Homeschool World Forum

I started homeschooling for Kindergarten and now after changing curriculum a few times she should be in First grade but is not. Anyways my ex, the father, wants to see where she performs. I took her to Sylvan Learning Center to test her and she was in Kindergarten on everything. I feel like a total failure my fiancee says we don't home school her enough. i thought 2-3 hours a day would be sufficient for her, he says she needs more like 5 hours a day. The curriculum focused on phonics and not these sight words they tested on, i seriously thought she had her alphabet down but there are a few she has problems with (m,n, g,c etc) Sylvan told me to get her hearing checked because she didn't follow directions but I know her hearing is fine and she was nervous for the test. I don't know Im really conserned.

I really wouldn't worry. She is so young. The amount of time you are teaching her now is more than enough. Some children don't learn to read until they are a little older. Every child is different. If you homeschooled a first grader for 5 hours a day, that would be torture! She will end up catching up to the right point eventually. She might just be a little behind right now. Even if she was in public school, she would probably be at the same level, because she is probably learning to read at the speed at which she is able. You can't force it. It will come in time. She isn't finished with her first grade year, so she shouldn't necessarily show that she is first grade level yet. I would recommend reading stories to her as much as possible. You might already know about it, but she would probably also enjoy starfall.

http://www.starfall.com/

My now 8 yo 2nd grader was struggling in K and 1st. She struggled all through the reading program and phonics but now at age 8 1/2, she is reading chapter books. Once she realized the letter sounds and combinations she just took off with reading.

Don't worry, just keep working on the basics and I highly recommend starfall. My daughter used starfall and she loved it.

We also used letter tiles, magnet letters, and worksheets to assist in mastering the phonic sounds. At times we have to slow down and redo a lesson because she wasn't able to show that she understood the sound when we played games on starfall or other websites.

We also used reader rabbit cd-roms to make learning fun.

Now, her brother was different He was 10 before he really was able to read fluently and master all the phonic sounds with ease. all children are different and some need more time (not 5 hours a day), most need more days to master the material. Our state requires 180 days a year, I find my kids need 200 days or more to get a years worth mastered. We now homeschool year round with only a few days off here and there. No boredom here, we are learning all the time.

Firstly, I wanted to add that taking her to Sylvan might not be the best place to get an accurate assessment of your child. They are not paid to find kids "on grade level". If I were you, I would seriously consider administering or having another test administered by a testing professional. Preferably someone who will not make money from finding your child's weaknesses or "supposed" weaknesses. I am not saying they would be dishonest, but it can't hurt to have a second opinion.