Just recently I was congratulating myself on some small but significant successes both as mom and teacher. Grace and Anna Claire had shown progress in things we had been working on forever.
Grace has bilateral hearing loss which translates to her as "I have to wear a stupid hearing aid in both ears. The audiologist forms a soft mold that fits in her ears and the mechanical parts sits outside and behind each one. When Grace was younger she thought the hearing aids were cool and ordered her molds in hot pink and white swirls. Now at 14 she's going for a more sophisticated look. All of this is to explain why for the past few years we've had an on going battle with her to wear them. The more she wears them, the more sounds she hears and the clearer she speaks.
Another totally unrelated area that we've been struggling with is the girls willingness to work at school subjects that are difficult for them. Learning doesn't come easy for either one of them and I haven't been able to make them understand that working hard can overcome a lot of the problem.
For the past few months Grace has had her hearing aids on every single time I see her. I couldn't believe it. When I asked her what prompted this sudden change she explained that Anna Claire had told her that her speech was sounding much clearer when she wore them. (Wow, like that was some new revelation.) Also, the girls have been studying like crazy and they've been getting 100's - even on their science tests. I was happy with all this and feeling like all the nagging, I mean encouraging had paid off. Then the girls shared the truth with me.
I teach a science class for homeschoolers every year. This year we have 17 kids and 6 of them happen to be boys that are between the age of 14 and 17. That was the catalyst for all this positive change.
So, I'll put away the rough draft of my book entitled, "How to Motivate Your Child to Become All They Can Be" and leave it to the age old process....Girls like boys and boys like girls, girls want to impress boys.....
4 comments:
Oh, nothing like a dose of reality slapping us up the side of the head.
Oh well, whatever it takes!
That is so true!
Kendra used to lounge all day in her PJs - but now that Michael is in her life - we have hair and makeup every day by noon - cause he gets off half a day.
It's so funny.
Sadly it means I have to be ready by noon too! (just kidding - I'm up and at-em early!)
I remember cute boys being a catalyst for a lot of things at that age heheheh
cute boys...yep, they got the best of me too!
It's been forever since you've posted...shame on you for keeping us waiting. :)
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