I succeeded, with tantrums, resistances, and non-compliance to avoid nursery school from two to four years old. During this period, my mother turned home into school, with many learning material and accessories, where I learned nature, numbers, and language skills in a hands-on way under the watchful eye of my caregiver, Abigail (see acknowledgement).

In the privacy of my home, combined with exciting outdoor trips to zoos, parks, farms and nature reserves organised by my mother, I learned at my own pace and at my own time. For example, I can insist on waiting and watching a chick pecking its shell and trying to break out of its prison for up to 2 hours at the Science Centre.  The learning environment served me well, until I was “forced” to attend kindergarten shortly after I turned 5. Suddenly, my cozy learning environment falls apart and my past tantrum strategy could not work as it is no more age appropriate. My mother insisted that I get prepared for big group learning in primary school by first attending small group learning in kindergarten.

Unaware and unable to communicate my learning difficulties to my parents, teachers and peers, I created a world called Beckyland. Unknown to my mother that paying attention was a neurobiological difficulty in a group setting, and added to stern instruction from my mother to stay in class, I withdrew into a world of made-belief. Fortunately, my learning difficulties were discovered early, and my mother was able to enter my made-belief world and helped me to developed many strategies that transform my learning weakness into strength during my primary school years.