Well a little shock here kids.
On Monday, I was talking to my daughter about her (unusual) poor performance in school, in one particular class. (Straight A kid) Now I know she doesn't like this teacher's style, so I try to encourage her to learn to deal with it--I mean, we don't all like each other's style but we live in the same world. Blah blah blah.
Anyhow, she told me she was 'having problems focusing.' For a minute, I thought she meant because the damn teacher is like 80 and boring that her attention was easily lost. I almost snapped at her and told her to pay more attention. Instead, I asked her what she meant. She said, "Sometimes when I look at my paper, I can't see what the teacher has written too clearly. It takes a moment to come into focus."
Light bulb went off! I scheduled her an eye exam yesterday. The upshot is, she has perfect vision, but her focusing muscles are a little weak. Therefore, when she switches her focus from distance (blackboard) to close (desk) it was in fact taking her a minute to focus!
So off we trekked to get glasses. I let her choose the style, and I must say she chose some (expensive) but beautiful cerulian blue frames. What the insurance didn't cover, I paid out of pocket. $70 bucks. Big stinking deal. Everyone in the store came over to tell her how beautiful she looked.
When we got home, she got right on her homework and finished it in record time. The nicest part is, she actually thanked me for spending the day helping her solve her little problem!
I'm not kidding you guys, she's hugged me and told me thank you about a bajillion times. She proudly showed them off to Dad and made a special effort to look nice today. I almost cried.
I'm so glad I listened and didn't jump to conclusions. Esp. when she later told me that the teacher would often ask her, "When are you gonna get started?" and she would answer, "I can't focus." The teacher heard her but didn't listen to her. Poor kid, didn't think to say, "I can't SEE." LOL
Lisa