Living Arrows 38/52 (2019)

Well after last week’s post, and in fact a lot of the posts over the summer where I was struggling with the boys’ behaviour and squabbling, I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to hear we’ve had a much better week all round!

If you read last week’s post you’ll know we were a bit worried about how Toby was settling into Year 2. He had already been in trouble for not listening and being silly but I was worried that he was struggling with anxiety about his work, and this was coming across as if he was being lazy and just not doing it.

So, as I mentioned I was going to, I spoke to his teacher and she was great. She’s going to make sure Toby gets plenty of support in class and also help with realising that mistakes are OK and his work doesn’t have to be perfect all the time.

It seems to be helping so far at least. He’s come out of school much more positive every day and he was even awarded Writer of the Week last week which was a great confidence boost for him. It seems to be impacting on his behaviour at home too and he’s being much calmer and doing what he’s supposed to be doing a lot more easily too. Long may it continue!

Gabe has had another good week too. We did go back to a bit of crying and upset in the mornings about not wanting to go to school but it was only at home and he was fine by the time we got to school. He’s still really tired but seems to be settling in well so that’s good too.

Toby swimming with a pool noodle

To top off our much improved week, both Toby and Gabe did really well at their swimming lessons on Saturday, which is where this week’s pictures came from. Apologies for the rubbish quality, they were just taken on my phone, and througha window, but I still really wanted to share them.

The boys both go in the pool at the same time, there are usually three teachers and about five children in the pool together but this week there was only them, and they had a teacher each!

I was so proud of both of them. Toby was really trying with swimming on his front, and then did brilliantly swimming down to the bottom of the pool to collect dive sticks.

Gabe swimming with a pool noodle

And my little Gabey – well, after crying the last two weeks he was happy to get in the pool and then he let the teacher help him swim on his back, with his head (and ears) in the water which he absolutely hates usually, and he has never let me do! Then he even swam a tiny bit with no float or help at all, and lastly he put his whole face in the water to pick up a dive stick which he usually completely refuses to do too!

So overall it’s been a very successful week! Maybe it was the lovely weather we’ve been having but whatever it was I hope this is the shape of things to come!

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.

Living Arrows

4 thoughts on “Living Arrows 38/52 (2019)

  1. So pleased to hear you’ve had a better week all round and well done Toby on the writers award. They look like they are having fun in their swimming lessons! #LivingArrows

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *