I experienced the toughest two hours of my life this morning against a backdrop of Pokemon-like monsters called Rinjitoto. My first born was tasked with writing a book report on Rinjitoto and set about reading the 100 pg book to the best of his ability. Sadly, the best of his ability is not very good. We spent two hours going through a single chapter. The issue on his end is a failure to comprehend. The issue on my end is a blatant inability to teach someone that young and distracted.
My wife started the lesson. 10 minutes in, she was quite through with him. I took over, hoping to apply some of my education and patience to the situation. The next two hours was a lot like playing tug of war with a dead bear. You tug and tug, but all it does is lay there and stink. At one point I dropped everything and started giving the boy dyslexia tests. They were inconclusive. The 2nd grade comprehension tests I dug up didn’t tell me much either. I learned that my 5 yr old can answer the questions just about as well as the 3rd grader, which is to say near perfect scores. That either tells me that the 5 yr old is doing well, or the tests are a bit screwy. Either way, it didn’t give me the information I needed to help this boy.
The real problem is that I cannot help this boy. I cannot teach him in the way he needs to be taught. Because I cannot teach the boy, I feel really helpless when it is time for him to learn. So, I’m more angry at me than I am at him for not being able to comprehend what he is supposed to at this point in his learning.
Not quite sure how to deal with that yet…
Some Thoughts:
1. Jets play in 2 hours. Last dress rehearsal for a group of offensive players that appear to have nearly no game and even less pass protection. Maybe something will happen tonight. If not, pray for free agency.
2. I think I fixed the facebook problem. Time will tell