Gadgeteens' Week

"Mum, Mr. Griffiiths rang to speak to you earlier, I’m sorry." Gadgeteen gazed glumly at me, He can do a good expressionless face.

Oh no….. I tried to read his face to assess whether the news was good or bad, and waited for more. He looked at me, but then his mouth quivered, and broke into a smile. He couldn’t do it.

"Oh…I can’t not smile....You thought I was in trouble didn’t you?.... Only joking Mum....He said I done good."

Phew, it was good news, though I was quite prepared to sit and talk through whatever ‘trouble’ was in a calm collected way. I am finding that get more out of him like that. No attack action so no need for a defensive reaction.

"Yeah, he said well done, and that I went to all my classes, and I did all the work in Spanish and got all the words right, and Miss Cahil was very pleased with me."

I smiled back at him and we had a hug.

"Cool, well done, I’m dead proud of you. How does that feel then?" I said.

"yeah, good."

I must say that he has been putting in the effort at home too, biting his tongue, making me coffee, and volunteering to do little things to help us.

I have been praising him to acknowledge all these nice little things.

I watched him kick a football against the garage wall in the garden the other day. Kick, bounce, catch… kick, bounce, catch, over and over again. 45 minutes of continuous kicking of ball against wall, watching the bounce, and reaching out with his arms to catch the ball as it bounced away from the wall.

He does have the ability to focus. I wondered what he thought about whilst he was doing it. I’ve not seen him do that before. Every now and the he would catch me watching him and we’d smile at each other.

I told Gadgetman what I’d been watching and asked him to look too. Just then the ball splashed into the fishpond, scattering seven goldfish suffering heart attacks.

Gadgetman started to go out to investigate the matter of the ball in the pond. Oh no, I foresaw potential change. I gestured quietly at him to come back.

"Let’s ignore it, let’s just leave him to it. He’s happy and focused for now. Ignore the ball bouncing off the windows. It doesn't happen often and he doesn't mean to. He just wants to kick, bounce and catch that ball." Gadgetman nodded and agreed.

When Gadgeteen eventually stopped he was soaking with sweat, well out of breath and very thirsty. He looked pleased with himself.

“How long was I doing that Mum? Thanks Mum.” He downed the glass of cold water that I handed to him.

"Really good focus Gadgeteen, 45 minutes, and…”

I grinned at him.

"If you can focus so well on the kick, bounce, catch for that long, then just imagine what would happen if….."

"Yeah I know Mum." He grinned at me. "I could do the same with all my subjects."

"And how long is each subject? 45 minutes? Yeah you can do that." I grinned back.

He hurrumphed at me.

We had a laugh.