Ninja Turtle! Score!

Just a quick update about something that happened today that made me over the moon excited. Westley had his first "Ninja Turtle" today. That is what he has instructed me to call his tests since the word test makes him nervous. ;-)

Anyway, it was a phonics/language test and was quite overwhelming for him. By the third question, he went into complete meltdown mode. He was crying and banging his fists on his head. I immediately shut the test booklet and told him we could come back to it another time.

After a few minutes, Westley calmed down and we carried on with the next subject. While he was doing his seatwork, I had an idea. We have this game called Bananagrams, which is basically a younger version of Scrabble. It has a bunch of tiles with letters on them. I decided to try giving him the test and let him answer using the tiles (instead of writing on the test paper).

He had no clue I was giving him the test (it was hidden beside me). He spent around 20 minutes answering my questions - spelling out his test words with the tiles, picking the vowel sound out and then deciding whether it was a long or short vowel, laying out the blend sounds, and then reading a list of 35 words (which I also arranged in the tiles).

He did the entire test with ease. No meltdown, no frustration. He only missed one answer (forgot an "e" at the end of one word). After it was complete, I asked him if he knew what he just did. He said no. Then I told him that he just completed the Ninja Turtle that I tried to give him earlier.

I got to see my son BEAM with confidence for the first time in over two years!!! He was so thrilled with himself that he laughed and threw up his hands in absolute excitement. He smiled and carried on about it for some time and was thrilled to share the news with his dad at dinner. How is that for confirmation that we are doing the right thing??!

Westley is such a hands-on, textile, and visual learner. I am so excited that he is in an environment where we can embrace that! It has made me smile all darn day!

:-)