do at reading time, when other kids his age (second-graders, surely) are reading chapter books...

But now an article in the New York Times makes me feel much better about the whole idea. Seems as though he will catch up in a couple of years, and maybe even be more balanced and well-adjusted, due to his years of play. Right. One can only hope! For the full text of the article - see the link below:

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