There certainly were several small glitches here and there. The Chinese teacher called to inform me of the numerous corrections that S had accumulated and failed complete. And there was the ordering of the year-end photos that S, despite multiple reminders from us to hand the order envelope to the collection booth, kept forgetting until the order closed. Then there was the time he missed his first lesson of extra classes and followed the school bus home instead of staying back like we had reiterated a gazillion times over the weekend prior to the session. Evidently, it seems that S doesn't take well to instructions, and that reminders are probably a waste of our breath. But in the scale of bigger issues, these were no-sweat stuff.
Term two had ended rather poorly, and I worried every so often, of S being bullied, of him not eating recess, of him not knowing when and how to ask for help instead of keeping mum about things, and many other nitty gritty worries that I've simply lost track of. Thus, to have this term pass by so uneventful and quiet is something that I am thankful for.
Academic-wise expectedly, S didn't perform as well as his classmates. And I do understand that he needs more time than typical to improve and that it isn't fair to compare his progress to his peers, or lament that his test results are (yet again) bordering on failure. So the least I want him to do, is to enjoy school. And I want to keep reminding myself this point.
It is so easy to lose focus and fall into the kiasu mindset (for lack of a better word, no offense intended please) of parents with typically progressing children. I would have easily fallen into the same track if I could because it is just so easy and natural to want to compare worksheet scores, art pieces, Chinese word recognition, processing skills and every other thing they learn and do in school. But since S isn't a typically progressing child, that choice wasn't ours to take right from the start.
Having said that however, it still takes a lot of effort and self reminders to avoid falling into the comparison trap, and to keep the focus on simply letting him enjoy the schooling process. I'll admit that I am in a constant internal battle wavering between pushing him (what if I over-push and result in him having a phobia of certain subjects, or worse, hate school?), or letting him progress at his own pace. (What if he remains stagnant?)
Despite my confusion in directing him through school, I'm glad to say that so far, he seems to be enjoying himself in school. Although like other children, he is lazy in getting his homework done, and tells me Maths is his least favorite subject. He certainly takes after me on that last part.
As with the start of every new term, I am unsure of how things will progress with him. I can only wait and observe from the sidelines as my thoughts continually battle each other, and support him as much as I can from there.
Term four seems set to be a term of frustrations with the introduction of the multiplication table. For a child with language difficulties, with normal problem sums stumping him on a daily basis, I am not looking expectantly towards days of frustrating explanations of concepts that I myself am clueless in explaining.
But I will endeavor to try, and hope that together, we can inch towards a never-give-up attitude to courageously face on to the difficulties that we may come across.
If only my patience level could be multiplied just like the multiplication table.
Oh well, it's the last term after all.
Chiong ah~!!
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