Eight Years of Life

It would have been a good thing if one day AX will surprise us and he will just be talking endlessly. We are still wishing for that day to come when communication will be part of his system. AX can talk and read at present. He needs more time in comprehension. In Math, he is flying so we are not that concerned. However, he will need the comprehension in Math in the years to come. He is capable of multiplication from 0 - 10. He knows that when you give him 6 x 8, he has to do 8 six times or 6 eight times. A week ago, I taught him multiplication using the fingers/hand for higher numbers (6 to 9). He is still learning and I think, he will find it much easier later on.

AX turned eight years old last 8 August and he spent some minutes doing three pages of multiplication from a Grade 3 exercise book that we bought at Sam's Club. We went out later in the day just like all our other weekends. We usually eat out during Saturday and Sunday, do a little of cheap shopping, take them to some kids' hang-outs that we could find and whatever we will be able to do before we arrive back to the house.

His eight years of life has been pretty healthy and real progress has been there. He did not talk or utter words except 10 - 25 words (I think, 25 is an exaggeration but just consider it as a safety net) with most of the times almost nothing. He lived in the dark world since he turned 18 months old. It was really odd and so sad to see him unable to talk like normal kids of his age. The light kept peering in the closed door and finally, in April 2007, he started to talk and this became very evident in September 2007. He can tell us that this is an airplane, a computer, a television, a table, an egg, an ice cream, a pizza and among other things. Soon, he is able to read stories. He still has some pronunciation mishaps but since he has some good phonics, he can go on reading 3-syllable words he has not encountered yet. Despite his pace in reading, his comprehension is not yet in the leaping stage. We are still trying to teach him and hopefully, he can reach the stage where the students of his age are or even surpassed them? Well, one has to be optimistic all the time no matter what. Every failure leads closer to the next step of success. As in our case and in our son's case in particular, I felt that no one believe in him, he was taken like a kid in school who has a duct tape on his mouth. No one thought that he could read or even understand or even be very good in Math.