Raising Boys

Errors in schoolbooks August 7, 2005

I remember Helmut Haas raising this problem when I was starting out as a reporter for Sun.Star Cebu right after graduating from college some 10 years ago.

It did not seem so important then because 1) I had no children and 2) I had just escaped from school and did not want to be reminded of anything remotely connected to it.

But while Dylan and I were reviewing for this week’s first periodical exams, I saw grammar and spelling errors in his books that were just too many to dismiss as typographical mistakes.

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One rainy Friday July 22, 2005

My son has been bratty all week, wanting my undivided attention, and I’ve been equally temperamental, shaking him off with angry words. He times his tantrums when I’m busy with work and my patience is thin.

When unable to wrench me away from my PC, he resorts to emotional blackmail, sobbing on the bed if I don’t stop what I’m doing to play with him. I usually ignore him.

Today’s afternoon rain reconciled us. We stopped what we were doing to step under that pelting shower. Hesitant at first, turned off by the cold, we found courage and made a dash for the deserted street and freedom. We ran, laughing and giddy, stomping on the puddles that formed on the pot-holed subdivision road.

We turned our faces up to the heavens, eyes closed and arms outstretched, feeling each single drop of rain on our skin. Everything was all right with our world.

Scary experience July 3, 2005

My sons’ babysitter called me from the office using her mobile phone two hours ago because Lennon, he is 2, locked her and his older brother Dylan in the kitchen and would not open the door despite their pleas.

The kitchen was not in the original design of the house; we had it built into the free space at the back when we took over the house from its original occupants. This is why there is a door leading to it that locks from the inside.

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Playtime July 1, 2005

Lennon hides from mom

Lennon does well June 29, 2005

Lennon now knows how to follow simple instructions. At his school earlier today, his teacher asked him to do simple exercises that involved connecting dots from left to right. His teacher showed him how to do it and he completed the other sets on his own.

We still can’t understand him, his vocabulary at two years and five months is still limited to less than 20 words, but he sure can understand us. You tell him to do something and you need to say it only once. He’d understand immediately. Dad will tell him to go get something and he’d get it.

I’m sure that not being understood is frustrating to him. It’s possible this frustration is the cause of all his behavior problems. I’m really close to just quit forcing him to learn Cebuano even if I wanted to teach him this language first because he seems to have no aptitude for it.

School troubles June 28, 2005

Dylan is having problems in school. He does not write as fast as his classmates and sometimes finishes last. He told us recently that he does not want to go to school anymore because of all the stuff they have to copy from their books to their notebooks and I suspect that he faked a stomachache once just to be allowed to stay home.

What’s a mom to do?