The kid thread: Planning, pregnancy & parenting

[empress of self-improvement]

Nov 13, 2018 20:21:08 GMT -5 steph08 said:

Nov 13, 2018 19:58:20 GMT -5 cktc said:

A friend did a Geology party for her daughter. From her facebook: Coloring crystals, eating dirt- chocolate pudding with shovels!, rock crystal cupcakes, making fossil cookies, mining for gemstones, geode cracking, crystal structures building, and happy giggling chaos.

My DH has a geology degree and his head might explode at this.

Is it wrong to plan this for his 40th birthday next year? OMG he would die. Bahahaha.

If you do this, please please PLEAAAASSSSSSSE invite me! I love geology and if I had any friends, I would give myself a geology party.

As an aside: where did DH get his Geo. degree? I'm thinking about it at some point or just some classes to get back into it.

[justme]

Nov 13, 2018 19:17:56 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Had a long talk with my parents about my brother today. He was talking crazy right before they left. I told them about this weekend. We're at a complete loss.

Don't care about him my ass. I know that's the miswiring in his brain talking but it's still hard to hear.

I suggested seeing if Nebraska Medicine accepts medicaid for psychiatry patients. We both liked ours. It's not mine's fault I had a bad response to the medication.

He needs more than a talk therapist. This is clearly beyond her scope too if he's been in her care for two months and this is the result.

I also told them an emergency call needs to be made since he's on Wellbutrin which is quite likely the source of the recent escalation. I mean the commericials say to call if you're behaving like he is so they better freaking be able to handle this.

Do you know you're states stance on police right to commit? Might be a drastic step, but I know in mine if you call with credible knowledge of harming themselves or others they'll take the person in for eval and they're stuck there 72hrs. It could be an option if he gets bad enough.

[gs11rmb]

I'm worried about my younger daughter.  She's 6 and in first grade and her teacher seems concerned that she's not progressing with her reading.  She came home with a stack of sight words yesterday and could only read a couple.  She is able to read the Level 1 "Bob" books but I'm not entirely convinced that she hasn't simply memorized a large portion.  She's also very stubborn and if she doesn't recognize a word she'll simply shrug her shoulders and say "I don't know" and not even try.  

At the parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago I was told that she'll sometimes reverse the order of the letters when reading e.g. run she'll start by sounding out the letter n.  I asked if we should be concerned about dyslexia or something similar and was told no need to panic just keep an eye on it for now.  Frankly, there's no history of learning disabilities on either my side or my husband's so I've not been primed to look for something like this and was just assuming it's because she's very young and will catch on eventually.

Should I start with hiring a reading tutor once a week?  Any advice?

I'm paging the people I know are teachers (oped, Knee Deep in Water Chloe, @bamafan1954) but would love to hear of any parental experience with these concerns.

[steph08]

Nov 13, 2018 20:21:08 GMT -5 steph08 said:

Nov 13, 2018 19:58:20 GMT -5 cktc said:

A friend did a Geology party for her daughter. From her facebook: Coloring crystals, eating dirt- chocolate pudding with shovels!, rock crystal cupcakes, making fossil cookies, mining for gemstones, geode cracking, crystal structures building, and happy giggling chaos.

My DH has a geology degree and his head might explode at this.

Is it wrong to plan this for his 40th birthday next year? OMG he would die. Bahahaha.

OMG. I'm going with the theme - "You're old as dirt!" 

Bahahahahaha. 

The sad thing is we have no friends and he hates parties. But I might try to do a surprise one with just the kids and our parents and do this. 

I don't know how, but I'll make it happen. 

[oped]

Nov 14, 2018 9:26:14 GMT -5 gs11rmb said:

I'm worried about my younger daughter.  She's 6 and in first grade and her teacher seems concerned that she's not progressing with her reading.  She came home with a stack of sight words yesterday and could only read a couple.  She is able to read the Level 1 "Bob" books but I'm not entirely convinced that she hasn't simply memorized a large portion.  She's also very stubborn and if she doesn't recognize a word she'll simply shrug her shoulders and say "I don't know" and not even try.  

At the parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago I was told that she'll sometimes reverse the order of the letters when reading e.g. run she'll start by sounding out the letter n.  I asked if we should be concerned about dyslexia or something similar and was told no need to panic just keep an eye on it for now.  Frankly, there's no history of learning disabilities on either my side or my husband's so I've not been primed to look for something like this and was just assuming it's because she's very young and will catch on eventually.

Should I start with hiring a reading tutor once a week?  Any advice?

I'm paging the people I know are teachers (oped , Knee Deep in Water Chloe , @bamafan1954 ) but would love to hear of any parental experience with these concerns.

6 i don't worry too much. At that age the biggest issue is not to put her off reading for life by making it something she hates to do. Keep her in a print rich environment. Read to her a lot. Put closed captions on the tv. label things in your house. but passively. allow her to read whatever she wants, don't worry about 'grade level'. listen to audiobooks. Get a list of what they are reading at school and read it before/during at home too to reinforce so long as it isn't boring her. 

Also, get a vision test. Learning disabilities aren't a vision problem, but vision problems can manifest as reading issues. Go to a real optometrist not a walmart type and ask around, ask the office if they test for tracking issues before you go. It is generally one that is easy to rule out if it isn't an issue. 

How is her spelling? Can she apply phonetic rules when spelling, if not what kind of errors does she make?

Has she ever had ear issues, lot of ear infections... if so also go to an audiologist to have an actual hearing test done rather than just a screening. Again, these are things that its best just to rule them out rather than find out frustrated years later there was an underlying complication. 

I wouldn't hire a reading tutor unless they were someone who was reading to her and playing word games. Again, if you just wait a bit and don't make her hate it she most likely will come into it on her own... and if she doesn't, getting to 8-9 (homeschool i'd actually say 10-11) and not hating reading but being capable of higher level thinking skills make it easier to mitigate a real learning disability. 

I'm currently working with an 8-9 year old who does have what would be labeled as a reading disability if she was in school.  I'm using an adapted systematic phonetic instruction program and coordinated activities. If it was up to me i would have waited another year at least, but she wants to read so is motivated, and her father was very concerned so we started. But progress is slow and I need to work to keep it fun and games and non frustrational. Honestly, it will probably take 2 1/2-3 years to get through the whole program, when if i'd waited a year it would have taken 18 months- 2 years, so putting us in exactly the same place. I see her about 4-5 hours a week (well 5-6 but we spend the last 1/2 hour of each session doing art... good incentive ... we also need to work in talk time because its a long session for her age and she loves to ... gab, yak, chit chat, blab ... (we are at CVC blends stage   

[gs11rmb]

Thank you oped!!!

I honestly wasn't worried because for my older daughter (also one of the young ones in class) reading really didn't click for her until after Christmas-time in first grade.  I guess what's most concerning is the younger girl has the older one's teacher so I trust her judgement.  Her spelling isn't bad of words that she knows but I don't think she is very capable of sounding out and spelling new words.

She did have a vision test at her 6 year old check up in August and I think they tested hearing as well but not entirely sure.

I think I'll just keep reading with her and practicing sight words for a few minutes per day.  As you said, I don't want her to hate reading and view it as a chore.  

Thanks again!

[oped]

Vision and hearing screenings aren't the same as actual thorough tests though, especially if the vision was images and not letters. and a vision screening wouldn't look at tracking. Again, this isn't something i'd worry about now. But before i hired a tutor or started intervention i'd have further testing in those areas just to rule things out. 

But for now i think that's a great plan  

If you wanted, in a moment of calm and happy you could run through some letter cards and have her name the letters and sounds they make and see if she knows them in isolation. Also see if she always tries to give the letter the first sound of the name (ie. c says s,  g says j, has a hard time understanding why w would say w since it starts with d... that kind of thing). 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Gwen showed me how much one of those pooping unicorns cost.

Hell no!

She's now mad at me because I'm sticking with my original plan. I pointed out I can also go with no presents for her at all if she wants to be a spoiled brat.

ETA If she stops being an ass hat I'm thinking I'll give her $25 towards it in her stocking. Then suggest instead of cheap crap my inlaws give her cash instead.

Then she can decide if she wants to spend the money on that thing or not.

[wvugurl26]

The pooping unicorn scares me. That thing looks evil.

[oped]

Haven't seen it... but it sounds evil. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

We can make slime without it having to come out of a $50 unicorn butthole.😒

She also thinks she wants that furby thing that looks like a pastel sugar glider.

I responded that I'll go get my furby out of the basement and stick a tail on it. That's pretty much the same thing.😂

[andi9899]

Nov 14, 2018 10:22:15 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Gwen showed me how much one of those pooping unicorns cost.

Hell no!

She's now mad at me because I'm sticking with my original plan. I pointed out I can also go with no presents for her at all if she wants to be a spoiled brat.

ETA If she stops being an ass hat I'm thinking I'll give her $25 towards it in her stocking. Then suggest instead of cheap crap my inlaws give her cash instead.

Then she can decide if she wants to spend the money on that thing or not.

I just went and looked it up. Oh hell no. That's so stupid. Why do kids like this? And what kind of adult thought this up.

[chapeau]

Nov 14, 2018 9:26:14 GMT -5 gs11rmb said:

I'm worried about my younger daughter.  She's 6 and in first grade and her teacher seems concerned that she's not progressing with her reading.  She came home with a stack of sight words yesterday and could only read a couple.  She is able to read the Level 1 "Bob" books but I'm not entirely convinced that she hasn't simply memorized a large portion.  She's also very stubborn and if she doesn't recognize a word she'll simply shrug her shoulders and say "I don't know" and not even try.  

At the parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago I was told that she'll sometimes reverse the order of the letters when reading e.g. run she'll start by sounding out the letter n.  I asked if we should be concerned about dyslexia or something similar and was told no need to panic just keep an eye on it for now.  Frankly, there's no history of learning disabilities on either my side or my husband's so I've not been primed to look for something like this and was just assuming it's because she's very young and will catch on eventually.

Should I start with hiring a reading tutor once a week?  Any advice?

I'm paging the people I know are teachers (oped, Knee Deep in Water Chloe, @bamafan1954) but would love to hear of any parental experience with these concerns.

This was me about my daughter 6 weeks ago. She also had trouble with b and d, p and g. Add in that my husband and stepson have learning disabilities and I was really worried for DD.
She does go to a Montessori school, so the process was different, but the teacher set her and a couple of other slower readers up to read with an adult volunteer or one of the older kids every day, and 6 weeks later she’s reading signs going down the highway and just about anything else she can get her hands on, although she is very aware of what she “can” read, and won’t step out of her reading level comfort zone. Sometimes her sign reading has really funny results, but she wants to read now whereas she wasn’t interested at all before.
And her teacher did tell me not to freak out and basically scare her into being afraid to/learning to hate reading.

[raeoflyte]

Cookie decorating I could handle and would be a lot of fun.  Thanks tcu2003 !  

I love the geology party idea cktc, but I just don't have the energy this year.  Halloween and my mom's 70th took it out of me.  Now I just have to get through Thanksgiving and E's party.  E loves anything science related.  She really wanted to have a party to teach her friends about RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevate) for injuries...  But yeah...not this year.  

Last night E decided a dojo party would be cool since she wouldn't have to wear her uniform to it, so I contacted them about that.  It's more money, but I'm really leaning hard that way just so it isn't in the house and all we have to do is the cake.  

[swasat]

Nov 14, 2018 11:22:24 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

Cookie decorating I could handle and would be a lot of fun.  Thanks tcu2003 !  

I love the geology party idea cktc , but I just don't have the energy this year.  Halloween and my mom's 70th took it out of me.  Now I just have to get through Thanksgiving and E's party.  E loves anything science related.  She really wanted to have a party to teach her friends about RICE (rest, ice, compression, and elevate) for injuries...  But yeah...not this year.  

Last night E decided a dojo party would be cool since she wouldn't have to wear her uniform to it, so I contacted them about that.  It's more money, but I'm really leaning hard that way just so it isn't in the house and all we have to do is the cake.  

 rae, my son's birthday is early December. One time we did a gingerbread decoration party for his birthday. I bought mini gingerbread decorating kits for all the kids and set them up for decoration. The kids had a blast and the party was a huge hit. Also, the finished gingerbread houses made for a great party favor.

I got a decoration kit like this: www.target.com/p/gingerbread-mini-house-kit-6-2oz-wondershop-153/-/A-53621098?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&CPNG=PLA_Grocery%2BEssentials%2BShopping_Local&adgroup=SC_Grocery&LID=700000001170770pgs&network=g&device=c&location=9013116&ds_rl=1246978&ds_rl=1247077&ds_rl=1246978&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhNiX1b3U3gIVg5JbCh1zGgPREAQYAiABEgItAPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds



Its only $2.99, so pretty cheap

I made sure to cover the whole decoration area with old bedsheets that I later threw into the washer. Easy peasy clean up!

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Nov 14, 2018 10:52:04 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

Nov 14, 2018 10:22:15 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Gwen showed me how much one of those pooping unicorns cost.

Hell no!

She's now mad at me because I'm sticking with my original plan. I pointed out I can also go with no presents for her at all if she wants to be a spoiled brat.

ETA If she stops being an ass hat I'm thinking I'll give her $25 towards it in her stocking. Then suggest instead of cheap crap my inlaws give her cash instead.

Then she can decide if she wants to spend the money on that thing or not.

I just went and looked it up. Oh hell no. That's so stupid. Why do kids like this? And what kind of adult thought this up.

The kind of adult who is laughing all the way to the bank.

I had a Furby which is equally stupid.

She'll clue in eventually. Right now she's like every child on earth who wants the latest fad.

And eventually she'll learn we're not indulging her every time either.

I'm not going to be my dad and never agree (grandma got me the furby) but there is still a limit. Turns out a pooping unicorn is apparently my limit.

[Deleted]

I hate 90% of the toys out there.  It's all crap that kids get then 3 days later have no interest in because they realize they're stupid.  They're just the "thing to get".   If it was up to me, my kids would have nowhere near what they do now.  But, it's not.  Grandparents and Carrot's Dad are big toy buyers.  I cringe at all the plastic we're dumping in the landfills that didn't really contribute to our lives in any way. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I can't keep up anymore. 80s toys weren't exactly high quality but I don't recall this much crap. And all varities of the exact same crap.

I blame Youtube. I loathe those toy videos they watch. Very brilliant yet sinister advertising.



There is that one toy that I call a popple on a stick. I'll dig my actual popple out and shove a stick up it's ass to give to her as opposed to.spending $35 on the thing currently advertised.

[gs11rmb]

Thanks chapeau and oped.  Your posts made me feel better.  Not entirely at ease but also not ready to start identifying something as a problem that most likely will resolve itself with time.

[GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl]

Nov 14, 2018 14:26:25 GMT -5 gs11rmb said:

Thanks chapeau and oped.  Your posts made me feel better.  Not entirely at ease but also not ready to start identifying something as a problem that most likely will resolve itself with time.

As the parent of a 22 year old with dyslexia, I can’t like Oped’s posts enough. I want to add a few simple things to check on. Caveat: this is not to scare you or to diagnose your kiddo. It’s just some things that parents can watch for to catch signs of trouble learning to read before a child develops unhelpful coping mechanisms:

Can she rhyme? If you say “hat”, can she tell you cat/sat/rat, etc.?

Does she recognize that individual letters have sounds? Does she know some of the sounds?

Can she write phonetically? For example, can she write simple sentences such as “tdy I wnt skdrng”? (Today I went scootering.)

If so, she has phonemic awareness which is a fundamental building block for reading and is often where people with dyslexia lose their way. If she can’t do some or all of those things, check again in a month or so. We all learn at our own pace and in our own style and usually when we are ready to learn. She just might not be ready to learn to read yet. For some kids, it eventually just clicks. That’s why you should subtly check again in a month.

Also, sight reading is great, but not the be all and end all of learning to read. If she can sight read frequently used words such as “the” or “a” or “and”, great. But some kids with true dyslexia learn to hide their reading issues by memorizing entire books. Make sure she hasn’t fallen into that coping mechanism.

Finally, after she reads, can she show that she comprehended what she read? Can she answer questions about the text? Kids with dyslexia often struggle with comprehension because the mere act of reading is so laborious that they lose the gist or sometimes because they have a language learning disabilty along with the dyslexia.

For now, if she seems to have phonemic awareness and is developing some reading comprehension, don’t panic. If not, give her a couple of months to see if it clicks. If not, request a reading eval by March so she can start getting some help in school before she falls too far behind. Good luck!!

[raeoflyte]

I love not having tv commercials.  Definitely limits how much stuff the kids think to ask for.  

Not that we aren't swimming in crap, but the "I wants" go up a ton when they've watched regular cable somewhere.  

[gs11rmb]

And now thanks to GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl  .  Yes, my daughter can rhyme, knows her letters and sounds, etc.  All three of you seem to be confirming my first instinct that she's just little and will learn in time.  I definitely don't want to make it harder for her or a miserable experience.

[geenamercile]

I will add in give time as well but watch.  From a SPED aspect the sooner services can be started with a disability the least impact it can have.  Early intervention is so important.  On the other hand, it can be so difficult to test and get accurate results at 5,6,7 or early elementary.  You have to have patterns of strengths and weakness, you have so show that it is impacting the child's general education.  Even if they start the process with an SEC team, that really it just saying the child is on watch.  They will try some interventions and see if the child responds to them, ect...  Also some kids just have different strengths and weakness.  And over all as a parent you know your child, trust in that either way.       

[geenamercile]

Okay to I already have a pooping unicorn and giant Narwhale hidden in the closet for the girls.  We normally spend about 150 on each girl, what do you all normally spend?

[NastyWoman]

you probably all know this already but just in case you don't: I just received an email from Target (an ad) that says if you buy $50 of Lego you get a $10 GC. And free two-day shipping.

I'll be buying all my toys at Amazon.de (better they send it directly than me lugging it over in my suitcase like last year) but maybe this is of use to one or more of you here

[oped]

Nov 14, 2018 16:15:55 GMT -5 geenamercile said:

I will add in give time as well but watch.  From a SPED aspect the sooner services can be started with a disability the least impact it can have.  Early intervention is so important.  On the other hand, it can be so difficult to test and get accurate results at 5,6,7 or early elementary.  You have to have patterns of strengths and weakness, you have so show that it is impacting the child's general education.  Even if they start the process with an SEC team, that really it just saying the child is on watch.  They will try some interventions and see if the child responds to them, ect...  Also some kids just have different strengths and weakness.  And over all as a parent you know your child, trust in that either way.       

I don't mean to be a bitch, but actually not always. And that is from a special education background. Our biggest problem is we think that because we WANT kids to learn certain skills earlier... that if they don't, they are 'behind' or 'disordered'... when in fact developmentally we are asking them to do things they are not ready to do. Now many of them can be made with 'intervention' to speed up to a certain degree... but some you will honestly ruin them by trying. 

There is not historical rationale for kids reading as a general rule before age 8. There just isn't. And plenty of kids who work it out for themselves by 10-11. Research shows early readers aren't necessarily the best lifelong readers. 

That isn't to say there are not students with real learning disabilities. Like i said, the girl i'm working with now, the first time i sat down with her and recognized the series of thought patterns and how she approached sounds and words, etc. I knew she would need a systemic phonemic awareness program when she finally settled down to read. She wasn't processing and reasoning (or actually assimilating blindly) the way she would if she was going to get it on her own. Even so... i would have preferred to wait to start... and it would have happened faster if we did... so still ended in the same place, early would not have necessarily been better. 

So, again, keeping the kid from thinking they are stupid or disordered or making reading horrible is the BEST thing you can do at this stage. 

[lurkyloo]

Nov 14, 2018 17:21:29 GMT -5 oped said:

Nov 14, 2018 16:15:55 GMT -5 geenamercile said:

I will add in give time as well but watch.  From a SPED aspect the sooner services can be started with a disability the least impact it can have.  Early intervention is so important.  On the other hand, it can be so difficult to test and get accurate results at 5,6,7 or early elementary.  You have to have patterns of strengths and weakness, you have so show that it is impacting the child's general education.  Even if they start the process with an SEC team, that really it just saying the child is on watch.  They will try some interventions and see if the child responds to them, ect...  Also some kids just have different strengths and weakness.  And over all as a parent you know your child, trust in that either way.       

I don't mean to be a bitch, but actually not always. And that is from a special education background. Our biggest problem is we think that because we WANT kids to learn certain skills earlier... that if they don't, they are 'behind' or 'disordered'... when in fact developmentally we are asking them to do things they are not ready to do. Now many of them can be made with 'intervention' to speed up to a certain degree... but some you will honestly ruin them by trying. 

There is not historical rationale for kids reading as a general rule before age 8. There just isn't. And plenty of kids who work it out for themselves by 10-11. Research shows early readers aren't necessarily the best lifelong readers. 

That isn't to say there are not students with real learning disabilities. Like i said, the girl i'm working with now, the first time i sat down with her and recognized the series of thought patterns and how she approached sounds and words, etc. I knew she would need a systemic phonemic awareness program when she finally settled down to read. She wasn't processing and reasoning (or actually assimilating blindly) the way she would if she was going to get it on her own. Even so... i would have preferred to wait to start... and it would have happened faster if we did... so still ended in the same place, early would not have necessarily been better. 

So, again, keeping the kid from thinking they are stupid or disordered or making reading horrible is the BEST thing you can do at this stage. 

I needed this reminder    DS‘ teacher is not satisfied with his writing right now, but I’m pretty sure he’s developmentally appropriate.

DS doesn’t react at all well to standard intervention techniques either.  I feel guilty sometimes that we don’t do those things, but I’ve had much better success working with him myself and making sure he has the right teacher in school.

[oped]

Writing is always a ‘lagging’ skill anyway... you need to be able to read and speak proficiently before you can write. It’s just a progression. 

Son bombed his 5th grade language test. I thought, shit, I’m going to actually have to teach grammar.i got the 5th grade easy grammar... been told it’s all you need... still only managed maybe 15 lessons... went back to in context, read, speak, write... he aced his 8th grade language. Lagging skill. 

[geenamercile]

So, again, keeping the kid from thinking they are stupid or disordered or making reading horrible is the BEST thing you can do at this stage.

That is actually true at any stage and one of biggest hurdles I have with a lot of my SPED kids.  And I happen to teach middle school language art sped, and have two masters degrees.  So I have my own background in Sped as well.  I can also show you that plenty of studies that show that for children with disabilities who receive early intervention have a greater rate of success then those who do not.  And in my experience the kids who received the early interventions, had success in the lower elementary level have more confidence and a better attitude towards school and learning then the students who we are doing initial eligibility on in middle school.  And yes it is specially annoying when parent's suddenly start taking things serious in 8th grade right before high school because now those low Ds and Cs are starting to worry them and you look back in a file and see that this kid has been recommended for child study several times before.  So we go through the process and low and behold there is a disability.  But there the student already has a mental image of the type of student they are, and what they can do in school.  And there are loss opportunities because they didn't get as much from the previous years as they could have.         

But those comments are made about kids with disabilities, not about kids that are just at a lower end of a developmental range.  And they are many different reading disorders not just dyslexia.  There are also processing disorders that can effect reading, that aren't really a reading disorder, but we see in reading.  

And I want to jump on my idealistic soapbox and say that no kid should be made to feel stupid, it doesn't matter if they have a disability or if they are just on a lower part of a developmental range, but in truth I do know it happens.  And school shouldn't be horrible for any subject or grade level, however again I seem to be fighting that battle for certain kids every day.  

But my advice for what it is taken for stays the same.  Keep an eye out, the teacher at the very least sees some warning signs.  Don't over react, but also don't under react.  If the teacher feels strongly about it enough to recommend a child study you can always deny it and the process will stop.  But don't be scared of the process either.  Not every child that goes through an eligibility is found to have a disability.  Sometimes those test really do show that the child is just on the lower range of the developmental spectrum.  And not every child is going to be on the high end of every developmental spectrum either.  Sometimes they are high on one and low on another.  Last year I literally sat in a meeting that I thought was going to go on forever because the parent couldn't not understand that their child did not have a disability in math because they scored in the average range for the math test, but high average in other areas.            

             

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Nov 14, 2018 9:26:14 GMT -5 gs11rmb said:

I'm worried about my younger daughter.  She's 6 and in first grade and her teacher seems concerned that she's not progressing with her reading.  She came home with a stack of sight words yesterday and could only read a couple.  She is able to read the Level 1 "Bob" books but I'm not entirely convinced that she hasn't simply memorized a large portion.  She's also very stubborn and if she doesn't recognize a word she'll simply shrug her shoulders and say "I don't know" and not even try.  

At the parent-teacher conference a few weeks ago I was told that she'll sometimes reverse the order of the letters when reading e.g. run she'll start by sounding out the letter n.  I asked if we should be concerned about dyslexia or something similar and was told no need to panic just keep an eye on it for now.  Frankly, there's no history of learning disabilities on either my side or my husband's so I've not been primed to look for something like this and was just assuming it's because she's very young and will catch on eventually.

Should I start with hiring a reading tutor once a week?  Any advice?

I'm paging the people I know are teachers (oped , Knee Deep in Water Chloe , @bamafan1954 ) but would love to hear of any parental experience with these concerns.

Regarding the actual decoding. 
Usually in K and 1st, the phrases "beginning sound" and "ending sound" are phrases teachers use to practice those. 
Does she know those terms? When you are reading with her, if those are the phrases, it's helpful if you emulate the teacher's terms. If those aren't the terms the teacher uses, I'd ask the teacher. 

Have you received a list of sight words from the school/teacher?


I agree that for some students, reading takes longer to "kick in". I wouldn't be worried yet, but I would be working on sounds and sight words at home.