A budding reader and a know-it-all

Open house day at school is always an eye opener. Sitting across the table with the teachers each time we wonder, "Are we talking about the same child?" This year was no different.

Naisha got a relatively clean chit. She just needs some help with reading and spellings. That is pretty much down my alley. We went out and bought some new books (even though there's a host of them at home) because we have a rule here, "koi bhi shubh kaam ke pehele paise kharch karne chahiye, kaam achchha hota hai". And so Naisha's reading me a Dora story bit by very small bit every day. I don't want to push her and put her off reading completely so we're going at her pace.

How else can I help her? Any suggestions?

Next stop.. Hrit. On a positive note his mirror image writing is almost gone... just a bit of b and d remain to be sorted. Thank the Lord.

Now for the not so good. Apparently Hrit suffers from the 'I-know-everything' syndrome. For instance, even if the teacher tells him a spelling he likes to go with his own version, based strictly on phonetics. The dear boy has no clue about the vagaries of the English language. He refuses to listen to the teacher following his own pace, preferring to be ahead of the class. If everyone's supposed to do two pages, he likes to do four... even if they haven't been taught, even if he's not clear how they're supposed to be done. He's a man in a hurry. And if his neighbour is ahead of him.. he pretty much freaks out.. right or wrong.. he needs to finish before everyone else in class. Man in a hurry, for sure.

I have been talking to him about the advantages of listening, of being right rather than being first. However, I suspect I'm not doing a very good job because he came home today, yet again, with his homework all done.. done pretty shabbily but done nonetheless.

This is something I'm not sure I know how to handle. Suggestions?

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That could be me

The other day we got talking about newspapers and I told the kids I used to work with one long long ago. I reminisced about the night shifts and coming home in the early hours of the morning. Naisha nodded very sagely and said, "Yes mama you must have had to wake up very early to deliver papers to so many houses."

Nothing like kids to keep you grounded.

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