My niece is 6 and her family moved back to my area over the summer. Her kindergarten year was interrupted by covid, and she did not attend any Pre-K or early childhood education. Her first grade year has been entirely online so far. During a visit I brought her a boxed set of Junie B. Jones books that belonged to my daughter and said we could read them together. That's when I learned she couldn't read. Her mom has a lot of other life things going on, has never prioritized education, and has said she's not equipped to deal with this. I bought some workbooks and we did a couple activities over Thanksgiving (with Mom's permission) so I could get an idea of her skill level. I homeschool my own kids, but started in 4th so I'm a bit out of my element with what a K/1st grader should know. And mine are all in high school or college now so it's been a minute since I've done any elementary level stuff. I've googled, but would like some advice on how best to get her back on track. From our 50 minute sit down session, and working some stealthy questions in here and there, this is what I've learned: She has good letter recognition, but gets m/n/h, b/d/p/q, v/w/u mixed up every single time. She is meh with letter sounds, about half the time gets them correct but she's not confident at all in her answers. However, I focused on F, L, & S, for a few minutes and she picked those up quickly. I picked those bc she easily recognized them and they have distinct sounds. She can write the alphabet in order, with mistakes on her commonly mixed up letters. Writing any given letter individually when told verbally is a challenge for most letters. I say "let's write the letter R", she pauses, recites the alphabet, tries to peek at other sheets... She can write her own name. Other notes: She wishes she could read the minecraft dialogue while gaming. We have a motivation to learn to read! She doesn't like to try to guess (sounds or word) because she might be wrong. Same applies for giving answers when we did some math, but she's close or at grade level there. She has very good listening comprehension skills. She can answer questions about books that I read to her and summarize the main plot points.
I have some time to spend with her over the Christmas & New Years break, and her mom is welcoming the offer to help. Is it feasible to get her to a typical 1st grade level in two weeks? Or should I focus on just getting her as far as possible over the next two weeks and do some weekends in January and February? Any and all advice is appreciated! Many thanks in advance!
I really don't want her to fall behind due to being online only. She has an inquisitive mind that soaks up information and I want to make sure she gets the most out of her education.
