I recently brought James for another round of assessment.
We did it once at the beginning of last year and a really brief one at the end of last year.
I met his new class teacher and I couldn’t really tell her exactly how much he has progressed.
So we thought, let’s just do a full assesment and then we can plan from there.
The Results
Well, it wasn’t favourable but I’m not surprised.
He has shown improvement. However, his main weakness would be reading words with more than 2 syllabus and spelling.
We were then of course recommended to go for another form of remedial course. (Which would cost us a bomb! Again, don’t get us wrong. We would send him if we could only afford it.)
I thought that it’ll be good to share this with James. After all, it is about him.
Breaking the News
I sat him down, he eating his McFlurry and told him.
“James, your results didn’t turn out quite good.”
Explaining to him how much he has improved and what are the areas that he would still need to work on.
Then I asked, “How do you feel about it?”
He looked at me and smiled…
“It’s ok. I’m still happy!”
To be honest, he caught me off guard.
I was expecting of him to say somewhere along the lines of “I wish I could read and spell like my friends can.”
So I probed him further, to ensure that he’s not hiding his sorrows.
“Aren’t you sad that you can’t read and spell like your friends?”
He looked at me again, happily putting another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth and replied…
“Nope! I’m still happy!”
Do you know that your friends are better at spelling and reading than you?
He replied..”Not all of them Mummy. It’s ok. I’m still happy to go to school.”
And then all I could do, is just smile and pat him on his head.
What’s Next?
Here I am trying to engineer a learning plan for him.The ideal goal settings is to begin with a long term goal.
The assessment is for us to gauge, where he is now and how much more he needs to work to reach that goal.
Since I couldn’t get my son to buy in that he should set his goal as reading and spelling better.
So perhaps, I should draw up a plan and title it…
“James’s Stay Happy Plan“
😂😂
I’m glad that all my son cares about is that he’s happy, I’m also extremely worried that he’s probably taking things too lightly. #mumproblems
The Stay Happy Plan
One thing for sure, making him read less but reading to him more.
And the next is to nurture his interest in building things.
My sis bought some really good hobby models and James enjoyed putting them together. Even though every instruction is in Korean.
Introducing new things to him, to find his talent. We found that he does really well in archery. For a person with Dyslexia, he could focus really well when it comes to Archery.
And of course, letting him, just be happy.
A good lesson that I’ve learnt from my son this week.
If I ever find it difficult to set a goal in life, I will remind myself to set it as…
“Stay Happy!”
cikuMuffin 