Friday, October 8, 2010

Kaleb

Kayla and Kaleb may be twins but they are not the same. But neither are they opposites. And some things about them have caught me by surprise. In our five visits to Haiti, Kayla has always been the leader and the more advanced twin. Kaleb seemed to struggle to catch on to things. So I assumed that once they entered school the same would be true.

Not so. Both twins can count objects to about 15. But Kaleb can identify the written numbers to 7. They have (way too many) worksheets where they have to count the objects and write the number. Kaleb whips right through them. Not so for Kayla. She cannot identify any written numbers. This is true even if I've just shown her. Not even one number.

The same is true for letters. They have had about 10 letters now. Kaleb has all but one mastered and he gets that one about half the time. Kayla cannot identify any letters.

They are going to give her a half hour of in-school tutoring on the letters. They can only target one thing at a time so cannot do numbers too. However, I think it's more than that. There has to be a reason why she can't distinguish between them. She passed her in-school vision screening.

They will not test for disabilities until a certain amount of tutoring has been done with no progress.

For our school, children must know 24 of 26 letters and sounds and be able to blend three letter words to go on to first grade. Not even going to worry about it. We're just finishing the first grading period.


But really what I was going to post about is that Kayla took right off on her bike without training wheels, but Kaleb has been very reluctant. Adam has been the one teaching them and he had to literally make him do it. It's not that he's not ready. He just didn't want to because it was easier not too. But on Fridays the kids bike down to the store so if he wants to go, he needs to be able to bike. Preferrably without training wheels.

But this past weekend he finally started doing it. Very slowly. That's part of the problem. It would be easier to balance at a higher speed.


But here he goes






He's doing it...



Crash






Yay for Kaleb because this is something he just did not want to do


5 comments:

One Crowded House said...

don't you love to see them take off on their little bikes!?

Felicia said...

Oh, that has to be so frustrating for Kayla. You should watch my post on Visual Perception Activity from FAT City. It gives just a glimse of how frustrating visual perception problems can be. I hope that she is able to make the connections with tutoring.

Sarah said...

I have noticed Adam seems to enjoy helping Kaleb and Kayla and to teach them new things. Adam always seems truly happy in those pictures- have you thought about enrolling him in maybe a tutoring program, or a program where he helps out young disadvantage kids? I'm not sure if that might help with his discipline issues.

Sarah

Karen said...

They have come far, but so much left to go. I'm glad you are the parents, you'll do well!

Kathy Cassel said...

Sarah--we've looked into that in the past but with his record of detentions, ISS and OSS they won't accept him. He had to prove himself a good role model first. We are hopeful...

Felicia--hoping she'll either catch on or they'll figure it out sooner rather than later. I have my MEd but am not trained in disabilities.

Tanya-it's always fun

Karen-thanks!