Monday, September 20, 2004

Social skills, a personality, not a home ed, issue

S’s behaviour is still an issue. We are to have a meeting with his teacher soon. The teachers always start off with 'he’s very intelligent but…’ His teacher was hinting on them not having enough staff next year to cope with him, as he works best in small groups. This is what all the teachers he’s ever had have said. He can’t wait his turn in a typical 30 child class, it has to be in a group of 5 or so.
Having said that, some of my words of advice to S must have gone in and registered somewhere, because although, yes, there were some outbursts against other children yesterdayin the park, he did on the way home announce to me that he was going to hit a car with a stick but he had but had stopped himself. This shows what all the books say, that it is easy to encourage bad behaviour as that is what draws our attention, whereas good behaviour is not noticed. So here S was making me notice his good behaviour.
As goes for reading English he has agreed to try to learn with me. Vowel sounds seem to give a bit of difficulty, but he is getting the idea with CVC words, and has played some BBC games to practise this. He tried to write 'curry' today, and it came out as 'cre'. He said it was in a Scottish accent !
I took a look at his maths books at school and it was just colouring activities to practise counting, something he could do 2 years ago I think, except now his colouring is neater! So he has tried some of his maths sticker book from the UK. What a difference the two countries education system expect at this age ! The sums using double figure e.g. 29 add 32 are so much harder. However I think he could do them if he would just listen for a second to an explanation of how to do them. But his impulse control is such that he just wants to try himself, and then gets frustrated and angry because he can't do it. So we have to finish quickly as it all gets too negative.

M just loves nursery, he even asked me if he could go when he was off with a cold a few days ago and over the weekend. He is just so sociable, and in the park the other day a group of older children were messing about and he just kept trying to join in and imitate them in a bid to get to play with them.

H. I realise is not saying ‘ta ta’ as 'bye' but I think it his way of saying ‘KhudaHaafiz’.
He finds it amusing to shut his eyes voluntarily, and now covers his eyes with his hands to play ‘where’s the baby?’. A couple of weeks ago he would try but end up putting his hands over his ears or hair instead !. Sleeping has gone downhill a bit with his cold. I am also wondering how I will be able to wean him. He’s not keen on milk from a baby cup.