"Lazy" days bring small but important improvements!!

Well, the changes may be slow, but they are there, if you look hard! Yes we still have days when Gordy seems to need to make a fuss and big who-ha about EVERYTHING (eg: this morning, breakfast. He didn't like the museli he was told to have for brekkie, so, instead of just calmly coming and telling me this, he comes in crying telling me he didn't like it. UGH! Whyfor always the drama queen? Ah well... half a bowlful of museli and a puke later - yeah yeah, meanie mum actually made him eat it, hence why the next attempt to avoid eating any more was puking it back up into the bowl. Crying kinda helped cause that, and, lucky for him I guess, led to Gordy being able to leave the rest of the bowl. *sigh* more food wastage! - and the morning moved onto quieter, and calmer, though not necessarily happier, times). But in general, he's a lot more relaxed these days, more willing to help out round the house with minimal-to-no fuss.
I've decided to move at a far slower pace, just for this term anyway, while I try and work on this enormous load of self-doubt he weighs himself down with. That, so far, seems to be his biggest barrier. When it comes to his actual "schoolwork", it's coming along pretty well. I've realised I don't really need to worry about his reading - except for maybe the odd little bit of guidance here and there to encourage him to try different types of books, he needs no encouragement whatsoever. He LOVES reading, and even his "reading out loud" is improving, as he tends to practice on Xani quite a lot, much to little brother's delight! His maths is, SLOWLY, improving as well. He's getting faster at giving answers to simple multiplication problems, and, thanks to the help of some flash cards we bought the other week, he's starting to get the hang of doing it the other way round, and therefore improving his division as well. Again, it's all a confidence thing.
When it comes to learning about new topics, Gordy's now at least willing to hear about them. His eyes don't glaze over as often when he's told something new (this was something he did on a very regular basis before, much to his Dad's annoyance, so is something I see as a HUGE improvement!), and proves he's actually listening a lot more by asking questions. Plus he's actually working harder at trying to figure out things himself now. Even the socialising side of things has shown improvement... he's actually starting to talk to some of the kids at swimming now, instead of just going off and playing on his own when he's not actually in his lesson.
These may all seem like such small, easy accomplishments to some, but for Gordy, they're BIG! Just working on expanding on these few improvements will hopefully lead to Gordy being far more willing to focus on more serious schoolwork next year, and will, maybe, actually develop the joy of learning. I can see the odd hint of it here and there... now it's just a case of gently nurturing it, slowly, so that hopefully it blooms and he's off and running with it.
I'm finding it difficult going at such a slow pace, feeling like we're getting nowhere, but when I sit down and seriously think about things, that's when I notice all these tiny achievements, and know that if we build on them, it'll give us a good solid base for kicking things into gear properly next year, hopefully without scaring him off. Patience has never been my strong point, but thanks to being rather sick and extremely tired these last couple of weeks, it's made me take it slow (just haven't had the energy, either physical or mental), and left no room for anything BUT patience, and after noticing these small, but important things, it'll make it easier to go slow and steady... after all, that's how the tortoise won the race isn't it??