Last week was my first week at LIST after my maternity leave. Thankfully, I am able to bring my daughter to LIST with me. Even more thankfully, she did really well last week and was not a distraction to the students!
It was great getting back in the swing of things and seeing the LIST students again. Many of them seem to be doing very well, but there are a couple students who are now in need of extra help. I am very glad that I can come back and help these students, and I am beginning to form a plan on how to do so. One student is a first grader and is having a lot of difficulty learning to read; at this point, he is still not able to blend or sound out two letter words. My goal for him is to help him at least start the sounding out process. Sometimes this is a brain development issue; I have seen students struggle all year and then one day it just “clicks”. I am not sure if this will be the case with this student, but working on blending skills is our main goal at this time. The other student is in fourth grade and is having difficulty in math (mainly, she needs to learn her multiplication facts). In the meantime, I am working to help her use coping mechanisms so that she can at least do the work, as well as drilling her on her multiplication facts.
I am also very excited because on January 29, we will be having our first LIST art class. One of our former volunteers who had to quit volunteering on a weekly basis, is now planning and running monthly art classes. Our summer sessions students really enjoyed our science experiments, and I know our current stents will enjoy the art classes!
