A Moment w/ A Momma to A Learning Disabled Child

Most who know me, know about my son Gabriel.

After his first grade year in school, he was assessed as being dyslexic. While it was a welcome discovery, to learn that we had a name to hang on the problems we'd been having with his educational development we had no idea what we were in for. Every new concept, every new subject meant frusterations, confusion, tears (his and ours).

I've been contemplating homeschooling and decided to utilize this summer as a sort of testing ground of MY abilities. At the end of the school year, I'd asked the teacher for any disguarded 5'th grade textbooks (thinking a year ahead) hoping to see how far I'd get with Gabriel.

In my concious mind I kept very realistic expectations, knowing that any attempt at bringing forth new concepts would be met with frusteration. To my surprise, today we focused on United States capitols and abbreviations; after an hours worth of dilligent work....he'd nearly mastered the first 10 states. While cooking dinner, I thought to *test* what he'd learned -- to my shock he'd answered each question nearly correct! By this time, Ralph had arrived home and decided to play in our "game". He too was shocked at Gabriel's relaxed manner & retrival of information.

If we thought we were shocked when he successfully named the first ten states, capitols and abbreviations ..... we both nearly fell over when he asked Ralph directly to work with him on math after supper! As I sit here right now, he is still sitting at the table .... alone. Working on multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, contentedly, happily.

My eyes are filling with tears as I even think about this, because I cannot recount the hair pulling moments we've had over the last year with math facts. Could it be the summertime atomosphere? The bare feet and swimming trunks?

I'm nearly certain this is a sign for me to pursue homeschooling. I've wondered for so long if it would be the right choice for Gabriel and I feel so strongly that it is.