Alex and school

I love spending time with my kids. We had a great time Friday while they were out of school (for parent-teacher conferences) and then over the weekend.

In parent-teacher conferences, we learned that Alex will be promoted to second grade (although he doesn't know yet and we're not telling him that) because he is only really struggling in one subject--math--and we all believe he can do it. For some reason, he doesn't want to do it correctly which is baffling.

Let me give an example:

A few days ago Alex was working on a math paper. We have an area set up away from the ruckus with a table and chair so that he can work undisturbed but it's an open room so he can talk to me while I'm working in the kitchen (but can't actually see me). He had one problem remaining...he needed to add a nickel to a quarter. He knew he needed to add 25 + 5, but he refused to do it. So that he couldn't just sit back and play when he was supposed to finish his work, I would periodically ask from the kitchen while I was making dinner...

"Alex, what's 25+5?" "Twenty?"
"Alex, what's 25+5?" "Fifty?"

He was getting mad and wanted to go play. I told him he wasn't going until he finished his math.

"Alex, what's 25+5?" "Thirt...twenty?"

See?? He knew the correct answer and wouldn't say it!! AGHHH!! That kid could teach brick walls how to be frustrating.

But his reading is doing phenomenal and he loves to read. He's reading well enough now that I have to slow him down to make sure he reads correctly. He's wanting to read the sentences the way his mind thinks they should be, which is pretty much never correct. We're hopeful that his love of reading and his strength as a visual learner will allow his reading to help with his speech apraxia. Reading will help his brain learn the correct patterns for language which should improve his speech.