SS finished her first novel.

Part of SS's homework is to read for twenty minutes a day.  Last year it was a minimum of fifteen minutes but she could read as long as she wanted. For some reason the focus this year is how many pages she can read in twenty minutes. SS decided to tackle her first Star Wars novel, A New Hope, as her homework reading. Last Thursday SS was elated to have read all 317 pages, she was very proud of herself. We are glad Santa brought a lot of books for SS.

On Monday SS started with the second book, The Empire Strikes Back. I really enjoy listening when SS reads, because she not only reads, she acts what she is reading. Her enthusiasm is palpable because she is reading about something she enjoys so much.  SS reads out loud because we need to make sure she is enunciating properly. We stop the timer when she has difficulty pronouncing a word, and offer help. We also stop the timer when SS comes across a word she does not the meaning of, and we discuss. Like all kids SS sometimes gets lazy and wonders why she has to read.  This is going to come across as snobbish, but I point out adults like the Duggars and others with limited vocabularies. We remind SS that reading will equip her with a vast vocabulary, something that will come in handy throughout her life.

SS reminded me we needed to patch her eye. She is all smiles now and is happy to be wearing her flame patch. However the patches are very sticky and the adhesive will irritate her skin soon.

Dr. B wants SS to be engaged in an activity when her eye is patched, not just sitting around. The idea is to make that lazy eye work. I felt awful for SS because she had the patch for only ten minutes when her left eye was fatigued. She told me her left eye was tired and wanted to close. I explained that is why we are patching her good eye, because her right eye is doing most of the work, and we need to get her left eye to work as much.

We have found out that SS does better with homework when she is not sitting at the table. Maybe because she at her desk at school she relishes the freedom. Not what is recommended but it works for SS. She sits on the sofa, lays on the floor, but the homework gets done without a fuss.