Enough for one day?

This morning I had a bingle in my car.... my bad...... I have this thing for breaking headlights, but this one was an indicator.... oops.

So that put me in a great mood for the remainder of the day - I feel sorry for poor hubby who had to put up with me and my mini tantrum - over my own stupidity.

Then this afternoon when I picked up the kids from school.... this is always an interesting time because they've spent the week at the Dad's place.... So I get lots of stories of 'we've done this or that' and then I ask the important questions 'Do you have your home-readers?' or 'Have you bought XYZ like I asked you to?' and there is a mix of 'Yes' and 'No' answers.

Today I collected Alex from class and made sure he had a new home-reader, found he'd 'forgotten' so I chose one, a bit of a harder one than normal because his usual level wasn't there - and I feel he needs to be challenged otherwise he gets too comfortable and doesn't try.

But Alex felt this book was too hard after starting chapter 3..... (there are 7 chapters, about 4 pages to a chapter - plus lots of pictures). We had a good talk - after the nearly round of tears - and he admitted that he didn't like the harder books - to put it in perspective he had difficulty with approximately 1 word per page - so it's not like he's reading "War and Peace".

I'm torn between the parent in me that wants to comfort and say 'It's going to be OK' and giving him easier books and the teacher in me that wants to challenge and build his confidence in reading - because I KNOW he can do this.

One of the other problems that we have is that we read the home-readers here, but they don't at their dad's place - and Alex's teacher has told Alex not to take them to dad's because he doesn't read them there (I will be speaking to his teacher next week to see if that's true or not).... So we're putting in so much work here during the kids week here.... and then it's not being backed up at their other house. It makes it difficult for the kids, for us and more than likely for their teachers too.

So another week, more teaching and learning at home, but today was enough for Alex - and we'll work on it over the weekend, because I know he can do it.... and he knows he can do it too.