pivot
Last week, we were working on dictionary skills. It sounds oh so basic, but for a kiddo with auditory & visual processing issues, dictionary skills can take lengthy periods of intentional study to master. This isn’t my first rodeo teaching dictionary skills. I’ve learned that patience can persevere, hopping on alternating feet can help a student master helping/linking vs action verbs, & keeping the lessons short & chill takes the pressure off both parent & student.
I had a short list of words for us to hunt down, mainly springlike words that also had vowel team combos. While hunting for 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘺 we came across 𝘱𝘪𝘷𝘰𝘵.
𝙥𝙞𝙫𝙤𝙩
𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯
𝘜𝘚 /ˈ𝘱𝘪𝘷.ə𝘵/
𝗮 𝗳𝗶𝘅𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀
𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻:
𝘴𝘺𝘯: 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵
I kind of chuckled & rolled my eyes at myself a bit. You see, in this dictionary, 𝙥𝙞𝙫𝙤𝙩 is smack dab in between the words 𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙮 & 𝙥𝙞𝙭𝙚𝙡.
In the pivots of life, I’ve often viewed it as an emergency. A sort of hot vs cold mentality. It occurred that the pivots of life aren’t the composition of catastrophe, but more the transition to our next steps, the places that can be difficult but provide clarity in our fogs.
There was struggle in this lesson, things that felt unbearable or just plain difficult. It seemed the word 𝙥𝙞𝙫𝙤𝙩 was more a remimder for me than him. We took a break & walked the flower garden, discussed that like the rose, we all have roots, blooms, & thorns; but, also like the rose, we all have real beauty. We shouldn’t forget that truth.
We finally found 𝙥𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙮 & 𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧 & 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙛 & 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙙𝙨. I could see his confidence rising, his chin tipped a bit higher, a relief emerging showing his work. We didn’t need an about face pivot, we needed a transition in our thinking. It made all the difference.
