A couple of weeks ago I had to ground Ty from his xbox because he hit his brother with the controller in a moment of agitation.?? The next day he asked me if he was also grounded from his PSP.?? I said no.
Fast forward.
Incident repeats itself.?? Next day he asks me if he is grounded from his PSP.?? I say yes you may not play with the Xbox OR the PSP.
Fast forward.
Incident repeats itself.?? Next day he asks me if he is grounded from his XBox and PSP.?? I say yes.?? He inquires about the V-motion and computer.?? I say yes yes yes.?? You may not play with anything electronic at all.?? You need to learn that you cannot hit your brother.??
Today he comes to me and says in a sweet little voice??”Mommy??? What am I not grounded for??? Am I allowed to play with any toys?”?? :)??
The worst thing about disciplining Ty is that he takes it so well.?? On the one hand it’s great because I don’t have to put up with much whining, crying, complaining, or bouts of temper.?? On the other hand, I often wonder if he cares.??
These are “am I done yet” smiles but I still liked them.?? 🙂
So here is the strange story of the day…
Today I was reviewing the third grade Saxon Math textbook that came in for Tanner.?? While reading stuff, Ty says “Mommy that says Saxon Math Homeschooling – I can read now.”?? I sat there silent.?? The only thing he got wrong was homeschooling – it said “homeschool”.?? How did he know this??? The other night he picked up the shampoo bottle and said “This says helps babies sleep better”.?? ???????
His word recognition is just ridiculous but I often guess that someone along the way told him what something (like the shampoo bottle) said and he just remembered.?? After the Saxon Math thing though…I decided to grab a children’s book I have no knowledge of reading him – something he wouldn’t be familiar with.?? I found a book on my shelf called Pooh Loves You.?? I handed it to him and asked him to read it to me.
“Pooh loves honey from honeypots” – page 1
HE READ EVERY WORD RIGHT!
“And big balloons with polka dots” – page 2
Struggled with polka “dats”
“Pooh loves a warm and sunny day” – page 3
Missed the word warm
“when all his friends come out to play” – page 4
Missed When – he said “with”
“Pooh loves the flowers, tall and straight, that grow around the garden gate” – page 5
Struggled with this page more but did get the first four words including flowers
“Pooh loves to run and jump and then”….- pag 6 and 7
All right
“He loves to run and jump again” – page 8
Didn’t know “again”
“Pooh loves his soft and comfy bed where he can rest his sleepy head”
Faked “where”, “sleepy” and “head” but got the rest right.?? If he doesn’t know a word he just gives a close phonetic guess and moves on.?? He reads really fast to so you have to slow him down to correct him.
“Pool loves to climb up in the trees and say hello to busy bees” – page 10
All right except “climb”, “busy”‘
“Pooh loves to slip and slide on ice.?? With Tigger there, it’s twice as nice”
Struggled with second sentence.
“Pooh loves to look up at the sky and watch the butterflies go by”
He didn’t get “look or watch” and missed butterflies the first time but then without giving him the answer I told him to sound the word out and he figured it out on his own.
“Pooh loves to fly his special kite while little piglet holds on tight”
Missed special, while, little, holds and tight.
“Pooh loves Tigger, Kanga, and Roo, Rabbit, Eyore, and Piglet, too.
I helped with “rabbit”
“Pool loves many things it’s true.?? But Pooh especially love you”
Missed “many” “things” “true” “especially”.
Looking at the words he got right, I have NO idea how he would know words that aren’t easy phonetics!?? “Flowers, ice, by, sky, friends, comfy, play,??sunny, day”…..
I am completely baffled by this.???? I realize that many children learn to read before Kindergarten but I would HIGHELY suspect that those that do were TAUGHT!!!!!?? How has he learned to read??? I can’t figure this out for the life of me.?? I see him do it all the time and I laugh it off and make excuses because it seems so impossible.?? Every time I see him read something I just make the assumption that somewhere along the line he has heard it and has an amazing memory.?? That still must be true but how has he formed such a large word recognition library??? He can sound out simple words phonetically.?? I must assume he learned that online or from the leap frog videos.?? I have only done TWO reading lessons with him using How to Teach Your Child in 100 Easy Lessons.?? I have waited on that until starting him in K.??
When we had him evaluated recently, the developmental psychiatrist told us that he could not make connections and was going to have a very difficult time with reading and math.?? Ha!?? I’d say his ability to make connections is pretty fabulous.?? For example, in the above, he could read all the words ending in “y” (by sky) but could also read “sunny” and could read “day”.?? He either has memorized all those words (who knows how) – or he has already learned to apply the phonic rules from words he already knows (this is how children typically advance their reading skills – they learn to make those connections and once learning family groups, can go from there).
My friend Sarah has twin boys – both diagnosed with autism.?? I will never forget when Sarah posted on her blog when one of them spelled “adventure” in letters on the fridge.?? I don’t remember the age but it was before K-garten.?? I was AMAZED.
From my observation, when part of the brain is injured, other pieces kick in and excel in other areas.?? You hear these stories all the time.?? I know that reading the above words does not qualify as “AMAZING” but considering no one has given him any formal training, and his Developmental Psychologist questioned my sanity in homeschooling him because of all his “severe” and “lengthy list” of learning disabilities….it feels pretty amazing to this mom.??
??
15 responses to “Dazed and Confused”
Are you kidding…that is completely AMAZING!! =) Tramazing, my niece would say! Life/school is soooo much easier when they can read well.
As far as the discipline of taking things away and wondering if he cares, I have one like that too. He is eleven now, and he really doesn’t care because he just finds something else to do. Great imagination, plus “stuff” just really isn’t all that important to him. He used to always give his toys away to kids that came over. Things I would have thought he loved. He is like his daddy that way, and it is a cool thing even if I don’t understand it!
Loves these pics of Ty. He is such an amazing little boy!
UH – YEAH – AMAZING IS RIGHT!!!!! I’M SQUINTING IN WONDER AS I READ!!!! THAT IS AWESOME! and the fact that he likes to do it is a great step in the right direction too! sounds like his brain moves in high speed. he might just make the actual academic part of homeschooling easy. getting him to sit still? i don’t know. 🙂 but the learning? i wonder if you just get to teach something once and move on with that boy? WOW!
and something about that first picture – it is so soft and warm… i just love it. the others are beautiful too – but the first one really struck me asthetically.
That sounds just like Nate! When he was 3 and half I saw him sitting on the couch with a book and his lips were moving.. i said whatcha doing? He said reading… so he read me the book and I thought,,,, nah he just has it memorized. So i went to walmart and bought 3 new books and he read every one of them, lol. Nathan has been reading since he was 3 and reads at a 3rd and 4th grade level now. It’s awesome!
That is amazing! It just confirms my belief that specialists don’t know everything, but parents do!
Well it is AMAZING! So proud of that little boy and I adore these pictures of him.
Yep, sounds like the twins. Jonathan was just over 4 when he did the “ADVENTURE” word on the fridge. I was actually just telling someone that story on Sunday. They both still read amazingly well, after being told they would probably struggle too. Jonathan does the same thing as Ty and just uses other words that are phonetically the same when he doesn’t know a word. I will be curious to see what Ty does with math, another strong skill with the twins. I really think it comes from being such VISUAL learners. When they first started trying to write letters around the age of 4 it looked more like they were drawing the letters not writing them. Does that make sense? They both still do this to a degree. Does Ty like to draw? Jonathan still loves drawing and will actually write things from video games like THQ, ACTIVISION and products like Pepsi and such but he draws/writes in the exact same font as the appear on the Games or the pepsi can and such. It’s quite funny.
He can’t draw at all Sarah because his OT skills (CP related) are so behind. I will be SHOCKED if he writes ANY letters in K-garten. This is where I see his biggest struggle right now. And Heidi I think your right – I think Ty is easy to teach if you can keep his attention long enough.
I don’t think the attention will be too hard as long as you give him breaks and don’t do the traditional sit down and do your work. My son who has ADHD does so much better if they just let him stand and read or do math etc. I have suggested a standing desk at the school for next year, we shall see how that goes. Its the movement he needs and sitting at a desk is so hard for him so I am glad his school has let him be when it comes to standing up.
That is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! He is such a cutie too! I find with Madison’s ADHD, she is sometimes paying attention even when I think she isn’t. And she will pretend like she can’t do something, even though I know she can. If I give her a good reason to get her work done, ie a reward, we do much better. Reading is hard for her, so I am glad that reading comes easy for Ty (your Ty).
Ty IS amazing!!
You know what else is amazing? Our new webpages!
http://www.myspace.com/allprowaterflow and
http://www.allproarizona.blogspot.com
Check them out and tell me what you think!
Love ya,
-J
That is so GREAT and totally AMAZING! I myself was never taught to read. I just remember one day when I was around 4 being able to read things when I wanted, and I have seen 2 students (I am a teacher) over the years who could do the same. That being said, neither I or these kids had any of the issues or rough start as your smart little Ty did. That is just so wonderful! What an absolute blessing that he will not have to struggle with reading as you know reading ability affects every other subject learned. Praise God that is not a struggle he will have as he has had plenty of struggles already and still struggles with others. I am just thrilled for Ty!
Mini introduction-I have only posted a comment on your blog 1 other time and it has been a long time. However I have followed (sounds so stalkish but really its not) you since your sweet Ty was about 3 weeks old. I also did the Grace4Today weight loss stuff with you for a short time until the format was changed from going to email to the online forum. I still had dial up so I could not load the online forum. Anyway I am a teacher, live in TN and have 3 little girls (10, 7, 2). I truly enjoy reading your blog and you and now your father have been such an inspiration and blessing to me while reading about your faith, beliefs, and love of God.
That is so GREAT and totally AMAZING! I myself was never taught to read. I just remember one day when I was around 4 being able to read things when I wanted, and I have seen 2 students (I am a teacher) over the years who could do the same. That being said, neither I or these kids had any of the issues or rough start as your smart little Ty did. That is just so wonderful! What an absolute blessing that he will not have to struggle with reading as you know reading ability affects every other subject learned. Praise God that is not a struggle he will have as he has had plenty of struggles already and still struggles with others. I am just thrilled for Ty!
Mini introduction-I have only posted a comment on your blog 1 other time and it has been a long time. However I have followed (sounds so stalkish but really its not) you since your sweet Ty was about 3 weeks old. I also did the Grace4Today weight loss stuff with you for a short time until the format was changed from going to email to the online forum. I still had dial up so I could not load the online forum. Anyway I am a teacher, live in TN and have 3 little girls (10, 7, 2). I truly enjoy reading your blog and you and now your Dad have been such an inspiration and blessing to me while reading about your faith, beliefs, and love of God.
Ty is STILL amazing…but I am not.
We decided to go another direction with the name (David and Aimee were tired of “Water Flow”), so the new NEW webpages are;
http://www.myspace.com/AllProRV and
http://www.allproRV.blogspot.com
sheesh!!! This took a LOT of work to switch everything, and I’m still not done transferring all the text, but, I’ll come back to it tomorrow, and be done by the afternoon. Just wanted to let you know in case you were wanting to link to you dad and brother’s business sights.
Love ya,
-J
Doni, I just wanted to comment on how precious I think these pictures are of Ty. He is one handsome little boy and charming to boot! I love his personality, his “sunshine” that he brings into a room. I am not surprised at his “reading” as he has been doing that for quite some time. I just always assumed that you had already been teaching him!!! He always reads over here – he tells me every program that is on TV and there is no way he could have memorized all of that 🙂 I love how God confounds the “wise” (in this case doctors!) and inprints His own reflection in each of us and by His power demonstrated through Ty abilities that will bring Him glory. How cool is that! Love that boy!