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Now that our oldest son is reading, we have noticed that he is easy to give up on himself. If he comes across a word that he is not sure of, this once-confident learner becomes timid and scared to try. He will take a guess instead of sounding out the word.  Sometimes, he won’t even try.  He is afraid to get it wrong, so he just gives up.

Instead of trying, he was just asking me to tell him the word.  I was a teacher before he was born, so this does not work with me… I expected him to LEARN to read, I was not going to tell him what it was- I will TEACH him how to figure it out. (remember the quote about “Give a man a fish & feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish & feed him for a lifetime”?)

Well, yesterday he came home with another book that he considered hard.  He tried to read the book once & started doing his “I can’t do it! Just tell me the word!” argument and when I refused, he said that he didn’t want to read it anymore. I said that was fine. (What he didn’t know was that he would read this book & I knew it).

Without his knowledge, I took his book log (the paper that we write the name of the book that he reads every night) I marked that we read the book. I signed it and put it back into his backpack. He did not see me doing this and did not know that I signed it!!

 

Later that night, he came back to me in a panic because he had to read his book for school and it was getting close to 7:00 (bedtime). I told him that I was ready when he was.

We sat down on the couch in my favorite room in our house (quiet, peaceful, calming). He started reading, got stuck on a word & this time, he TRIED instead of begging me to help him. (I will help him when I see him trying. I won’t help him when he just gives us). He read the whole book and was proud of himself.

After he finished the book, he brought his book log to me and he said “Mom, you have to sign this so that my teacher knows that I read it.”

I took the paper and pointed to the line where I had already wrote the book title down. I told him that I had already signed it.

He looked at me and said “You KNEW that I was going to read this?” The look in his eyes said it all- his Mom knew that he would do it. His Mom knew that he could do it. His Mom had faith in him even when he didn’t have faith in himself. (Much like our Lord has faith in us even when we don’t have faith in ourselves)

I reminded him of this, of course. “I knew all along that you could do it. I will believe in you even when you don’t believe in yourself.”

That’s what Mom’s are for… just have a little faith in me.

have a litte faith

Hi there!

I’m Becky, a former elementary school teacher turned certified child development therapist and blogger. I work at home with my husband and together we are raising (and partially homeschooling) our four children in the Carolinas. I love diet coke, ice cream, and spending time with my family.

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5 Comments

  1. awww I LOVED this post. My kids aren’t to that age yet, but what a beautiful story in the belief of a mom and how it affects a child’s self-esteem! You sound like a wonderful mother!!

  2. Awwwww…. What a Good Mommy! 🙂

    Sometimes, kids like baby birds, need that little push; that way they can fly out of the nest on their own wings.
    ~> My daughter went through the same thing. It took the same tough love to get her to develop her own self confidence, but she did! A great website that also helped her learn, and may help yours, is Spelling City. I am not sure if you have heard or ever tried it before, but it is Awesome & Free!
    Great Blog BTW 😉