Today we went out to our local park, which is probably the nicest park I will ever within walking distance of. As we approached the swings I saw a man with three young kids, the youngest a baby in a stoller. "Poor guy, having to deal with all that I thought." JT wanted to go on the swings by them and we struck up some small talk and it turned out that the man was a Transplant Cardiologist, visiting from Australia while his Heme/Onc wife did some training! He is on a sabbatical for the next three months and it sounded like this was the first time was going to be the primary caregiver.
In hindsight, I probably should have had a ready made pamphlet, entitled "How to be a physician and Dad while taking care of your children full time." Or something better titled, you must understand that this is maybe my specialty!
One thing he mentioned to me that struck me as a very good logical place to start was this: "I've decided to divide my days into thirds, one third we spend outdoors doing something, one third inside, and then the last third my wife comes home and she gets them!". I think this is a good idea, however the problem I think he will run into after a while is that that final third might cause some difficulties with his wife, who is probably tired from her full day and may want some time with him as well. I sometimes struggle with the ever increasing amount of "me" time that I can spend on things like this, or probably more commonly wasting it on Reddit, reading the news, or the occasional Minecraft binge.
The second interesting point about this encounter was I had recently read a Reddit post of a young doctor asking for advice on whether/how to tell strangers/first dates/barbers one is a doctor without it affecting the interaction too much. In this case I'm glad he asked me what I did because it gave us an opportunity to connect, and I think it being honest about it is always the best policy. I do try and take the focus off of being a doctor somewhat though, by usually framing it as: "I work for ____ hospital as a hospitalist/nocturnist/doctor" (the last word depending on what I assume the listeners familiarity with medical speak is). I like this way because it puts the focus more on the hospital system which allows them an easier follow up question. Just saying "I'm a doctor", usually leads to: "what kind?"
In reading news, I should upgrade my assessment of JT's progress. I think he can read GRL C-E books without issue on the first try, probably almost 80% of an F or G book too I would reckon. We are overdue for a library visit (pun intended, and yes we owe them money) to get some new books.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Sunday, October 9, 2016
My concerns with how reading is going
Another month between posts. I will regret this someday when I am looking back and trying to look for clues.
JT continues to make progress with his reading, however I have noticed a few things that nag me. One is that I feel that his method of reading is one where he now shies away from sounding out words and instead relies on his bank of sight words. For example, we were reading and came to the word "skin" and he said "snack" (this happened two times in a row on separate reading). This leads me to think that his thought process is: "OK, I don't know this word 100% but it has 's', 'k' and 'n' in it, and so does 'snack' so that is probably it".
Furthermore, he is resistant to trying to sound out words with me, but when I sound them out for him, even if I put a lot of space between the individual sounds, he rapidly can say the word. Isolating the problem, it seems that he has some new resistance or doesn't trust himself to sound out the letters. I don't know why this is the case or if it is really new. IIRC, in the past I was complaining that with the flash cards he would ONLY sound out the words and not memorize them. Still haven't done any flash cards for months, and maybe it would be beneficial to try them again to introduce more word grouping and sounds. I feel like maybe with the introduction of 'ee' and 'oo' words he is starting to feel less secure about the 'basic' vowel sounds. He was really upset when we read a book and I tried explaining the 'ph' in phone didn't make the 'p' sound. What are you trying to pull Dad? He doesn't seem to have any problem reading the word "know", however.
The number of books he reads on his own continues to grow. I would estimate that he can read any GRL C book by himself on the first try now, and most of GRL D books. Almost all of these books are library books so we have to return them after he has "memorized" them. I do wonder if it would be better if we kept some longer because the books he seems to like to read the most on his own spontaneously are the ones he can read easily on his own and have mastered. That way, he would have more opportunities to spontaneously read on his own. I haven't yet seen him independently pick up a book that challenges his reading capabilities. If I saw him do this, it would allay some of my fears that I'm conditioning him to read as work, not as fun.
Recently I've taken to reading him a book with no pictures to help him go to bed (which has worked miraculously well, probably helped by the sad fact that naps have not been working out since his little sister joined us in June). It is one of my childhood favorites: Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising". Earlier in the year we did make it through "The Hobbit" as our night/nap book, but it was an edition with illustrations, so it was often interrupted with him asking me if there was a picture. I regret not starting him on non-picture books earlier.
JT continues to make progress with his reading, however I have noticed a few things that nag me. One is that I feel that his method of reading is one where he now shies away from sounding out words and instead relies on his bank of sight words. For example, we were reading and came to the word "skin" and he said "snack" (this happened two times in a row on separate reading). This leads me to think that his thought process is: "OK, I don't know this word 100% but it has 's', 'k' and 'n' in it, and so does 'snack' so that is probably it".
Furthermore, he is resistant to trying to sound out words with me, but when I sound them out for him, even if I put a lot of space between the individual sounds, he rapidly can say the word. Isolating the problem, it seems that he has some new resistance or doesn't trust himself to sound out the letters. I don't know why this is the case or if it is really new. IIRC, in the past I was complaining that with the flash cards he would ONLY sound out the words and not memorize them. Still haven't done any flash cards for months, and maybe it would be beneficial to try them again to introduce more word grouping and sounds. I feel like maybe with the introduction of 'ee' and 'oo' words he is starting to feel less secure about the 'basic' vowel sounds. He was really upset when we read a book and I tried explaining the 'ph' in phone didn't make the 'p' sound. What are you trying to pull Dad? He doesn't seem to have any problem reading the word "know", however.
The number of books he reads on his own continues to grow. I would estimate that he can read any GRL C book by himself on the first try now, and most of GRL D books. Almost all of these books are library books so we have to return them after he has "memorized" them. I do wonder if it would be better if we kept some longer because the books he seems to like to read the most on his own spontaneously are the ones he can read easily on his own and have mastered. That way, he would have more opportunities to spontaneously read on his own. I haven't yet seen him independently pick up a book that challenges his reading capabilities. If I saw him do this, it would allay some of my fears that I'm conditioning him to read as work, not as fun.
Recently I've taken to reading him a book with no pictures to help him go to bed (which has worked miraculously well, probably helped by the sad fact that naps have not been working out since his little sister joined us in June). It is one of my childhood favorites: Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising". Earlier in the year we did make it through "The Hobbit" as our night/nap book, but it was an edition with illustrations, so it was often interrupted with him asking me if there was a picture. I regret not starting him on non-picture books earlier.
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