An update on where things are now for my daughter having received the correct form of instruction (Orton Gillingham) by well trained teachers in a well regarded school.

The other day I was clearing out some of the old school supplies we have around the house.  Early on, when I had openly expressed to our family (while she was in the first part of first grade) that she was having trouble reading, one of my sister in laws gave me 200 flash cards of words that she was supposed to know (ha).

Of course she couldn't read them and I put them away high on a shelf, to be avoided.  (No sense in trying to use a tool that was clearly not going to work).

Yesterday I found them again.  She read them all at lighting speed with very few errors.  I did see her "sound-out" a couple of them but really they presented barely any challenge to her.

What that let me know with no doubt was that she will not be illiterate.  She has already had the following:

First grade: Half a year of Orton Gillingham immersion in school.

Summer Camp: a month long four hour a day intensive summer camp where her teacher basically finished off her dysgraphia issue single handedly.  (around 600 minutes of 1 on 1 multi sensory approach).

Second Grade: Complete Orton Gillingham immersion in school.

This summer:  Lexia homework (20 minutes every other day or so) and 2 hours a week of tutoring.

Which brings me to what comes next. 

Her school is (on paper) $23K per year annually.  Now this is not what we pay thanks to a scholarship etc but let me tell you what we pay is still far and beyond what Catholic school costs per year. 

Still I believe she needs one more year at her current school and here is why:

While, at this point,  she is not going to fall into the category of illiterate or barely literate (which is where sadly, so many dyslexic folks end up finding themselves) there are things I'm thinking she still needs:

1. Another year of practicing her skills in an environment that is helpful and supportive. Reminders of the methods that she has been so far. (Things like COPS, sounding out words etc).

2. Another year of smaller teacher/student ratio.

3. Another year to simply be a child in her current school that understands dyslexia and expects things in a far gentler way without the blame and finger pointing that can come with children who take extra time or are not perfectionists about their own work (as I've said before I find the children in Catholic School to be bored and miserable).

While the next Catholic school we plan on putting her into has at least an inkling about Orton Gillingham (the weekend class type of inkling) it's simply not enough to bring a child with dyslexia into the arena of thriving.  We had to have the sort of school my daughter is in now for that to occur.

No possibly way would any of my children ever go back to the original Catholic school we were in. 

Not with my memories of my daughter being papered with 8 worksheets a day (at least) by her first grade teacher (who never had any intention of teaching anyone what they really needed to know how to read). 

Not with their changing her report card to reflect her to be a straight A student so that she would look like she didn't really have the dyslexia the doctor report found and therefore would not qualify for the scholarship she has now and additionally they wouldn't personally look like the crap school they really are (thank goodness for experienced Child Advocates who had seen that sort of nonsense before).

So while this is another year of financially paying way more then we had ever originally intended to pay I think, in the long run, it's money well spent.