A Tiff, a Snit, and a Happy Ending

Tuesday, homeschooling for my son and I was horrible. I was tired and he was unfocused and after an hour of struggling everything dissolved into anger and we both marched off in a snit. He was convinced I was the meanest mom ever and I was convinced I should ship him off to school.

As I was lying on my bed trying to work my way back to calm and reason my daughter came in and handed me a note from Harry. I read it, smiled and wrote a response. The note went back and forth a couple of times and ended with Harry and I having a big snuggly hug.

Here it is:


It was so hard getting him to read and spell yesterday. After our tiff I was convinced I was getting absolutely nowhere with him or that his focus issues were insurmountable but gosh, when I read the first sentence of that note I realized just how far he'd come. Six months ago he was barely reading. His handwriting was indecipherable. Spelling was non-existent. And yet now he could produce this bittersweet little message where even the misspellings showed a new competence.

So it was just one bad homeschooling session, not some huge failure, and in the end Harry showed me that all the work and frustration have been absolutely worth it and that despite our problems, we're getting there.

What a great kid.

ETA: In case anyone is wondering the progress we made was after several other reading programs got us nowhere after the last couple of years. It was only when we started using Apples and Pears and Dancing Bears, programs meant to help kids with learning difficulties, that Harry really started to understand phonics and begin to read and write.