I think I told you Nash was 9, but he is 11, so my mistake on the age. Well, today was the day that Nash and I worked on his bedroom. We installed the wood as well as got to share some very important insight to his future, comparing his life to my own past as a boy in school. He has A.D.D., so in his classroom time it is just a bit tough for him to keep his focus. Math is a hard class for him, so the question is, "If I am going to do work like this, why do I need it?" Well, I can tell you why.
So we went to set up the floor and since we had three rooms to bring together, it was time to do the math. We took the time to square up the main room and transferred our lines to the hall. Then went to his bedroom. I felt like we were doing an NWFA class with our lines, doing the 3-4-5 using the bar compass, and the math had to add up. He did not fully understand how to read a tape; I picked him up one with the fractions marked on it so he was able to tell me what our lines and markings all added up to. We had to put in one header for the change up of wood direction, so we used our tape, the 3-4-5 and the bar compass to make sure it was dead-on and he understood the need for math. We took the framing square as a doublecheck and that was the key that made it clear to him that he needed to get his math in control.
For me it was not A.D.D., but I still battle dyslexia; math, reading and spelling killed me. My parents were told that I was just lazy and my only trouble was daydreaming. Well, in high school one of my teachers saw something that made him look into my trouble and had me tested... sure enough, they knew at that point the reason for my struggle. After that my classes were driven to aid me and teach me how to adjust; my grades got much better, I had desire to be the best I could be and, most important, I felt like a person, not a "lazy daydreamer." I shared that with Nash, and he had some of the same feelings; hope it all sinks in for him and he understands that he is able to do whatever he wants in life.
