Last night, while we were doing some memorization work, Jonny berated himself (and his brain) for not being smart enough. I encouraged him that he is VERY SMART and to just keep going, a little bit at a time.
Jonny has had a tougher childhood than me. He is now 10 and gets overwhelmed by academic things often.
Some things that came very easily for me when I was his age are a struggle for him. I picked up on academic things quickly. It doesn’t come nearly as quickly or as easily to Jonny. He will put in twice the effort I did into his academics and have less yield (or so the “standardized tests” say).
Academically, they tell me Jonny is behind. He’s repeated first grade and transferred schools twice because they couldn’t accommodate or support him.
But I’m not worried about him.
At all.
Here’s why.
When people ask for volunteers for ANYTHING, Jonny’s hand is up, regardless of if he thinks he can do “it” or not. He will volunteer to sing in front of the whole school in the talent show, even when he forgets the lyrics. The next year, he volunteers to do it again. He wanted to join chess club, even though he has no idea how to play chess. We couldn’t do it because he had already joined “Peace Club” and it met at the same time.
Yes. A few years ago, Jonny’s school started an “anti-bullying” Peace Club. They had 5 members that met after school to discuss ways to handle bullies. Jonny was only 7 years old, but he was one of them.
And when he was part of that club, there was a bully that had been picking on him and instead of confronting the bully, Jonny concluded that since he was a new student, maybe he just needed some friends. For Valentines Day, he wanted to make 2 cards. One for his best friend, and one for “the bully.” And when some other kids wanted to retaliate against ‘the bully’ for things that he had done, Jonny stood up FOR THE BULLY, even when one of the other kids verbally threatened Jonny’s life.
When I was his age, my hero was some baseball player. His hero is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We are working hard on his academics, and I know that with time, he will get there.
But Jonny is learning the stuff that matters in life much faster than I ever did, and though some may see him as “less developed” or “less mature” than some of his peers, in many ways, he is MORE MATURE than even some adults.
And I am seeing glimpses of the person he is becoming and I couldn’t be any more proud of him.
A few days ago, Annie (our 4-month-old kitten) went missing overnight. Jonny was distraught. He was handing out “Missing Cat” flyers all over the neighborhood.
The following morning, Annie waltzed right up to one of our neighbors at about 5:45am as he was getting ready to leave for work. They recognized her from Jonny’s flyer and they took her in and kept her safe until we could come get her.
Of his own volition, Jonny wrote a Thank You letter to the neighbors for finding Annie. He also insisted on including a “reward” for them from his own allowance.
Here is a translation of his letter.
“Dear Neighbors,
Thank you for getting Annie. She means a lot to me. How was she with your cats? Annie is so happy to be home. Thank you for being nice neighbors.
Love, Jonny.”