Thank you, thank you thank you!
To come home from a day at work and find so many supportive and helpful messages on this thread (as well as the other less fraught thread on subtest scores) is like the best Christmas present ever.
The EF ressources look great Mich. And I agree that a highly structured school environment would be best. I have my eye on a private middle school-high school that I think might fit the bill. He started Judo this year (I wish we had done this sooner) and the structure and controlled atmosphere seem really good for him.
And Grinity, you seem to always say what I need to hear. I have been trying to shut down the "lawyering" since I realized last year that we were having disucssions about starting homework that reached their logical conclusion 45 minutes later with me saying "you still have to know how to add to work at McDonalds!!" I generally try to say something like, "well, this isn't up for discussion" and walk away. The first time I did this DS was quite taken aback and said "I don't like it when you talk that way, it sounds like you're in charge." Shows I had strayed quite a way too far in the other direction. It seems best if I keep the tone light and neutral. I think I'm going to write down your sentence above (I know you don't understand my logic, etc) and keep it in my pocket for next time.
I also try to do the praise for little things, but for times when DS might find this annoying (like eldertree's DD, he only likes praise in small doses), I love the idea of saying it in my head. I think this will help me with my catastrophic thinking too.
Any information on meditation to share? DS actually developed an interest in this from his former Montessori teacher, but I'm not sure what he was doing, besides staring at a candle, and it didn't last long. If I had some methods to share with him, it might do us both good.
Thanks for listening.
