Thursday, March 18, 2010

Speech! Speech!

In our Communications lesson today we did our first two speeches of the year. The program is called 'Say What You Mean,' and I highly recommend it.

Anyway, the first speech was to simply introduce oneself. Name, age, favorites, etc. My son stood. I clapped. He wriggled in discomfort. Now, this kid doesn't have a shy bone, I am telling you! He waded through is speech and sat down. I asked what was wrong. He said that he was so uncomfortable. My daughter, whose bones are predominantly shy, immediately diagnosed him: stage fright.

The word alone set my son on edge. He said that he got up to do the presentation for the History Faire without a problem. He enjoys talking to groups. He said it was just too small of a group to do it here. I think he was as uncomfortable with having stage fright as the stage fright itself.

I told him I understood. Sometimes a large group is less intimidating than a number more intimate. I praised him for making it through, he got more details as he continued to talk and I said that he'd gotten more comfortable just be pushing on.

I was instantly corrected. He had NOT felt more comfortable. He said that he felt like crying at the beginning all the way until after he sat down. He did not like it at all. Well!! We are off to a great start!

My daughter did great, as either child does with the other struggles. What is with that?

The next assignment required the kids to describe a picture in as much detail as possible. Again, my son went first. He did a little better with his comfort level, but one thing just struck me as so funny. He was describing an outdoor shelter off of a building. He kept calling it an 'upping.' I had no idea what he was trying to say, so I just kept encouraging him to move on. He couldn't get past it, though, and continued to describe and define the word he was looking for. Finally it came to me. Awning. Or, in my son's head, "on-ning." Isn't that great?

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