Last night, I was totally convinced that my son was an under-achiever.
I gave him a stack of self-made cards with words of the sentence "the fat cat sat on the mat" jumbled up and told him to read each individual words and then arrange them into a sentence.
He had no problems with word recognition. He was reading each card alright. But when it came to forming a sentence, it was "the fat cat sat on mat the", until Alan could sense my frustration at dinner table. (Yeah, at dinner table, coz otherwise Bryan will not be interested in food. Don't get me started on starving them for a few meals. My children are just not interested in food. They can starve and be cranky and crazy, and still they won't eat unless they are sat down at the table with Daddy and Mommy saying "Eat! Eat!" every other second. Why don't they like food??? Anyway, that's another grouse altogether.)
Alan pointed out that it could be too boring for him to just form one sentence. So I thought, ok I would throw in the other words like"bat, hat, rat" and see what Bryan would do with them. Still not much progress.
I gave him a stack of self-made cards with words of the sentence "the fat cat sat on the mat" jumbled up and told him to read each individual words and then arrange them into a sentence.
He had no problems with word recognition. He was reading each card alright. But when it came to forming a sentence, it was "the fat cat sat on mat the", until Alan could sense my frustration at dinner table. (Yeah, at dinner table, coz otherwise Bryan will not be interested in food. Don't get me started on starving them for a few meals. My children are just not interested in food. They can starve and be cranky and crazy, and still they won't eat unless they are sat down at the table with Daddy and Mommy saying "Eat! Eat!" every other second. Why don't they like food??? Anyway, that's another grouse altogether.)
Alan pointed out that it could be too boring for him to just form one sentence. So I thought, ok I would throw in the other words like"bat, hat, rat" and see what Bryan would do with them. Still not much progress.
After dinner, I wrote some silly sentences on the board and got Bryan to match each sentence. And indeed, he showed keen interest in silly sentences. Still, he had to check with me a hundred times before he completed a sentence. And after 15 minutes, he said he's too tired and his arms were all aching from arranging the cards! What???!!! What an under-achiever, I thought again. Sigh!
During lunch today, we did the word cards again. Yeah, it's "The fat cat sat on the mat" on Day 3. This time I didn't have any spare moment to check and baby him through the sentence making steps, so I just told him to make one silly sentence to make me laugh. What came out of that motivating factor laughter?
"The fat bat sat on the rat."
"The fat rat sat on the cat."
"The fat bat sat on the hat."
"The fat cat sat on the rat."
"The fat mat sat on the hat."
"The fat hat sat on the bat."
"The fat cat sat on the hat."
"The fat rat sat on the bat." etc
Now not so much an under-achiever today. Yay! Of course, I had to pretend that his silly sentences were cracking me up. He was certainly proud that he could make Mommy laugh with all his silly sentences.
During lunch today, we did the word cards again. Yeah, it's "The fat cat sat on the mat" on Day 3. This time I didn't have any spare moment to check and baby him through the sentence making steps, so I just told him to make one silly sentence to make me laugh. What came out of that motivating factor laughter?
"The fat bat sat on the rat."
"The fat rat sat on the cat."
"The fat bat sat on the hat."
"The fat cat sat on the rat."
"The fat mat sat on the hat."
"The fat hat sat on the bat."
"The fat cat sat on the hat."
"The fat rat sat on the bat." etc
Now not so much an under-achiever today. Yay! Of course, I had to pretend that his silly sentences were cracking me up. He was certainly proud that he could make Mommy laugh with all his silly sentences.
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