DC is 7 nearly 8, school year 3. Hates school and despite never being told is aware they’re on the bottom table for Literacy and Numeracy – they’re suspected dyslexic and really struggle, we’re awaiting a formal diagnosis but it’s very likely they’ll get it. They can’t read very well (still on Year 1 level bookband) can write but only for a short while, and struggle with basic maths like addition. They are also hypermobile.
They do Gymnastics in school 1 night a week (an external teacher comes in but it’s run purely for DC at this primary school), they love it but it ends at Easter as they only do it for the autumn and spring terms and it’s only open for Years 1-3 so DC won’t get the chance to do it again. They haven’t been invited to join the club that the teacher runs on another night a week and hasn’t been accepted into any of the other local gymnastics groups – DC is very aware of this and is massively upset by it.
They swim 1 night a week but are stuck in Stage 2 and have been for 6 months. They were in Stage 1 for 18 months, DC often loses a % or 2 for some unknown reason, they’ve had the same teacher throughout stage 2 (and had a different teacher for stage 1 and the same happened there) we’ve had whole months of 4/5 less where they’ve lost 1-2% each lesson as they can no longer show that skill, so looks like they’re going to be stuck in Stage 2 for awhile like they were stage 1 and preschool swim before that (DC never completed Pre-school stage before they became too old and had to move to stage 1 they were in Stage 1 18 months and have been in 2 6 months but are still only 25% through so it’ll be at least another year I think). They do enjoy the lessons but get very frustrated with the lack of or loss of progress. They only reason I keep them going is it’s one of the recommended exercises by their physio for the hypermobility.
They do scouts/GG once a week and love it have done lots of badge work outside of meetings but in general they’re very down on themselves.
Will say “I’m not good with school work, I’m not good at gymnastics and swimming” they always say they love scouts/GG and wish they could do it more, but they can’t.
I just want to help them accept that it’s ok to enjoy something like Gymnastics for a short while and we don’t need to excel at it. Same with swimming.
The class teacher is very positive, praises even the smallest achievement, lets them take the badges they earn in to show off, tries to pick them for special jobs etc. but DC is still very down on themselves.
I don’t want this to be a recurring theme and it to affect their mental health.
So AIBU to ask how I can make them feel better? Other than hoping I can take it all away from them and deal with it myself.
This comes after another swimming lesson with no progress and the second to last gymnastics with them coming out saying "I loved it but I want to do it more" and not knowing how to help