overcoming obstacles

Meet Kingston Hayes, first grader. This is the first year that Kingston has been in our program. His older sister, A'Kaylee was in RE>DIRECT last year, and now Kingston, AJ and A'Kaylee are all in RE>DIRECT.

I remember years ago when we first started our program with seven students, one of which was Lamont. Then a second grader, Lamont would come in, eat, and throw his head down on the table, argue about doing homework, and was not happy at all about even trying. Frustrated does not do it justice. As we continued to push, it became apparent that he did not know how to read, or how to do basic math. Through hard work and a belief that he could do it, Lamont started to overcome and his confidence grew.

I bring that up to set the stage for Kingston's story which is starting to be rewritten now.

When Kingston started in August, we knew he had an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and that the school had identified that he is behind other students. We also learned that he would lash out in frustration because he wasn't understanding what was being taught.

At the start of the program, Kingston would get extremely mad to the point of us taking him outside for a walk, allowing him to cool down before coming back in to try again. Words and sounds are hard for him to understand or comprehend and basic math such as 2+2 was not on the radar at all. This was the starting point from which we began.

Kym, Kingston's mom Alexis, and his teacher had a conference call to make sure that everyone was on the same page. They talked about what needed to be focused on and we went to work.

What has happened since has been extremely cool.

Basic math, not a problem. What was a struggle a few short months ago is no longer a struggle. As a matter of fact, he is extremely confident. Recently, he finished his homework early so we gave him 4 math worksheets with both addition and subtraction. What is funny is that he had never done subtraction before so keep that in mind. While doing the addition worksheet, he says outloud, "this is easy, Mr. Phil!" To his credit, it was because he finished that worksheet in 2 minutes. What was foreign a few months earlier has now become "easy."

He then asked how to do subtraction, we showed him, and once again, he went to work and got them all correct.

His attitude has turned 180 degrees from frustrated and angry, to believing and happy. Confidence is through the roof and he is just excited to learn.

Last week, we finished our activity and we were going to go into a shortened homework time. The moon outside was huge and I wanted all the kids to see it so I took them outside, we talked about creation, and prayed. Needless to say, we didn't get homework done. Kingston comes up to me (Phil), and says, "Mr. Phil, I didn't get my homework done." I encouraged him to get it done when he got home.

The next day he comes into the building, pulls out his notebook, and says, "Mr. Phil, look." He then shows me his spelling words, each word written three times each. Come to find out, he did this all by himself. His mom didn't ask him to do it, he just did it on his own.

He is growing and it is so encouraging to see!