The other day I was looking at a letter Gemma-Rose had written to a friend. It was long and detailed and her spelling was almost perfect.
“When did you learn to spell so well?” I asked.
Gemma-Rose shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I do read a lot, you know. Maybe I remember what the words look like.”
Well, she must have read many ‘ought’ and ‘aught’ words because I have never introduced her to those phonic sounds. Gemma-Rose once told me she’d pick up spelling as she went along. I guess she was right.
One of Gemma-Rose’s friends wrote in a recent letter, “Can you read cursive writing?” I am sure the friend can but Gemma-Rose can’t. She can’t even write it. After a burst of cursive writing interest some months ago, she has returned to printing and seems quite happy not being able to do ‘running writing’.
So my daughter can now spell, but she still can’t do cursive writing. There’s always something, isn’t there?
Being honest, it would be rather nice if Gemma-Rose had beautiful cursive handwriting. I could be really proud of that. People might say, “What a wonderful job you’re doing homeschooling your children.” But Gemma-Rose can’t. But she will. One day, when she sees the need, when she’s ready to learn.
By the way, do you remember me telling you about Gemma-Rose’s inability to tell analogue time? I bought her a $2.98 wall clock. I didn’t say, “I bought you something to help you learn the time.” I said, “I bought you a present.” Gemma-Rose was pleased with her gift. She placed it on her bedroom wall above her desk. She wanted to use it. We watched several Brainpop videos about time (I suddenly remembered we still have a subscription). Now I think she can tell the time.
I think I should have reattached all the drawings to Gemma-Rose’s wall before I took the photo of the clock. Then the photo would have looked a whole lot more impressive. Real life… making everything look impressive… that’s a whole new topic! And in case you’re wondering.. is that Gemma-Rose working away on some fantastic project at 4.45 pm? No, she’s playing a computer game.
