Okay - not sure how to interpret it but I am a bit annoyed with DS and thinks he is yanking my chain. To be sure, he is the less manipulative twin and fairly honest but from babyhood he and DD also have joined forces to control their environment.
He threw out an unexpected comment while I was helping him with his instrumental practice and criticizing his approach (failing to pay attention to his pitch and losing his place with the piece when he makes an error, etc). I tied this behavior with some of the careless errors he makes in his academic work. To be objective, he isn't extremely careless but almost all his errors can be attributed to rushing through his work and never checking. His speed is phenomenal and often unnecessary. I am not trying to enforce perfectionism but carelessness can make the difference between great and exceptional.
Anyhow, he responded by blaming his carelessness on how easy K and first grade were. Huh? He is now in 5th grade and got his first math acceleration to 4th grade math in 2nd grade. First of all, he loved K and his K teacher and still talks about how wonderful and fun K was. His K teacher really got him and joked about some mornings wanting to ask DS if he could teach the science topics because there were times when he took over the explanations and turned on the light bulb for some of the kids who weren't getting it. Admittedly, first grade was more of a grind and he got into some minor problems in the very beginning but everything calmed down once the class began basic literary analysis with the advanced novels (about 3rd grade level) and open-ended writing and the teacher (who formerly taught 3rd grade) opened up her extensive library of 3rd/4th/5th grade level books for the kids who finished their work early. Yes, the math was ridiculous for a kid who figured out multiplication/division and simple fraction at four, but he did not have the writing skills or maturity level to successfully accelerate to 3rd grade math without accomodations, which would not have been forthcoming.
Anyhow, his input has always figured into our subject acceleration decisions for him. He also knows that he doesn't want to be grade-skipped. I feel like he isn't taking responsibility for correcting his "carelessness issue" and perhaps trying to make me feel responsible. He threw his comment out so casually and I am not sure that he was even sincere. Is he yanking my chain?
