Ethan came back from school mid this week and told me that he had scored full marks for the math test that was taken the day before. Caden has set this same achievement for his CA2 math test this time round and to my mind, I find it really unbelievable for Ethan to have done it too!
I am biased. I know. Ethan's cognitive skills are not as strong as his brother's. He has difficulties understanding the questions - what exactly is required. He has issues in grasping new concepts. He makes careless mistakes like simple addition and subtraction questions. He rushes through work MOST of the time, so this habit causes unnecessary errors included in any test or assignments ...
During the math revision period which I had planned for him, I almost, literally vomit blood every single day, so much so that I have to outsource some explanations to his PaPa to take over from me.. it was so hard and painful to work through and review the answers he came up with for every math question assigned to him. He lacks motivation to attempt questions that will have 3 to 4 steps of workings and just left them not attempted, citing the reason that he didn't know what the question was asking for. He lacks the determination to solve more challenging math problems. have to break down the question into parts, and explain to him part by part before he can derive the answer. Questions like what is the dollar equivalent of Twenty 20cents? Forty 50 cents? I have to do so many drills with him on questions which he was weak in.
His memory is short too. For past topics which were covered in Terms 1 and 2, if we don't cover them during revision period before Term 3 test, he couldn't remember how to attempt them (typically the school will include past topics taught in 1st half of the year as the year progressed). Thus, when I planned the schedule for his math revision, I will set aside 2 to 3 sessions which will include questions from past topics.
I suppose after all these years, I have already come into realisation that each child learns at a different pace. Although both brothers were put into the same routine since young, Ethan turns out to be much weaker. The best way to overcome his performance is Patience, Patience and Patience!
Although I have not seen the hard copy paper back from school as yet, I believe in my son's claim on his achievements.. Hopefully we can continue to maintain this good momentum :) I am definitely not asking for full marks results from him but a better learning attitude to be demonstrated by him which will be more sustainable.
