Alli's Vision Therapy Story: A MUCH NEEDED BREAK FROM SCHOOL

For those of you who do not know our story, about 18 months ago we embarked on a journey to fix Alli's vision. We were told it would not help her learn to read....dont waste your time, nearly everyone said....But we ignored them and happily discovered that after Alli learned to use her eyes correctly, she started to read!! We had spent 120 hours - spread out over 5 months - doing Vision Therapy. (If you want to know more about our background, click the link below

START HERE

For those of you who already know our story, I wanted to share with you a little about how things are going for us. At the end of the school year Alli's reading level was at the beginning of Second Grade. This is about 6 months behind where she should have been, BUT 3 YEARS AHEAD of where she would have been had we never tried Vision Therapy. We used the All About Reading and All About Spelling and I could not be happier with their curriculum. Click below to link to a post about these books:

ALL ABOUT LEARNING

For 3 years I have never taken a break from school with Alli. It was always one step forward and three steps back for her, reading or math, it didnt matter. Nothing came easy for her so I could never take breaks from school. Actually, I did take a few breaks and it was almost like starting over afterward. It was easier to just keep doing a little of school to keep it fresh in her mind. We did school on vacations, we did school on weekends, we did school non-stop for 3 years. Then, the summer of 2014 happened.

Our family was planning an EPIC bike tour through British Columbia for 7 weeks. Our goal was to cycle 800 miles. I had not intended to take a break from doing school with Alli. I brought her reading book, her spelling list, cards to play math games, 12 lessons from her All About Reading book. I was not going to do A LOT of school every day, but I wanted to at least keep stuff fresh in her mind. Then reality hit.

Her school stuff never even came out of the bike bag. Shane pulled it around for 7 weeks - 1000 miles of cycling - but it was not ever used. There were so many exciting things to be doing. Swimming, playing tag, climbing, waterparks, berry picking, libraries, people's homes (some people hosted us for free on our trip), roller rinks, creeks and rivers, playgrounds, etc....not to mention - we spent 120 hours on our bikes in route....yes, the same amount of time we spent doing Vision Therapy. Crazy coincidence, eh?

Actually, on Day 38 (we were gone 50 days) I pulled out her book and she read to me. A whole story....she hadnt seen that story in 8 weeks, but she read it to me.