Day 5

Today's going to be one of those days that you move on from and hope to learn from mistakes made!  Not one of our best!

After 5 days it is quite clear that whole mornings spent sitting at a desk is a bad move!  S hates writing!  He is a hands on learner (I'm sure there is some sort of educational jargon for that!) and to sit still with a pencil in hand and paper on the desk is asking a huge amount!  I'm realising now how different one-to-one teaching is compared to a whole class situation.  In a classroom the pupils on the whole learn to conform to the group.  If the task is not done in their learning style whilst very dull it is accepted and the task is completed.  On a one-to-one basis though it is so much more apparent when something quite simply is not going to work and where the motivation is struggling!  S will have to do tasks that involve him sitting concentrating for long spells but at this early stage I am so aware of the need to try and keep things positive and to foster a positive learning environment between him and myself and I really don't want him scunnered!

I'm also beginning to learn just where he is in terms of his abilities.  As a parent you place a massive amount of trust on what the school tells you.  In the main most of us parents don't really have to question too much the levels which the children are working at because there is an element of trust that the teachers do know best and that they will be working to push your child on.  I am quickly finding gaps in S's understanding of topics and realising that a fair bit of revision is needed before we can introduce new topics.  S is swaying from being bored with too easy work to being frustrated if he makes any mistakes.  A balance is proving difficult to find!  Tomorrow I'm going to do a math's assessment with him (on the computer) to find out just exactly what we should be looking at. 

The balance between mum and teacher was hard today.  I was becoming increasingly frustrated with S when he was not in the mood to give his best.  I so much don't want to be shouting at him and be frustrated at him.  During his spelling work today I had to leave the room!  I think he realised that I was frustrated as he quickly did try to finish the task and seemed to settle down!   Hopefully as I find the right level of work for him and work out a balance of types of activity then he will settle down.

After an emotion filled weekend for me and S I think both of us are now tired and beginning to settle down into this new life.  Whilst today has been a hard day for us both in terms of learning I am already seeing a calmer child emerge.  We had another of the girls off school today.  That's both the twins now been off.  To be honest I am convinced in both cases they were wanting to find out exactly what was going on at home!  Having done that now I hope they will settle down back at school.  Their homework alone took 45 minutes (between the 2) so I was telling them that that is their home schooling bit!!!

Anyway, the computer has been on again for most of another night.  I am really hoping that tomorrow I can try to have things all sorted and to take the evening off!