Just wanted to post really about how proud i am of my ds1. He's 9 yrs old now but when he was 4 weeks old he contracted bacterial meningitis which was misdiagnosed by the hospital and mismanaged and is lucky to be here.
Although thankfully he survived without amputations/brain damage, when he started school at age 4 it became clear that top of the class he wasn't going to be. The ravages that his little brain had suffered meant that he just wsan't ready to learn. At the end of reception he still didnt know his ABC let alone learnt to read.
I knew in my heart that he was bright however due to the types of queitons he would ask etc - just that academically it was all a bit of a struggle. Over the next 2 years - in Yrs 1 and 2 I put in momumental effort to hlep ds with tutors and my help every night. I was used to , at parents evenings , the teachers commenting as to what a gorgeous chld he was ( and he is - helpful, polite, well mannered and poupular - always ready to lend a hand and welcome a new kid into the class ) but , academically, well..........
not for the purposes of tortunring myself but on a need to know basis I always used to ask where he was p[ositinoed in te class. Of course teachers hate to tell you this if it is not good as it is unnecessarily negative but I believe it is our right to know if our chldren are top, middle or bottom as we can get a benchmark on how they were doing.
All through yrs 1 and 2 it was inevitably bottom - maybe wiht one other hcild but always bottom. Always asked and pressed for truth but it still hurt......
during yr 3 noticed a change that ds started to love maths .... didn't think much of it as most of his answers were all wrong but at least he liked it and encouraged that. His form tutor also told me of his enthusuaism for history and we encouraged that. His contributions to class discussions were always highly rated - he was articulate and interesting and interested. he just couldn't put down on paper. However he continued to imporve during yr 3 and managed to end between bottom and middle - a massive improvement.
However - this post is really about yr 4 that he has just finished. When casually speaking to his teacher about his end of yr tests I asked whehter he was at bottom or a bit higher. She expressed slight surprise and said " oh no, Mrs Lisalisa - ds is ABOVE class level for maths and on class level - at middle for english and science. "
" are you sure" was my reply to which she produced ds results - 68% in maths and 55% in english and science. I burst into tears..... I literally oculd not believe it.
Also ds never read books . Ever. He loved me to read to him but would never read due to his insecurity that he would be able to read them. I bought for one of his friends a book that a lot of hte boys had been toaking about reace ntly and ds expressed an interest in it. It was quite an expensive book and I had bought it for this child as I knew he wanted it and would find a good home. I bought it for ds thinking it would remain on his shelves but to my surprose he wanted more and read it ocver to cover.
That sprung on to more reading and he is now an avid reader.
What really prompted this post was the fact that on my 11 yr old dd's reading list for high school was a book by Michael Morpugo that my 9 yr old ds just finishe dna enjoyed. That really crowned his achievement and when I showed him the list and his book the smile that enveloped him ear to ear was worth millions.
" I no longer have a funny brain do I mum?" he said. And i had to say " No darling - you are now reading ahead of your age and are also ahead in maths. Bloody well done"!.