I Stopped Listening 10 B's Ago

Mila is, of course, up to her ears in learning about words. Somewhere along the line, reading became a thing that kindergarteners have to do. I mean, back in my day, we didn't have to read until first grade, but we had to walk uphill both ways through the snow, so it balanced. Mila will, according to the syllabus, know how to read a few hundred words by the end of the year.

It's going well, let me tell you.

Problem number one is that MILA DOESN'T CARE. EVER. The kid is pre-programmed to be willing to accept a low grade. She cannot be motivated to be "perfect" by anything or anyone. It's actually all sorts of fine and dandy; it's just different. Her big sister is basically Jessie Spano and freaks out if she gets a 98%, so this thing where Mila is cool with getting half the questions wrong on a reading test is foreign to me. 

It's not that Mila can't do it, by the way. She chooses not to.

Another part of the issue is that they learn sight words. I suspect that part of Mila's disinterest in the process is because she doesn't see the bigger purpose. Knowing 20 words doesn't get her a sentence, so she can't pick up a book and find meaning in it yet. That seems to be bothering her enough that I tried to start teaching her to sound out words, but then she got frustrated because we were working on words that aren't on her sight word list. So ... meh?

But that leads me to the last challenge. While they aren't learning to sound out words, Mila's class is learning to focus on the sounds letters make. That's good, I know. BUT OMG. STAAAAAHP.

Mila is spending half of her speaking time repeating letter sounds and asking what letter makes that sound and which letter makes this sound and WHY IS MY LIFE A SPELLING QUIZ NOW? For example, Mila will say the word "balloon" and then say "buh ... buh ... buh ... buh ... buh ... buh ..." for five minutes and then add, "What letter says 'buh?'"

She waits for an answer. It's legitimately a test.

I passed plenty of tests between high school and college. Why must we go through another phase of tests?