Two Fridays ago (Sept 26) I finally logged into Gabes Accelerated Reader account & realized that he only had 2.6 points. The goal for the first 9 weeks was 12 points. He only had two weeks left to meet his AR goal. Since he didnt have enough time to take tests during school, we talked to his teacher & she said to bring Gabe in before school at 7:40 am. So the next day, I explained to him that he had 9.4 points left & only two weeks to meet his goal. I honestly wanted to be the mom that said, Youre going to read, youre going to get up early & take those tests, & youre going to do it! Before the words could come out of my mouth, I seen his body language, already full of defeat & a discouraged face. There was absolutely no way I was going to let those words come out of my mouth. He loves to read, so why give reading a bad name by using force? Instead, I tried a different route. I told him that it was going to be tough to meet his reading goal because time was running out & he not only had to take the tests, but pass them. I told him that I would like for him to still try & that if he didnt reach his goal, I would still be just as proud of him! I made sure to be careful with my words because hes extremely sensitive & extremely hard on himself. But even being careful w/my positive words...didnt uplift him much. He looked at me w/tears in his eyes & said, I cant do it mom. I told him that I knew that he could do it, if he would just try his best. I reminded him that God says that he CAN do ALL things through Christ. I gave him two choices & told him it was up to him to decide. 1) He could not give up & read tons of books. Go to bed a lot earlier & wake up extremely early. And take his AR tests before school even started. OR 2) Go to bed at his normal time, sleep in & wake up at his normal time. And accept the fact that he wouldnt be able to attend the AR party w/his friends, who had met their goal. I told him to think about it & Id ask him what he decided the next night. Sunday night came, he said he wanted to still try even if it wasnt possible to meet his AR goal by the deadline. So for the past 9 school days, weve been getting up extremely early & hes been taking his AR tests. Gabe not only reached his 12 points in 7 days this Tuesday, he wanted to keep reading & keep getting up early & keep taking tests until the last day, which was this morning. Im so proud of him because he chose not to give up. He even prayed every night for God to help him reach his goal & help him remember what he read. He reached his goal by reading 35 books & finished with 16.4 AR points today!
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 01:04:52 +0000
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