1. Appointment with the "Ick" doctor to start my day
Blessing: I'm healthy and am old enough to be scheduled for an annual mammogram. Thankful for a proactive doctor.
2. Had to make a really tough call in small group leadership
Blessing: Strong clarification and reiteration of the purpose of groups at Living Water, and a little bit of correction and discipline from God to me. It's healthy and very helpful, even though it's painful sometimes.
3. Wilkin is invited to his former class's picnic and I make awkward small talk with his teacher and other moms about homeschooling
Blessing: I realize that it's OK that my son isn't reading The Boxcar Children books yet or not taking the "much more difficult" ITBS test rather than the CAT standardized test. Wilkin is progressing just right for him and I'm going to continue to chill out and be proud of him where he is.
4. Wilkin slams into another kid at the class picnic and gets the worst gusher from his nose ever (he's had too many for me to count, but this one was pretty bad)
Blessing: Dr. Mowery was at the picnic with her son (not the poor kid on the other end of the collision, thank the Lord) and knows just what to do - palpated for fractures, he's fine. Retains his sense of humor when he recounts the incident: "We were going in opposite directions, and that was toward each other." Ice cream on the way home helps too.
5. We pick Elisa up from school and her sore throat is pretty definitely strep
Blessing: We get an appointment quickly at the pediatrician and get her first dose in her before dinner - hoping she can still play in soccer game on Saturday.
6. Because of Elisa's infection, I cannot attend worship team practice, as I had promised
Blessing: I get to cuddle with my kids and pretend they are small again. When Elisa feels sick, she wants her mommy. When Wilkin is bleeding, he wants his mommy. I've been reading books about helping my children transition into responsible pre-teens instead of simply obedient children. Thinking of the looming tween and teen future sometimes makes my heart ache. Days like yesterday remind me that I'm still needed - not just for the preparation for their next phase of childhood, but for the current one. I can still provide tender comfort and they can still fit in my lap.
P.S. Wilkin woke up with a crick in his neck. He can only look to the left and it hurts to even try to turn his head forward. Probably either slept on it wrong or really whacked into that kid hard yesterday and gave a jolt to his spine.
Blessing: Our chiropractor is open on Saturdays.
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Breakthrough in the Little Dude's Brain
I was a firstborn child. When my brother was born, Mom said we were total opposites. Then when my other brother was born, Mom said he was completely opposite from the both of us. We are given personalities and genetic tendencies from the very beginning of our lives.
I have always known that Elisa and Wilkin were totally different. They're female and male, yes, but different in ways that transcend chromosomes and Princesses v. Dinosaurs.
Elisa "gets it" right away. Whether it's auditory, visual, tactile, she gets it. She reads a spelling list and can take the test a week later without reviewing the words. She reads a book and discusses intricate plot points months after the book is back on the shelf.
Wilkin "gets it" best when he comes up with the conclusion, fact or solution on his own. His dad is the same way (makes couple discussion time lots of fun), but not to this extreme. Simply asking Wilkin to sit down and look at a worksheet results in a brick wall slamming up in front of his face, tears springing to his eyes, and arms folding across his chest.
In school, Wilkin's greatest struggle was for automaticity and speed in writing the responses for math and English on his worksheets. Many days Wil would take hours to complete a worksheet for many reasons - inability to concentrate, the tendency toward distraction (he is seven, after all), but the main reason was his that he would not listen to instruction. He was told many times by his teacher - and as well, by his parents - that the speediest way to copy his spelling words was to look at the entire word and write it without looking back at the word. If he couldn't remember the word, then he needed to keep a finger on the word so he could easily refer back to the original word. Although it would have saved him so much time and frustration, Wilkin would not listen, would not do what we suggested.
Yesterday, Wilkin was copying words in his endeavor to learn "long vowel" sounds. He had completed a word search, then began to write the words on the lines provided. As before, he wrote the words letter by letter: F (then back up to see the next letter) - E (write the letter, then look back up at the word to find the next letter) - A (write the letter, look back up to find the next letter in the word) - S (write the letter, then search for the next letter in the word) - T. The next word proved to be just as painstaking, until Wilkin said to me, "Hey mom, what if I looked at the word while I wrote down below, then I wouldn't have to look back and forth?"
"Well, buddy, that's a good idea, except that you can't see what you are writing down below, so you can't tell if you're writing neatly or not."
Wilkin thought about that. "Hmmm. You're right. What about if I look at the word, read it, and remember the letters, then write it down below?"
Breakthrough.
"Yeah, dude, I think that might work. You're a smart one. You can remember all the letters and write it down - I know you can."
With each successive word, Wilkin became more and more excited that he was completing the task so quickly. "Hey, Mom! If I had done this in school, I could have done a worksheet with everybody else and would never have had to put it under my desk to do later! I wouldn't have had to miss playtime to do my work!"
*Sigh*
That's why I'm homeschooling my son. He may not listen to what I think is reason at the time, but if I am patient with him, he will find his way and be a confident learner. I can't forge the path for him, he must tread it on his own. Forcing him to process his learning the way I process learning is ineffective at best, abusive at worst. I'm going to be as patient with my boy as I can, and be his guide along the way to knowledge. His way ... on his timetable.
I have always known that Elisa and Wilkin were totally different. They're female and male, yes, but different in ways that transcend chromosomes and Princesses v. Dinosaurs.
Elisa "gets it" right away. Whether it's auditory, visual, tactile, she gets it. She reads a spelling list and can take the test a week later without reviewing the words. She reads a book and discusses intricate plot points months after the book is back on the shelf.
Wilkin "gets it" best when he comes up with the conclusion, fact or solution on his own. His dad is the same way (makes couple discussion time lots of fun), but not to this extreme. Simply asking Wilkin to sit down and look at a worksheet results in a brick wall slamming up in front of his face, tears springing to his eyes, and arms folding across his chest.
In school, Wilkin's greatest struggle was for automaticity and speed in writing the responses for math and English on his worksheets. Many days Wil would take hours to complete a worksheet for many reasons - inability to concentrate, the tendency toward distraction (he is seven, after all), but the main reason was his that he would not listen to instruction. He was told many times by his teacher - and as well, by his parents - that the speediest way to copy his spelling words was to look at the entire word and write it without looking back at the word. If he couldn't remember the word, then he needed to keep a finger on the word so he could easily refer back to the original word. Although it would have saved him so much time and frustration, Wilkin would not listen, would not do what we suggested.
Yesterday, Wilkin was copying words in his endeavor to learn "long vowel" sounds. He had completed a word search, then began to write the words on the lines provided. As before, he wrote the words letter by letter: F (then back up to see the next letter) - E (write the letter, then look back up at the word to find the next letter) - A (write the letter, look back up to find the next letter in the word) - S (write the letter, then search for the next letter in the word) - T. The next word proved to be just as painstaking, until Wilkin said to me, "Hey mom, what if I looked at the word while I wrote down below, then I wouldn't have to look back and forth?"
"Well, buddy, that's a good idea, except that you can't see what you are writing down below, so you can't tell if you're writing neatly or not."
Wilkin thought about that. "Hmmm. You're right. What about if I look at the word, read it, and remember the letters, then write it down below?"
Breakthrough.
"Yeah, dude, I think that might work. You're a smart one. You can remember all the letters and write it down - I know you can."
With each successive word, Wilkin became more and more excited that he was completing the task so quickly. "Hey, Mom! If I had done this in school, I could have done a worksheet with everybody else and would never have had to put it under my desk to do later! I wouldn't have had to miss playtime to do my work!"
*Sigh*
That's why I'm homeschooling my son. He may not listen to what I think is reason at the time, but if I am patient with him, he will find his way and be a confident learner. I can't forge the path for him, he must tread it on his own. Forcing him to process his learning the way I process learning is ineffective at best, abusive at worst. I'm going to be as patient with my boy as I can, and be his guide along the way to knowledge. His way ... on his timetable.
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