I believe in them...

Just finished my class when the phone rang. It was a call from Arisya's teacher. First. Was expecting to hear something bad....complaints maybe. And true enough, but the teacher was sweet. She put her words in a nice way that I wasn't offended in any way.
Yes, my girl is slow. I knew. Been teaching her at home, helping her with her studies. I know. Learning spelling can be a torture for her and for me. Many a time, she just can't remember how to spell the words. I tried my best to keep my calm when teaching my kids....my own kids. And there are times I just lost control of my patience. Simply lost it while teaching them.
I hate myself when that happens. My heart broke when they cry while trying to get what mummy is trying to get into their heads. Bad mummy.
And when they finally learnt, I told myself...if only I'd given them more time to understand the concepts, the text, the problem. Then they might not be crying at all. Bad mummy.
Arisya can't learn her spelling all at a go. She need to take it a few words at a time. Thus learning of spelling takes a few days. Mummy (me) felt very happy every time Arisya got her spelling right. Awesome!
But she always came back with less than 50% correct for her spelling tests in school. Am I disappointed? No!
The spelling tests were given in the form of a worksheet, she had to fill in the blanks with the correct words. That's the problem. And when I test her again, she got all the words correct.
I know and she know she can spell but her teacher may think she can't.
What ever it is, I believe in my kids.

Taare Zameen Par

This movie wakes me up. After a decade of teaching children ( below 12 yrs old )....I am still often controlled by my adult thoughts and feelings. I got angry easily...I get stressed up when the children simply don't get what I taught. Put it simply...easily frustrated. Yes, I was!
But watching this movie woke me up. It made me realise the statement "Every child is special". We get angry when the children don't perform, when they play, when they write horribly, when they can't spell or read. But did we ever pause and ask WHY! WHAT'S WRONG?
This movie made me realised that. I missed the fact that the children are but just children. They are doing what they are told to do. But if they can't comprehend, they are scolded. They might be having difficulties...which is unseen by the naked eye....
Every child is special....in their own way....