A day for restructuring

On Thursday, I met Trevor with a new strategy. The plan for the day was vocab quiz, and not much else besides regrouping. I got to his house, woke him up, and told him to get ready to leave. I thought it would be a good day to get out of the house and see some things. He hasn't seen much of Houston, and I think seeing the great things it has to offer will inspire him to take advantage of his surroundings. We wouldn't see that much Thursday, but it was a start.

He immediately let me know he was hungry, so I told him we'd talk over lunch. The plan: Barnaby's for lunch, my house for the vocab quiz since I live so close, and a walk around the neighborhood.

I let him wake up in the car; he looked over his vocabulary flash cards. He seemed unprepared for the day, as he had all week. I told him that we were going to do the quiz, but not much else today. He was pleased with that.

We got to Barnaby's, which is a great little cafe in Houston featuring delicious, but moderately priced food. It's one of my favorite places to eat; lively, colorful, friendly. He began to perk up, so I began to talk.

"I wanted to take today to kind of regroup and refocus on what our goals are in this endeavor of ours," I said. "I need to know where you are in this. I realized that maybe the way I'm looking at it is incorrect." I told him my "marathon-mile" metaphor and he agreed. I reminded him, however, that we are going to start training for this marathon on Monday, and that we would begin with one mile.

We ate our food and small talked through a lot of our lunch. We then headed back to my house, which we had briefly visited before to pick up a few cooking utensils the day we went to Central Market. He had been looking forward to this, because:

1. He LOVES my pets. This is a great thing; it shows his capacity to feel compassion towards animals, which is healthy. I have two awesome pomeranians, two goofy persian cats, and a bunch of fish. The first day we came here, he sat on my living room floor and played with all four of them loving on him for a good five minutes. They greeted him again warmly.

2. He loves my house. I don't like to sound smug, but I have a cool house. Neatly decorated, welcoming but stimulating, always clean (for the most part), and unique. It has a relaxing, inspiring quality about it, great for studying. After visiting the first time, he told his grandma that they should get a house like mine.

We immediately played with the animals and relaxed for a bit, then got down to business with the vocab quiz. I have a partner's desk on the first floor where I keep my office; it's a neat place to work. Even Trevor noted how much he loved this room. We moved through the quiz at a normal pace; He did great and got a 92! I made sure I told him how proud I was that he studied his words and gave me his best effort. "Let's go for a walk," I said. We took the dogs and started walking.

Another reason Trevor likes coming here: my neighborhood. I live in a transitional neighborhood in the city that is full of a variety of architecture and design. He had mentioned to me that he has an interest in architecture, so I played it up. We talked about the different designs, the difference between traditional materials and non-traditional materials, loft-style homes, townhomes vs. single-family homes, and the mixture of businesses and art studios within a neighborhood. We came to a little park and sat down; we then got back into the school subject.

We discussed again our plans for the next few weeks: training for the marathon ahead. I asked him what our favorite subjects were that we had studied so far. He told me that our "philosophy" talks were his favorite, but then geography, english, nutrition, and algebra last. I reminded him that he was doing very well in his algebra when it came to his capabilities. We also agreed to focus on our "philosophy" first; this would hopefully give him the meaning and motivation in the purpose of what we are doing. "The finish line," I said, "is your high school diploma. We can always go for the GED [he shook his head fervently], but I know you're capable of doing more. We have to start with strengthening your independent study skills and mental stamina." He was quiet through most of this; I finally had to make him give me an answer. "Are you ready to restart Monday? A new philosophy?"

He agreed. We headed back to the house; we had some time left, so I offered the time to finish his last lesson on algebra before the test. He, of course, did not want to do it right then. "Okay," I said,"but starting Monday, we postpone no more. You have three weekend days to finish lesson 4 and study for the test, which we'll take first thing Monday morning. Can you manage that?" He assured me he could. I could only give him the benefit of the doubt. I would be out of town Friday, so he had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to prepare and refocus himself.

"Take it easy this weekend, but do your homework and think really hard about all that we've talked about."

When I came in Monday, I was pleased with what I saw on the table.