Dear David, Sarah and Laura,
I’m sorry that we haven’t been in touch since our helicopter arrived, but finishing EasyRead coincided with us moving again (this time into our ‘forever’ house as Bethan calls it) and the last couple of months have been a bit manic.
I wanted to write and thank you for all your support over the last 9 months or so. I can’t believe the difference in Bethan, she is a completely new child. Last year, she didn’t really enjoy school, hated reading, had low self-confidence and would do anything to avoid picking up a book. She is now the eager, enthusiastic child that I sent to school in Reception. She also now voluntarily reads by herself and I was really pleased when I ‘caught’ her reading one of the chapter books we normally read together at bedtime. I’ve got a photo which Bethan said I could send to you – could you please remind me of your ‘normal’ email address so that I can attach it?
However, the reason I’ve been prompted to write now is that last week Bethan came home from school and she was so chuffed. She had been ‘promoted’ to lime (stage 12) books! Last September, when Bethan’s confidence was returning she told her teacher and me that she wanted to be on lime books by the end of year 2. I remember her teacher being a bit measured, saying that it would be brilliant, but it might not happen until juniors. She has told everyone we know and was desperate for me to email you too.
Her writing is also coming on, in January she was a level 1b, a teacher says that she is now at a 2b/2a level and although she is as not as confident in her spelling (and is still reversing short words like ‘to’ which becomes ‘ot’) she can now recognise the sounds and will normally choose the correct sound for a word, even if it is not the correct version of it. (e.g. choosing ai for a_e words). She still gets frustrated with her writing, but I think it will improve over time. School are also encouraging her to keep a word book and use the computer to help her.
Sorry that it has turned into a bit of an essay, but I wanted to say a proper thank you as it has really given Bethan a jump start in life.
Many thanks.