Hi,
I am new to this part of AmityMama--I frequent the expectant mamas section, as I'm due to have my 3rd child in May.
But I wanted to make this post today here and would be grateful to hear any responses any of you may have.
My daughter is in 1st grade in our local Waldorf school (my son is in 4th grade there). This is Seraphina's 3rd year at the school--she was in the kindergarten for 2 years. She seems to particularly fit into the waldorf style well--she is extremely, extremely creative and has benefited from the non-academic vibe of the kindergarten. She is very much a child who lives in the world of fantasy and although she is a great climber and is very athletic, she is very "out there." She can spend long periods of time playing with dolls or stuffed animals or basically anything, making up stories by herself and keeping herself busy.
Well, I just had a parent teacher conference this week, though, and am feeling nervous and anxious about what her teacher told me. She said that Seraphina has a very hard time "tracking", and when they have worked on copying sentences off the board into their books, Seraphina cannot do this. The teacher would need to write the sentences on a piece of paper and put it directly on Seraphina's desk in order for her to do the work. She was not saying it in an alarming sort of way; she just wanted to mention it. She said she can't really tell yet if it is a sign of a possible learning disability (i feel like i want to cry just writing those words) --but it could be that Seraphina is still relatively young and just is not ready yet. She also mentioned how in Kindergarten, children will often have to start a poem over from the beginning when reciting and getting stuck in the middle. She said Seraphina does this when they are doing sequence problems in math--like the teacher saying a number, then the kids saying what is 2 numbers after that, and 2 numbers before. She said often Seraphina will have to start at 1, go up, and then go back. She was telling me this to explain how maybe it is just a "youngness" in her. So, anyway, I am a bit freaked out about this. I taught myself how to read at age 3, my son learned how to read at age 5 (montessori kindergarten before the waldorf school). I have been really open to the delayed reading philosophy of waldorf, and have been planning on just trusting the process and not worrying about it, but now this is different. I've heard of complaints people have had with their waldorf school's inability to work well with kids who have learning disabilities, and I just don't want to blindly trust that everything will be okay without figuring out what I can do to help, and what steps we can take NOW. Like, I don't want to wait to see how this develops, or doesn't. I'm confused, though. I looked up tracking/reading online, and found a few suggestions. Like, playing games with patterns should help. Making patterns with beads and blocks.
Does anyone have any other advice? I am very open to it!
Thanks!
Nicole

Has she had her vision checked? That's the first thing I thought of with the copying comment. She needs the text close by to actually SEE it.

As for the counting, it may just come in time, or she may be someone who has to do more concrete math for a while. For example: it took me FOREVER to memorize the times tables, and I really needed to write the numbers down, ideally. I'm a more visual learner that way. I've never memorized the 12s (I still treat them as 2 step multiplication in my head). But, I've successfully gone thru AP Calculus and consider myself strong in math. I just need to do it step by step. KWIM?

For the reading, I'd get her eyes checked first, before looking for a learning disability.

And, is her school regular waldorf or a charter? The only waldorf school here is charter. I wonder if they have better "special ed" services than traditional waldorf. Sorry, mindless braindumping there.

~amey

My first thought as well was to have her eyes checked. In my Past Life (before Anabelle was born ;) ), I was a special ed teacher and tracking difficultes, especially at this young age, do not necessarily imply learning *differences*. My son was the same way and he was actually later classified as gifted. And OMG, did he EVER march to the beat of a different drummer. When you said "out there," you hit it right on the head. :p

Anyway, YES, there are lots of things you can do, small "exercises" that will help with her tracking abilities. The simplest thing, if you can do it, is to get a fish tank. And some active fish for her to watch. Another easy one -- crawling. But I'm talking about cross-lateral crawling, which means she puts one arm out while the opposite leg is out. Basically, it's the way adults or older babies crawl, not difficult at all. Also, overhead monkey bars -- you know, like a ladder that goes across. The more she can practice going across one of those with her hands (hanging), the better.

As for other activities -- stringing beads is good. Puzzles are good. Tanagrams ... I'll post more as I think of more. In the meantime, I highly recommend the book Unicorns Are Real: A Right-Brained Approach to Learning by Barbara Meister Vitale.

Oh, and ~*~ be calm ~*~. ;) She sounds like a truly wonderful girl with a sweet artistic soul. Christopher was (and still is) completely lousy at tracking, but it hasn't affected his ability to learn and grow. I'm glad you said the teacher said it wasn't alarming, because I would be very suspicious of someone who brought up learning disabilities based on this information alone. And while you're at it, go ahead and change it to "learning differences." Here's how it works -- For example, with 100 being the average I.Q. -- A child has an overall I.Q. score of 150. That's considered superior. On some of the subtests, the child's I.Q. is 120. Oops! That's still above-average, but it's two deviations away from 150. Which indicates a learning difference. I hate to bring I.Q. scores into it, but it's the best example I could think of right now (before my 3rd cup of coffee!)

Take care,
Mary

Mary...
I just wanted to say that your response is so sweet and helpful. Full of ideas.
Thanks! :)

I'll tackle the "what I know about waldorf and reading" part of the question.

My sister (now 17) went to a waldorf school from the playgroup age to 4th grade. We, the adult siblings 17,15,&13 years older than her, had huge issues with the lack of reading. *But* I became a believer when she bacame a reader litterally overnight when she was in second grade.

As a family we do not follow Waldorf methods with our children but I definitly see the benifits to holding off/not pushing reading until later. My son is a perfect example of a child who is not quite ready. He is on the verge but not quite yet. DD on the other hand will figure it out sooner than later. They are simply wired differently.

Thanks everyone who has responded to my question. I think its a great idea to get Seraphina's vision checked, and I made an appointment to do that. I'll go from there to see what else to do after that.
Thanks again!
Nicole