"My mother's mother is my grandmother."
"My mo-der and mo-der eee have goder."
"Nope - say my mother's mother is my grandmother."
"My mo-der and mo-der eee have goder."
"Not quite. Listen closely, Moses: My mother's mother is my grandmother."
... (half hour later)...
"My mo-der's mo-der is my grandmo-der."
"YES! You got it, buddy!! Now, look at my mouth "th - th - th"... mo"th"er - you say it."
"Th-my th-moTHer and th-moTHer..."
'sigh'
...
Teaching Moses is a whole different ballgame. He struggles to actually engage his mind to what he is learning.
We're taking a kid who has managed to not learn and not be engaged with the world around him beyond having fun and doing what he wants to do and stretching his mind to all kinds of new exercises. Listen closely enough to a sentence to be able to comprehend it and answer a question about it. Manipulate numbers to mean something tangible about the world around us. Look at a photograph and project your emotions and thoughts into it to give it more meaning. Listen to questions and answer appropriately. Speak in full sentences. Do something you don't want to do. Remember an instruction and obey even when impulses tell you to do otherwise...
Many of these lessons are lessons that all our children are working on. But many of these lessons have been repeated every day for months with seeming little progress.
Once I can remove myself from the frustration, bite my tongue, and sit patiently, it's really quite fascinating to see a bright child who is quite lively and personable but can't repeat a sentence back 2 minutes after it was first given (in either of his languages). We think it has a lot to do with the fact that he was the baby at the children's home. He was treated like the baby and nothing was required of him. From what we've seen of Acholi culture, he could have gotten away with very little adult interaction his entire life.
So, now, he's in this family who loves to read, loves to sort through issues, loves to dig deeper and understand - and he can't tell an "m" from an "n," let alone what SOUND each one makes, let alone that letters come together to make words!
Don't get me wrong, he's making LOTS of progress and he's a bright kid. He's especially good with numbers, especially on an intuitive level. Through Josh's hard work, he's interested in speaking Acholi again and relearning some Acholi... but it doesn't mean that teaching him doesn't take a dramatic measure of patience! (And I'm so glad that I get the privilege of teaching him!)
"My mo-der and mo-der eee have goder."
"Nope - say my mother's mother is my grandmother."
"My mo-der and mo-der eee have goder."
"Not quite. Listen closely, Moses: My mother's mother is my grandmother."
... (half hour later)...
"My mo-der's mo-der is my grandmo-der."
"YES! You got it, buddy!! Now, look at my mouth "th - th - th"... mo"th"er - you say it."
"Th-my th-moTHer and th-moTHer..."
'sigh'
...
Teaching Moses is a whole different ballgame. He struggles to actually engage his mind to what he is learning.
We're taking a kid who has managed to not learn and not be engaged with the world around him beyond having fun and doing what he wants to do and stretching his mind to all kinds of new exercises. Listen closely enough to a sentence to be able to comprehend it and answer a question about it. Manipulate numbers to mean something tangible about the world around us. Look at a photograph and project your emotions and thoughts into it to give it more meaning. Listen to questions and answer appropriately. Speak in full sentences. Do something you don't want to do. Remember an instruction and obey even when impulses tell you to do otherwise...
Many of these lessons are lessons that all our children are working on. But many of these lessons have been repeated every day for months with seeming little progress.
Once I can remove myself from the frustration, bite my tongue, and sit patiently, it's really quite fascinating to see a bright child who is quite lively and personable but can't repeat a sentence back 2 minutes after it was first given (in either of his languages). We think it has a lot to do with the fact that he was the baby at the children's home. He was treated like the baby and nothing was required of him. From what we've seen of Acholi culture, he could have gotten away with very little adult interaction his entire life.
So, now, he's in this family who loves to read, loves to sort through issues, loves to dig deeper and understand - and he can't tell an "m" from an "n," let alone what SOUND each one makes, let alone that letters come together to make words!
Don't get me wrong, he's making LOTS of progress and he's a bright kid. He's especially good with numbers, especially on an intuitive level. Through Josh's hard work, he's interested in speaking Acholi again and relearning some Acholi... but it doesn't mean that teaching him doesn't take a dramatic measure of patience! (And I'm so glad that I get the privilege of teaching him!)
Comments