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In a message dated 1/14/2004 1:46:03 PM Central Standard Time,
leschke@... writes:


> He also *didn't* read, didn't even want to be read to for the next 4 years.
>
>
I had a great conversation on the way to and back from the dentist today with
my 12yro. (I love car conversations, my 16yro and I also have some great ones
when I drive him to and back from the place he teaches snowboarding, it's
about 45 minutes each way but that's another post, LOL)

Anyway on the way to the dentist Tom was telling me that he has a lot of
friends and he names off the neighborhood kids plus he adds all the kids he plays
on sports teams with. Later, on the way back he was telling me that his
friends think he should go back to school to make more friends. I mentioned that he
had said he had a lot of friends already and I wondered what he would do with
more right now? He agreed and said he didn't know. I also added that I was
remembering that he also likes a certain amount of time alone to work on his own
stuff and he agreed. He also told me somewhere in this conversation that he is
a lot more mature than his friends because he is with adults a lot and that
he would be different if he were with kids all of the time.

Somehow we got onto reading and he told me that all his friends know he is
not a good reader and they are OK with it. I wondered if that were still true or
was that just something that was true once but had changed and he hadn't
realized it, I mean maybe you are a better reader today but you keep saying you
aren't a good reader. He thinks he reads OK but not as good as his friends. I
asked if he was OK with how well he reads now and he said he was.

We talked about what people could do if they wanted to read better, one thing
was to read more. So you are OK with how you read now and you know some
things to do if you decide you want to read better in the future? And he said yes.
So I told him that was OK with me, that it sounded like he had given this some
thought and I was here to help if he ever needed it. This is so powerful to
me, knowing that he is aware of the power he has over his own life.

Last night he asked me if science couldn't be done just building things like
robots? I feel so privileged to be along on this ride.
Laura Buoni


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