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You are here: Home / 2013 / Archives for February 2013

Archives for February 2013

His schooling has turned a corner

February 27, 2013 by Jen

My son started grade 6 this year. In most states of Australia that would be the last year of primary school but in South Australia he’s in the second to last year. He’s now in senior school and there’s a noticeable difference in teachers’ expectations of him, particularly when it comes to homework.

My son has never been organised – never. I’ve tried all sorts of methods to get him to remember stuff but I’m not at school with him when he finishes as he goes to after school care so I have no control over him bringing home the things he needs for homework including the diary that’s supposed to have what homework he’s supposed to be doing written in it.

I’ve never been a fan of homework because it just seemed stressful to me, and it seemed stressful for him. As he goes to after school care most days he’s tired when he gets home and the last thing either of us want to do is more work. Spelling lists were a nightmare where I would get annoyed with him for not trying, and he would get annoyed with me for not being patient enough. A couple of years he’s had a homework contract where there’s a page to a week and there’s different tasks to do from maths, spelling to saying what sport and jobs you did around the house. Many weeks saw him whiz through this the day that it was due with a real half-hearted effort. Gentle reminding from me never really seemed to help when he didn’t really want to do it.

In week three of this term I finally saw his diary – after repeatedly asking him for it – and there were some notes in it from the teacher saying that it wasn’t signed and that he hadn’t done aspects of his homework. One of the notes said it might be a good idea to meet to make a homework plan.

This was on a night when he was having huge trouble doing one of his assignments. This year is the first year that he’s had a weekly assignment to do and this one was a huge one it seemed to me.

See, he’s had trouble with his spelling from early primary years. Having trouble spelling means having trouble writing for him too. So the first part of this assignment involved writing ten things that he observed about an exhibition they’d been to the previous week. Not that hard you would think. But it was for both of us. See, he said he couldn’t remember what he’d seen.

Come on, I said, you’re really observant. Surely you can remember what you saw there?

It took an hour to get nearly ten things down on paper and this was only the first part of the assignment. There were still six or so other questions – most of them involving writing. It meant by the end of the hour both of us were frustrated. This is why I could never home school my own child. I might be okay with someone elses, but not my own.

I never thought he would finish this assignment.

The next day on Twitter I asked for help with resources for helping a kid to improve their spelling and the lovely Joh messaged me and made me feel a lot better. She asked if he enjoyed reading and when I said that he did she said not to worry too much about spelling as that would follow. That made me feel a bit better but I thought he’s still got to wade through the rest of that bloody homework. And the amount of homework is only going to get worse from here.

Meanwhile I made an appointment for both of us to meet with the teacher.

She sat down with us after school one day and went through the data she’d collected about JJ since the beginning of that year – all three weeks of it. I’ve never had a teacher talk data before. She’d noticed that his comprehension was really really good, but his spelling let him down and asked both of us why we thought that might be. I mentioned that a previous teacher thought he might be dyslexic. She also asked if JJ had missed much school and I said that no he hadn’t.

I mentioned that he’d had behavioural issues in class before that meant in some classes he was sent out a lot as that was how some teachers seem to manage it so it was partly his fault that he’d missed out on some schooling. I asked how he was in her classroom and she said that he wasn’t disruptive at all. I said that this would be the first class he hasn’t been disruptive in. I know from meeting her that she won’t tolerate it and she seems to have the respect of the kids so that they don’t want to be disruptive.

It’s only taken seven years of schooling to get to this point, HALLELUJAH! Go JJ!!!!

She basically told us that JJ was a bit lazy when it came to some aspects of his schooling and while that’s not great to hear it made perfect sense. She told us that so long as he makes an effort now, it will reap rewards fairly soon and that he will catch up.

We were with her for about twenty minutes, and JJ and I left the meeting both feeling really good. He has improved out of site since. He managed to finish this assignment and while he hasn’t been given his mark yet, it looks fairly promising although his teacher said he didn’t need to write so many slabs of text. He’s even mentioned to me that he feels smarter.

He’s since done another assignment and got a B+. He did this assignment without any stress on his part, or mine.

He used to ask me how to spell words that he should have known how to spell, like ‘with’. His confidence has picked up that he now doesn’t, but if he does I tell him that he should know how to do that and he at least gives it a go.

I emailed the teacher to thank her for the meeting and to say that I’d noticed an improvement.

She replied back with, ‘He certainly seems switched on and very keen to learn. I have already noticed an improvement in what he is handing up to me. I think he is the kind of child who likes to be challenged as he is a bright and creative thinker.
He already is a “smart” kid!’

I’m hopeful for the rest of his schooling years now. And it’s such a relief.

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Life is full

February 20, 2013 by Jen

Helpmann Academy graduate exhibition. Wes Tully's award winning work.

The thing with writing here is that once I get out of the habit then it really slips to the back of the queue as far as things I feel I should do.

Also, the amount of writing here reflects just how busy my life is away from this website.

Late December I expressed an interest in being a juror for the Canadian weblog awards and got the nod in early January. It took up a bit of time and it was an interesting process to be a part of. The organisers do a fantastic job of getting the 50 or so jurors organised to look at around 15 blogs each for the first round, and then 10 for the next. And it all happened in the first few weeks of January while I was still on holidays so I had to squeeze it in around being away, and doing other things.

I’ve also been finalising a website for a clown friend, and if you’re in Adelaide and need a clown who’ll entertain the adults and the kids then he’s your man. I’ve seen him numerous times and he still makes me laugh.

We’re also back in the school/sport routine. The school thing is a post in itself and the lad is playing cricket on Saturday mornings again, and baseball on Sunday mornings although we’ve only one week to go. Now that he’s moved up the ranks ever so slightly in cricket we’re in for a longer game on a Saturday morning.

I’ve now resigned myself to just getting out there and enjoying while seeing it as a time to just sit somewhere and relax. After all if I was home I’d be doing something along the lines of chores if I wasn’t trying to sleep in.

And in other news, I’m finally off the hourly paid work roundabout and am now entitled to sick leave and holiday pay again. Unfortunately this is only until the middle of the year, and it’s still doing the same work but I worked out that even though my hourly rate has dropped, I’m still ahead.

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Breaking eggs

February 5, 2013 by Jen

When on Kangaroo Island recently we went to a birds of prey demonstration. I showed some photos of the birds earlier.

This bird – the Black Breasted Buzzard was very impressive. He hasn’t got his black breast yet because he’s still young, but it will come.

They have a clever trick when they want to eat an emu egg.

They find a little stone and break the egg.

Black breasted Buzzard - Birds of prey (Kangaroo Island)

Breaking an emu egg

Birds of prey (Kangaroo Island)

It might take them a few goes but they get there in the end.

Birds of prey (Kangaroo Island)

Black breasted Buzzard - Birds of prey (Kangaroo Island)

Apparently this is completely instinctual, not taught by their parents. Clever huh?

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