There seems to be a lot of new posters on the board and many seem to have voiced the same comment - that they can't share their children's accomplishments with anyone. So I think it's time for a brag thread!
What wonderful amazing things has your child done lately that you can't tell anyone? Boast away in all your glory!
(and I expect much more boasting details from all those posters on the "isolation thread"! Here's your chance!)
Great idea, CFK! I dearly love to read the bragging about our kids!
And congrats to your DS on the A. Yay!
Mine is more of a funny than a brag...
We're homeschooling, and DS7 was working on adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators. We had worked on it a couple of weeks ago, but it hasn't yet "stuck" completely. (So he's being challenged and has to work on it--yay! And he asked to try it again, so he likes the challenge--double yay!)
He did one problem and multiplied the fractions together instead of finding the LCD and adding. I talked about why this didn't work in terms of fruit: "if you have 2 apples and 2 apples (ie if the denominators are the same), then you just add the apples together. But if you have one set of apples and one set oranges, then you have to change their appearance so that you're working with all apples, all oranges...or maybe something totally different, like all plums..."
DS7 grinned his "I'm about to be clever" grin and said, "...And then we're in a pickle!"
We got supplemental sheets for math. DS5.5 has been sick the last few days and I think he's under the impression that he has to do ALL 20 sheets while he's a home
At any rate, one sheet is open ended. You pick a number (we encouraged him to pick 36 as opposed to a prime number like he did last time!) and you're supposed to come up with all sorts of ways to get to that number. Like 30 + 6, 40 - 4, 6 x 6, etc. Since he figured out that 6 is a factor of 36, he was thinking through whether or not 3 could be a factor. Unsure of himself, Mom suggested, "well, just go through your 3 times table to see".
DS: "But mommy, I can't go up to 3 times 12!" (smurk)
Pud (7) was doing long division the other day, 91/12. He couldn't figure out how many times 12 went into 91 so he starts subtracting 12 from 91 until he can't subtract 12 any more. Then, he counted up how many times he subtracted and said "there, there's my quotient and the remainder is ...". He'll get there one way or another.
DS7 loves to invent things. This is why I buy tape by the case. Last Saturday he was do his inventing thing and came up with item that is really, really good. My DH and I just looked at one another without saying a word. After the kids went to bed we discussed the item in detail and decided to look for a patent attorney. Maybe it will help pay for college. When I told DS7 that we were going to take his idea to a new level and keep it in his name, he completely freaked, his was soooo excited.
My DD8 recently realized that her best friend is *bullying* her in that she threatens to end the frienship if DD plays with anyone else. She has begun attempting to resist her friend's attempt to manipulate her.
I'm very proud that she had the wisdom to realize this. The maturity to start standing up for herself. The finesse to figure out a way to do it without ending the friendship or hurting the friend.
May not sound like much of a brag, but she is so naturally passive and non-confrontational I am thrilled she is handling her problem this way.
My 10 year old is finding ways to work around the dyspraxia/hypotonia that causes difficulty with writing.
He took a long break from math (Aleks) because we had trouble with our internet service for several months and it is his least favorite subject. When he started back to work on middle school math course that he was about half-way through before he quit, he found that he could get answers to some math questions much faster by not writing anything down. For example: 3/10 divided by 4/15 he clicked on the fraction box thing that I thought could only be used once for the final answer and typed in 3/10, 15/4 and 45/40 so that all were on the screen at the same time, then 1 5/40, then 1 1/8 for his final answer after backspacing over the ones he didn't need. We had talked a few days ago about the need for showing his work so he could check it because he would sometimes get distracted when doing mental math and have to start over. He told me he was "digitally writing it down." I knew typing helped with getting his thoughts on paper but I never knew you could type math. He knows that he can't use this for everything and he will write out problems when he absolutely has to. He says I can't expect him to not use these tools if they are available.
He actually enjoyed his last Cub Scouts meeting because they worked on the Citizen badge and he got to talk about what he knew about government, the election process and the electoral college and the scout leader let them discuss politics, but he and the scout leader did most of the talking. He said the leader asked him how old he was and what grade he was in. He gets asked this question a lot. He had to fill out a worksheet and he said he apologised to the cub scout leader for his bad handwriting. At least he is able to explain to other people that he has a disability now, instead of trying to hide it. I think finding out that the actor who played Harry Potter also has this mild disability helped him. I think it also helped to find out that one of our neighbors has an older daughter that might be 2E. She only had one teacher in all of her years in school who really got that she needed to learn differently. One teacher had her put in special ed, but she told them she wasn't learning anything so they put her back in regular classes where she somehow overcame her difficulties and in high school she ended up making the highest scores on math tests in a school for gifted kids that she tested to get into. My neighbor said the one teacher who encouraged her daughter made a huge difference in her life.
This is my first post, but I have been lurking for awhile. I am so glad you started this thread because I have been dying to tell someone this and can't IRL. My daughter A (6.5 yrs) is double grade skipped and is now in third grade. Last week we received her first progress report and she received all O's (outstanding progress) and one S in writing. I even went and talked to her teacher because I was so surprised that she got almost all O's. He said that he is a hard grader and that only a few kids received all O's!! I was sooo proud of A and all of her hard work. Another thing she did last week was to move to her 4's in multiplication. O.k., no big deal. But she did 56 problems in 4 minutes the first day and the very next day she went to 94!!! WOW! I was shocked! Again, I'm so proud of her and she is LOVING school!
First, DS(9) was accepted into a wind ensemble... he plays flute, and while generally the group is teenaged, he's keeping up pretty darn well! But the braggy part is that since he was basically thrown in the proverbial deep end in joining this group, he has drastically improved his playing in general. It's only been two weeks, but he's suddenly remarkably good at sight reading, and the music he's playing for his regular lessons is suddenly easy. Now on the other hand, there are a few pieces in the wind ensemble repertoire that are giving him grief, but they're SO much harder than what he's been playing (I mean, like Flight of the Bumblebee for Pete's sake!), it's like his whole range just shot up. He's also gotten much more diligent about practicing. Either the peer pressure or the jump in difficulty.. but whatever it is, he's rising to the challenge! Yay!
And my second brag... He just wrote his first completely independent program! I game him the assignment of writing a program on the TI-84 to simulate random dice-rolling. He had to ask what number of rolls you want, hold the answer in a variable and then use that variable in two functions that output that many random numbers between 1 and 6 into two lists (like two dice rolled over and over, together), and then use a third list to hold their sum. And he did it! Woohoo!! Tomorrow we're going to see if there's any way to get it to report the number of sevens in the whole set of sums... but I need to figure out how to do that myself first...
I have a quick brag from last weekend. DS5 wrote 3 short Halloween stories over the weekend because he was bored. The stories were cute and the writing was very good. I helped him mount them on construction paper and he illustrated each one. We put on a cover page and then bound the pages together. On the back covers DS5 had me write: "Other Books By DS5" and then list each title. He plan to make a whole series for each season. I love his motivation.
My ds5 seems to be working out square roots for himself.
Yesterday morning he woke me up by telling me two not friends(uneven numbers) can become friends (even numbers) if you add them together. Then he went from that to working out multiplying two same numbers together(eg) two by two is four. Then straight away he wondered aloud what would happen if you did it "upside down" and worked out square roots. All in the sspace of about five or ten minutes.
This seems to me to be a bit further on from counting reliably to ten? I plan to approach the teacher with this, but ds is not co operative in testing situations. All this is coming from him independently on his terms. Any ideas what age he might be operating at?
My ds5 seems to be working out square roots for himself.
Yesterday morning he woke me up by telling me two not friends(uneven numbers) can become friends (even numbers) if you add them together. Then he went from that to working out multiplying two same numbers together(eg) two by two is four. Then straight away he wondered aloud what would happen if you did it "upside down" and worked out square roots. All in the sspace of about five or ten minutes.
This seems to me to be a bit further on from counting reliably to ten? I plan to approach the teacher with this, but ds is not co operative in testing situations. All this is coming from him independently on his terms. Any ideas what age he might be operating at?
Dunno, but let us know if you find out, because this is all awfully familiar. DS4 (will be 5 very soon) was playing with his calculator on a 40 minute bus journey the other day. On that one journey he seemed to be having insights into place value (arbitarily far: he had understood tens and units before, but he suddenly got the general case), multiplication (again, beyond the very small numbers), division, fractions, and decimals including recurring decimals, all for positive and negative numbers. It's scary, isn't it? One expects one insight to be enough to last them at least half an hour, but it isn't... And at school they seem to be on the level of recognising digits and putting them in order on a number line...
ds wants a new calculator for christmas and a telescope! I think that this was brought on by the fact that his teacher sent a number chart home and he cried. He said he felt insulted because she obviously thought he was stupid.
He just loves numbers and maths and the ideas just pop in his head as he is building lego. We did place values a few months ago. The problem is I am not really maths minded.
What a great thread! I love reading these stories. Amazing kiddos!
I can't think of any "big" brags lately, except yesterday DS4 surprised me by using the word "affect" in the correct way, as in "oh, i see, so this isn't affected by that." And lately he's been telling us many new stories about the adventures on his made up planets, Guffland, Witchland, Everythingland, Towerland, Lavaland, and Creepland. (All carefully pronounced "lind" instead of "land" for some reason!) (The adventures usually involve sending the evil witches back to their own world.) Did you know each world has its own color of butterflies, including red butterflies on lavaland "red like magma and lava"? Oh, except Everythingland, which has every color...
ds wants a new calculator for christmas and a telescope! I think that this was brought on by the fact that his teacher sent a number chart home and he cried. He said he felt insulted because she obviously thought he was stupid.
anyway at least a calculator is a cheap gift!
And hours (well...) of endless fun (What happens if I do THIS to the number 100?" Error?? What??)!
Can I indulge in a brag that happened almost 3 years ago? It's a story I'd love to tell more often but usually don't.
Once upon a time when DD was 18 months old, she woke up in the middle of the night in a very good mood. It was around 4 or 5 am. I lifted her out of her crib sat her in the middle of the bed, and she started singing. She had a small repetoire of songs by then, and she could hit the notes.
She has this "second voice" that she uses when she sings or talks to her stuffed animals. The pitch is higher than her normal deep voice. It can be very endearing.
Anyway, there she was, singing "Twinka, twinka, litta STAH..." to no one in particular and showing no signs of going back to sleep anytime soon.
DH and I formed a circle around her so she couldn't tumble off the bed, and we just lay there listening to her as she went through her songs. When she finished, she smiled and said "Nigh nigh, Mommy" or something like that and I put her back to bed and everyone went back to sleep.
It was the middle of the night. It was so wonderful. She was just so darling.
That is a really wonderful story, Val! And I say that with all sincerity. My DS did not sleep through the night until he was 4 years old, and I don't think he ever did anything that endearing in the middle of the night!!
That is a really wonderful story, Val! And I say that with all sincerity. My DS did not sleep through the night until he was 4 years old, and I don't think he ever did anything that endearing in the middle of the night!!
oh gosh... I think I *just* realized that maybe not all parents carry two solar powered calculators in their purse at all times for car rides and restaurants and other lengthy waits ....
and there's the "mom, it only has an 8 digit screen!"
Oh Barbara your post made me laugh...we have multiple calculators everywhere because DS5 loves them and has for several years...when he was 3, he would sit at restaurants/in the car/waiting for things and play with the calculator....we have one in his playroom, one in the car, one in my purse, one in his backpack....and then he saw a scientific calculator a few months ago and asked to put it on his santa list because he got all excited when daddy began to explain to him about the other number systems out there :-)
Anyway, there she was, singing "Twinka, twinka, litta STAH..." to no one in particular and showing no signs of going back to sleep anytime soon.
DH and I formed a circle around her so she couldn't tumble off the bed, and we just lay there listening to her as she went through her songs. When she finished, she smiled and said "Nigh nigh, Mommy" or something like that and I put her back to bed and everyone went back to sleep.
It was the middle of the night. It was so wonderful. She was just so darling.
Val
That's great!
Our 9m1w son sings to himself right before he goes to sleep. He's been doing this since 3 months.
We were at a high end audio shop when he was 6m old and we were listening to the speakers using Peter Cincotti's "Philadelphia" and when we turned on the good speakers, Mr W broke into a huge grin and starting humming the melody.
When he was 3m old, he smiled continously when he first heard a live piano. When the pianist started "Cast your fates to the wind," he let out a cry of joy and hummed the melody for days. Even today, when I start humming it, he will look up at me and stare at my face, smiling.
He knows and responds to requests in English and Spanish such as "Go get your book" or "go into the kitchen." Since 4m he has shaken his head no when he did not want something. A few weeks ago, my wife was at a neighbor's, and said "Its time to go." and he said, "bye bye!" and waved his arm.
He will go find his book or toy, and then throw it in front of him, crawl or cruise, pick it up, throw it a few feet, then repeat, until he gets where he wants to be with it.
We go to the book store every weekend. Our usual practice is that I will walk around with him in a chest harness looking at books until he gets excited about one. We will then sit down and I will read to him and then he will turn the page when I tell him. He usually gets a huge grin and will look at my lips and then back at the book while I read. Or he gets impatient and will want to flip to the next page!
He is easy to like as well - he smiles all the time at everyone he meets.
Originally Posted By: Rachibaby ...anyway at least a calculator is a cheap gift!
...she says, unaware of the potential!
Originally Posted by Barbara
oh gosh... I think I *just* realized that maybe not all parents carry two solar powered calculators in their purse at all times for car rides and restaurants and other lengthy waits
My post was poorly worded....I meant that at a certain point, the cool gift is no longer "cheap", !
Mr W's fav toy is a box filled with goodies like rubber parts, cut-outs from different food packages, balls, etc. He turns the box on its side and rummages through it, pulling out stuff, looking it over, throwing discards over his shoulder, then going for the next object. I add new stuff just about every day. It occupies him for hours.
Most pawn shops near a University will have lots of cheap electronic junk. We have an old atari set that he will get to play with soon. His first computer will be a POJ (piece of junk), too.
When he starts to read heavily, we will be at half-price books and yard sales.
DD2's speech has really become amazing recently, she sounds just like her 4 & 6yo brothers! A conversation I had yesterday that was just so cute and I haven't really shared anywhere because I know it sounds crazy.
DD2: Mommy, help me with my pants. The problem is- the zipper won't go up. Me: OK, please stop taking your clothes off.
Repeat 5 times over the next 2 minutes.
Then- DD2 comes in after fighting a losing battle with her shirt, one arm is stuck up in the air in the sleeve and the rest of the shirt is sort of shoved over her head in what appears to be a very uncomfortable position.
DD2: Mommy, help me! I don't know *what* the problem is!
And I was trying desperately not to laugh because I didn't want to hurt her feelings.
The things I can remember right now seem weird and offbeat; but here are a couple stories- We were at a pool and a man came over and asked ds8 about a toy he was playing with, a pretty cool rubber 'toypedo'. I could see this from across the pool. I asked what happened and ds said, "Oh, he asked about my toy, he asked where I got it, I think he thought it was his. But I explained I'd had it for several years and I think he saw it was older than his. He said he is looking for one like it, if I see it." I didn't think much more about it, but later saw my son speaking with the man again. Turns out ds found another boy playing with the man's toy and explained to the boy that the man was looking for it. He got the toy back and delivered it to the man who was pretty surprised; he asked ds a bit about it, and the look on the man's face was just priceless. Anyway, I was proud he was able to assert himself and feel comfortable speaking with this guy and the other boy. DD2.5 used to insist on my reading the R. Scary books over and over, and of course still really likes them. She has one huge one where around 1 year old she LOOOOOOVED flipping through the pages and finding the little bug that the author had hidden on every page (goldbug). By about 13 mos. or so she had the book basically memorized, she could find this bug anywhere, on every page without fail, faster than I could. She wanted to find that bug and she meant business!
Thanks for the thread. I have a couple of stories from today. First, since I am new to this idea of my DD(26 months) being termed as HG+ and the characteristics that come with the term, I figured I would buy her some board games. Nothing fancy and as I began looking at the pre-school ones I realized that DD already does the stuff that the games are suppose to teach her, so I bought a memory game and laid it out on the floor for her, explaining how the game works since she has never done a memory game before. It did not take her anytime to A. understand it and B. win the game. We always knew she had a memory but I was a little shocked at how quickly she remembered where all the pieces were after flipping them over once.
The other story is one that just made me laugh today. I am a graduate of U Texas so we watch our longhorns and over the last week she asked to watch the longhorns. I explained that she had to wait until Saturday, so last night I asked her if she knew what tomorrow was .. she thought about it and said Wednesday with a smile. (Wishful thinking since she dances on Wed.) I said no it is Saturday, longhorn game. So this morning we went to breakfast and she was sitting in a highchair with her hands hidden she asked her Grandmother and me what today was and when we ask what? she showed her hands, both with hookem signs and said "longhorns, hookem! It is football time!" It was so cute.
DD5 was convinced that counting more than 20 was too difficult for her and almost got a panic attack every time I tried to make her count more than 20. Until a few days ago, when she suddenly started counting up to 65 and she just stopped because she was tired of counting but she has obviously lost the fear that this is difficult. OUF!
Next one i hope is the puzzles: she is really afraid of them. I hope she overcomes this fear as well...
I cannot think of anything right now - It is time for bed now.
Thanks for this thread...it's fun to read about your kids...and always fun to brag!
In this past week or so our daughter (almost 2!) has almost mastered personal pronouns. She has had a hard time with using "I" instead of her name and I think she has it now!
DD started to show us that she understands simple addition...she was adding rocks as the playground the other day! She is very proud of this!
My biggest brag of all...she is finally sleeping through the night! I probably just jinxed it completed now! She has been sleeping so well in the last couple of weeks. She sleeps through the night, or wakes up just once! This is HUGE for us. We went almost 2 years with her waking up anywhere from 4 to 12 times a night.
One of the things I have learned is never underestimate the sibblings, I have DD5 and DD4 (19 months apart) the 5 year old has what I beleive to be a photographic memory and has always wanted more and more info to learn, my 4 year old is a throw back from the 60's and is a free sprit loves to learn but does not have the same type of drive the older one has (a perfect balance for my 5 year olds perfection personallity) about 2 1/2 years ago when DD5 then almost 3 desided it was time to learn the months of the year, she was going through the calendar reading the months over and over (she learn to read before 2yrs), I told her to put it down and try it without looking. She said " January, February, March" and then she paused for a moment and little sis pipes in "April, May, June, July,August, ect....
Sleeping through the night? Woo hoo! Break out the champagne! (That's what we'll do, I bet.)
I love reading about everyone's kids!
My small brag from this weekend is our 22 m.o. DD has a cold and she played Doctor /Nurse /Parent to her stuffed kitty. She looked intently into its eyes and said, "Do you need some medicine, Kitty?" in the most tender and endearing voice, then waited earnestly for a reply. She went on to go through my Pediatric Medicine box and use all its contents on the Kitty - ear thermometer, motrin, gas medicine, Vics Vapo Rub (she can say that), nasal aspirator, nail clippers, an eye dropper and hair brush. I'm not sure if that's gifted, but it sure was cute and I didn't realize she knew what all those things did.
She also used a mini screwdriver to take the plate off the back of a toy. She is constantly saying "It's broken," "It's not working," or "It needs batteries," so it was funny she could finally change batteries herself.
most of my stories of DS4 are just cute and funny stories...or at least that come to mind...but he is pretty funny.
He likes to play a game called "scrambled up word" which he made up himself. He writes out on his board "rsreae dabro" Which was eraser board. He is pretty good. The "board" part was the funniest because after writing the first word out all mixed up (he scrambles them in his head and writes them out pretty quick) he turned to me and was about to whisper and ask me "how do you spell board?" but I stopped him before he said the word and told him to ask his dad. So I hear him upstairs say "no not that kind of board with an e...the board with an a" and then I hear him coming down the stairs whispering to himself "b-o-a-r-d" over and over. How funny. So smart but still just a little 4 yo.
And my DD(16mo) is starting to talk more. It is really neat to see. My DS said a couple hundred words at her age....so to see her start to communicate more with us is great. She is developing her own personality and is just so awesome. And I LOVE watching them both together. They can play forever chasing eachother around.
This is my favorite story. When DD5 was at a well baby checkup at 15months the doctor asked her is she could say something simple like "ball" or "cat" and she responded, "I can't talk I'm just a baby" LOL!!! Talking and humor :-)
Wow Shelly. Your little DS4 is amazing! My dd7 loves stuff like that but to have that ability to manipulate language at 4 is truly exceptional. Good for him!
when DD was two and two months she made the remark that real cats do not wear clothes and talk and started to asked questions about real cows or horses, etc.
Two months later she made the remark that 'Sinterklaas' (the Dutch version of Santa) is when papa and mama have hidden presents in the cabinet under the stairs...
This is just a small brag, but it was one of those "oh, yes, he's a bit different" moments. I'm pointing out the shadow play of a lit pumpkin in the dark. Me: "hey - look at the wall." DS4: "The pumpkin is projecting images on the wall."
This is my favorite story. When DD5 was at a well baby checkup at 15months the doctor asked her is she could say something simple like "ball" or "cat" and she responded, "I can't talk I'm just a baby" LOL!!! Talking and humor :-)
Wow! Astonishing and apropos! Does she still have the same sense of humor? Dry, wry, or otherwise sarcastic? Amazing for a 15 m.o. baby!
What a great thread! I wish I could meet all of your kids--they sound wonderful!
Some of my favourite Harpo (now 7) moments:
When he was 2 and just starting to read aloud to us, he'd also spend a long time quietly staring at print of any sort (cereal boxes, whatever). One day, he asked me to type him two pages on the computer, one with lower-case "a" in every font, and one with lower-case "g" in every font. I thought this was a little odd, but I did it, and he carried it around like a talisman for weeks at a time. I finally figured out (I am slow) that those are the only two letters that exist in two different forms, according to font. So then I went up to the university library and got a bunch of books about type design, and he was in hog heaven for months.
When he was three, he'd lie on his bed for more than an hour at a go for about a week, chanting the alphabet slowly to himself. At the end of the week, he came down and said, "there are only five letters where I don't have to do anything with my lips or my teeth, and they are a, e, i, o, and u." Then he went happily out to play.
When he was four, we were waiting in a long line at the bank one day, and to keep him happy, I handed him a bunch of the bank's pamphlets about their services. One of them had to do with the bank's commitment to keeping its customers' personal information confidential, and had a photo on the front of a woman locking up a huge safe. He looked at it for a while and said he'd like to see this safe, where was it? I explained that there wasn't really a safe exactly like that particular one, but that they were trying to get across to people how seriously they took their privacy concerns. He said, "Oh, you mean it's a metaphor?" Every adult head in line snapped back in our direction.
Sorry, too many stories--I have pent-up bragging needs, since I only have one person I can tell this kind of stuff!
When he was four, we were waiting in a long line at the bank one day, and to keep him happy, I handed him a bunch of the bank's pamphlets about their services. One of them had to do with the bank's commitment to keeping its customers' personal information confidential, and had a photo on the front of a woman locking up a huge safe. He looked at it for a while and said he'd like to see this safe, where was it? I explained that there wasn't really a safe exactly like that particular one, but that they were trying to get across to people how seriously they took their privacy concerns. He said, "Oh, you mean it's a metaphor?"
Wow! Many adults do not know what a metaphor is. Amazing kiddo!
Originally Posted by minniemarx
We haven't had any of the kids tested (so I may be deluding myself that I have any business being here in the first place)...
Um. Just had to go find the above quote in another thread...tee hee
Agreed! I think those are pretty unusual stories, even among HG+ kids. He sounds like a deep thinker and a pattern-y guy. I have one of those, too, so I adore those kinds of stories even more than most!
When he was three, he'd lie on his bed for more than an hour at a go for about a week, chanting the alphabet slowly to himself. At the end of the week, he came down and said, "there are only five letters where I don't have to do anything with my lips or my teeth, and they are a, e, i, o, and u." Then he went happily out to play.
Love it!! When DS was about that age -- 3 or maybe 4 -- I babysat a friend of his two afternoons a week, and we would always bring a big bag of stuff to keep ourselves entertained while she took a nap. Generally we made a mess of their living room in various ways, and we always cleaned it up before the mom came home....
But one time we got completely carried away with little scraps of paper... He would come up with a letter sound and I'd write down the letter and he'd put it in a pile with the other sounds that were "made the same" -- b/p/m and s/z/t/d/n and k/g/ng/Russian-x/cat-hacking-up-hairball... and we just went on and on about how it all went together and why there wasn't a complete set of sounds at each location (voiced, unvoiced, fricatives, stops, whatever all the technical terms are that I can't remember anymore)... and we'd try to make the missing sounds (what kind of fricative can you get in the b/p/m set? and what does it sound like when you try?? LOL)
And then the kid's mom came home early and there we were lounging around in her living room surrounded by dozens of bits of paper with letters on them... Knowing her, I expect it was one of those things where she had read about the importance of coming home unexpectedly sometimes so you can find out if your babysitter is always watching TV or lets the preschoolers walk the dog down the highway unsupervised... I don't think she expected to catch the babysitter making apparently nonsensical piles of letters all over the living room rug. I think she always thought I was a weirdo anyway.
I thought of another cute one. My friends and I got into a habit of spelling everything we don't want our little ones to know. I do this with my husband and my mom too. One time I was in the car with my mom, DD5 (4 at the time) ,and DD4 (3 at the time) And I started spelling to my mom the plans of the day. My mom asked me to repeat what I just spelled because she didn't catch it all and my DD5(who was 4) piped up and said Grandma, mom said " we are going to the mall first, having lunch and if the kids are real good after shopping we will get some ice cream"
I thought of another cute one. My friends and I got into a habit of spelling everything we don't want our little ones to know. I do this with my husband and my mom too. One time I was in the car with my mom, DD5 (4 at the time) ,and DD4 (3 at the time) And I started spelling to my mom the plans of the day. My mom asked me to repeat what I just spelled because she didn't catch it all and my DD5(who was 4) piped up and said Grandma, mom said " we are going to the mall first, having lunch and if the kids are real good after shopping we will get some ice cream"
When my son was 2 1/2, we found that the secret messages my husband and I were spelling out to each other were no longer secret. When my son had just turned four we could pick up a book he hadn't read before and spell out all the words and he could quickly and easily identify them. His cousin, seven years older than my son and also very bright, watched him do this and was surprised that my son was getting the harder words faster than he could. At age 5, older kids in his acting class would try to find words that he couldn't get, usually science related words, but he always got those because his favorite book to read at that time was a science encyclopedia.
Last night, one of my son's cub scout leaders told me that he thought my son must read a lot. No matter what they discuss it seems like my son has read something about it and likes to share this knowledge.
So my son is a well-read gamer (isn't this an oxymoron?) who spends way too much time on video games but somehow reads enough on Wikipedia finding answers to his many questions.
We had a pretty big OMG moment a couple of days ago. During this weekend I was showing DS about numbers in different bases (base 2, base 16) because he's a patterns guy and similar to Kriston's DS. So I thought he'd like talking about why we have "digits" why we count in base 10, and how you could count with other symbols.
A couple of days later he went to his white board isle and titled it "1st grade binary" and started to write out 1 + 0 = 1, 1 + 1 = 10, 10 + 1 = 11, etc. I thought "oh he just memorized it" until he moved on to "2nd grade binary" and "3rd grade binary" with addition with carry over and subtraction with borrowing.
I am still shocked at that one.
JB
"There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those that understand binary and those that don't."
My DS fell asleep on my lap last night at 7:30 while enthusiastically watching election returns. He woke me up this morning at 4:30 because he needed to know right now, how many electoral votes Obama had received. I said 338 to McCain's 155 (late night numbers) to which he promptly replied WOW- that's 68 more than he needed!
A funny one of logic a few nights ago, while going to sleep. We have annual passes to Disneyland this year and DS was very disappointed that Small World was closed in October when we were there. We told him they were fixing it because the boats keep sinking and we haven't talked about it since.
Just before bed a few nights ago he sits straight up and exclaims "I'VE GOT IT! The boats keep sinking because people are too fat!" It took me a few minutes to figure out what the heck he was even talking about!
And yes... they are sinking because people are too fat, so they had to make the canals deeper.
Do you know the books "How to Count like a Martian" by Glory St. John and "A History of Counting" by Denise Schmandt-Besserat? They're both kids' books about number systems, and have been much enjoyed here--maybe your son would like them, too.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not familiar with those books, although previously DS has loved "big number" books. He favorite "math problem" that he creates usually involves googol
I'll check them out and maybe DS will be able to get them for xmas."
Great resources Minnie - fyi, while i was searching for the martian book, I also found this book, which has teaching activities related to the Martian book (among other books): Math Through Children's Literature
Thanks for the link, pauli! I saw some other old friends there--especially the Anno books and the Thomas Crowell Young Math series--and also some ones that are new to us--we'll check them out!
We had a fun tubby moment with dd2.5 the other day: We have foam letters in the tub for her and she picked up the 'F' and said, "Look, P for foot!" and stuck it on her foot. I laughed and said "That's an F and foot does start with F! And it looks a lot like a P", and we talked about how they look alike and different. I figured it was a coincidence that she grabbed the right letter...then later she had the 'Z' turned sideways in her hand and said 'nnn' for Nemo! Ok, maybe less coincidence than I thought.
It is great to have a place to talk about our kids. DD4 has been really into spelling lately. We play this game at home and in the car. We will give her a word and she will sound it out and tell us how it is spelled. She is getting really good at it. She is so cute if the word has an E on the end alot of times she will say and silent E when she get to the end. She likes to get words with trick letters which is what she calls words that are not spelled like they sound.
People use to tell me not to make her grow up so fast when she would do something unusual or really early. Now her uncles are being really supportive of following her intrests which is great. Our family is not bugging me as much now that she is getting older and they know she is doing what she does on her own.
She also has been really into math. Doing addition and subtraction and a little multiplication. She likes to find 100 of things like 100 m&ms or rocks etc. This week we showed her how to count by 10s. And I tried to tell her how to count by 2s. We were amazed to see her because she will say 2 and then count on her fingers and say 4 etc she got up to about 12 and it was the first time we had talked about that.
She also is very interested in zero. She keeps saing to me things like, mom guess how many cookies I have for you, And then she will laugh and say zero. She does this about alot of things and thinks it is pretty funny. DS20m does not think it is as funny, he he.
Every day she amazes me. She always asks about different things. Like last week she wanted to know everything about eels. So we went on line and read about eels. As soon as I get info for her on one thing she says I already know about that I want to know about this other thing now. Its hard to keep up, but it is fun.
Well thanks for letting me go on and on a little. Usually only my husband hears this stuff. It is fun to read about other kid who are similar.
all this mathy talk reminded me of when DS9 was 4 he thoughtfully remarked (after incessently asking questions about numbers) "people change, but numbers never do!"
Not to go on and on about dd2.5 but she did this thing the other day that I was really amazed by - Nutcracker practice has started at my son's dance school and she was running down the hall and called out 'I hear the Nutcracker!' - I hadn't heard it yet, they had just turned on the music and only the first few notes had been played. I thought it was pretty cool, and I said something to a mother who had heard her also - just like 'Wow, that's cool'. She said 'Oh, that's normal if you grow up in a dance studio'. Honestly dd is really enthralled by the Nutcracker and watched the dvd of last year's performance even in July - so I guess we have been hot-housing her with Tchaikovsky . I figured ok, I shouldn't have said anything (duh!). Later that same day she was playing outside one of the studios (door closed so I am pretty sure she couldn't have seen what was going on) and said 'Oh, here comes the Rat!' - I looked into the practice studio window and they were playing the dvd to get the choreography down, and sure enough the Rat king had just come on the stage. Anyway, I guess if the first thing wasn't that amazing at least the second thing was 'curious'. I am excited but I guess I mostly just need to share with you guys! Thanks for being here
our DD5 started gymnastics 3 weeks ago and was finding it a little easy, when she walked in they "noticed her" because of her body shape, the following week they said they had * her whatever that meant, I spoke with the coach last week about her complaining it was a little easy and I didnt want her to get bored and not want to attend anymore, he suggested we bring her to the class the following day and if the coach and her thought it was a better class for her then we could bring her on that day instead. We did as he suggested and she attended, had a great time and enjoyed it immensely. She was staying in that class! When we left I got talking to one of the mums, her daughter has been doing Gymnastics for 3 years and apparently unbeknown to us the class our DD is now attending is for children who have tried out and been selected out of hundreds of children for the program. She has no clue as to all this but we were a little proud of her, she is having fun and learning something new at the same time. It's always more accepted to brag about sporting achievements but to add that on top of already doing well academically well that just seems to be too much for some people, so glad we can share here.
Well, a few things interesting this week. DS4 the other day asked for 4/4 of a glass of milk. then he replied "that's a whole glass of milk" I agreed and was surprised he knew that as we had never done fractions. He then went on to say that 8/4 is 2 wholes, and 12/4 is 3 wholes and 16/4 is 4 wholes, then asked what is 16 + 4, because that will equal 5 wholes. Not sure where he gets this stuff.
Most of the amazing stuff he says and does is quite comical. that is always the stuff that stands out in my mind. Yesterday he wanted to play a syllable game and I wasn't sure if he really knew what syllables are. I asked him how many syllables were in a couple different words and he easily got them right. then he paused for a minute and said "mom, supercalafragelisticexpealadocious (sp?) has 13 syllables......no wait..it has 14"
He also loves word scrambles. He scrambled up the word alphabet the other day fairly easily for me to figure out. He is a great scrambler and sometimes has me stumped for a bit.
I would also like to brag about our dog, who is getting old, and is quite the rabble rouser, having grown up on and lived on the farm and always gave more than she got - she just takes Mr W's abuse and loves every minute of it.
Groucho (5) has a new favourite expression: id est. He was explaining "The Taming of the Shrew" to someone today, and happily told him that "two of the suitors dress up as schoolmasters (id est, teachers) when they go to court Bianca." Also, when he wants a drink at bedtime, he says to Frenchy, "Daddy, someone here is thirsty, id est, Groucho [insert real name here]."
Shellymos, I love both the fractions and the syllables stories--what fun! Sounds like a great kid, who keeps you busy, too, I'll bet!
id est, that is hilarious. That totally sounds like something I could hear my son saying in the next year or so. I swear we could write a book with the things they say.
Not sure if this is a brag, but I thought it was funny:
DS5 (almost 6) asked me how I type so fast--have I memorized all the keys? I told him I had. He said, "Well, my method is I've memorized the backspace key, so I just hit the keyboard randomly and if I get the wrong letter I backspace and try again."
Well, now that I think about it, I guess that algorithm would work just fine--but might be a little slow...
This evening dd(24 months) was looking out the window and said, "Look Dadda, I see silhouettes of trees!"
A BIG BRAG....dd chose her Dadda to read stories to her tonight instead of me!!! This was the first time in a year or more!!!!!!!! I had to go in to read her one story and then put her in her crib, but she did choose dh to start with so that was a HUGE step!!
This thread is so interesting to read! The "calculator" as a gift made me smile because that was exactly what DS8 has asked for since last year. For his birthday in June, my sis bought him a scientific calculator and he was proud and eager to use it!
I realised I couldn't recall many wonderful moments. There was one particular one which I did though. It was when DS was in KA (4+). His room teacher proudly shared with me what DS had drawn when he asked the class to draw something to show the word "enormous". DS drew himself as small as an ant. Beside him, he drew the Eiffel Tower.
Yesterday he wanted to play a syllable game and I wasn't sure if he really knew what syllables are. I asked him how many syllables were in a couple different words and he easily got them right. then he paused for a minute and said "mom, supercalafragelisticexpealadocious (sp?) has 13 syllables......no wait..it has 14"
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Shelly,
Maybe we should try to arrange that playdate!! I told dh about the syllables and he remembered when my dd7 was in Kindy she did the same exact thing and just a week or so ago, showing her continued obsession with the word, said and spelled it backwards
Ok Ive got a recent brag. I took DS4 in oct, DD1.5, and baby to the library this week and DS4 picked out a magic tree house book. We got home and she said she wanted to read it, so I got comfy on the couch with her and opened the book to start reading and DS4 said I know that word and sounded out he first word. She ended up reading the whole page. She called her grandma to tell her the news and was very excited. She continued to read pages every several pages that I read. Three days later we are on our fourth magic tree house book.
Look at what my dd's teacher sent me!!! I will certainly have a good day! Yay....
"There are many writing competitions for children on line. You may want to take a look and encourage dd7 to submit something. She truly is a gifted writer. Have a great day."
My ds6 used to write a lot of lovely stories, which ended after he started school and got miserable. But two days ago, reading the book Dragonology, he noticed the key to dragon runes, taught himself them - all but Z, which is hard b/c you never use it, Mom - and suddenly began writing again, just in Dragon! He's got pages of story about a dragon who goes to a Red Sox game, which he then gleefully asks me to read, which I can't do, b/c *I* can't read dragon. And even better, his teacher let him do it yesterday after he finished his work, so he came home happy from school for the first time this year.
And the same day, ds3 did a 96 piece puzzle, and ds8weeks used a consonant for the first time and said "bleh!" it was a banner day.
Well I wanted to share something from this morning, because it is way to wierd to share with coworkers. I will get the weird stare. Anyhow, this is typical DS4. He does lots of thinking while I drive and wants to engage in interesting conversations. So this morning he said to me "3x4+1 equals a bakers dozen, right?" and I agreed, then he quickly said "or you could also say 4x2+5 equals a bakers dozen" Then he proceeded to go through addition problems in Spanish for fun, and then moved onto roman numerals. And THEN decided to do "Spanish Roman Numerals" I had no idea what he was talking about until he started saying "ixx = 19" only he said all the letters and numbers in spanish. The stuff that comes out of his mouth floors me. I swear he learns things while he is sleeping.
I have less of a brag and more of a celebration of sorts, too. I had no idea DD 22 months knew that C comes after A and B. We have not tried to teach her the alphabet quite yet. Tonight DH comes home from a walk with DD and says, "Did you know DD can say the whole alphabet?" She proceeded to sing the whole song. I was speechless. That little rascal has known all along!
Shelly, do you keep up with all that? Do you already know Spanish? Wow!
oh it feels so nice to be able to share!! Today dd (2) counted from 10 down to 1. I had hearrd her do that before, but today dh heard her and he was so proud!
This morning it was chilly in the car and DS quipped:
Guess who's in the artic?
Coldilocks and the Three Polar Bears!
Oh, and the other day he drew four dots on a piece of paper and then connected them in all the possible ways (i.e. like a box with an X in it.) I asked him what he was drawing and he said, "This is how they all shake hands."
As for our DS4, I think my warped sense of humor is rubbing off. We were at grammy's yesterday, and he wanted to use her egg slicer for some hard-boiled eggs. He picked up a peeled egg and said "hey egg, i've got a nice new office chair here for you. Want to try it out?" Then he put the egg in the slicer and pretended to be the egg, and said "wow, this is really nice. Wait a minute what are those sharp things, aaaaaah!"
Here's my latest awe moment from DS5. Last week out of the blue he discovered a "math rule". He told me that 2 times a number + 3 times a number is always 5 times the same number. He proceed to do this all the way up to around 10 to fully test his rule. I then took the opportunity to show him how to write 2x + 3x = 5x. He was in heaven. I was truly amazed that he was able to not only see a math pattern but also to define what he considered to be a math rule. No wonder 1st grade math is not cutting it.
As far as my DD4 this is just a quickie on her art talent. She has been amazing me with her art work lately. She has moved from flower and hearts galore to detailed buildings and abstract colorful patterns. My refrigerator is covered.
And just because I don't want to leave out DS2- I can do a brag on his ability to make his own track designs with the Geotracks. He is train obsessed and spends hours each day playing independently with these trains.
Crisc, your son's amazing algebra example reminded me of something else:
DS6 just finished the second disk of Descartes' Cove with me. He told me he wanted to skip to the algebra disk after that. The first problem on the algebra disk was
Given that x+y=586, what is 2x+2y?
DS asked me what x and y were and I told him we don't know, but that they are two numbers that add up to 586. He thought for a minute and then said, so 2x+2y would be 2 times 586. Then he worked that out on paper by himself.
Wow, Crisc and Cathy! Great stories! It would be so fun to get all these kids together for a great big playdate!!
We were at the playground this morning, and Chico (3) was swinging. He heard another child ask for an under-duck, so he decided he'd like a big push, too, but he thought "duck" was insufficiently specific (we spend a certain amount of time bird-watching)--so he asked for an under-hooded merganser, an under-surf scoter, an under-northern pintail, an under-greater scaup.........
I was supposed to make the appropriate bird call for all of these while I was pushing him, but I, um, faked it.
DS6 discovered the Fantastic Contraption website. I stuck it in his bookmark folder a few months ago when it was posted here and just let it sit there for him to discover. I didn't even have to show him how it worked, he figured it out all on his own and is on the last level after just a few hours working on it.
I don't know if that's so unusual, but as a completely non-visual spatial person who gave up on the game after level 6 (the asymmetry of my contraptions was too much for me to handle, lol) I was really impressed! I definitely think we'll be investing in the paid version.
DS13 had a bad day yesterday. Someone canceled the bus that was supposed to bring him back from the high school to middle school after math class. He went to the HS office and called the middle school and got the bus ordered. But he was late for 2nd period in the middle school. Since they were doing state mandated testing he didn't want to be late he ran past the MS office right to the room where the testing was going on and just made it for the start of the test. After the test, he went to the office to get his paperwork for being tardy in order and was instead slapped with a detention for not stopping at the office on his way in to second period.
I was pretty mad that they just left my DS sitting at the HS and almost called the school. But instead I asked DS if he would like to try to take care of things today. We brainstormed some options and today he talked to the principal directly about what had happened. He got an apology for there being no bus and she had the detention taken off his record!
I am so proud that he can handle these complications with just a little coaching from me .
In some subcultures this might be a brag. I don't think its a brag, but its funny.
Mr W ( 10m) and I went shopping this week at the grocery store. The cupboard and fridge were empty and even the mice were complaining of not having any crumbs.
So, at checkout the cart was FULL. $400 full.
While I was busy unloading the cart, Mr W was examining the offerings of candy and tabloids from his perch in the cart seat. He grabbed a few things to look over and when he seemed done, I would take them from him and put them back.
The Altoids boxes fascinated him the most and we repeatedly played take-remove-put back until he seemed satiated with the Altoids and just sat quietly in his seat until I was done.
We arrived home and I put him on the floor so I could go outside and get the groceries.
When I came back, he was swinging an Altoids box and giving his campaign speech (DAHADHA! DafCHUCKAWAYAYY! ) , smiling at me.
I was shocked. I took the box from him, "You little Hoodlum! You stole that!!"
He laughed right back at me.
I got more groceries and when I came back, he had ANOTHER BOX!!!
He had not moved from where I left him.
I unzipped his jacket - and there was one more box inside of it!!!
He stole THREE Altoids boxes!!
This morning I caught him taking my wife's stuff from her nightstand to put it in her laptop case - her lip gloss, keys, and phone.. LOL. Had I not seen it, we would have been looking hard for her keys.
Chico (3) has been printing a lot lately, in fact, it has been his major preoccupation for a couple of weeks (he writes "theme" pages,with one word per line--there's the knight, sword, shield, joust, etc. page, the stethoscope, needle, tongue depressor, medicine, etc. page, and so on--he gets help with spelling from whomever happens to be around when it's a word he hasn't done before). He's been drawing his own horizontal lines on blank sheets to use as ruling, and it's been neat to see how evenly sized and spaced the letters are.
So I was a little taken aback to come across some of these sheets yesterday with most of the letters nice and big and even, with some teeny tiny little ones in several of the words--Frenchie and I had a closer look, and lo, the little monkey had made all the silent letters small!
I was talking to dd5 about global warming last night. The conversation started with the basics. The earth is getting warmer because of pollution etc. etc... Well dd kept asking more and more detailed questions and her voice sounded as if she were on the verge of tears. Finally I stopped answering because it she was so upset. I asked - Honey are you worried about all of this? She answered Yes! so I asked - What exactly are you worried about? Her response, "Well I really just don't like the heat" LOL!!!
Two days ago, DD9 was in her classroom where the Teacher was trying a new schedule. Well, unfortunately the schedule was wrong and had too many kids doing the same thing at the same time. DD said that the teacher tried several configurations to try to get every student to do every activity planned for the day and just couldn't get it arranged. DD took one look at the chart, reaaranged it and it worked the first time!
She loves puzzles, math and patterns!!! (I wish she could organize her room that easily! lol)
I was talking to dd5 about global warming last night. The conversation started with the basics. The earth is getting warmer because of pollution etc. etc... Well dd kept asking more and more detailed questions and her voice sounded as if she were on the verge of tears. Finally I stopped answering because it she was so upset. I asked - Honey are you worried about all of this? She answered Yes! so I asked - What exactly are you worried about? Her response, "Well I really just don't like the heat" LOL!!!
I don't know if this will help, but a smart HS kid turned me on to this site.
It looks like most of the "heating" is due to poor USHCN station siting. Most of the stations surveyed are non-compliant.
Okay I had a proud momma moment last night with my DD 27 mths. She had brought her doodlepad into a restaurant last night and happily went to drawing. For the most part she has been drawing volumuos creatures with some features up to this point. Of course, nothing recognizable, but last night I looked over and she had drawn a baby bird coming out of a nest. It had eyes and a mouth as well as little wings. There was shading in the nest and a sense of volume in the bird. She even told me it was a bird in a nest. As an artist I was thrilled and just had to take a picture before it got wiped clean.
You know I am just jealous. We do have our tree up but still have to get the garland up and certainly do not have anything under the tree at this point!!
And I second your well wishes. My prayer this year is for all the families hit hard by the economy.
Tree is up. Presents are almost all bought but none yet wrapped. We made applesauce-and-cinnamon ornaments for homeschool art class today, and DH made soap (from lye and bacon grease!) this summer to give away, so most of our homemade gifting is done. Yay!
BUT...
I still haven't gotten the holiday cards and newsletter done. I'm usually just about finished by this time of the month, and I've barely even brainstormed for ideas. Nothing is on paper yet. I haven't even taken a photo of the boys for the card.
I stink at Christmas cards. I dread the thought of writing them out and sending them each year. I pretty much stopped altogether after a period of wishy washy one year I send them one year I don't. Now I just call when I get a card from someone, tell them what a loser I am, thank them for the card and chat. I'd rather catch up on the phone anyhow.
We have a tree, it was a fiasco this year, darn thing kept falling over. DH finally allowed me to put up colored lights because our white lights finally broke after 12 years.
Not much under the tree and it's probably going to stay that way. We dodged a bullet, DH was scheduled to have last day at the end of December. He just got an offer letter today to start a new job in January.
We feel very lucky and are also thinking of those who are facing adversity in these difficult economic times.
It has been nice how the girls have reacted to being told there wouldn't be as much "stuff" this year. They were so cool about it. Warmed my heart.
Well, I got a job lined up for when my current one ends; we got one relative in a good nursing home last week; another relative is finally settled with a catheter that works; bills are paid; and my term paper is almost done .
I was feeling pretty good until Wren reminded me that I have to get a tree and buy presents .
I have been taking Santa Pics all morning long for the community Breakfast with Santa. Now I get to upload all of them. :P Someone remind me not to volunteer anymore! But it was fun and of course my kiddo would have nothing to do with Santa. We could not get a single pic. Would expect nothing less from the munchkin.
We decided not to buy a tree two weeks ago. (Mr W would undoubtedly pull it over. ) Does that count?
I remember friends with bright little onew who would cut the very top off a tree (they happened to have them on their farm) and stick it in the very corner of the room - they also had those acoustic tiles for a ceiling and hung ornaments delightfully from holes all around the tree. worked for them!
Bursting with joy here!!!!! Miss 7 got her school report on Friday. It was pretty typical for a gifted kid - no effort, little interest and fairly good achievement But... I started doing a mums and maths program that teaches mums the primary school maths curriculum. It does so in a way that helps and empowers mums to teach their gifted girls. I've loved it. The facilitator assured me that if I worked with Miss 7 for just 1 hr a week that I would see a noticeable shift in her achievement level in school. And voila! It worked! She's gone from a perfectly average maths student to a high achiever - with maths being her best subject!!! Now that I can see the difference I can make at home, the whole school situation seems less daunting (and far less important!). Just goes to show that you really are your child's first teacher - and for those gifted kids that can't quite get it together in the classroom, you're they're second and third grade teacher too!
I've been focusing on improving calcultation skills this term. To "perform" well in maths, you really need to be able to calculate easily and effortlessly. And there are lots of things that you can do while driving in the car, in the bath, brushing teeth, etc. to improve your child's mental maths. Such as:
1. number partners to 10, 20, 50 and 100. You say 3, she says 7. You say 6, she says 4. You say 17, she says 3, etc.
2. Doubles. Just basic stuff like 6+6 and then moving onto 23+23 and then moving on to 38+38. You say 6, she says 12. You say 42, she says 84.
3. Near doubles. Recognising the doubling process and then adding of subtracting 1. 6+6 and then 6+7, etc.
4. Multiplication games like www.multiplication.com to get instant recal for timestables. Where Miss 7 has had difficulties really mastering these, I've used visual spatial stories like tree times tree is line to help.
5. And good ol' mathletics.
With Miss 4, I try to make things more concrete. Counting buttons, making number lines, adding/subtracting pasta, and playing with dice (roll 2 dice - what's the biggest number you can make, what's the smallest number you can make, adding the numbers together, subtracting them, etc.) Mathletics is good and it helps to have mobile wireless so I can whip it out while big sister is doing gymnastics or other lessons.
Yep, we're down under. We use www.mathletics.com.au as a supplementary teaching tool. I normally devise a lesson plan around a theme and use mathletics to reinforce the lesson. For example, if we're looking at area, we'll do some kinetic type activities first and then log on to mathletics to find a complementary activity. It's not a curriculum per se but it's supposedly linked to the NSW curriculum (whatever that means!)
Can we come visit you? I would love to be in the summer months right now! I know I am whinning and those that are up north are probably rolling their eyes at this Texas girl but I hate hate hate the cold and this winter looks like it might get real cold (for us anyway). I would love to have Christmas in shorts!
Excellent! We could do a house swap? I would love to see a white Christmas. How amazing would that be? And you could have a BBQ Xmas in the pool! Truthfully, it hasn't even begun to get hot here. The kids are living in the pool already and I reckon they'll grow scales before the holidays are out. And we've got just 4 more school days, then 56 holiday home-days. Yippeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You so would not see a white Christmas here. Maybe (If you are lucky) an ice Christmas. You might want to swap with someone that lives in the northern states. I do find your school system fascinating. They get 56 holiday home-days. Around here we get 2 to 2 1/2 weeks off. If I worked, I wouldn't know what to do with the kids for that long.
We have a high of 18 degrees (Fahrenheit) here on Wednesday - is that cold enough? We don't always have a white Christmas but I'll guarantee it will be cold enough for you in the midwest.
Oh sure battle it out with your snow zones taking my dream of down under away! So jojo, I can't offer the snow filled Christmas you dream of BUT I can (drum roll please) offer a lovely cactus filled Christmas. Just think about it. Instead of building a snowman (So over rated in my opinion) you could build a tumbleweed man. How cool is that! Add to that some Cowboy hats and boots with spurs. Now I ask you, isn't that sooo much better than a white Christmas?
My 10 year old son with motor dyspraxia, who has taken piano lessons since age 5 but was always reluctant to play in front of other people, did really well at his first piano recital today. He played the Jeopardy theme and Jingle Bells with no mistakes and his timing was really good. I wonder if all the time spent on Rock Band has helped with that.
He even memorized the Jeopardy theme. It is the first time he has ever memorized a song. He never tried before. I had a hard enough time getting him to practice. He would only play if he had the sheet music in front of him. I always wondered if his motor learning disability had something to do with his reluctance to try to memorize a song. He always had such an incredible memory for words, could memorize hundreds of words quickly, but motor memory was a problem and so was the "glitch" that occasionally caused him to play notes with the wrong hand.
He saw that some of the other kids who did not have dyspraxia made mistakes and it was okay. It was fun and that is what it is supposed to be--fun.
I think the piano teacher did the right thing by giving him easier music to play for the recital than he is used to playing in lessons because he now has the confidence to play in front of other people and he is looking forward to playing piano now.
He recently found a Youtube video of someone playing a song called "To Zanarkand" that was from a Final Fantasy video game. He downloaded the sheet music for the song and realized that it was harder than what he had worked on in his lessons but took it to his teacher anyway and asked how long it would be before he could play this song. The song looked like it was at an intermediate level and the piano teacher played it and thought it sounded really nice. She told him if he wanted they could break up the song over several lessons and he could even do it at the next recital if he wanted, so he is really happy about this.
She is a great piano teacher for a twice exceptional kid.
We went to get my DH a hair cut and were waiting in the car DD said look a wild bird store. She started asking me if they had wild bird in there and if they were flying all around.
When DH got back I took DD to check it out. She asked the lady if they had any wild birds and was searching around the store. It was pretty cute. We ended up getting a stuffed bird because I'm a sucker.
When we checked out she heard sugar plum fairies on the radio. I could tell she recognized it and asked her what it was. She said sugar plumb fairies. The lady at the counter said how do you know that. She just smiled with her pudgy sticky cheeks. When we got outside she whispered to me its by Petter Tchaikovsky. Every day this child amazes me.
DD5 wears glasses and recently went to have her eye's checked. The eye doctor asked "does she know her letter's" a little bit of a laugh and "yes" So she started testing my daughter on 4 different lines she went over each about 3 or 4 times. I could see what my daughter was doing (she thinks everything has to be learned) she had the lines memorized and was saying the letters with no problem. The eye doctor said "Wow your eyes have really improved"
DS has been continuing his interest is math (add, subtract) in various bases. Binary and hex are his favorites, but basically he'll do math operations in any arbitrary base... Had to explain to him that base one google would be tough because we'd run out of symbols
At any rate, I figured I'd show him a little bit about converting between bases to help reinforce the idea that they are equivalent numbers, just different representations of the same value. I showed him the mechanics of converting from a given base to base ten by using powers... (e.g. 2^3 x 1 + 2^2 x 0 + 2^1 x 0 + 2^0 x 1 converts binary) Binary is easy because he knows his 2 "powers" up pretty high. Then we did something in base 3 and he seemed to get the mechanics of it pretty well. Then he said--and this is what I thought was the really, really cool--he said "okay, I want to convert from base 10 to base 10 to see if it's congruent." At first I thought I misheard him! In this sense, congruent is actually a reasonable word to use.
So he then worked out how 231 is equal to 2 x 10^2 + 3 x 10^1 + 1 x 10^0. (he needed a little help, but he was darn close).
Later he wanted to do something in base 11, but melted down and went to bed with only having half a dinner so no dinner-time math.
Wow, JB, every time you tell a story about your son, I'm just blown away! What a fantastic kid! And it sounds like he's so lucky to have you, too--how wonderful that you're showing him all this fun stuff.
Thanks minniemarx. It ebbs and flows and he's definitely in a "blow you socks off" cycle at the moment.
What really got me is that last weekend was when he first encountered the word congruent on a geometry worksheet. Seeing him applying this word (largely correctly) in a math setting was a small window into his mind...
Back to Wikipedia because I need to bone up on math concepts!
I'm following JBDad to Wikipedia so I can understand what his son was doing. I thought I had a good grasp of math before reading
Quote
2^3 x 1 + 2^2 x 0 + 2^1 x 0 + 2^0 x 1 converts binary
It left me scratching my head going "Huh?"
DD6 was doing Logic Safari today and loving it. It led to a good discussion about the importance of checking your answer at the end to make sure it agrees with the given facts.
Didn't want to get too, too technical in my first post. If you had a binary number (base 2) of 1001, then to convert that to base 10, it'd be
(1 x 23) + (0 x 22) + (0 x 21) + (1 x 10)
Where the exponent becomes the "pattern" for the place value. This is my guess on why DS has such an affinity for this algorithm. If you were doing something crazy like base 5, then the number of 4315 would be expressed as
(4 x 52) + (3 x 51) + (1 x 50)
That sort of thing. I left out the actual binary number I used in the example. Sorry if that was confusing. Wikipedia has a good example for any given base number. Found a few pointers for when the topic comes up again...
JB
P.S. Also a lot easier to post after figuring out how to superscript/subscript on the forum.
As I mentioned in the other thread, my kids make their gifts for each other. Harpo's writing poems for the family this year, and he's been planning them in general terms for a week or two, but got down to the actual writing yesterday. For Groucho, he wanted trochaic metre and some Christmas-y imagery--bells, dancing, singing, trees, but he was having a bit of trouble getting started. He chewed on his pencil a while yesterday, and then said, "I know, Mommy! I like that William Blake poem about the tiger, so I'll just do that one, except with my words." Half an hour later, he brought me this:
Santa, Santa, coming here Bringing lots of Christmas cheer; Trees and presents, toys and books, He eats the treats that <Groucho> cooks.
<Groucho, Groucho,> happy boy Laughing, clapping, Christmas joy; Games and dances, carols sung, Glad tidings told and bells are rung.
Thanks for the explanation. It's neat and I was able to follow the Wikipedia explanation until it got to converting fractional binary numbers. I'll have to go back to that after a good night's sleep. DD6 likes puzzles so if I can grasp it well enough to explain it to her, she might enjoy doing some conversions.
I'm not sure if this a brag or just really cute...
I tucked in DD2 and asked her to choose a book to look at while she fell asleep. She chose a ducky board book (I thought - oh, that's cute - she picked the ducky book over the older books that she had been interested in). I peeked in 2 minutes later and she was looking at a book about the International Space Station which we had read the night before. A while later when she had to get up to go potty, I asked her if she had been reading about the space station. She said very matter-of factly, �No I was looking at the picture of the man who was upside down and the man who wasn�t upside down. Why was the man upside down?�
I had a happy moment tonight: DS4.5 appears to be reading words at last! (That would be dumb to say on any other forum, but I knew you'd all understand!)
The back story: DS4 has been obsessed with stories and has been verbal since he was just a few months old, but he hadn't been able to read. For several reasons, I thought there might be a problem with his eyes or with vision processing, so we saw a developmental optometrist. He confirmed that DS4's vision is "immature" and gave him reading glasses. Things have greatly improved since then.
Well, I was wearing my Junior First Lego League shirt that says "Coach" on the front, and he read it aloud, saying, "That 'o-a' says 'oh,' so that says 'coach,' right?" Yes, he even read something not easy to sound out! I made the shirt away from him and hadn't shown it to him, so I don't think he had heard the word before in relation to the shirt either. I think he really read it!
He read a couple of other words tonight, too, after that, so it just seemed like something had clicked for him. Yay!
It would be so nice if reading is for him like writing was: he just gets it all of a sudden. I'd be very relieved if he just outgrew whatever vision or processing issue he had!
He's been really into it the last few months, and the glasses appear to have really helped him. He's been wanting to sound things out for over a year now. That's one of the reasons I worried that there was a problem. A kid who writes words and sounds things out orally, but doesn't like to look at the words on the page? Something's not right there...
His not reading has contributed mightily to my GT denial with him. I am a big believer in letting kids develop as they will--however that is--so I have had major qualms about stepping in on this. I'm fine if he's not GT. (Oh, wouldn't life be easier if he fit in perfectly well with the speed at public school! Ah!)
But he does show many other earmarks of GTness, and I worried about 2E issues. So if he picks up the reading ball and runs with it the way he did with writing, I'll be so relieved! it would make things make so much more sense with him!
Kriston - that's really interesting about the reading. Your son reminds me so much of ds5 so I find myself rooting for him. ds5 can read words but often does not want to read them in a book. I'm just figuring he's not ready to put it all together yet? But sometimes he will read a whole sentence or line with little trouble. I'm so happy for your breakthrough.
It does seem Mr W will do the same things for a week or two then jump to a new plane.
I remember reading a longitudinal study of physical growth in kids and they used the term "saltation" - the growth was not uniform, but pulse-like or in spurts. I think this is also true cognitively because Mr W seems to do the same thing mentally.
You said you had your DS 4.5 checked but was that just for eyesight? I ask this b/c my cousin's little boy was slow with reading (Not saying your DS is slow at all!!!) and being the second child they didn't jump on it. It was not until this summer (right before 2nd grade) after confirming he was not dyslectic and a few other oblivious choices they discovered that his brain was not functioning properly and though he tried to focus on the line his eyes would bounce all over the page. The odd thing is one of my BF has a brother that had the same issue. My cousin's son has been in therapy and since this summer has caught up with his respectable grade and is now a solid 2nd grade reader. From my understanding the issue is a sensory problem that causes the brain to dance the eyes around the page. For the most part children affected with this issue are high energy to the point of ADD/ADHD.
No, the developmental optometrist doesn't just check for what we would traditionally think of as eyesight. It's all the "stuff" that goes along with vision and processing. The sort of "eye bouncing" you're describing is exactly the kind of thing a DO looks for, and is exactly what I was worried about. The kid can name the symbols on an eye chart, but he was refusing to look at words in a book. Well, kids don't read from half a room away, so the eye chart thing didn't tell us much!
I don't think what you're describing is what my DS4 is dealing with exactly, but I think he may have something else along those same lines that's interfering.
So good question!
Oh, and LadybugMom: Thanks! That's so nice. I really appreciate the rooting. I'm rooting right back!
We're lucky in that DS5.5 has an eye issue where one eye was being ignored by his brain. I forget the actual condition, but it makes him look crosseyed if he's not wearing his glasses. It didn't seem to affect his learning much, but since he only was using one eye his depth perception was off so he's lagging some in coordination. Something like 50% of children outgrow glasses with this condition so we're fortunate.
We're lucky in that DS5.5 has an eye issue where one eye was being ignored by his brain. I forget the actual condition, but it makes him look crosseyed if he's not wearing his glasses. It didn't seem to affect his learning much, but since he only was using one eye his depth perception was off so he's lagging some in coordination. Something like 50% of children outgrow glasses with this condition so we're fortunate.
JB
Amblyopia? AKA, 'lazy eye', they used to patch the 'good eye' so the brain was forced to use the 'lazy eye'. My older sister is legally blind in one eye because she wouldn't keep the patch or her glasses on as a young child.
My shameless brag is that yesterday at the ped's office and today at the two Montessori and gifted preschools we visited *all* the staff remarked about DD's conversational skills. One said, "My 3.5 y.o. grandson can't speak that well." It really made me feel good (validated?) to have the pros comment. DD turns 2 next week.
I recently took Harpo and Groucho out of town to "Twelfth Night"; it wasn't a kids' production, so I wanted to make sure they were really prepared, so we studied the play inside out and backwards--they had a great time!
The shameless brag part is this, though--Frenchie and Chico came along for the trip (and visited relatives, etc., while we were at the play); coming home on transit, the two of them went back to find something to eat. The employee said the snack bar was closing, and Chico (3), who had apparently absorbed more of his brothers' Shakespeare tutoring than I had realized, said to him, "Dost thou think there shall be no more cakes and ale?" (At least he left out the "because thou art virtuous" part!)
That is sooo cool Minnie! Everyone's stories are just amazing and cute!
This might seem minor compared with some of the jaw dropping stuff I've been reading in this thread...
Dd2.5 (getting closer to 2.75 now!) has been rolling along nicely with letter identification, getting a few more under her belt in the last month or so. We were reading an Arthur / D.W. book and she was saying different letters to herself and asking tons of very loud questions so I said, 'can you find D on the page? ' thinking maybe she had a shot at finding the huge capital 'D' in D.W. Maybe she doesn't know that one, but she said yes...rolled her finger across the page and pointed at the little 'd' at the end of the word 'world'. Pretty cool. (she also enjoys shouting 'V' for bagina - but maybe that belongs under the 'identifying the sexes thread'... )
Ds8 is doing nicely too - nearly all A's on the report card, even in science and I wasn't sure that was going to 'jibe' for him this year. His teach. said he is the 'go-to guy for animal adaptation questions'. That's got to make a mom smile
Ok, this threads getting a little long but I just had to add one more. When I was putting my DD4 to bed a couple of nights ago, she told me she wanted to read her book to me. So she's brings me a homemade book she made (about 10 pages stapled together) I look at her and ask if DD5 helped her, she stapled it for me cause I'm too little. It was called "Pink Cat" It had a few words on each page (that DD4 knows how to spell and write) Like "up cat" "down cat" "fat cat" "jump cat" plus some cute pictures on each page. She told me a story with the book that was about 30 minutes long. I was just floored with her imagination. When she was done I dated it and put it in her baby book.
This really isn't a brag; more a good gracious, but I didn't think it warranted a new thread.
I have come to discover that I so can not take my 2 yr old with me while shopping for Christmas and really need to find some crazy hiding place b/c she is into everything. I should have known that it would backfire but now she has managed to figure out all the presents so if I do try the Santa tactic with any of those presents I am sure she will be on to it and that much closer to figuring it all out. Looks like she will get one present from Santa (The only one that she has not discovered b/c it was ordered and still sealed in the shipping box) and the rest from mommy and daddy.
It is just so frustrating b/c the typical 2 yr old you can take them with you load up the baskets and distract them with something and all is forgotten.
LOL! This is why our kids get just stockings from Santa and gifts from us. It's too hard to hide big gifts. This way, if they see what I bought, I can still give everything out.
I feel your pain!
Oh, and I was going to post this happy tale a couple of days ago and got busy and forgot...
I was getting an MRI for my migraines, and the place was backed up. Because we're homeschooling, DS7 was with me for the wait. Coming in behind us--also waiting forever--was a Korean War veteran. (So, probably close to 70, right? He was over there in 1950...)
We struck up a conversation with the man, and they started comparing foreign language notes. The guy taught DS some Korean and some Italian. DS taught him Arabic and Spanish. It was just adorable! They continued when I left the waiting area and went into "the tube." By the time I came out 45 minutes later, they were busom buddies! DS had learned the entire naval semaphore code (the one using flags) and was talking about wishing we could see the guy again. And the man was raving about how wonderful DS was to talk to, how smart, how much fun, how lucky I was to have him for a son. They apparently talked the entire time and both had a blast.
Kriston, if you got his name maybe you could invite him to come talk to a group of the homeschoolers. Also, a lot of the WWII & Korean War vets have groups, you could probably find some on the net close to you, that applies to anyone here. Or, check out your nearest military museum, lots of them have guys like that volunteer.
GS9 was just in his first play. It was just at our church, but it wasn't a kids play. Our pastor has training and experience with drama & theater. He chose this particular play for GS9 because he just had to be himself. He had good timing with his lines that were funny. He had two Bible passages to recite as part of the play, and for some reason he started to recite the wrong one first. His 'mommy' in the play kept in character to get him on the correct one, GS9 stayed in character and switched to the right one, and no one except us knew the difference! That was the only line he flubbed, but it was such a smooth recovery everyone assumed it was supposed to be that way.
I am very proud this morning. DS6 (birthday was this week) wrote his first song on the piano this morning. He'd been trying to work out the notes since yesterday and had a break through this morning. He found a notebook and wrote all the notes and lyrics out so he wouldn't forget.
I even found a website to print out blank music sheets so I could help him write it out properly on the music staff. He needs to work a little more on the chords for the last 2-3 measures but otherwise it actually sounds very nice.
I am so proud. He has only been taking formal lesson since October and we got our own piano just after Thanksgiving. Neither DH or I have ever even played an instrument so this is a whole new world for us.
Congratulations, OHG! Recovering from a flub with grace so that no one realizes that you blew it is the hardest part of being on stage, by far. That's really amazing! Very poised! Pros have trouble with that. You should be extremely proud.
Crisc, yay for the song! So wonderful!
As for me, I didn't do so well. I didn't ask the guy for his name or number. I hadn't spent very long talking to him--his comments to me were given as we passed one another in the hall as I was leaving and he was entering--and I had no way to know how much my son liked him until after I was back in the waiting room and the man was already in the MRI tube. No time to chat with him after that.
Next time...
I do like the idea of the vets talking to the homeschool group. Hmmm... I'll work on that one! Thanks!
GS9 is definitely interested in doing more acting. In addition to more opportunites at church, there are some opportunites at local community art centers where he's been taking art classes. He's my little Renaissance man! This is one advantage of not being challenged at school, he has almost no homework so he has time for a lot of after school activites, and I always have extra books to challenge his brain when he's not busy.
I was getting an MRI for my migraines. Coming in behind us--also waiting forever--was a Korean War veteran. (So, probably close to 70, right? He was over there in 1950...)
We struck up a conversation with the man, and they started comparing foreign language notes. The guy taught DS some Korean and some Italian. DS taught him Arabic and Spanish. It was just adorable! They continued when I left the waiting area and went into "the tube." By the time I came out 45 minutes later, they were busom buddies! DS had learned the entire naval semaphore code (the one using flags) and was talking about wishing we could see the guy again. And the man was raving about how wonderful DS was to talk to, how smart, how much fun, how lucky I was to have him for a son. They apparently talked the entire time and both had a blast.
Just heartwarming! I was a really proud momma!
This man could have been my father (RIP), and may be closer to 80. He was an officer. My father would have be willing to become lifelong friends with a child like your son. I wonder if you could leave a note with the MRI staff for the next time he comes in (the staff cannot give you the name of another patient). What a wonderful story!
DS4.5 got Junior Monopoly from my mum for Christmas, age on the box 5-9. Not only can he play, read all the chance cards, work out the cost landing the booths (you have to pay double if 2 on the same colour are owned) and correct change. He also started to work out the different combinations of notes you could use to pay and he's also memorized the rules - we no longer need the instruction booklet! I think maybe Nanny should have got the real version!
We were at a store today and DD (28 mths) wanted to walk instead of ride in the cart. She gave such a good argument that I gave in with specific instructions about staying with us. I was viewing something on the shelf and out of the corner of my eye I saw DD dart in front of a lady and by the look on her face I assumed she was annoyed. So I got after DD about not being 'rude' which I was quickly corrected by the lady that DD was not rude and had said excuse me before passing in front of her. So the look was shock not annoyance.
And on a cute note: I was watching Sound of Music since it was on TV and one of my favs. They were in the middle of the good night song as the kids went up the stairs right when DD was being put to bed herself. So she decided to act out the scene on her own including going up the stairs like the youngest child. Of course she did not know all the words to the song but she had the melody and some of the main sections all from viewing it once. It was really cute.
We thought DSthen3 was holding out on us a year ago when he chipped in with an answer to a maths question to DSthen5 - but he just WOULDN'T do it again once he realised we'd noticed. So we're driving home from an outing on the weekend and DS6 insists on being asked maths questions. DS4 listened quietly for a while and then joined in!!! We weren't imagining it - he really can tell you what 32 plus 7 is! (School will be so exciting for him - he'll learn how to count to ten)
And a DS6 brag - we were at a friend's place yesterday and the bigger kids (5-10) were playing a treasure hunting game. Another friend's 2YO decided to join in, but was bowled over by most of the bigger kids, who didn't even notice him. My lovely boy stopped, went back, took his hand and said "come on, you're on my team - look, can you see something over there". I was so proud of him.
And a DS6 brag - we were at a friend's place yesterday and the bigger kids (5-10) were playing a treasure hunting game. Another friend's 2YO decided to join in, but was bowled over by most of the bigger kids, who didn't even notice him. My lovely boy stopped, went back, took his hand and said "come on, you're on my team - look, can you see something over there". I was so proud of him.
And a DS6 brag - we were at a friend's place yesterday and the bigger kids (5-10) were playing a treasure hunting game. Another friend's 2YO decided to join in, but was bowled over by most of the bigger kids, who didn't even notice him. My lovely boy stopped, went back, took his hand and said "come on, you're on my team - look, can you see something over there". I was so proud of him.
Just think what your son did for the 2 year old. My 2 yr old was in the same boat this weekend at the community playground and the older kids were playing a made up game tying hide and seek and color coding together. The older kids decided to include her in the game and the excitement of it all when we left made my heart soar. She was so excited and said "Mommy, the older kids played with ME." "They told me when to slide and not slide." ... on and on but with such a big smile on her face. I could have hugged each and everyone of those kids.
Oh, I really needed to see that side of him after the horror of Christmas. It was our first encounter with fully blown present greed, and I will spend the year making a plan to ensure it doesn't happen again. Much prefer the gentle, caring part of his nature.
I wanted to share something about DD18 month since I don't typically say much about her. quite honestly I wasn't sure if she was behind in her expressive language skills even though I knew her receptive language skills were great. And then in the last 2 weeks there has been an explosion. She talks a LOT, she counts to 10, she sings her ABC's and knows what comes next if you stop. She knows her shapes, and some colors. She is getting really good at shapes puzzles and sorters. It's really bizarre how it all started happening. But it's also exciting to watch her express herself more.....even though she does give dirty looks sometimes and started saying "No" as she looks at us with disgust.
This Christmas DD4 sang hallelujah, from Shrek while her uncle played it on the piano. It was really touching and meant a lot to her to share her talent and feel understood. I am really appreciating the gifts our family members have and it is so sweet for her to share this kind of connection with her extended family.
On the lighter side have you heard all the words to this song. She knows all the words I mean all of them and I am getting a lot of questions I am not sure I want to answer. We didn't intentionally teach her it she just memorizes things and I did not realize the content until I heard her singing it and thought what did you just say!
Chico (3) came up with a couple of funnies yesterday--we were waiting for Frenchie, who was in our local bakery getting bread; it was taking much longer than usual because there's a new employee there who likes to get into long discussions with customers about the excellence of their bread (it is good). Chico said, "I don't have time for all this fiddle faddle and folderol." Not terribly polite, I'm afraid (we're working on it!), but nobody but us heard him, so it was OK--and it was funny, because none of us ever uses those words--must have come up in a book that I don't remember.
Later, Groucho was talking about wanting a horse; Chico said he wanted a horse, too, but not a donkey, "and not Don Quixote, either," which I also found amusing.
The master bath has a island between the toilet and sink section with a cap that flares out. She bent over near the toilet and then walked forward to get something from behind the toilet. She forgot that the cap on the island sticks out and when she stood up, she hit it herself right behind the ear.
She had a very bad concussion when she was 23 that caused her to lose her visual photographic memory - and she still gets migraines so we are very concerned about any further hits to her head.
Later, Groucho was talking about wanting a horse; Chico said he wanted a horse, too, but not a donkey, "and not Don Quixote, either," which I also found amusing.
LOL.
A neighbor has a Donkey. The little guy's name should be Don Quixote Houdini.
He likes to chase imaginary coyotes around. He shows up in the most unexpected places. And he is an escape artist!!
My goodness, Austin, you're going to have to keep an eye on that Mr. W!!! You don't want him to run away and join the circus....Maybe teach him blackjack next?
He sounds so much fun--and it sounds as though you and your wife have a lot of fun watching him do things--lovely!
At the children's museum we watched a presentation on the life of MLK. Afterwards the docent asked the children if there was anything else they knew about his life that wasn't covered in the movie.
DD6 and a boy who was around 9yo both raised their hands. The docent called on the little boy and he answered "Some man shot him with a gun." The docent then asked my daughter what she was going to say. Her answer: "I was going to say he was assassinated by James Earl Ray."
I was proud of her steel trap memory and honest answer, but at the same time I wanted to crawl under my seat. Do those overcoats come in children's sizes?
OK, proud mummy moment. Miss 4 looked at some early chapter books a few months back but they quickly went back in the cupboard because she was overwhelmed by the number of words on each page. She was put off because she didn't recognise some words and thought it was just too tricky. She had no desire to try *sigh* Today we were given some of the Aussie Nibbles books - early chapter books. And blow me done if she didn't sit down and read the whole first chapter!!! It has 8 chapters, and she figures she can finish it within the week. I just love the fact that she wanted to try!!! And she only needed minimal help!!! Their website says that the series is intended for early readers aged 4-9. Yee har...
OK back to the couch to wait for Obama (almost midnight down under...) jojo
Okay, this probably won't seem like a big deal to some of you, but I'm bursting with pride (and a touch of relief for DS since he's one to put a lot of pressure on himself).
DS7 won his school's first grade spelling bee. Doesn't sound like much to many of you, I'm sure. But when it was down to him and one other child, they gave them words from the 3rd-5th grade list that we'd never seen before to get a winner. He spelled words like SAFARI correctly, and then INFERNO to win. He told the tester that he didn't even know what inferno meant. He is sooooo happy, and I'm so happy for him. He's been asking when he could be in a spelling be since he was at least 4 years old.
And I'm very pleased to say that the other moms were really sweet. No comments that I must push him or anything. I still felt awkward, though, when they asked if we've ever had him tested because he's "SOOOO smart". I don't know why I feel guilty about it -- he IS smart. I guess I have to get over it.
We walked into the office holding his hand and he walked and ran a bit around the office. He then went through DW's purse, opening her wallet, pulling her phone from its case, then sorting the piles of stuff around him. He got ahold of DW's cell phone, dialed some numbers, and then held up the phone to his ear and said, "Whats up?" We went over to the fish tank and he said Fish and pointed at them. (We do not have one at home.)
This is "normal" to us. I know its not normal. But, we don't even think about it anymore.
There were other kids there and Mr W was more like the three year olds than the ones his age. In fact, he was the only kid who looked at everything and everyone in the room - and he smiled at everyone, too.
When the Dr looked at him, he examined her tools and then quietly and observantly submitted to the exam. He let her look at his ears, his teeth, and then laid down for the rest of it when she asked. He really wanted to look at her opthalmoscope when she laid it down, ( so did I, LOL) but did not reach for it. He did not cry on the first shot.
Then the Dr asked, out the blue, "How many words DOES he know?"
Which sort of took us back. We went over his Spanish and English vocab. ( He is up to at least 20+ words in English and Maybe 100 in Spanish - he knows his colors. )
The Dr is usually in and out, but she spent 20 minutes with us. The last thing she told us was, "W is UNUSUALLY advanced. You will have a wonderful and amazing time with him over the next few years. I look forward to seeing how he grows and develops."
That's fabulous! Regarding the spelling bee, do you think parents of gifted athletes feel that strange mix of pride and awkwardness about their children's accomplishments?
Interesting question, Inky. I had the same thought earlier today. I think I'd feel just as awkward being around the parents who my child had just beaten at swimming or some other individual sport, just because you're celebrating and their child is disappointed. On the other side, I don't think I'd feel awkward or like I was bragging if I was telling someone that my child had really amazed us with his athletic ability. Do you have an opinion?
Boo (aged 4.5 years) had stopped reading almost completely for about a year. She's had some terrible experiences where she's been called freakish because of her innate capabilities; e.g reading very young. Quite a few people sent her the message (some literally told her!) that she was too young to read or that she only thought she could. And during her short stint in preschool, she would comment that "kids my age are too little to read", proven in her mind, by that fact that none of the other kids could read, etc. In short, she got the message that there was something wrong with her and she adjusted her behavior and abilities to fit in. (I knew that she was still reading a bit, because she would occassionaly read a sign, etc, and comment on it.)
Now, she's finally starting to venture into reading again and using a combination of sight words and phonetic approach is rapidly increasing the difficulty of what she reads *AND* her comprehension is good. So she's not just decoding words; she's understanding at a pretty good level what she's reading.
Today she grabbed a book that she's had for a while, but never read. It's a chapter book in a series that she asked for. During the past year, we've purchased several of the books in the series with instuctions from Boo that she's going to read them "by herself". She took the book with her to her room, climbed into her bed, and came out about fifteen minutes later with a big grin. Then she read aloud a loud a couple of sentences and said, "I feel silly! I feel so giggly inside! Reading is great it make me feel bubbly inside."
I'm so glad that she's found her love of reading, again!
Mizz - great news about the reading! Boy that would frustrate me! And Austin, just making it to the 1 year check up is such a big deal (for the parents!) Definitely worth bragging on, plus your ds sounds like he's doing fantastically with *2* languages!
And mama22gs - What a nice reception you got from the other moms! Awesome. And of course congrats to your ds.
Last night at the grocery store he walked around the produce section grabbing the veggies and talking to himself.
It was really cute. One hag HAD to roll her eyes and I almost clobbered her with a lemon.
Mr W loved the lemons so much he asked to be put down when in checkout and walked/navigated 200 feet back to the produce section by himself and grabbed another lemon!!
This one was just cute! I was talking to my FS9 about the difference between being a leader and a follower. I worry about him because he truly believes in the goodness of people. I don't want him to get conned into doing something that he shouldn't.
DS6 quietly listened to the conversation. When I left the table, DS6 followed me to quietly inform me that I needn't worry about him. I asked why and he told me "I'm a leader all the way to my blood cells!" I was proud of him for not bringing it up in front of FS9, who would have thought he was being teased.
Dh was doing soemthing with dd yesterday (playdoh I think? I was in teh kitchen). He said how many did I make, can you count them? And dd proceded to count to six...in spanish! We have never taught her spanish, but she picked it up somewhere! Now that we made a big deal of it, she is asking how to say all sorts of things in spanish! I'm going to have to start learning the language!
DD5m is mobile now! She started scooting all over the place in the past couple of days. She gets up on her knees and tips on to her face a lot, but is getting around pretty well with an army crawl. Time to break out the baby gates again.
skyward ... how exciting and scary at the same time! You are so going to have your hands full!
And oneisenough: I find it so funny that your DD is so much like my DD. Just the other day out of the blue she started counting in Spanish. Granted I taught her how to count in Spanish during a day about 2 months ago but she hasn't brought it up since so I was a little shocked that she started using it the other day. I swear they just lock things away to be used whenever they feel like it.
Had to add...this is a make you laugh and brag post :-) We were using a behavior program for DS5 a few weeks ago before his 6th birthday that involved check marks and if he had less than 8 check marks by the end of the week, he got to choose a special activity to do from a list he made. It was the end of the week and he had no check marks at all for the whole week for awesome behavior...so he strolled into the kitchen and said, I can get 8 checkmarks all today and still be able to pick my reward. We changed our program around after that :-)
DD5m is mobile now! She started scooting all over the place in the past couple of days. She gets up on her knees and tips on to her face a lot, but is getting around pretty well with an army crawl. Time to break out the baby gates again.
This reminds me of that time when Mr W first became mobile. He spent more time going backwards than forward!!
Sometimes when I am making dinner, I will put on the news - and at times there are things that I don't want my dd3 to hear, so I will put it on mute and the closed captioning will come on. So the other day they are talking about how, exactly, the woman became pregnant with octuplets and I decide to mute the TV. I notice dd3 intently watching the words go by on the screen... I am thinking to myself - no way... she can not read that, can she? Two seconds later she asks me... mommy, what's a sperm donor??? Mouth open.... so much for the closed captioning trick!
I notice dd3 intently watching the words go by on the screen... I am thinking to myself - no way... she can not read that, can she? Two seconds later she asks me... mommy, what's a sperm donor??? Mouth open.... so much for the closed captioning trick!
Seriously funny! You know those are not sight words.
We had some friends over to dinner on Saturday night. In an effort to keep DS4 occupied for at least a little bit of time, I asked him to make an 8x8 square on his Geoboard and figure out what the area is. I hardly noticed the quiet as he sat their calculating. After about 5 minutes he triumphantly announced "64!". I looked down to see the paper on which he had carefully written the following: 816243240485664. Evidently he hasn't learned the use of the comma yet.
That's great. My DS4 is all about math too. Constantly doing calculations. This morning he told me in the car that 1,000 Billion = 1 trillion, and then he proceeded to explain it to me and said "do you get it mom?". Yesterday morning when he found out about the 6 more weeks of winter he sighed and said..."that means that I have 18 more days of preschool before spring" (he goes 3x weekly). It's funny because he buried a frisbee in the snow and wasn't sure where it is because it snowed tons more and his teachers said he had to wait until spring to find it.
Anyhow, DD19mo is talking more and more. We went to the museum this weekend and she went on a carousel ride as well. We saw turtles at the museum. when we got home (20 minutes later) and we were getting out of the car she says to me "horsies, turtles, museum.....AGAIN" She cracks me up. I love how she is talking more (except when she vehemently says no about things.. I am not a fan of that communication).
Ds8 received straight A's on this report card (had only 1 b last time) and received some more fun comments from the teach!
Dd2y9m is blowing us away with her eagerness to check out books; her Aunt is babysitting during the day and teaching her and her cousin to read, for fun . Dd just read a 'bob' book to me the other evening - we had to put the superbowl on hold to hear her read it - really sounding things out when she got stuck!! :0
Shellymos - sounds fun! (more amazing is that your dd probably has the energy to go back and do it all again!!!)
This AM, Mr W's ( 12m3w) pants kept slipping down and he would trip over the pant leg around his heels when he walked.
He finally got annoyed and stooped to put his toothbrush down, stood up, pulled his pants up until he looked like Erkel, then got his toothbrush and started walking again.
Cute! What is it with tots and toothbrushes, anyway? There's a very bright little 2yo who comes with mom to pick up her sister at my DS5's preschool. She has been carrying a toothbrush, still in it's wrapping, for the past few weeks now, and she's very proud of it.
My DS5 sort of amazed me last night, because his thought hadn't occurred to me. I was reading one of the Narnia books to him (Voyage of the Dawn Treader), and Lucy had just found a city of undersea people. DS5 said "Lucy is always the first to discover things" and he mentioned the wardrobe, and Mr. Tumnus, from earlier books in the series. He was so matter of fact in his discovery.
Cute! What is it with tots and toothbrushes, anyway?
I wish I knew. He likes to carry it around in his teeth, babbling out of the other side of his mouth. If he had a Corn Cob pipe, he'd look and sound like a Jr Popeye!
We were watching "Kung Fu Panda" (awesome, by the way) and there was a fighting scene with a groin shot. Ds6/9 were cracking up, I wasn't, and DS9 said "mom, you just don't appreciate physical humor"
My 4yo was telling me about watching an Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, and he recently told me in a very serious voice that it was "not appropriate for moms" because it had fart humor in it.
Today I played a freshly burned compilation of Backyardigans songs for DD 26 mos. in the car. It's one of three shows I let her watch - we both love it. Anyway, from the backseat, she correctly idenfied which character was singing which part, for solos, duets, and trios, even on the songs we've never heard before.
Okay, maybe that's not GT, but DD clearly has the same excellent but useless ability to identify voices correctly. I guess I'm bragging that she's like me.
My 16 yo son (sophomore) was accepted to the private university on a full-time basis.
This year he has been attending a state university through distance education (telecasts) at the high school and taking AP courses. We are working at finding scholarships for him, but he is actually too young for most of them. You have to be a junior in high school or have a high school diploma to qualify for most, which he isn't and won't get. So besides a couple of scholarships we are waiting word on, he will have to wait and apply for more next year. This is a hardship on our family...but I'm hoping it's only one year.
Also, my 17 year old daughter was accepted to the same university, and she has been awarded two scholarships so far. She is graduating with 75 college credits and has a strong gpa, so we are optimistic for more scholarships for her hard work. The scholarship awards arrive mainly in March.
So, I will have 3 (16, 17, 20)of my 4 at the same university next year. Kind of exciting in our house!
(BTW does anyone know of a forum more geared to gifted kids and their parents that are high school/college aged?)
Congrats janyne too all the college entrants! I can't even imagine!!!!
Well DS8.5 surprised me tonight. I was quite impressed with his reasoning even though he didn't get it exactly right. Perhaps most 8yr olds would get this but I was impressed.
This is from Zaccaro's Math book but I used my own numbers b/c I didn't feel like getting the book out.
I said "THere are 10 doors and a prize behind one of the doors. What are the odds of picking the right door?" he said, "1 in 10." I said, "So the host opens all the doors except #8 (your choice) and #1." (he doesn't open either door). What is the odd of door #1 being the one? he said, "1 in 2" I said, "What is the odd of door #8 being the correct one?" - here's where he shocked me. He said, "1 in 10." (he got that the odds didn't change for his choice. And we've not done any probability beyond flipping coins). I said, "Do you stay with your choice or choose door #1?" He said, "Well the host doesn't want to give me the prize and wants to trick me into changing." I said, "Don't go on emotion, just look at the numbers." He said, "I'd stay with door #8."
At this point he smiled and said, "No, I'd choose door #1. That was is 1 in 2 chances of being it."
Now it's really 9 in 10 chance for door #1 but he got that the odds for door 1 was different from door 2, and that the odds for door 2 hadn't changed w/ all the others being opened.
Here's what Zaccaro says: Zaccaro did the problem w/ just 3 doors rather than 10.
"this problem is so counter-intuitive that some of the smartest people in the world not only answer incorrectly that the contestant's chances are 1 in 2 for both doors, but they refuse to believe the correct answer when they hear it. The correct answer is that if the contestant keeps her original door, her chances of winning are 1 in 3. If she switches doors, her chances of winning would be 2 in 3." (not in 1 in 3). So she has double the chance of winning if she switches.
Ah, we had a mom scold our dd at pre-school for insisting she could read - because obviously she was lying. That was certainly a confusing message. The next kid insisted that kids "can't" read until they are 5 when they are supposed to start K. So she stopped reading - at least when you were watching - on her 5th birthday she is now reading again. Just don't let anyone tell her she shouldn't have the chapter books or it'll be another long year.
He and a friend had monster truck races today. This evening, as he told his father about the races, he held two pieces of plastic toy fruit in his hands.
"Pretend these grapes are his truck. Pretend the strawberry is my truck. Mine was faster. It went like this: ready, set, race!" He held the fruit up in front of his face and zoomed the strawberry past the grapes.
Okay, so he didn't use all of those consonants, but that's what he was saying. I love little boys: they're too cute! (Especially my own, of course!)
Oh, just wanted to share a cute one...Last week I was helping in ds6's kindergarten class. His teacher had given him an assignment since he finished early with what the class was doing. He was supposed to draw an animal and then write 3 facts about it. He sat at a table and started. After awhile she looked up and said "M, where are you getting your facts from"? He looked at her and said "well, I already have them in my head".
Had to share - my DS6 is a monopoly fanatic and we must have 4 different versions of the game...he manages to always win! On Friday (I am unschooling him) he said he wanted to make his own Monopoly game...so with my help for the drawing of the game "board" - he designed his own property cards, made up all the names for each spot on the board, came up with his own buying/rental prices for the properties and then we sat and played :-) He was SO proud of his game....he then informed Daddy when he came home that night that he wanted to learn how to design his own computer game all based on the TIV (tornado intercept vehicle on Storm Chasers Discovery Channel) and he went into an hour long discussion sharing all the parts of what he wanted in the game.....so daddy is going to begin teaching him computer programming :-)
One of the mentors involved with DYS just turned us on to a beginning programming site. It's referred to as "webturtle". I'll pull up the actual address and post it for you.
Just goes to show that you never know what is going on in their little heads. At dinner, I mentioned to DS5, DS8 and DH that DD2 has been asleep for 6hrs only waking to throw up. DS5 says "So she's been asleep for a fourth of the day right? Because there are 24hrs in the day, 2 sixes make 12, and another 2 make 24, so a fourth must be 6."
We weren't even talking about math. I just love how their minds work!
I took DD8 with me to our local wine store to pick up our monthly wine club selection (I know, I'm a great role model for her!). Anyway, they had one of those 'fast bottle-chilling' machines. The proprieter told DD to put her hand in and said that it's really cold and chills the wine really fast. DD put her hand in and said "it's not as cold as liquid nitrogen, but it's pretty cold". She spent the 15 minutes that we were there finding patterns in the corks, talking about the different countries the wine came from, marveling at the difference in prices, etc. The proprieter was shocked! They say kids remind you to stop and smell the roses-our kids remind us that there's a learning opportunity everywhere!
He fussed a lot at the table, so I let him walk around. He made a beeline for the escalators ( he said "escalator") and rode them a few times, then walked around the arcade, studying things and people. We then went back to the table.
He helped himself to my fries, dipping them in ketchup, then ate some hamburger and sipped some tea.
We then rode the escalators some more and played some games. He does not yet have the coordination or strength to play with the older kids, but he tried. He desperately wants to do the things the 2-4 year olds are doing and he desperately wants to play with them, but they see him as a baby.
We then went to the bookstore and he flipped through some magazines.
He later talked to himself all the way home.
There were some kids his age there ( 13m ), but all were in their parents' arms, none exploring or playing at all. Mr W's uniqueness was very apparent in comparison.
We were at a basketball game last night for FDS13 waiting for it to start. One of the 4th grade little girls that my DS6 knows from class asked my son why all the kids in our family look different, have different names and why does he have two moms.
My ds6 explained to her about foster kids, that sometimes kids parent couldn't take care of them so he shares his moms with them until their own parents are ready to take them back. He told her sometimes their parents can't ever take care of them. When that happens we go to court and the judge makes them officially his brothers and sisters. Then he told her that he had two moms because everyone knows that moms are best. With so many kids in the house that need good moms, one wouldn't be enough to go around!
I won't be able to come up with a better answer than your DS6!
Originally Posted by BWBShari
Then he told her that he had two moms because everyone knows that moms are best. With so many kids in the house that need good moms, one wouldn't be enough to go around!
Austin, We should meet, my 13 month old could be your 13mth old's twin! We are constantly walking around exploring the world.
No kidding - they can share notes.
Mr W opened the front door last night - it has a latch. Had I not been right there, he would have been gone.
He then spent a while studying the back door which has a knob that is lower than the other doors'.
Last night he saw me set the deadlock to keep him inside and this AM he was trying to turn it when I held him. He was also playing with all the door knobs, but is not tall enough to get the leverage he needs, yet.
I am thinking of getting him some dog tags because he really likes to explore and I fear he will slip away.
Wandering stories - one of my DW's uncles used to wander for hours alone on the ranch her grandparents worked on. He made several 8+ mile trips to other homes nearby when he was just 6. As he got older, those trips would turn longer and longer until he would stay out all night regularly when he was 12. That kind of hardiness is admired still, and most Indians and Cowboys think its ok, but most of us would not think it sane.
[quote=AustinMr W opened the front door last night - it has a latch. Had I not been right there, he would have been gone.
[/quote]
At 18 mos. DD was tall enough to open our hotel room door, go down the hall, and press the button for the elevator. Not fun.
And you don't even want me to tell you the horror stories about being together in public restrooms whereby she opened the door and let herself out whilst I was um otherwise occupied.
Austin a friend of mine's 2 year old boy opened the deadbolt and let himself out at 5 am and was wandering on the street until a kind neighbor saw him and brought him home. I do not believe his mother has slept soundly since. They do have an alarm on the door now. How scary!
Seablue, we have that *same* thing happen regularly! DD2 will say she has to go, so as long as I'm there I'll go too, but she's done so she just tries to leave, lol. We have to keep hook and eye locks on things like the pantry (she will scale the 7ft shelves to get to the good stuff on top). She's been able to lock and unlock the front and back doors since she was 15mo, now she understands she can't leave the house without an adult, but there were a few months there where I was grateful that we have an alarm with door chimes.
OH No Austin! There was just a news story sadly about a 3yr that let himself out of the house in only a diaper and t-shirt. He froze to death. Very tragic.
My son got out the door when he was not quite two. We found him in the side yard eventually- the one place we couldn't get a good look at through our windows. We lived on a busy road. I was SO scared...
DS6 was "arguing" with a couple of second graders today. Apparently they were insisting that it was a number to which he kept his head and just replied "no, it's not a number, it's a concept".
JB
(He seems to be very interested in returning to learning more math so we've been doing more after schooling)
DD-almost-3 was listening to ds8 discourse on the various yu-gi-oh cards and their properties. He paused for a few minutes to check something out the window (I was driving). When he started up again, he said, 'She's completely weak! Completely weak!', referring to a female character on one of the cards. Dd assumed this was about her, so she said 'I am not completely WEAK and I'm not completely powerful!' I thought, that's a pretty good command of 'opposites'.
Austin, we use those white caps that go over the door knobs to keep the littl'un in the house because she's been trying for quite a while too. I remember my mother had a story about finding me halfway down the block in just my diapers...but I was the 5th kid, so I could definitely see having plenty of time to 'work the problem' of the door knob.
My son couldn't walk and could barely pull himself up at that age because of the mild motor learning disability and muscle weakness, but he could communicate very well to me where he wanted to go and what he wanted to look at. He always wanted to know what everything was and he was just such a happy, smiling little baby (once he got over the colic) that he could always find someone to carry him where he wanted to go. He could see things that couldn't be seen as well at walking level so I don't think it bothered him too much that he couldn't walk. I had to do the walking for him for a while but he never needed any help with talking and the talking all the way home sounds familiar and wanting to play with older kids definitely sounds familiar, but all he could do was watch.
His sister took him to a Dave and Busters in Dallas when we last visited her and even though he tells me all the time that he isn't really a kid anymore, he enjoyed it and he wants me to go with him next time.
My former cheerleader daughter was the coordinated kid in my family that could sneak out of the house. She did this once at a babysitter's house when I think she was about 18 months old. When I went to pick her up I found her wandering around by herself in the front yard of the babysitter's house. I immediately found a daycare for her with more people available to keep an eye on her.
OH No Austin! There was just a news story sadly about a 3yr that let himself out of the house in only a diaper and t-shirt. He froze to death. Very tragic.
We are getting door boopers to help out here at home.
Saturday I was in the family bathroom at the mall with him and he opened the door while I was occupied.
Originally Posted by Chris
Austin, we use those white caps that go over the door knobs to keep the littl'un in the house because she's been trying for quite a while too.
Our babysitter has arthritis and the front door is a latch, not a knob, so it would not help there and would hinder her otherwise. Mr W can take things apart and can operate the wheel on a mouse now so I am not sure how long the doorknob things would stop him. He can almost climb out of his crib - I caught him trying to get his leg up this weekend. We had to take the stuffed toys out as he was standing on one to get extra height.
we use those white caps that go over the door knobs to keep the littl'un in the house
DD2 learned to open them at about 18mo! She also learned to defeat the loop lock that goes around the knobs on the cabinet doors under the sink- she just unscrewed the knobs! The boys were never that industrious, both kinds of locks stopped them just fine, but she is determined, lol.
GS9 nonchalantly mentioned his teacher presenting some new material, and he said, "I already know that, my gramma told me how to do it." Evidently that is a common phrase he uses because the teacher asked, "Is there anything you've learned at school?" He said he thought a few seconds and said, "Sure, I've learned one or two things." I hope she knows he wasn't being mouthy, just truthful!
There's a museum in the general area that has a Surrealism exhibit now. So I asked if DS7 was interested. He just about jumped out of his seat he was so excited!
When a 7yo is fired up about going to the art museum because he thinks Salvador Dali's work is interesting to study, that's cool! We did some with Surrealism last year, but he seems to be getting it on a deeper level this year. It's good.
I think he's just so fun to talk to. He is interested in so many things. I'm a very proud Mom!
And don't even get me started on the 4yo asking me about division today in the car because he already gets addition and subtraction up to several digits, and even gets the basics of multiplication already, figuring one- and 2-digit problems there. He's just blowing my mind with the math! It's so different from the way his brother presented as GT, but it's pretty unmistakable now. He's pretty much learning all of arithmetic in something like 3 months...
To those who cry "GT denial"...I don't think I was in GT denial before. I think he just wasn't showing yet. But if I was in denial before, I'm not now!
And don't even get me started on the 4yo asking me about division today in the car because he already gets addition and subtraction up to several digits, and even gets the basics of multiplication already, figuring one- and 2-digit problems there. He's just blowing my mind with the math! ...He's pretty much learning all of arithmetic in something like 3 months...
That sounds just like my DS4, he has always been into math, skip counting, adding subtracting. But in the fall he got really into multiplication and division. It was really fun watching his mind work...it always is.
About DS4, he is on his last day of testing today. The psychologist told me what a wonderful boy he is and obviously how he is bright, but what meant a lot to me is that she talked about how caring and empathatic he is. That is so important to me. He really is quite cute. The other day while I was waiting for him to do his testing I was trying to figure out some cube thing in the waiting room (you know those puzzles where you make cubes out of the blocks), anyhow he came back out and saw that I hadn't finished and that instead I was reading a book. He said "did you quit mom?" I hesitated and said "well yes, I worked at it for a while and couldn't get it so I took a break" He said "it's okay mom, really...that happens to me sometimes too."
And with my DD20 months she is talking so much more now. It is cute. This morning on the way out to the car she was imitating bird calls and I said "you like the birdies?" and she yelled out "I love you birdies!" And a few mornings ago I started giving her her own bowl of cereal so she doesn't have to eat all mine. So she kept wanting mine. I pointed and said "this is your cereal, and this one is mommies cereal" Then she clearly states "I want mommies cereal" I am really enjoying her talking and telling us what she wants (most of the time), LOL.
We use the white cap handles with the gray tabs broken off along with baby gates and an alarm. We have also put bells on the doors so we know if they get down to the door. After DDs past escapes Im not taking any chances.
DS2 is pretty fast. I would rather let him explore, but the minute his feet hit the ground he is gone. I let him out once a few weeks ago and in just a few seconds he made it across the lobby we were in, hit the elevator button, got in and hit door close. Lucky a lady in the elevator opened it and I got him back. He went back in the stroller. Last week I tried letting him out again and as soon as he hit the ground he ran out of the room across the building hit the handy cap button on the door and ran outside. I caught him right before he got to the street!
On a happier note DD6m is standing. She pulled herself up and was holding onto the side of our bed this evening. I have been surrounding her with pillows so she will have soft landings. These kids just amaze me. I need to get her a baby book so I can write this stuff down. I am bummed that my camera doesn't work. DS climbed up the shelving unit, took the camera down stairs and buried it in sand. If I catch the baby pulling her self up again maybe I can take a picture with my cell phone.
Okay, I have a brag about DD6. There is a very smart little boy in her class that is repeatedly busting her chops. Or at least that's how she sees it!
I guess he's always *quizzing* her with math problems and he'll laugh at her if she doesn't know the answer right away. She's really the type of kid that shuts down under this type of aggressive behavior.
So today she decides she's going to give him a math question. She decides to string about 10 multi digit numbers together into a multiplication problem and say it very quickly to see if he can get it. Obviously, most 7 yo won't be able to figure 95*1200*354*9576*99*78564, right? Except, she decides she's going to slip a zero in there so when he doesn't know the answer, she can say Zero! Duh!
So she practices it a few times and laughs and laughs and realizes, she's really going to have this kid on the ropes.
The reason I'm so proud of her, is that after she realizes this, she simply decides she's not going to do it.
I thought that showed amazing maturity and restraint. More restraint than I would have, BTW! I was tired of seeing her downtrodden little face after he hazed her!
That is great Neato! I can just see her cracking herself up at this wonderful plan she had. And what amazing restraint! That is truly incredible. You should be quite proud!
Thanks Shelly! I couldn't be more proud! I say cherish each moment. They're 6 months, then they're 6 years and I'm sure I'll blink and she'll be driving! It goes so fast!
Thanks Shelly! I couldn't be more proud! I say cherish each moment. They're 6 months, then they're 6 years and I'm sure I'll blink and she'll be driving! It goes so fast!
ahh..that makes me a little teary. So true. I was singing to DD last night and rocking her before bed and thinking about her growing up. Of course DS4 wanted me to carry him to bed last night up the stairs. Holy cow, he is like 50 pounds. Every time I do it (lately maybe once a week or every other) I tell him "this may be the last night because you just keep growing!"
Anyhow on a brag note, this morning DS was doing Math equations outloud (a regular breakfast occurance at our house). He starts adding negative numbers...which kind of surprised me (we have never talked much about negative numbers...and certainly not equations with negative numbers). So then he says "So then -5 - (-6) = 1" (he paused for a couple seconds in between to figure it out. I was quite confused as to how he knew that. I asked him "who taught you that" and he gives me his usual "no one did, I just figured it out" That is just so odd to me. He went on to explain to me that he knew he was right because he was subtracting a negative, but that if he was adding a negative it would be a bigger negative. Yikes.
I still remember when I was a few years old than him and someone said to me "what is 2-3?" And I proudly said "you can't do that...there is no answer" and then he shocked me by saying "it's negative 1, there are numbers under 0" I remember feeling shocked...like I had been deceived all that time, LOL. And there is just one of the many differences between me and DS4, LOL.
So she practices it a few times and laughs and laughs and realizes, she's really going to have this kid on the ropes.
The reason I'm so proud of her, is that after she realizes this, she simply decides she's not going to do it.
Go DD6!!!
That's an enormous decision, especially when you're only 6. I know some adults who could use lessons in taking the high road! I would be bursting at the seams with pride! Congrats DD6!
That's an enormous decision, especially when you're only 6. I know some adults who could use lessons in taking the high road!
Yeah, me too, I know one that goes by Neato! I'm afraid to admit that I would have totally supported her if she got in trouble. Mama bear doesn't like seeing little cub getting pushed around. Hey, we are working to have our children do better than us anyway, she is a better woman than me, if only a little wee woman!
Shellymos- Incredible. Can't wait to hear the results of the testing. Sounds like he may blow the lid off several subtests!!!
We use the white cap handles with the gray tabs broken off along with baby gates and an alarm. We have also put bells on the doors so we know if they get down to the door. After DDs past escapes Im not taking any chances.
DS2 is pretty fast. I would rather let him explore, but the minute his feet hit the ground he is gone. I let him out once a few weeks ago and in just a few seconds he made it across the lobby we were in, hit the elevator button, got in and hit door close. Lucky a lady in the elevator opened it and I got him back. He went back in the stroller. Last week I tried letting him out again and as soon as he hit the ground he ran out of the room across the building hit the handy cap button on the door and ran outside. I caught him right before he got to the street!
You are scaring me!! Mr W wants me to pick him up so he can hit the elevator buttons. The other day I noticed that he could reach the buttons inside the elevator at work when he just stood there and pressed them all.
I can see why parents use a stroller. We are more the vagabond type and just don't like to carry much of anything around. I suppose you either go heavy and take stuff or go real light because you have to chase after them!!
Shelly - love the story about DD 20 mos. talking. Adorable.
Skyward - Walmart sells a leash disguised as a back pack. Get it. lol
My brag this week is that DD 26 mos. dazzled her visiting cousins, age 21, 25 and 30. While I was inside, DD explained to them what had happened to a dead bee in the backyard, how he had tried to swim in her pool and had died. "He can't fly or collect pollen on his knees from the flowers any more."
Austin, I had always been more the vagabond type as well, bringing as few supplies as possible. I love the toddler age when they are so excited to explore. It is great fun to follow them around and see how they interact with the world. Enjoy it. Unfortunately with three the stroller is sometimes necessary. I do try to take them places one on one as much as I can. Have you noticed in the elevator the alarm button is the closest to the ground and brightly colored just for little ones?
Seablue,I think kid leashes are sad. Knowing my kids they would crawl the whole time so they could pretend they were dogs. I think pushing a stroller and holding two leashes with barking children attached to the ends would draw unwanted attention.
Really though to me the leashes seem disrespectful to the child. No offense to any one who uses them, this is just my opinion. I also want them to learn to listen to my words and develop the self control to stay with me and follow the rules even when they don't feel like it. I know this is a process and DS2 is practicing these things now. When he gets it he will just stay with me. To me this is worth temporary aggravation. DS will have a couple one on one outings planed here soon. He needs some practice and some special mommy time with out the baby.
Have you noticed in the elevator the alarm button is the closest to the ground and brightly colored just for little ones?
YUP!!! He pressed that one at the Dr's office!!
This weekend at the Mall, he rode the escalators a lot. He also likes to go up stairs, but refuses to crawl up them. He walks over to them, waits for me, sticks out his hand for me to hold, then starts walking.
You'd think a psychiatrist would have a better sense than that of how utterly inappropriate his comments were and the effect they could have on a GT child.
I heard a parent talking about their sports talented kid as their: "Little 401K". Yuck!
A friend played walk-on baseball for a large, well known college team. He was a starter his Sophomore through Senior years, but never went into the minors, though he had offers.
One of his sons can throw a ball very, very far, but he is not pushing him into anything. He talked a lot about parents who spend 10-20K a year on sports for their kids, and how "Can you imagine if they just put that money into savings or land, what they would have when the kid is 21? They think their kid will break into the majors, but that will never happen. The kid may get onto a college team, but that is it."
My DD 27 mos. has had a monkey backpack leash since she could walk. It is her only beloved toy and she loves wearing it. Have you ever seen a child standing in their stroller with their straps on as tight as they go? Our DD never tolerated the stroller.
As for keeping DD with us... forget it. The leash is to keep us with her. lol
I've been giving DS7 the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) this past week. It's all a walk in the park since I'm not testing above grade level (a choice I find myself regretting AGAIN this year... <eyeroll at self>).
But he and I had both been bracing ourselves for the timed math test. This is not his strong suit. This is the kid who practically broke out in hives when faced with a timed multiplication table test at the beginning of the year. He is deep but not fast, and he really doesn't do well with the pressure of a time limit.
So we got to the timed math portion. Before he took it, I was already consoling myself with "Well, he has done a near-perfect job on everything else on the test. So what if he blows this one subtest? No big deal. We know he's not fast."
HA!
The kid had finished all the problems with 3 minutes to spare...out of just *8* minutes total! I'm not sure I could have done it that fast! He did much of it in his head, too, the child I have always said is so visual and always needs to write things down! And unless my math was wrong, I think he got them all right, too!
What an improvement! I'm so proud of how far he's come!
Yay, DS7! Such progress!
Now we just have to persuade his chicken-hearted mom that it's about time for an above-level test...
I haven't done a formal spelling program with DS2ndgrade yet, because he's a pretty good natural speller. But I decided it was time to start one, so I had him take a placement test to see what level to start with. He's spelling at a 6th grade level! That is 2 levels higher than what I thought.
OK... here my 1st brag:- DS8 told me a big boy walked up to him today when he was at Grade 5 math class and said "Hi Shortie". DS8 replied "Hi Tall-y". I was proud that he wasn't bothered by it but came out with a way to deal with it himself.
That's awesome S-T! I wouldn't be surprised if the two ended up as friends. At the very least, I'm sure the older boy respected his ability to take in stride. WOW!
OK... here my 1st brag:- DS8 told me a big boy walked up to him today when he was at Grade 5 math class and said "Hi Shortie". DS8 replied "Hi Tall-y". I was proud that he wasn't bothered by it but came out with a way to deal with it himself.
we have some cabinets that are locked with a magnetic key. Of course DS discovered ages ago how to open them... but a few days ago he actually was trying another of the magnets that we have in the fridge! He is just 2.5...
My 10 year old son has become very interested in American history and culture, especially from World War II to the present. He knows more about 80's and 90's culture than I remember thanks to You Tube videos and web sites showing popular shows, cartoons, music, toys, commercials, etc. I have enjoyed listening to them discuss 80's and 90's history and culture with his sister, who was born in the 80's.
DD10's poem was selected from our state to a national poetry competition. We found out earlier this week about it and should know in April how she did nationally. Her teacher encouraged her to enter the competition after a classroom poetry assignment. Her classmates made a big deal about it at school (teacher was notified about the selection) which was wonderful to her self confidence.
Thanks for the encouragement. The reason I even posted was because it was such a nice boost to DDs self confidence. After a rough year in 4th grade she needs all the encouragement she can get.
I don't know which poem was sent, but I will post it here when I find out. She showed me 4 or 5 haikus and one more traditional poem and I'm not sure what was forwarded.
DD10's poem was selected from our state to a national poetry competition. We found out earlier this week about it and should know in April how she did nationally. Her teacher encouraged her to enter the competition after a classroom poetry assignment. Her classmates made a big deal about it at school (teacher was notified about the selection) which was wonderful to her self confidence.
Jen
That's great!! Its always exciting when others notice how special your kid is!
So the topic of density came up tonight. This weekend the boys (DS3 and DS6) were watching a science show on the solar system. One of the graphics shows how Saturn would "float on a lake if there was a lake big enough." So they've been asking about density.
After talking about density a bit, DW did a good practical experiment tonight with oil and water. She had two glasses of about equal amounts and asked the boys which one was more dense. DS6 said water would be on the bottom, it is more dense. (Shows what I know!) Of course he got that right.
Then tonight at bedtime DS3 would talking to DW as they were snuggling in bed and said "Saturn is like the oil" (meaning it floats)
DS3 may or may not be gifted. If he is, it's a different type of gifted than DS6. But I was pretty amazed that he made that association.
It's very cool that your DS6 doesn't have an issue with including his little brother in these discussions. I agree that that is quite a connection for a 3 yo. Sounds like you have your hands full!
We had fun at the gt program 'family night' yesterday evening.
Mainly just fun playing on the floor with dd2 and seeing some things ds8 had done with his group - very cool designs for imaginary creatures which live off the coast of Japan, for one...
Then, I was really floored when the teacher came to me and said she really loved having ds in her class. I mean after getting the indecipherable results from the program progress report, I figured he was doing ok/so-so. But she was actually like clenching her hands while telling me this - very very enthusiastically speaking about his creativity and his ideas 'are just incredible!'. I mean, ok, I knew that, but I really didn't think anyone else did. It was just very very nice to hear. ( and more than 1/2 the time I think my opinions on it are way skewed, so...)
This is not my story, but something told to me by a retired USAF pilot who volunteers at a local flight museum.
The Old Fighter Pilot (OFP) sees a 12 year old girl walking around the museum. She stops to look at each plane, then sees an open-cockpit trainer from the 1940s and runs over to it. She looks the plane over carefully, climbs on the wing, and gets in the cockpit, her head barely clears the windscreen.
The OFP walks over to the plane while the girl works the controls, looking out the cockpit to see each control surface move.
OFP: "Say, young lady, do you know what this plane is?"
Girl: "Yessir, its a PT-23."
OFP:"Would you like me to show you how to fly it?"
Girl:"No thanks. I fly it all the time."
Just then the dad comes up and told the OFP that he had one and the girl had recently soloed in it.
My 10 year old son and I were reading from the book "An Incomplete Education" and we were looking at the chapter called "Philosophy Made Simplistic." We had both heard of logic, ethics, aesthetics, and metaphysics but I had never heard of epistemology and I asked him if he had heard of it. He said, "ePISTemology? I don't have a clue what that is but that word sounds like it could be the study of what Dad was when Uncle B played that April Fool's joke on him."
He liked reading what the book said about epistemology, especially the part about how do we know something and how do we know that we know it.
After reading some more about philosophy he told me he thought he knew enough staple philosophy words now and quickly threw out a bunch of big sounding words that sounded good but they didn't make a lot of sense and then asked me if I had heard enough circumlocution.
He also liked the word "hypoglossal" from the list of twelve cranial nerves. He said it sounded like a description of some women's lips, only some women's lips appeared to be more "hyper"glossal than "hypo"glossal.
He also liked the Vegus nerve and made some joke about striking it rich.
When I read to him from the 20th Century book "Arriving in freight trains or dilapidated cars or on foot, the men camped..." he interrupted and said "men camped"? Wasn't that Hitler's book?
The dentist was kidding around with him and when he said something about not being sure if he could trust a person with sharp metal objects in her hand, she asked him if he thought she looked like someone he could trust. He said, "Well you Are wearing a mask" and they both joked about what would happen if she walked into the bank with that mask on. By the time the dental appointment was over, the dentist and my son had both told plenty of jokes and he forgot about his fear of dental procedures.
But my biggest brag is that he takes time away from what he wants to do to talk to his adult sister who has been calling him about 10 times a day because she hasn't been able to find a full time job and he somehow makes her feel better when he talks to her. He even let her borrow some of his own money to pay her rent. He told her how she could save money by using coupons and told her how to find them online and she is using coupons now.
It gives my day a lift to hear about your son, Lori!
Yesterday, Mr W was repeating everything DW and I said at dinner. He seems to be on another one of those discontinuities in his ability jumps. It will be interesting to see where he is in a week or two.
Thanks Lori - haven't read most of this thread yet - though I hear its a cheerful one !! Very cute!!
DS6 antics this weekend: created a StarWars imperial drop ship out of left over cardboard from toilet rolls that the botanical garden left outside for kids to create binoculars from. It consisted of 2 planes shaped out of pieces of cardboard - designed the same way he makes his Legos - one long vertical piece, one smaller horizontal piece - all stapled together. He had cut, stapled and hole punched a design in the wings. The small ship was attached to the larger ship by a long piece of green ribbon - hence forming the "drop ship". Just cracked me up. So much detail out of old cardboard.
This morning - I arrived at the breakfast table to find a "booby trap" created from a Spiderman toy - which is one of those paddles with an elastic and a small red ball on the end. You're supposed to try and trap the ball in a hole on the top of the paddle. He had instead attached the ball to the paper napkin holder on the table - passed the elastic band through a small vertical crack in our table (where you would insert the table extender) - and the paddle was hanging under the table. His father explained this is because they had been reading "Phatom of the Opera" chapter book and had recently reached the part about the Booby Traps.
We got back from our visit to SIL's for Easter. On the flight, we sat with a woman from Venezuela. We told her MR W understood Spanish. I'm sure she thought, "Yeah right, these crazy gringos." So, she started talking to him in Spanish and he warmed up to her, pointing things out and babbling back.
There was a mom with two kids sitting in front of us on the flight's next leg. The DS was five and chattered away like a 13 year old and the DD who was very alert and maybe two was called "Boo" by the mom. Coincidence?? Let me know.
Mr W (14mo) was making eyes at both of them and had a great time on the plane.
He spent two hours carefully watching SIL's kids then joined in with them, playing with all their games. SIL's DD is 2 and is counting to 30 and doing 30 piece puzzles. ( SIL is in full GT denial. )
For the Easter Egg Hunt, Mr W knew what he had to do right away, taking his basket, looking for eggs, etc. He filled up his basket to the brim.
Mr W took all the stuff out of the dishwasher for SIL one morning and tried to put some of it away where he thought it should go. She just let him and watched.
BIL then asked later, "Where is all the stuff? Its all over the place!!!"
Adorable stories, Austin. Mr. W. sounds very social. How nice he can fly.
Yesterday, I stepped up to the counter to order lunch with DD 28 mos. on my hip. The man asked for our order, DD answered before I could say a word. I just paid.
The day before, she directed DH how to drive home: "There's the vet, turn here, turn here, now go up the ramp to the highway."
DS6 antics this weekend: created a StarWars imperial drop ship out of left over cardboard from toilet rolls that the botanical garden left outside for kids to create binoculars from. It consisted of 2 planes shaped out of pieces of cardboard - designed the same way he makes his Legos - one long vertical piece, one smaller horizontal piece - all stapled together. He had cut, stapled and hole punched a design in the wings. The small ship was attached to the larger ship by a long piece of green ribbon - hence forming the "drop ship". Just cracked me up. So much detail out of old cardboard.
That's so great! This is exactly the sort of stuff our ds does - he draws out designs for all kinds of conveyances, costumes, etc., but also loves to build things out of whatever is piled up around the house + tape.
My DS5 (just turned 5 a couple of weeks ago), is doing 500 piece puzzles. He has a Melissa and Doug rain forest one that he can do in less than half an hour (granted, he's done it 10000 times now).
I'm not sure that this is really a GT trait, but I still think it's pretty cool!
My DS5 (just turned 5 a couple of weeks ago), is doing 500 piece puzzles. He has a Melissa and Doug rain forest one that he can do in less than half an hour (granted, he's done it 10000 times now).
I'm not sure that this is really a GT trait, but I still think it's pretty cool!
Ah, the constant repetition!! It drives me batty. Mr W wants to do his shape sorter 10 times each night - he has had it down since he was 7mos. He also has to do all his other toys at least once before bed time and he keeps bringing us stuff to do because he does not want to go to bed!!
I can forsee him wanting to do his 500 piece puzzle every night when he is 5!!!
This made me smile - DS6 and DS4 had the playdough out the other day and when I came downstairs they had "created" a DNA strand, using different colours for Cytosine (?), Adenine (?) etc. DS6 went on to explain that only certain ones will join together - it was so cute that I had to take a photo so that I can look back and smile when they are all grown up! Clearing up the mess was a different story, my boys and playdough are a very messy combination, but I couldn't complain as they had sat without leaving the table for close to 2 hours
In so many ways, computer ed and math should be taught together. I teach both right now. Binary and Hexadecimal are great for kids and especially when it can be explained how they are used for computer translation. When I was a programmer, I practically forgot how to use decimal math.
Using formulas in excel and showing information in charts is important also. Stats are so important today.
Mr W helped me boil eggs this weekend. We keep the boiled eggs in the fridge on a shelf ina bowl that is on a separate shelf from the raw eggs in their store foam container.
Mr W likes to play in the fridge and is very careful when handling things. But he broke a raw egg and I hand to clean it up. He found it fascinating.
This evening DW told me that one of her boiled eggs she took for lunch was RAW!!
He must have moved one raw one to the cooked bowl when I was not looking!!!!!
In so many ways, computer ed and math should be taught together. I teach both right now. Binary and Hexadecimal are great for kids and especially when it can be explained how they are used for computer translation. When I was a programmer, I practically forgot how to use decimal math.
Using formulas in excel and showing information in charts is important also. Stats are so important today.
I agree 100%!!! My freshman year in college, both my calculus classes were completely computer based. I was completely lost b/c I had no real computer experience (other than, at the time, word processing programs, spreadsheets, etc).
Mr W helped me boil eggs this weekend. We keep the boiled eggs in the fridge on a shelf ina bowl that is on a separate shelf from the raw eggs in their store foam container.
Mr W likes to play in the fridge and is very careful when handling things. But he broke a raw egg and I hand to clean it up. He found it fascinating.
This evening DW told me that one of her boiled eggs she took for lunch was RAW!!
He must have moved one raw one to the cooked bowl when I was not looking!!!!!
Did DW open it to find out it was raw or knew already? I bet the reaction, if she attempted to crack it open, was priceless!
Did DW open it to find out it was raw or knew already? I bet the reaction, if she attempted to crack it open, was priceless!
He dropped one of the raw ones and saw it break and was fascinated. I am not sure when he moved the raw egg to the boiled ones as he would have to take it out of the foam container and I never saw him take the one he broke out, either. He has been around us cooking since he was 2 mos old so I think he knows which is raw and which is not. Because he does like to sort stuff, I am not sure it was a deliberate practical joke. He is very helpful so maybe he wanted to help mom.
He has been throwing stuff off the patio lately. We stopped him one day. So, his solution was to pull his lego trailer to the end of the patio where we cannot see him directly and he threw most of the 2 and 3 hole legos over board. So, he knows how to be sneaky!
Last night he was dancing around during DWTS. He did a pretty good waltz.
Toddler dancing is one of the great, great joys of life, Austin! (Preschooler dancing is pretty good, too--Chico loves to tango!)
Harpo is turning 8 next week, and has been discussing his celebration with me in some detail (menu, guests, and so on); he's decided he wants Italian food (he specified gamberi, salad, garlic toast, gnocchi, and a cassata torte--gotta hide the cookbooks from that kid!). Groucho (5 nearly 6) was groaning a bit about the food (he's a sausage and mashed potatoes kind of a guy), so Harpo tried to defend his choices by appealing to Chico (3 nearly 4): "what elements do you think constitute an appropriate birthday dinner, Chico?", to which Chico replied, "Selenium?"
Here's a story that DS6 wrote last week at school--his teacher lets him go off and write when the other kids are painfully reading "sss eeee SEE sss puh ah tuh SPOT...etc."
You probably know Frog and Toad--they're an old favorite of mine and we have all the books. DS6 has gone off and written a couple to go with the old familiar ones. This is his spelling, capitalization and punctuation, not mine. The story doesn't appear to be finished yet. The pages are numbered from 1 to 32, and he says he's going to write 8 more pages. We'll see.
********** Frog and Toad Together
Once upon a time...Frog and Toad were together all the time. Except 1 thing...Toad was always busy. and 1 other thing...Frog always was wanting to play. and Toad always forgot what to do. So he made a list. Frog was knocking on Toad's door. Toad answered the door. And Frog said: Do you want to come out and play? Frog asked. Frog, after I make my "What to Do" list, I can play. And Toad was starting to make a list to remember what he should do in the morning. Frog was knocking on Toad's door again. Frog, I'm finished. Toad said to Frog: Now I can play! Toad shouted. What do you want to do first? Toad said. I want to play Hopscotch, Frog said. That will be fun. So they played Hopscotch until they wanted to make up a new game. Frog, Toad said when he was out of breath, I want to play Tag. But first...We should take a rest. Ok, said Frog, as he was throwing his stone one more time. 1,23,45,67,8, Frog said. 8,76,54,32,1. Frog said again as he was hopping along. Now we can play Tag. Toad said when he got up. Well then...Frog said, You're it! Frog shouted. I'm gonna get you! Toad said after he was catching up to Frog. I want to play jokes, said Frog this time. Then Toad said: What do you get when you cross a stream and a river? said Toad, with plenty of questasition. Then Frog said, an water quake? Frog said, Knock, knock! Toad said, who's there? Frog answered, Ketchup. Toad said: Ketchup who? Frog answered: I'm gonna ketchup to you! Frog reapeated. Then Toad came up with one. What do you have when mixing a cookie and pancake mix? Toad questionally trying to say. And Frog said: you get cookie mix? Frog answerally getting in his head. Personally, Toad just wanted to make cookies for his pal. But he couldn't. So Toad had another joke. Soon he got tired of jokes. Frog, said Toad, I'm getting tired of jokes. Let's make cookies at my house! said Toad exclammitting after he and Frog arrived at the front door. Huh? Questioned Toad after opening the front door. Someone already made cookies here,said Frog after he was following Toad across the kitchen. Then Toad bumped into something. Frog bumped into Toad. Then something had him very close to the speakers. Someone turned on the speakers. Toad put earmuffs for Frog. Frog had earmuffs for Toad. Then they had some mystery cookies. And Frog was going to eat a cookie, only...Frog wasn't hungry. Toad, Frog said, I'm not very hungry. But I am tired. So they took a rest and thought all about being together. So Frog and Toad woke up. Do you want to play something indoors? Frog asked as drinking some mystery juice that was on the floor unspilled. So Toad said: Something's going on around here! Frog said, Why not come to my house? Frog asked with quastramental language. Toad had to say: Ok, we're going to your house; Frog. So Frog and Toad went to Frog's house. Frog opened the front door. That's weird, said Frog. Something is going on around here, too. Then Frog and Toad heard some voices. Suprise! Their friends shouted. Turtle said, we made this suprise stuff just for you. Toad laughed. Oh, Toad said. So that's what's happening. So Frog and Toad had fun at the party. But, Frog was hungry. He saw Toad in the dining room. Can I eat this food? Frog asked with excitement. Turtle said, sure. We're gonna eat in the kitchen anyway. So Turtle shouted: TIME TO EAT! Yay! Toad shouted. And Frog started in the kitchen. By the time Frog was finished, the party was over. Toad went home. Frog went with Toad. Toad, said Frog, that was over. I'm glad. said Frog again. Then Toad and Frog made cookies and a cake to make a suprise party for Turtle. That is a good idea, said Frog. They had a big day. 5 days later...Toad had a brain washing dream. Frog was knocking on the door. Who's there? Toad asked while he was shaking himself around. It's Frog, your pal! shouted Frog loud at the door. I'm coming! Toad was shouting also. Hello, Frog! Toad said. **********
Here's a story that DS6 wrote last week at school--his teacher lets him go off and write when the other kids are painfully reading "sss eeee SEE sss puh ah tuh SPOT...etc."
Mr W (15Mo) was his usual self at a BBQ this weekend.
He found one woman to flirt with and ended up playing games with her.
The woman would pull her hand away as he tried to give her five. Sometimes he got her hand before she could pull it away and sometimes not. She kept speeding things up to where he was hitting air a lot.
So Mr W lifted up his right hand, smiled, and then slapped her hand with his left!
" Reserve the use of the word frozen to something below 32 degrees f."
Not everything freezes below 32 degrees F. That just happens to be the freezing point of water. Anything that is solid is technically frozen. Think about a chocolate chip - it is a solid, but it melts when it is left in the sun right? So, if something can melt (which all solids can) then it must be able to be frozen too. (freezing and melting happen at the same temperature for each object, it just depends if you are cooling it down or heating it up) Although it doesn't fit with how we view the world, scientifically speaking, she is correct. (Sorry to say this, as it sounds like this drives you crazy.) We had a similar issue with our DD6 a while back, luckily she got out of the phase before it drove me too crazy. (Of course she's now onto a different equally frustrating phase)
Cool story Nautigal. That is quite amazing, the creativity and the interesting storyline. DS4 is quite different than that. He likes his word games...but he is quite a mathy kid. He started writing a story once....but apparently tired after doing the title and picture, LOL. It was called "when they saw the rainbow" I often wonder what happened when they saw it. I guess I will never know. ; )
He also wrote a book shortly after turning 4 called "the things I love" and on each page drew pictures of what he loves and wrote about it. It was quite comical because frequently he would draw something and them comment that he doesn't really love that, that he just likes it. So most of his sentences on the pages would be something like this. "I don't really LOVE oranges, but I do like them"
I am not sure if this is a brag or a confession...but DS4 plays Quiddler with DH and I. We play almost every night. DS is the score keeper as well. He beats us quite often...and we don't help him with words because he is too good. He will often give me suggestions with words that are better than mine...and I think I am actually pretty good. We played with a group of friends last weekend (one of which has a PHD in English) and DS won. And we do check his scorekeeping and he is correct. In fact, one time DH started to correct him and then DS explained how DH was wrong...and DS was right. And he adds our cards in his head faster than I do. He will announce how many points I have with my cards before his. It's insane. And then there are the times that he tells us about words that we don't know exist and he looks them up and he is right. Talk about humbling experiences. Word games + Math + DS = Lots of fun
My DD2.5 is really into dress up. She is never herself. She especially loves to dress up when it's time to pick up DS6 from school.
Her latest characters are "Super why" and "Princess Presto" from PBS kids. She walks around with her little question mark reading everything she can find!
I just crack me up when people say look it's "Cinderella or a Batman" and she replies, no I'm a "Super Reader or a Super Speller". They just look at her with no response. Here is this two year old telling them to get with it! LOL!
I am in serious GT denial but here goes. DS5 just got a K'nex set that does 10 different vehicles. He had the kid K'nex for a while but this is his first time with what he calls "big kid" K'nex. He loved them so much that he sat down for 2.5 hours & did every vehicle in the kit by himself! A few of the easier ones he didn't even use the directions on. I sat with him & watched but he did all the work. I must have heard how much fun he was having 5 times. I guess it is ok to get ferris wheel now. I am sure he will love working with motors.
shellymos, that is too funny about the rainbow story! My son did that with a story about a clown a couple years ago--the title (written first) was "The Clown Who Did a Flip-Flop", and it was all about this little girl and a clown, and nowhere did anyone ever do a flip-flop. It still drives me crazy!
Actually DS6 is a numbers kid above all else--he didn't even get an imagination until he was nearly 5, so it's great to see him writing original stories.
So what's a Quiddler? It sounds like I might need it!
The barber said he'd "never had a baby who followed my instructions before." and that "he was extraordinarily well behaved" and "its like he is 5 years old."
I am in serious GT denial but here goes. DS5 just got a K'nex set that does 10 different vehicles. He had the kid K'nex for a while but this is his first time with what he calls "big kid" K'nex. He loved them so much that he sat down for 2.5 hours & did every vehicle in the kit by himself! A few of the easier ones he didn't even use the directions on. I sat with him & watched but he did all the work. I must have heard how much fun he was having 5 times. I guess it is ok to get ferris wheel now. I am sure he will love working with motors.
Actually DS6 is a numbers kid above all else--he didn't even get an imagination until he was nearly 5, so it's great to see him writing original stories.
So what's a Quiddler? It sounds like I might need it!
thats pretty cool that the imagination hit later. DS can be highly creative at times, but highly logical and non-creative at others. It will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come. He does like to create his own board games by revising existing board games (like chutes and ladders was transformed to 'dice and chutes' where we use multiple dice with all different numbers and go down ladders and up chutes, etc. there are much more complex rules).
Quiddler is lots of fun. I highly recommend the game. It is kind of like a mixture of scrabble and rummy. You start with three cards each and have to make a word (some cards have 2 letters on them). Then each round you get one more card up to 8 cards. You are allowed to make multiple words. You get points based on the letters used (each have different amount of points) and there are also bonuses for longest word and most words. It is lots of fun, I highly recommend it. You can get it on-line and I have seen it in a few stores as well.
Yesterday I taught art in DS7's first grade classroom and the kids were making a Miro-like image with chalk on black paper. They were supposed to close their eyes and draw a squiggle. It was the most creative thing they had to do all year so I was excited to give the kids the opportunity. My son asked if I wanted to hear his story when he was done. I had just seen someone make a Sponge Bob character so I was very proud when he showed me his abstract spaceship. He said, "Here's my spaceship and I'm here in the cockpit. These are the stars around us and we're going to Mars (he had a big red circle like the one in the Miro picture we had talked about earlier). And now I have to add Mars's gravitational field here in gray." I love getting a glimpse of his thoughts and I wish he had kids in his school he could talk with about the things he likes - other than Star Wars.
Yesterday I taught art in DS7's first grade classroom and the kids were making a Miro-like image with chalk on black paper. They were supposed to close their eyes and draw a squiggle. It was the most creative thing they had to do all year so I was excited to give the kids the opportunity. My son asked if I wanted to hear his story when he was done. I had just seen someone make a Sponge Bob character so I was very proud when he showed me his abstract spaceship. He said, "Here's my spaceship and I'm here in the cockpit. These are the stars around us and we're going to Mars (he had a big red circle like the one in the Miro picture we had talked about earlier). And now I have to add Mars's gravitational field here in gray." I love getting a glimpse of his thoughts and I wish he had kids in his school he could talk with about the things he likes - other than Star Wars.
That's a great mental picture of the world that he he has. Does he see number and letters in color, too?
OMG, my 22month old DD just matched the mandarin symbol for five on Ni-hao, Kai-Lan. (think multiple choice, which one matches) She had not shown a lot of GT traits yet but that seems to be changing. Heck, she was barely talking till just recently. Still she gets very jealous if I practice writing with DS & not her. She makes the tightest most precise little scribbles, they are almost letter like. DH swears he has seen her manage an a & an e. This has the makings of a very wild ride!
I had a big heart swelling I am so proud of my daughter moment last night. DD 2 1/2 has always been a little shy out in public and though she has been coming out of her shell a little at a time she still seems to hang back and follow other kids' leads. She has some friends her age and I notice that while around them she dummies herself down in her verbals... shortening her sentences to 2 or 3 word sentences b/c that is how they talk but she still has fun with them. Last night we went to dinner at a restaurant that has a playground out on the deck. When we got there there were 2 girls that were quite a bit older than DD playing on the equipment but when she went out on the playground they were headed back to their seats. DD of her own choice ran over to them and asked if they would be her friends and then asked if they would come and play with her. And they did. It was so exciting to watch her out there holding her own with the kids that were about 8 to 10 years older than her. She hanging out with them I noticed her vocabulary was in normal range for her ability so no dummying down and her physical ability as she tried what they were doing seemed to increase. I guess she just needed someone to show her some new tricks.
So mommy was very proud of DD ... that was a huge step for her to go out of her way to ask them to be her friends and play with her.
DS-almost-7, first grade, had his MAP testing over the past week, and I asked him about it today (he had his last one, math, today). I love that the computer screen flashes the score when the kids are done -- DS remembers stuff like that and he happily reports back.
Last spring math: 190 (>99 percentile for Kers, 86-87 percentile for first graders) This spring math, according to DS: 225!? (>99 percentile for second graders, 97th percentile for third graders, 83-84 percentile for fourth graders!)
Last spring reading: 178 (97 percentile for Kers, 66-68 percentile for first graders) This spring reading, according to DS: 206 (this one's not as impressive as the math -- >99 percentile for first graders, 90th percentile for second graders)
Assuming he's reporting accurately (he did last year ), I'm impressed! Go get 'em, DS! And here I was thinking I should show him some example questions (he wasn't interested and I didn't bother pushing it).
Take *that*, public-school-that-wouldn't-put-him-in-first-grade-math-last-year! No wonder he's happier at school this year -- he's actually learning while he's there. Fancy that, learning at school!
I'm feeling like homeschool was the right choice for us today. Two months ago, I removed DS11 from 5th grade PS--he was incredibly unhappy in class with little challenge academically (our district is very rural and it is a poor fit).
Today, he began 8th grade Algebra on Aleks. He completed 6th grade math in little under 6 weeks online on Aleks. I decided to skip him over 7th grade and move him directly into Algebra due to high math Explore test results. We began this morning thinking we can always move back if it doesn't work. But guess what? He loves it! He assessed at 40% knowledge already and thinks it is really fun. Yay!
I just want to say "see?" to our school district who very reluctantly agreed to accelerate him to 7th grade math before I pulled him out. It probably wouldn't have been challenging enough anyway.
Times like this just confirm what you know as a parent, don't they?
Congrats, Mia! Those are some great scores. I'm so glad the new school is doing much more for your DS.
Elizabeth4, WTG! Already has 40% knowledge of Alegra! I think that was a great move for your DS.
I'll give a quick couple: *Last week I had DS6 take the free math assessment that a few us got from the Homeschool Coop-- He got 5th grade scores in the numbers strand and high 2nd in both fractions and measurement. This is after learning no new math concepts in over 9 months. I was actually surprised at the measurement score since DS6 has never been formally taught about ounces, gallons, pints, etc. This made me very happy since even without proper math instruction this year he still has maintained a lot of his previous math knowledge.
*The other brag is for me. I was told by our district GT coordinator at a district wide-parent meeting last week regarding the schools minimal GT program that I was "making waves" at the district administration level and that I should continue to fight for GT education. Even if it doesn't help DS6--it may help to pave the way for other HG+ children.
Yay, elisabeth4's ds and Crisc's ds! Looks like it's the time of year for good assessments.
Crisc, that's awesome that the GT coordinator is encouraging you. Keep it up! I'm starting to think I need to go back to our public schools at least to encourage them to start thinking GT.
DS7 and I went to an amusement park today. This is maybe the third time ever he went on the boat ride. As the guide introduced all the miniature buildings along the shore, ds, my very outspoken extrovert, announced, "This is made from 120,000 bricks," and "this one is made from 82,000 bricks," and "this one is made from 138,000 bricks." (I am making up the numbers. I don't have the kind of WMI ds has) People in the boat started making comments of how knowledgeable ds was, while his introvert mother, me, was trying find a place to hide.
Last Friday, the babysitter had just left and DW had to answer the call of nature. She and Mr W were in the bathroom by the front door, when the babysitter came back. She came in and saw DW sitting there.
Mr W looked at Mrs E and DW, who were staring at each other, and said, "UUUUUUHHH OOOOH"
-- DW took Mr W (16mo) to the mall Saturday.
There was a huge banner in front of one of the stores.
Mr W looked up at it, pointed at each letter, and sounded each one out.
I notice he looks very closely at every printed thing he sees now.
--
He asked a question in front of a close friend this weekend, who was talking about cars. "What is a Mercedes?" and my friend just about fell over.
DS3 had been talking to Grandma on the phone, using the speaker. As they started to say their goodbyes, DD16mos ran in and frantically asked "Push the red button?" [Are you hanging up?]. Before I could respond she grabbed the phone and said "Bye Grandma. Now I need to say goodbye to Ye ye." A bit confused, my mother then asked who DD was talking about. DS3 helpfully explained to us that "she means she wants to talk to Grandpa - Ye ye is chinese for grandpa, you know. It's what Kai-lan calls her Grandfather and she really loves that show."
Well, of course! Makes perfect sense for a 16mo to use a Chinese term (from a TV show she watches once a week) in a completely english-speaking household... to DS3 it does, at least
Frenchie has taken to pointing out rhetorical figures to the lads when he's reading them stories (can't keep an old English major down!). Last night, their novel included examples of a chiasmus and a synecdoche, so he explained those. Chico (still not quite 4) thought it would be fun to combine the two, pondered a moment, and came up with "Daddy's a good soul, a good soul is Daddy," which I thought was a pretty creditable attempt for his age! (Not to mention very apt personality analysis!)
Minnimarx and Austin - your kids just wow me everytime I read a new story! Good souls all around
We have a pretty good one - ds8 put up his first ROCKET today at the novaar launch, which they do about every month or two in a nearby field. I think he was pretty pooped from the hike he took with boy scouts this morning (another nice first for him and dh, actually!) so he was getting a bit cranky towards the end.
He built the rocket from an estes kit about 2 months ago and we've been waiting for another launch date. The first go was perfect, straight up, very high and the parachute popped perfectly. I don't think he really understood that it was a bit of an achievement for an 8 year old to do all this pretty well on this own...The folks running it were asking a few questions, 'Did he build it himself, etc.' They had a nice certificate they were able to give to him for his first official launch. He had a bit of a hike on the first launch, but the second one, came down nearly in his lap and everyone thought that was really great! He thought it was wonderful he didn't have to take another hike A very fun time, a nice bunch of people. Very encouraging.
we went to the Western Washington state CTY awards today, and were quite surprised to find DS9 listed as being one of the recipients of the 2009 Top of the Country Award for Quantitative, grade 3.
we had no idea! (well, we knew he had only missed one question) and DS9 was quite proud of himself, which is good because we had the Saturday morning lazies and almost didn't go.
I do wish we'd known to ask for the 4th grade test, as this was so obviously easy for him (took the whole thing in 40 minutes, max) oh well!
This is actually a very interesting situtation for me, as I find it difficult to call people and let them know, as I'm sure there would be some comparisons with their kids ...
Nothing great, but...... Our math teacher informed my daughter on the last day of school that she should join MATHCOUNTS next year because she got the highest score in the grade (of 300 kids) on the MAP test in Math..... I say this is great because we come from a district who repeatedly has the highest scores in the state on TAKS tests, and things of that sort, so having the brightest kid by a fairly large margin in those situations is mighty exciting! But she refuses to join mathcounts cause she thinks she will be called a nerd
Oh, another brag, DD13 can now successfully solve the Rubik's Cube in about a minute!!!
That's cool! Even with a how-to tutorial, I haven't been able to solve the Rubik's Cube. I was pretty happy as a kid to solve the pyramid, though.
For my brag...my 7 year old just completed his 3rd and 4th grade final exams. He earned a 97.5% on both (missed 1 problem on each) even though we only officially did half of each year's curriculum. That means he's passed three years of math this year. He's been teaching himself everything fractions and decimals which are the core components of his 5th and 6th grade math curriculum. He's anxious to get to algebra. LOL
I know this is pretty small biccies on this site - but where else can I say it! - we discovered yesterday that DSjustturnedfive can read his own story books. There's a library reward program that offers tattoos and stickers for books read, so he sat down and read it out to us. I knew he knew some words, but not to the extent of "luckily he had glue in his back-pack" eg. DS6 obviously feels a little under pressure - so he sat down at breakfast this morning and read out Captain Underpants. He didn't get every word, but then I would have fallen over if he'd managed 'orthopaedic'. So why did this only happen yesterday/today? Sometimes (reasonably often?) I feel like just flopping my head down on the desk and giving up. My children are driving me crazy.
My DS7 who grade skipped from 3 to 4 eleven weeks ago has just received his first report card. He had a bit of a time transitioning and has struggled with the organisation and self-management.
His report shows he is performing at the 'expected' level for year 4 across the board!! (Even in Italian, which he is 12 months behind in). The teacher was restricted in her grading because he had not completed many tasks (is rapidly improving this too). He also received lovely comments from the teacher and principal too.
I'm especially proud because he didn't just skip - he skipped into a 4/5 class of gifted children (high output, no revision etc).
Yay for my DS. (I love that I can come here and brag).
DS5 (close enough since he's almost 5) is really into math. I decided to get him a workbook recently since he is so into it and I was asked by his psychologist to "expose him" to more math. So I got him the 2A singapore mathbook. I asked him to go through it from start to finish and not skip all around. I went to look at it a week later and he says "uh oh mom...I just wanted to say that I skipped to excercise 62" He went to the end of the book and did the work. Apparently the book is way to easy for him. I even skipped to different parts of it and showed him word problems involving multiplication and said "look, this one is more difficult" and he read it quickly and answered it. So now he has gone to 2B, which I think is pretty easy for him too. He is really into factors and fractions lately. And when I was so excited that he finally liked a cartoon on TV, I found out it was about Math (cyberchase). LOL. He keeps things interesting.
DD2 talks constantly now in sentences. She corrected my grammer the other day. she saw a boy as we were driving and she said "I see the boy" As we passed I repeated "you see the boy?" and she said "no...I SAW the boy" yikes. Looks like I am in for some fun with her as well. AND she just turned 2 and has recently decided to potty train herself. It's quite bizarre because we haven't been doing anything other then showing her a potty and giving her pullups. In fact, I had been wanting her to hold off until I can potty train her this summer as I will be home with her, but she didn't want to wait. She loves to go on the potty and hates to get wet now (she especially loves to get an m&m each time she goes).
I will have to check that out Chris, I don't know lots of things that are on TV so that is helpful. I think we tried out Cyberchase because I heard someone else on here say there kids liked it (although I didn't know it had to do with Math). He also apparently has watched the local homework help show when he is waiting for us to pick him up. LOL, that would be so incredibly boring to me, but whatever floats your boat. ; )
Well, I'll have to take out all mentions of her name, and, she wants to edit it, because she feels that the paper "messed it up." (apparently they inadvertantly changed a question mark to a period, which changed the meaning of the sentence.)
Gave GS9 my college "Western Civilization(to 1500)" (NO! It was NOT 'current events' when I went to college!). You'd have thought I finally gave him a DS!
This is a slightly different type of brag for this thread, but I'm exploding with maternal pride for my DS7: yesterday he passed the swim test at the local pool, which allowed him to go into the deep end and use the slide.
To pass, he had to swim the front crawl continuously for 15 meters (face in the water, with breathing to the side [not front]). He's been talking going down that slide forever, and he'd been working really hard to try to pass. He failed three times in June/July and was scared of failing again, but he didn't give up.
We all cheered for him when the lifeguard on duty said he could go get a deep-end wristband. The other lifeguards all know him and they all cheered and made a big deal of it.
It was one of those moments, you know? I'll still be smiling about it when I'm 85.
I was asking DD6 if she wanted e-g-g-s for breakfast yesterday spelling out the word so that DD18months wouldn't understand and want one too instead of the food she was already eating, and when DD6 said yes, DD18mnths chimed in with "Mommy - e-g-g-s " and shook her head yes with a big grin, telling me she wanted some too! She was so pleased with herself it was funny.
I was asking DD6 if she wanted e-g-g-s for breakfast yesterday spelling out the word so that DD18months wouldn't understand and want one too instead of the food she was already eating, and when DD6 said yes, DD18mnths chimed in with "Mommy - e-g-g-s " and shook her head yes with a big grin, telling me she wanted some too! She was so pleased with herself it was funny.
Food is such a funny thing!!
I promised Mr W (18mo) chicken and ice cream yesterday on a road trip. He had two thighs and fell asleep. I forgot about the ice cream.
When we arrived at home, he grabbed my hand, took me into the kitchen, asked to be picked up, pointed at the freezer, which I took him to. He opened the freezer door and reached in for the ice cream package.
The ice cream in this case are the vanilla ice cream cone "drumsticks" but this one has the mini-ones in it it which he had not had.
I picked the peanuts off over the sink and then handed it to him.
He took one look at the mini-cone and his face just looked puzzled then he burst into tears and ran off. I then had to explain to him these are the minis and showed him the package. He gave me a smile and took his cone.
How neat to have a "safe place" to be able to celebrate our kid's accomplishments!
My little guy, Nick, is 23 mos and is beginning to sight read several words. We were driving by some shops and he started saying, "EAT" over and over. I asked him if he was hungry, he said "no". Then I realized that he was reading the sign on a billboard that said, "eat" on it...he also was reading 'stop', 'go', 'play' and some other small words...it 's really cool to be able to express this here without anyone IRL thinking I'm nuts, or pushing my kid to read. Amazing how their minds just unfurl puzzles...
Not sure if this is a brag or a lament (which is pretty typical for parents of gifted kids) . . . This was my morning:
My morning began an hour before we normally get up with my DS18mo screaming in his crib. I ran in (assuming something was very wrong). When he saw me, he smiled and said, "Want breakfast please." Still groggy, I stood there for a minute and he looked at me (like I was stupid) and said nicely, "Now, mommy!" Uh, ok.
While still in the chaos of the am getting ready for school time, my DS4 actually finished earlier than the rest of us so he sat on the couch and began looking at some materials that I have purchased to use in his homeschooling this fall. When the rest of us were finally ready to leave (approx. 30 minutes later), I asked him to put down the book on stories with critical thinking activities (1st-3rd grade). I casually asked, "Did you read one of the stories in that book?" "Was it good?" He told me that he "finished the whole book and the authors thought they were being clever but, actually, they weren't."
I think I'll need to start the caffeine much earlier in the morning to keep up.
My twice exceptional 11 year old son with motor dyspraxia, who has a high verbal IQ but lower performance IQ, was able to learn and play a two page piano song written at what his piano teacher estimated to be a late intermediate level. The piano teacher said this song would even be challenging for her high school age student. I think my son's performance IQ would suggest that he might not be capable of this, yet he did it. He did it because he wanted to do it badly enough and was willing to practice as much as it took to do it.
I reminded my son that he somehow learned to read without being taught at 2 1/2 even though he had undiagnosed vision issues that made it difficult for him to read for very long, and he managed to read at a 5th grade level at age five even though he could only read a paragraph before his eyes got tired and he had to rest his eyes. I think he was able to do this because he didn't like books written at the lower levels and he really wanted to read the books he liked.
I think this success gave him the confidence to try other things that were difficult for him in the past. Because he had such difficulty when he was younger in manipulating small puzzle pieces he never wanted to do jigsaw puzzles and I didn't force him to do them. He had Legos when he was younger but he wouldn't work with those either. For the first time he put together a Lego car with small pieces by himself. He had a little trouble with dropping some of the smaller pieces but he didn't give up and now he wants more building sets.
A few weeks ago, I was a little worried when we talked to the neuropsychologist about college plans and she said something like "He has a high verbal IQ, but which IQ score do you use to predict how he will do in school?" I think we found our answer. He is capable of higher performance even with his motor learning disability. He just has to want to do it badly enough and he needs the freedom to learn in the way he learns best.
Kudos to DS Lori, tell him from me that's terrific!! I've listened to many painful renditions on violin and I understand how hard mastery is! Great Job!!
Love this thread! I finally finished reading all the posts and can't believe how amazing these kids are. Here's my little brag:
My DS3.5 is currently obsessed with the solar system and outer space. He knows all the planets by name and order, plus a lot of facts about each one, and about other things as well, such as comets and asteroids. Most of the books out there still list Pluto as a planet, so we've had quite a few discussions about how it's not an official planet any more (he's very sad about this). A couple of weeks ago, he came up to me and said, "Pluto isn't a planet, it's a comet. It's made of ice and rock and it's not a planet so it's a comet."
Just thought it was neat how he took what he knew about Pluto and comets and came to his own conclusion.
I was kind of sad when they reclassified Pluto too, until I realized that what we call it doesn't actually change anything. Pluto is still Pluto, regardless of what some committee decided. Now I feel better about it. )
-----------> And now for tonight's story...
DD4 just lost a tooth. It had been loose for a while, and her elder brothers have been coaching her on what to expect from a tiny person called the tooth fairy ($2).
We put the tooth into a plastic sandwich bag and told her to put it under her pillow. Her brothers told her that the TF would take the tooth during the night and would leave her some money!
But DD thought about it and she was dubious about this plan. In particular, she couldn't work out how the tooth fairy would know to visit us ("How will she know to come here if the tooth is hiding under my pillow?"). So she thought about it some more and decided to make everything more transparent by taping the plastic sandwich bag to the sliding door that leads to the balcony outside her room. As an extra precaution, she also taped a note to the door (Daddy helped with spelling):
"TOOTH FAIRY
Please come and see my tooth.
Don't forget the 2 dollars.
"
We'll definitely be saving this note for, like, ever.
The last tooth DS lost was quite a bit larger than the others he had lost, so he wrote a note to the TF pointing out its size and saying he thought it was worth $5 instead of the usual $1.
For the record, he got $2 for it. And yes, we'll be saving that note forever too!
DD3 - my ND child (or so I thought)... the following happened at dinner last night:
DD: "I know what 0+2 is". Me: What? DD: 2 Me: Uh... (she giggles). What's 0+3? DD: 3 DH: What's 0+5? DD: 5 DH: What's 1+2? DD: 2 (whew - not whew in that way... but, she IS really normal, right?) DH: No, look 1+2 (holds up 1 finger on one hand and 2 on the other) DD: Duh, Free (3).
The DUH part cracked me up!
We've (sadly) NEVER really worked on math with her (that's what we get for ASSuming she was the normal one)... apparently we need to start, huh? I know this doesn't equate to genius or even giftedness, but I honestly had NO idea she even understood what the word "plus" meant!
I think zero is WAY harder conceptually than plus, although that's pretty great too!! Wow.
A few weeks back my ds9 had a little disagreement with an older friend, and then later Dh about whether infinity times 0 is zero or not. Ds held firm that there was no answer, despite my DH explaining several different ways about how nothing of anything is nothing, therefore zero. I had to look it up, I wasn't sure...turns out there is no answer, infinity just doesn't work that way. I was surprised, especially about how ds stuck to his guns. Doesn't equate to genius either, but certainly interesting!
I think zero is WAY harder conceptually than plus, although that's pretty great too!! Wow.
A few weeks back my ds9 had a little disagreement with an older friend, and then later Dh about whether infinity times 0 is zero or not. Ds held firm that there was no answer, despite my DH explaining several different ways about how nothing of anything is nothing, therefore zero. I had to look it up, I wasn't sure...turns out there is no answer, infinity just doesn't work that way. I was surprised, especially about how ds stuck to his guns. Doesn't equate to genius either, but certainly interesting!
Good intuition!! Quantity has a quality all to itself!!
Our daughter is helping GS10 get ready for his 4-H dog show next week. She picked up 2 pages, double-sided, with questions all about dogs-- breeds, care & feeding, showing, etc. She gave them to him last night and less than a half hour later he came to me and asked me to ask him the questions. We were moving right down the page when daughter came into the room and said, "J, have you read all those already?!" She was stunned that he had read all of them, not to mention he remembered all the answers! I've been real low-key about saying anything to her about his mental ability. She has 8 & 6 year old girls and I really don't comparisons that result in hard feelings.
Do you know this book, Chris? Charles Seife, "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea," Viking, 2000. Very cool! (He talks quite a bit about the relationship between zero and infinity.)
This isn't much of a brag, but it cracked me up, and thought maybe it might make somebody else chuckle, too:
I was weeding the vegetable garden this afternoon (I am in a losing battle with the redroot this year), and Chico (4) came out to join me, Tilley hat on head, comic book under one arm, little red Adirondack chair in the other hand. He plunked down his chair, opened his book, and said, "Mummy, I'm just going to sit here, read Little Lulu, and eat snow peas until my gizzard bursts!"
If I shared this anywhere else but here, I'd get shunned by our community for certain.
My son and his teacher come out of his classroom together one afternoon a few months back (3rd grade) and the teacher says, "Your son taught the class about the square root of negative one today!" My son brought it up when they were working with the series of squares on the multiplication table.
Another child asked about taking the square root of -4 (or something like that) and the teacher demonstrated on her calculator that it would result in an error... just like dividing by zero.
Well... not only was my guy confident (brave? stupid?) enough to contradict the teacher, but also willing to bet against the calculator.
On a lark, he and I had discussed it a few weeks earlier when he was practicing math with negative numbers. No, he didn't figure it out on his own (that would be REALLY scary), but he did fully grasp the concept and can use it in simple problems like (2i)^2 = -4 and so forth.
The teacher said she'd forgotten all about it and was tickled at being reminded by a 3rd grader.
I'm still constantly amazed at what he can process.
I have a little anecdote that's more of a laugh than a brag:
Today DS6 needed to have a blood test done. When it was his turn to sit in the chair he said, "I'm not too thrilled about this...I think I'm going to want my memory modified!"
The phlebotomist laughed and told him that she would be happy to do that as soon as the procedure was done. She said she would take him to a little room and he would wake up and wonder why he had a bandaid on his arm.
I was glad she went along with his fantasy, it seemed to distract him and no tears were shed
I am so thrilled with Wolf(almost 5) today! He had been having some problems with ones and tens columns and carrying (not in his head, just on paper) and so we practiced with pennies and dimes (if there are more than ten pennies after they are added you change ten in for one dime). He picked it up really quickly and then added 1,234,567,890 + 1,234,567,890 all by himself. He was so pleased with himself. AND he seems to have figured out where to put the commas now! A good day.
Mr W got to go to Ikea for the first time last weekend.
Inside, DW and W found a set of those wire tree toys. Mr W has loved these since he first saw one. He enjoys moving all the buttons over to one side then pushing them all back over. The really large ones keep him enthralled for hours.
Mr W and and 3 year old boy were working the toys. Mr W would solve one, then go to the next. Then he got to the toy the 3 year old was on. Mr W desperately wanted to play with it, but stood by, waiting for the 3 year old to finish.
The 3 year old then noticed that Mr W had a pacifier. And he immediately reached out and tried to yank it from Mr W's mouth.
With his teeth clenched onto the pacifier, Mr W pulled the 3 year old's hands off him, and very clearly yelled, "NOOO! Bad Boy!!"
Not really a "brag" but more of a cute/funny moment. Shopping in Cosco with DD4 who currently has a summer cold. DD4 sneezes loudly. I say bless you. DD4 very loudly--"Mommy I think I have the Swine Flu--I have all the symptoms." Me "no it is just a cold." DD4 "No mommy I am pretty sure it is the swine flu." The aisle cleared out pretty quickly. If only it was in the check out line. We have got to work on timing:)
As I mentioned on the other thread, I am trying (lamely, in several senses) to put together a woodshop for the boys (it will go better--I hope--once I can walk properly again!). They had seen a sign on somebody's playhouse that said, "Boys' Club, No Girls Allowed"; they thought they'd like to have a sign for their shop, but they didn't want anything like that ("Why have a sign like that? Girls are nice!" say my little bunnies). They've been reading about the English Civil War lately, and Groucho decided what should be on their shop sign: "Cavaliers' Woodshop; No Roundheads Allowed!" This cracked us up.
Tonight while I was making supper, Chico and I were amusing each other by making funny faces. Groucho caught one of mine (it was meant to be a gingerbread man, don't ask me why), and he said, "Goodness, Mummy, you look like something from a horror movie, or maybe even a wine critic!" This also cracked me up.
I don't know if this is really a brag, or more of a 'that was weird, right?' kind of thing, but... Recently, I injured my foot and decided to go in to ER and get it x-rayed just to be certain I hadn't broken anything. DH and DS (*just* turned 2) came along and amused themselves wandering around the hospital corridors while I waited to get my foot looked after.
First off, they had to go out to the main lobby to find a juice, and DS was able to navigate back to where they'd left me... DH would just say 'okay, now where do we go?' and follow him. This is in a big, old, labyrinthine city hospital where I'm sure adults get lost all the time.
But what was really freaky was that on another of their wanderings, out of several dozen nondescript, lookalike closed doors they passed, there was ONE place that DS stopped and insisted "Go in there? We go in there?"... at the breastfeeding clinic where I'd taken him twice, at six and eight days of age. Those were the only times he'd been in that building at all, prior to my foot injury. (And yes, the BF clinic's door was closed and it didn't have any pretty pictures or mum-and-baby posters or anything enticing outside). It defies my imagination that he could possibly have remembered the place, but it would be an equally odd coincidence.
A couple pages back I mentioned GS10 reading 4 pages of questions about dogs in preparation for showing. He won his age group for showmanship, , the judge had to ask him a question that was not on the pages to stump him! He would have had a perfect score in showmanship otherwise. Did you know an adult dog should have 42 teeth? GS10 now knows it, haha.
DD2 has recently started surprising us with things. I just realized last night that she can count objects now. Before she would "count" and just keep going, but I watched her discover it last night and I thought it was pretty great seeing how quick she figured it out as she pointed to items in a book. It was also pretty neat because while I hate getting the "he is so smart" comments about DS5 that he gets ALL the time, I actually felt quite happy when DD was getting a haircut yesterday and the hairdresser was surprised at the things that DD was saying and the things that she knew since she had just turned 2. She commented "wow, she is a really smart little girl" I think it is the first time I have heard someone say that about her. I hear how cute she is all the time, but it made me happy to hear that it's not all about DS (even though it has always been hard to miss with him).
And she is getting quite the personality and is so creative and funny. Today she had a big reaction on her arm from a bug bite and she was laughing pointing at it telling us that there was a little frog with glasses on, on her arm. (At first we were a bit concerned she was hallucinating since she has been sick with a high fever since yesterday...but she wasn't that hot at the time when she said that. And then we were a little concerned again 5 minutes later when she randomly said "where did the music go?" when there had been no music playing, LOL). She makes us laugh.
During few weeks I have been amazed with DD and puzzles. 2 mo ago she was just getting into jigsaw puzzles and still needed me to help her with them. Then she suddenly mastered the 9 piece, 2 weeks ago 12 piece and now last night I saw her doing two 24 piece ones without any help. Those are really not that easy anymore, of course adult can do them easy but they do require some thinking compared to 9 piece ones. She is 25mo now. It looks so easy too, like it would be normal for a 25mo old to do.
That's great Oli! DD2 hasn't quite gotten the jigsaw type puzzles down yet, although she likes them and does great with other puzzle type things. I think it is neat that some kids do the puzzles so early. DS5 likes to go on jigzone and do puzzles on there from time to time.
I was very proud of DS6 yesterday. He was playing with his friend, D, from across the street. D is also 6 and will be starting first grade in Sept. Anyway, D wanted to read the instructions for a game they were trying to play and became frustrated because he can't read well yet. DS said, "Don't worry, D, I'll help you read it." After DS read it, D said, "Reading is so easy for you!" and DS said, "It's easy once you get the hang of it."
This is a big deal for me because in the past we have had trouble with DS bragging and comparing himself to others (out loud...) Could all those talks we've had about the issue finally be sinking in?
Wacky sense of humor(for a 10 yr old): Grandson & I left the dentist office this morning. We were a block off the main route to a hospital and we heard lots of sirens. GS10 looked around furtively, and whispered loudly, "they're on to me. Let's get out of here!" hahaha, I love his sense of humor! A few weeks ago(I don't think I posted this), another farm woman was talking about raising organic livestock, and their vet from Greenville. GS10 started giggling and said, "That's funny". I knew right away the connection he made, but the other person didn't. So he laughingly explained, "organic vet, from Greenville; get it?" He's a veerrryyy punny guy!
One day, while swinging at the park, my DS4 silently watched his shadow follow him underneath the swing for what seemed like 5 or 10 minutes and then remarked, "I think my shadow is me in another dimension." The casual observer might have thought he was just zoned out, but he was actually deep in thought the whole time. It was one of those occasions that made me stop and wonder what other amazing things are going on in his head that I don't even know about.
The other day Wolf(5) was showing grandma RedRemover (on bubblebox.com, btw he's done all the levels and the adults have had problems with it!!!). He clicked on level 1 and said to her, "Let me show you level 1 so you can get an idea of the concept." Grandma was a bit stunned by that...
Bear(2.5) was watching us talk about the ants invading our house. He told us quite matter-of-factly, "Ants are a type of bug." Now the ant - bug concept didn't phase me, but even I did a double take at his using the word "type"!
Oh! One more wonderful thing to mention, I took the boys to the zoo today and they were perfectly polite and respectful to all the animals. No screaming at or chasing birds to make them run, not tapping on tanks, no inappropriate behavior of any kind!!! I am so proud! (Personally I wants to strangle several other children for their bad manners and disrespectful behavior, but I refrained. Yay for me. LOL)
DS6 went from not swimming at all to now swimming in the 10ft area of the pool we belong in just a weekend. I was very impressed. It started last week when DS6 asked me the "secret of swimming". I told him to keep his arms and legs moving at the same time.
One day, while swinging at the park, my DS4 silently watched his shadow follow him underneath the swing for what seemed like 5 or 10 minutes and then remarked, "I think my shadow is me in another dimension." The casual observer might have thought he was just zoned out, but he was actually deep in thought the whole time. It was one of those occasions that made me stop and wonder what other amazing things are going on in his head that I don't even know about.
Great story! Ds9 has remarked many times about how the swing is his place to really think, about everything (for one thing no body bugs you, I guess). His office, lol!
I have been pretty preoccupied with discovering DS7 LOG that I have been purposefully denying DD3s giftedness. She just turned 3 mind you and was a preemie. Yday she came running up to tell me that her imaginary friends were using the "A-word" and could I please put them in time out. *rolls eyes* I really can only handle one kid at once. HELP! Anyone else have this experience. LOL
It was one of those occasions that made me stop and wonder what other amazing things are going on in his head that I don't even know about.
It's quite amazing isn't it. Whenever DS5 is quiet and staring I know something is going on in there. He does a lot of great thinking in the car...and he frequently catches me off guard. Like this morning he had a great idea to build a miniature golf course in our back yard...he even drew up the plans for this. Usually he is thinking about math and word game things in his head.
We talked about different number base systems a while ago. Basically he "gets" the idea and could do math in just about any base. (Murderous maths also stretched his mind with the Mayans base 60 math.) He did a double key code for his mom that went alpha to binary to alpha. Murderous Maths have been a home run with him... Love that book series.
We talked about different number base systems a while ago. Basically he "gets" the idea and could do math in just about any base. (Murderous maths also stretched his mind with the Mayans base 60 math.) He did a double key code for his mom that went alpha to binary to alpha. Murderous Maths have been a home run with him... Love that book series.
JB
I will see if my library has those. Thanks for the tip. Blush (non mathie) what's a base system? Do I need a math dictionary?
Wow Dottie, you have opened whole new worlds today. I was always pretty good at Math...but knew nothing about this binary and base system stuff. I just found this cool site that has lots of cool links on it. I am excited to see new stuff that DS5 can learn as he is soaking stuff up pretty quick. I showed him square roots, exponents, and plotting yesterday on the x,y axis as he found it on one of computer things. After a brief explanation...he got it and got them all right. It's crazy.
Here is that site I just found if anyone is interested. It looks pretty cool. Well, cool for DS that is. "cool" is relative.
I just want to say how wonderful my kids are today.
They both love to read. I take them to the library every week. They are very content to look at book or play on the computer. This summer, I baby sat a child and thought that would be great for him too. I knew he didn't go to the library much. Well, he was bored even when I played games with him. Sometimes I think all kids are like mine but this was again a reminder.
I was telling my Friend the reason my kids like to read in we have always gotten cosy with them and made it fun. And we have always said if your not tired look at books at bed time. She then told me she did the same. Then, I felt a little bad, and said well it must be their personality too. But again it made me realize what a gift to have such simple pleasures.
I I was telling my Friend the reason my kids like to read in we have always gotten cosy with them and made it fun. And we have always said if your not tired look at books at bed time. She then told me she did the same. Then, I felt a little bad, and said well it must be their personality too. But again it made me realize what a gift to have such simple pleasures.
Very Wise OTGMom! If we want to be 'politically correct' then we pretend that it is all about what great parents we are, and not about that each child is born their own person (some more so than others, no doubt) I was awfully smug for years, until I realized that it wasn't about me. I don't know how the other moms put up with me! Good news is that you can congratulate your friend for being a responsive parent and giving her child more of what they like, with are reasonable amount of what they need.
Lately a friend explained to me very simply the 'recipe for raising a coordinated child' I smiled and said: 'Great!' but I didn't believe a word of it. I think it is worth is to make the effort, but, well, mostly I think it's sweet when parents who don't know, just don't know.
Okay, so generally I don't like to go on and on about DS6. Already did that last week However, this weekend was a great weekend for us. Played lots of chess, played a lot outside (great weather), played on the computer (Evolver math game), etc.
So bedtime reading for the last couple of nights has been a short essay from Isaac Asimov. If you didn't know--I didn't but happened to marry a lovely wife that has a lot of his books--he wrote lots about various non fiction topics, including math. DS has "discovered" one of mom's books, a collection of essays. We've been reading "The Imaginary that Isn't" about i (square root of -1). Yes, I am a geek and yes those genes did pass into said son. Hey, it's his bedtime. If that's what he wants to read, then we'll read it. [to be clear: the vocabulary is very advanced and I am reading it to him. He reads along silently]
This particular essay goes on for a while before it gets to the "good stuff". Tonight was the night that it got there though. You have to read all of it to get the story, but the short of it is that while in college a philosophy professor challenged Asimov and said that basically mathematicians were "mystics" because they believed in imaginary numbers. He then goes on an on in great length (details omitted) and then describes two dimensional space as a function of the x-axis being your normal number line and the y-axis being the imaginary line. I'm not even through reading that sentence when DS proclaims "I get it!" and then jumps out of bed and draws me a number line and then puts i "on top" and says minus i is on bottom. This was all a set up by the way to show the reader that imaginary numbers can be used to show directions just like a compass if you use that x-y system to be your compass. So he's already jumped to "yeah WEST x WEST = EAST" meaning a negative x negative = positive. The fun part will be tomorrow when we finish up!
Let's say... I was impressed/stunned/dumbfounded and glad I have a technical background!
Do you know Don Cohen's books? He's at www.mathman.biz . I wonder if his stuff might interest your son--there's the main book (Calculus by and for Young People age 7 and Up), and one called something like "Changing Shapes with Matrices" that was well-loved here (and that sounds like it might have something to do with what you're currently reading). (Sadly [well, sad in this context, anyway], I am Humanities Woman, not Math Woman, so I'm not sure whether this really relates to what you are discussing! But on the off chance that he might like it, I'm willing to risk the public humiliation!!!)
peace minnie
PS And good on you for reading him what he likes at bedtime!!
It is nice to have this place to talk. My DD who will be 2 and 1/2 has decided she is going to be "an orthopedic surgeon" She has a "surgeon kit" and "performs surgery" on us all the time. She uses technical terms and act out each step. It is wonderful.
She also says over 2300 words and her sentences are on par with 6 year olds, can count to 25, and understands that numbers go with quantities. She is asking to learn to read and is doing a wonderful job mastering the phonics sound of the alphabet. I would say she has this about halfway mastered.
I can't discuss this with hardly anyone not on here. I have a board I am a member of wit other moms that all have children of siilar age. And whenever I post anything about what my child does that is advanced, not in a bragging way, but just sharing because I think it is cute. It is ignored, no responses at all. So I have stopped. I am glad to have this place.
That's cool! amazedmom My DS has always been interested in medical stuff too.
I had to laugh just now when I overheard this snippet of conversation between DS6 and his friend from across the street (also 6), "Metacognition is not a food!" Lol...I have to remember to ask him later what he thinks it is! Where did he get a word like that?
GS10 took the Star reading test the first week back to school. I can't remember exactly what his reading level was at the end of 4th grade, but he jumped between 3 & 4 grade equivalents over the summer, to 12.8 grade equivalent! Isn't it amazing what a kid can learn when school gets out of the way?
DH said again that we should look at accelerating him. But GS is a hugely social child, and it's taken a lot to get him accepted by his age peers. He has 3 super good friends in his grade level now, I don't want to start over with that. Besides, even though I've had some frustrations with his teachers over mundane tasks, he continues to put an increasing academic level between himself and most of his age peers.
Just another brag DD 2 and 1/2 has memorized 2 500+ word books and loves to recite them including doing voices and inflections. It is so funny to watch She has been memorizing easy small board books since she was about 1 but these are much longer
amazedmom- i have a similar issue with a "mommy" board i belong to. i once started a heated argument (not on purpose of course) for stating that DS is on the special needs spectrum and that it was not fair that those that have learning disabilities, etc, got the special attention & education they needed, yet DS couldn't get what he needed. Apparently *I* was stating that kids with learning disabilities shouldn't be in school and then had a list of numbers for all kinds of private schools, etc to contact... *sigh* It's really nice to be able to come here and feel good about being able to brag about your child.
amazedmom, are you absolutely sure she's memorised these books rather than reading them? (Could be either, of course, or a mixture, but I'm one of many parents who didn't realise how much my DS could read because I was assuming it was entirely memorising, when it wasn't! He certainly *was* memorising, but I think that was how he taught himself to read - comparing what he'd memorised with the marks on the paper.)
ColinsMum - DS was the same! So I say he was reading right before he turned 3 because I wasn't sure exactly when it went from memorizing to reading. But I DO know that we figured it out right before his 3rd birthday. But who knows how long beforehand he was doing it!
My twice-exceptional son was similar in early reading ability. I am sure he started out my memorizing words but before he turned 3 I know he was really reading because I could spell out the words without him even seeing the words on the page and he could identify them. I could spell out the words in newspaper comics when he was three and he could not only identify words spelled out for him that he had seen before, but words that I was sure he had not seen like the word surgery and especially.
amazedmom, are you absolutely sure she's memorised these books rather than reading them? (Could be either, of course, or a mixture, but I'm one of many parents who didn't realise how much my DS could read because I was assuming it was entirely memorising, when it wasn't! He certainly *was* memorising, but I think that was how he taught himself to read - comparing what he'd memorised with the marks on the paper.)
Mr W is able to pick out words for specific things. This is not reading, but its the last step. Based on this, I can believe that other kids are reading at an early age.
I just have to brag a little bit - my DD (she'll be 7 this week and in 2nd grade) has begun to write a "book." She has all the chapters outlined in her mind. Now, of course, Chapter 1 is only 1 page long, but I'm still impressed.
It's a pretty clever story too - She merged the Harry Potter characters with Pokemon. Apparently, in this book Harry Potter and his friends play pokemon.
She is typing it out as her handwriting is not that great. I'm not sure how, but she had all the punctuation, capitalization, etc. pretty much correct. It must be all that reading she's done and she has "inferred" correct grammar!
It's a pretty clever story too - She merged the Harry Potter characters with Pokemon. Apparently, in this book Harry Potter and his friends play pokemon.
DS5.5 had his first fall baseball game. Played SS for the first time. Made 3 outs on his own and got the game ball! BUT, most impressive was watching him get the ball, looking at the runners and making the decision as to where to go/throw, etc, without the coach even saying anything... most boys, whether they are athletic or not, don't get that part until a few years later, at least in a live game situation!
DS5.5 had his first fall baseball game. Played SS for the first time. Made 3 outs on his own and got the game ball! BUT, most impressive was watching him get the ball, looking at the runners and making the decision as to where to go/throw, etc, without the coach even saying anything... most boys, whether they are athletic or not, don't get that part until a few years later, at least in a live game situation!
I finding something interesting about my DS9 in sports...He likes to play these key positons. In soccer he loves the goalie. In baseball he played catcher alot and wants to be a pitcher. I'm thinking this might relate to his "Foreman/Leader/Bossy" part of him. I think some kids might be feel too pressured in these spots? Any thoughts?
My 2 and 1/2 year DD just few through the pre-school file folder games I bought her....She's now doing the kindergatren ones and told her dad the other day when he praised her uring it "don't say good job. There's no reason" She also figured out the other day "a square can become a diamond if you turn it on it's side" and "mama, an oval is also an ellipse" So proud.
I posted a thread about Hooked on Phonics, but I wanted to brag here as well. This weekend we opened the Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics package and DS had fun playing some of the alphabet games on the computer. He then wanted me to read the books, but I asked him to read them to me instead. I was so surprised when he read the first 4 books! Most of the words were 3-4 letters long, but for a kid that I thought barely knew the alphabet, I was very proud of him. Just like DD, he went from not interested in reading, to reading beginner books overnight.
I just have to brag... My DS7 (accelerated from 3 to 4 earlier this year) has just received his results in a national assessments competition. He did the year 4 tests and....
Spelling - High Distinction (>99%ile in our state) English - Distinction (>92%ile in our state) Maths - Distinction (>93%ile in our state)
He was disappointed in his science (one of his strengths) but it was the first test he did and made some simple errors.
DD 2.5 just sounded out her first word today all by herself...."RAT" I am so proud, she the promptly crashed and feel asleep sitting up on the couch....i guess the new skill wore her out. LOL
My little Bear has been going to Music Together classes for 8 weeks now. He has thrown tantrums about going, refused to talk to anyone in class, refused to take off his shoes (can't leave without shoes...), refused to get off my lap, refused to join in the dancing part or let me join in (sensory issues and transition issues there), etc... Luckily the teacher has a son with Downs and is very understanding with sensitive kids.
He LOVES the classes though and eventually separated from me enough to get instruments and put them away.
This last class (8) I made a deal with him. If he got to bring brightly colored giraffe then he would take off his shoes (prior to this I had managed one shoe off for one song). It's a big deal because shoes aren't actually allowed in class. Well he did it! He made it through the whole class and actually participated and talked to the teacher and everything!!!!!!!!! {happy dance} The teacher finally got to see the Bear that I know!
He was horrid to be around the rest of the day. It totally took it out of him (wish he had just passed out! lol), but he did it!
Our DS9mo started daycare last week. His caregiver told us he keeps crawling to the bookshelf to "read" book instead of the toy box.
Last night, DH was using a stuffed animal to tickle DS, DH, and me one at a time. DH and I giggled when the stuffed animal tickled us. When it�s DS� turn to be tickled, he pushed the stuffed animal my way so his dad can tickle me instead of him.
My DS9 yesterday got a new thicker book from the school library. He said at least with this book, I won't be done with it the first day. He was done with it the 2nd day. LOL. He said the bigger books are better because he likes more details. I thought that all sounded very mature. How nice he has such appreciation for books.
Ok, my first brag. DS7 who just went back to public school this year. He has been accelerated to thrid grade, and is kind of the new kid. (He did attend this school 1/2 day in K). Normally he is slow to make freinds, and kind of goes with the flow type. He signed up to run for a school leadership position. Postmaster (I have no idea what it means) but he has to run for office in a school wide election (Only thrid graders can run for this position). He had to get 20 signatures supporting this, and will need to make a speach. I thought I had a shy little boy, that found it hard to speak up. Its nice to see him drive this. He went out and found 20 students to sign, many that he didn't know. I can't wait to hear what he wants to speak about. DS17 also has volunteered to help him with the two posters they allow. Its great to see him stepping forward and getting involved.
Ok, my first brag. DS7 who just went back to public school this year. He has been accelerated to thrid grade, and is kind of the new kid. (He did attend this school 1/2 day in K). Normally he is slow to make freinds, and kind of goes with the flow type. He signed up to run for a school leadership position. Postmaster (I have no idea what it means) but he has to run for office in a school wide election (Only thrid graders can run for this position). He had to get 20 signatures supporting this, and will need to make a speach. I thought I had a shy little boy, that found it hard to speak up. Its nice to see him drive this. He went out and found 20 students to sign, many that he didn't know. I can't wait to hear what he wants to speak about. DS17 also has volunteered to help him with the two posters they allow. Its great to see him stepping forward and getting involved.
That is definitely bragworthy ! Will you update us how he does. It taked so much courage to run from new class and to be younger than others.
Edwin - that's great. In DS5.5's school meeting today, I was in a bit of shock when the asst principal said he was so outgoing and friendly - he's not shy... I wasn't sure we were talkin' about the same boy! LOL.
DS received his "can read 200+ sight words" award on day one in 1st grade! Of course, he would've been able to do it day 1 in pre-k, but we're still proud all the same!
A couple of funny conversations we've had recently: I went to check on my ds9 as my dd3 was falling asleep. I whispered to her, 'I'm going to check on ds.' She said, 'Does check on mean 'read to'? Because I don't want you to read to him!'. Ack! She is just a little firecracker!
Ds9 read a short bio of Einstein the other day and I guess he's been thinking about it, because he asked, 'What made him a genius? Can anyone be a genius?'. I thought, oh boy, well, I'm glad you asked that question!!! It was a great opportunity to talk about having a different kind of brain, but also about working hard to really see what one could do with the gifts one has. I went on at some length and figured I'd probably lost him along the way, but he kept up, asked some follow up questions and sounded really interested. Good thing I've been reading (just a little) on the matter of giftedness!
Earlier today Bear wanted chips and was allowed to have the last of his dad's. He ate some and then said, "I won't eat them all cause if I do daddy will be sad. I would be sad if someone ate all my chips." He went to try to give the rest to dad, but he was told it was ok to eat them. It was so cute. He's only 2.7 and I thought empathy like that didn't kick in till later?
Also due to Wolf, dad and I being tired of doing Starfall for him, this evening I taught Bear how to use the computer mouse so he could do it himself. He gets a bit frustrated because he has trouble moving it slowly, but for the most part he's doing great!!!
Earlier today Bear wanted chips and was allowed to have the last of his dad's. He ate some and then said, "I won't eat them all cause if I do daddy will be sad. I would be sad if someone ate all my chips." He went to try to give the rest to dad, but he was told it was ok to eat them. It was so cute. He's only 2.7 and I thought empathy like that didn't kick in till later?
Also due to Wolf, dad and I being tired of doing Starfall for him, this evening I taught Bear how to use the computer mouse so he could do it himself. He gets a bit frustrated because he has trouble moving it slowly, but for the most part he's doing great!!!
dd is 2.5 and always is telling me things like that. She will tell me that daddy will be sad if she does xxxx and the other day she told him "I'm sorry daddy, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings" when she thought she must have. None of her friends are doing that yet, so I think you are right, it typically doesn't start till later.
Is there an expration date on bragging? I just thought of something fun to share. This started four years ago.
When DD was 2 she would not accept she had a 4head. She said it was a 2 head. When she was 3 she would not accept she had a 4head. She said it was a 3 head. When she was 4 it was ok to have a forehead and she has been sticking with that story. We just rolled with it. Thinking of this makes me smile.
Yesterday we were heading out for dance class with ds9 and dd3.5. She exclaimed that we'd left her bag of cars at Aunt's house!! I told her we could stop by on the way back, and asked her to help me remember when we were going home. About 5 minutes after we got in the car to drive home, about a 30 minute drive, she reminded me to go to Aunt's to get the cars!! I said, 'Wow, great memory, but I might forget if you don't tell me when we get to the mountain. Can you remind me again?' The second we turned onto the mountain road, she reminded me again. And we went through the same routine, I asked her to remind me again when we were closer, so just as we were turning onto Aunt's road, which also leads to our house, she did so. I was pretty amazed! Each time I said this I thought, no-way is she going to remind me, and we'll probably get home, she'll realize she doesn't have her cars and I'll have to go back and get them... Very surprising.
I loved this one today: My DD complained that elementary school teachers spend too much time telling kids they have to do something because they'll have to do it in middle school. Says she: "We should just get to live in the present. If we have to live in the future all of the time we'll never get to actually experience anything!".
(now I guess I have to stop telling my fifth graders that they can't wear their coats in class b/c it's not allowed in middle school.... )
Some of you probably remember my horror stories about how Bear doesn't deal well with new things/change/pretty much everything. Wolf went to his dentist's appointment today and we made Bear watch. He was told he would have to do this sometime. He said very adamantly, several times, "No, I NOT!"
Anyway he wanted a toy out of the chest, but we told him he couldn't get one without getting his teeth checked. That upset him a bit, but he eventually put the toy he'd chosen back. Then much to our surprise he walked over to the chair, climbed up into it and asked for the sunglasses (to keep the light out of their eyes). The hygenist looked at us and asked if we wanted her to do him as well. We just nodded in mute shock, figuring as soon as she touched him it would be over. He sat through the WHOLE process of getting his teeth cleaned, flossed, flouridated and inspected and got to go home with a toy. It was a miracle!!!!
A week ago I told DD 2.5 that the opposite of up is down.....well since then she has been comming up with opposites to everything, she totally grasped te concept without any explination.....it amazes me, the ones she comes up with. LOve it.
DS just turned 4 is learning about the Continents. The other day I was asking him to name them and he said "Europe". I said "that's one, what else?" He said "Eur-down" and just started laughing. He is a card, that one.
DD4.9 recently finished reading Prince Caspian. She recieved a Little House on the Prairie book from a relative and was reading it before bed. Two days later I was cleaning her room and noticed her book mark was on page 204. We asked her if she read it all herself and she said yes and told me she was also reading the Magicians Nefew, CS Lewis. She is really enjoying reading in her room before bed. She is a funny kid she has glasses and her room is always covered in books and papers and random things she has built with legos. She is very confident and one of our friends told us she should be a project manager because she is always telling everyone what needs to be done including the adults! I am really enjoying her personality and seeing her grow.
Also DS2 started sounding out words and reading some small board books. He has started drawing shapes and writing a few letters. Both of the kids are pretty into spiderman this week. DD2 is calling himself Peter Parker and DD4.9 is Mary Jane. The baby has been refered to as Laura lately due to the Little house on the prairie book.
DS just turned 4 is learning about the Continents. The other day I was asking him to name them and he said "Europe". I said "that's one, what else?" He said "Eur-down" and just started laughing. He is a card, that one.
Wolf was bored with spelling so I quizzed him through ten weeks worth and of the "official" words he missed 4 out of 60! We were pretty impressed. Needless to say we are skipping those weeks.
My DS7 was getting upset when his twin brother was playing with a same-aged boy on our block and was not joining them. We talked about it one day at bedtime and he said he was just 'never ready' and things like that. He always wanted to play with just the two of them and wasn't doing well getting used to a third being added to the mix. He was never excluded, but wouldn't join in and was feeling left-out. We talked until he was more comfortable that he wasn't being left-out and could go join in whenever he was ready. I didn't ask his brother to change anything about playing with his friend. DS is not exactly shy, except at first, but is slow to accept changes. I am similar and refer to it as an 'inertia' issue, but I digress.
Two days later, the boys were eating lunch and his brother was planning to go and play with the other boy right after. Before going he stopped, turned around, and asked asked DS if he was ready to play, then offered to wait a few minutes if it would help. To my utter amazement, DS asked for 5 minutes, which his brother agreed to, and then all three friends had a full afternoon full of full-participation play!
This may be a bit of a subtle 'brag'. I am so very proud that they both compromised and completely solved the difficulty in a way I hadn't suggested.
This may be a bit of a subtle 'brag'. I am so very proud that they both compromised and completely solved the difficulty in a way I hadn't suggested.
That is a big deal because it's one little step in the right direction. Your a caring loving Mom who pays attention. How wonderful you were aware and could help the kids.
I been tellling my DD6 for years that she is a "Can Do Girl!" to help encourage her to feel good about being capable.
Today she was doing a dance. I said that looks like the can can. She said they call it that because when you raise you hand and kick it's like you are happy you can. I thought this was wonderful thinking.
Today, she was reading to me and read 50,000 correctly. I was very surprised.
My first brag. This just happened and it was one of those moments that caught me by surprise.
I was sitting having lunch with dd5. She seemed lost in thought.
Me: What are you thinking about?
dd5: I'm just thinking that I really like my life.
Me: What do you mean?
dd5: Just that I'm lucky I have such a great family. A nice house. We live in a really good state with a children's museum and a zoo. I go to a great school. We go on field trips. I'm really lucky.
Me: (silence)
dd5: Thanks for picking out such a nice house for us, mom, and choosing for us to live here.
My brag is about my DD2.75 and the food chain. After a big rainstorm we found a 3 inch potato bug floating in our fountain. DD adores these bugs. But after a full day of carrying it around in a cup, we concluded the bug was indeed dead. The next morning, the potato bug was lying on the patio, swarmed by tiny ants. "Get away, ants! Get away from my potato bug!" DD yelled. She wanted to play with it.
I explained that ants eat dead bugs and were likely very excited to find this big one. DD picked up the bug with a toy shovel and put it in the garden saying, "There you go, ants. Enjoy your bug meal." A drowned slug showed up in the fountain, too, so DD immediately delivered it to the garden, saying, "Here you go, ants! Here is a dead slug for you, too."
Ds5 has an aunt named Azalea. We are on vacation this with with her and her husband, and were walking through the town we are staying in when we saw a hom decor shop called Azalea's Wild Interiors. Ds immediately started cracking up and pointed to it, saying 'Watch out Aunt Azalea, you've gone wild in your interiors!'
Today Bear put together the alphabet train puzzle at Wolf's Martial Arts class and knew all the letters and pretty much the correct order. I was a bit amazed. Bear is 2 years and 8 months now.
Wolf was bored with spelling so I quizzed him through ten weeks worth and of the "official" words he missed 4 out of 60! We were pretty impressed. Needless to say we are skipping those weeks.
Maybe we could get our spellers together. During a conference for our 3rd grade dd her teacher showed us the spelling evaluation tool they use. They give the kids 75 words to spell which are chosen to show proficiency. The number right is supposed to translate into grade level. So 30 wrong would be a score of 45 hence 4th grade 5th month. DD got all 75 right. Teacher said, good for her, the rest of the world has spell check :-)
So proud....DD 2.7 just in the past week has begun to recognize numerous words...she has recognized her name and dad's and mine for months, but this week she started pointing out BOO, IN, THE, END, IT, IS, STOP, OF! I am just so proud. All of this in just a few days!
As DS8 was getting his shoes on this morning, he tightened up the laces. He said, �see, I got these straightened out myself, because I was patient. Patience pays off. Hee hee, PPO. No, wait � Patience Oozes Out! Tell Daddy I made that up and called it The POO Method! Ha ha ha!�
DS (27 months) has been full of clever-but-hilarious comments lately. My two favourites:
1. He called our attention to an airplane flying over and I asked him how many people he thought could fit in an airplane. DS: Maybe... ten. Me: Do you think they could fit a hundred people in an airplane? DS: How 'bout we go on a airplane and count all the people? When we get our rocket packs, we fly up in the air and catch up to that airplane.
2. At the park yesterday, I was insisting that he go feet first down the big slides (it's enough for me that he's already mastered the 'age 5-12' section of the playground, LOL) despite the fact that an older girl next to him was going headfirst. Very helpfully, the girl chipped in that you have to be a bigger kid to go headfirst because you have to know how to put your hands out and stop yourself before hitting your head. I asked her age, she said she was 4, almost 5, so I told DS that when he's 4, we can think about trying the slides head first. So, on the way home, this ensued:
DS: I think I got ahead... now I'm four! Me: Haha, no, you're not four yet, you're still two. When you're four, you'll go to kindergarten. [we have junior K here that starts at 4] DS: And when I'm three, I go to preschool. And when I'm five, I go to the playground! And when I'm a car, I go in the road!
I am not sure if I am in shock or if I am elated. Today I played Battle ship and Bingo with Bear (2.8). He read the Bingo chips (B-1-0 rather than B-10, but still...) and picked out the numbers and letters for Battleship. But more astonishing than that was that he was looking at a pile of crayons, pointed and said, "So big!" I looked over and written on some of the crayons was the brand name So Big!!!! I was speechless!
DS7's obsession with building things has finally paid off in real world understanding. We were on vacation last week and we went to several historic sites with various kinds of non-motorized machines and contraptions. DS would read the plaque in front of it to see what it was and what it was used for, then he would quietly study it for a minute and then suddenly yell put "Oh, I get it!" and explain the mechanics behind whatever the thing was. I loved the shock on people's faces when they actually paid attention to what he was saying.
I also really enjoy this thread. The children are all so creative.
My DS8 (in two days) can be quite punny. We were talking about a book he had just started and he said the king died mysteriously. I said it sounds like foul play was involved and asked him if he knew what that meant. His almost instant reply was "Of, course I do, I'm a turkey!" (A name I call him when he is pushing all the right buttons.)
Not something ds6 said, but something his teacher relayed to us at a meeting this week. She said that in class, if the kids are struggling with something, they can ask to "phone a friend" for help. She said that they always "phone" my son
DS5.5 is suddenly into writing creative stories. He has written about frogs and a lonely man one (which was sad & shocking) and several others at school. He loves creative writing, and apparently he has quite a creative mindset!
This is more funny than a brag, but this morning I overheard DD and DH talking about the metric system. He was explaining that a kilogram is 1,000 grams and that the prefix "kilo" means 1,000.
DS chimed in saying, "And a kilo-Teddy Graham is a 1,000 Teddy Grahams."
I remember my two year old DD looking at her mylar helium balloon the morning after her birthday party. She was staring at it and pulling on the string making it bounce up and down. I asked her if she liked her balloon...and her reply was simply. "It must be filled with something lighter than air"
Dandy- Can you send him to my house to teach my son? He tried ridiculously hard this summer and never got it to work in under 10 min! He did learn to ride his bike without training wheels though- his other important summer goal!
DD 2.8 has become obsessed with mazes, so much so that I laminated 30 so she can use a dry erase marker on them, she did them all through twice in one sitting today....and for the past week...she has been demostrating addition
"mommy, there are 2 people in this car. Me and you. One person is in daddy's car" (this is when we took seperate cars the other day to dinner) "2 people plus 1 persone equals three people"
and
when I asked her how many animals were in the picture she said "3" I said and if another pig came how many pigs would there be. She said "4"
and
today she walked up to her dad and said "1+1=2 daddy"
She has also been rhyming like crazy....she wil sit in the car, say a word and then say as many rhyming words as she can. The on to another word. She does this while driving, while walking around the house...She even came up to me while I was lying on the couch and said "couch rhymes with grouch"
This is more humorous than a brag, but this morning, ds was in a negative mood, and he said, "This is going to be a terrible day. I just know it." I told him that I firmly believe you shouldn't say negative things like that out loud because it makes them more real and they are more likely to come true. He didn't miss a beat and replied, "Today is my birthday! I can't wait for my party!" LOL (It's not even close to his bday!)
My 11 year old son, who did musical theater since age 4 and really enjoyed singing with a group where he only occasionally sang solo parts, usually only one or two lines because he was a little shy about singing solo, was asked to do a lead singing part in song from the musical Annie for the county 4H talent show. He was so worried the night before and also backstage that he would not do well, but there wasn't anyone else in the group who could do it, so he was determined to do his best. He did very well and his group won second place. I was very proud of him because this was another fear that he overcame. For some reason speaking or acting in front of a large group did not bother him, but singing by himself made him nervous. I wanted to show the video to his acting teacher but we found out later that day that she had died in her sleep early that morning. She was only 38 years old and she had an 11 month old baby. She and the musical theater group were such a big part of our lives and we are still in shock.
That's awesome Cricket!! My DS plays the violin and like yours has had sound sensitivities forever. He has learned that an instrument can be played softly and enjoys it. And like yours he plays the pieces he is learning on the piano as well. Wonder why?
My 11 year old son, who did musical theater since age 4 and really enjoyed singing with a group where he only occasionally sang solo parts, usually only one or two lines because he was a little shy about singing solo, was asked to do a lead singing part in song from the musical Annie for the county 4H talent show. He was so worried the night before and also backstage that he would not do well, but there wasn't anyone else in the group who could do it, so he was determined to do his best. He did very well and his group won second place. I was very proud of him because this was another fear that he overcame. For some reason speaking or acting in front of a large group did not bother him, but singing by himself made him nervous. I wanted to show the video to his acting teacher but we found out later that day that she had died in her sleep early that morning. She was only 38 years old and she had an 11 month old baby. She and the musical theater group were such a big part of our lives and we are still in shock.
Lori... first, bravo to your DS. Your heart must have swelled when he was up on that stage. To see them tackle their fears is such an amazing thing to watch and be a part of.
Secondly, I am so sorry to read about his acting teacher. That is horrible! It reminds us that life is precious and not to take anything for granted.
I just feel impressed by my DS2.5 today ...must boast about his glueing acumen! I cut animal pieces at his request, he pasted. He made a turkey with a big fanned out feather-tail, probably 30 feathers he put on it, and then a dinosaur complete with femurs and tibias, ribs and a jawbone among the more usual parts (5 legs for example). Seems to me they look like things I did in early elementary school. He refuses to draw (too frustrated at how it turns out) so at first I was just thrilled he was so into an art project. Then I got thrilled that I could frame these things and give them to his grandparents as gifts. Then I got worried they'd think I'd "helped" beyond doing the cutting. That's what they said when I told them about a poem/song he made up a while back, told me I must have made suggestions. Grrr, how could they say that? Say, maybe I'll just keep the art for our wall, there's an idea!
DS had his 4 year old check-up today. When the nurse weighed him, she said, "31 pounds." He leaned over to read the scale (digital) and said, "No, 30.8!"
Today DD6' teacher saw me at a faculty meeting (I teach at the same school) and told me that her puppet show was great! So good in fact that she was going to ask the other 2nd grade teachers to let her do it for their classes. She has been reading Charlotte's Web and made a barn stage and puppets of Fern, Wilbur and Charlotte. As far as I knew that was it - make the project and bring it in. But when the teacher asked DD if she would tell the other kids about her project she went for it! She told them all about the book, why she was doing this project (it is her differentiated reading), who wrote the book, the main characters and the idea of the book. She then made up a puppet show on the spot about her three puppets. She was so excited to tell me about it after school. It was great to see her so amazed that she could make up stories so quickly and do so well talking infront of the whole class.
Very cool! DD5 dressed up as Wilbur for book week today and she would have loved to have seen your DD's show. I'm reading The Good Pig with her now and one of the advance praise quotes is:
Quote
Move over, Wilbur, there�s a new pig on the block. Sy Montgomery has conjured a pure classic for the animal lover�s soul. Poetic, insightful, funny, and deeply moving, The Good Good Pig is as hard to define as it is to put down. Who else but Sy Montgomery could introduce you to a hog and give you a such glimpse of heaven?� �Vicki Croke, author of The Lady and the Panda
A couple of days ago, my DS7mo decided he REALLY wanted to get this one person on the subway to smile at him. The Target was being a tough cookie about it, and he looked like he was fairly good at being a tough cookie, all things considered. Finally, The kidlet leaned WAAAAAAAY over, practically into his pants (which were at about knee level anyway, so 'ya know) and said "Hi!" while waving vehemently, upside down. He got his smile. He hasn't said hi otherwise, or waved, and I have no idea what it was about toughboy, but it sure cracked a lot of people up.
Today, he also turned the pages of a paper book gently. Which was less amusing, but very exciting nonetheless since he's a big bookworm in the no-really-he-ate-it sense
Chico (4) asked me who the Grinch was a couple of days ago (he'd heard some kids talking at the playground--we have had a few Dr Seuss books around here at various points, but never that one, for some reason). I explained that the Grinch was an unhappy person, who couldn't stand other people being happy, and wanted to spoil their happiness.
He thought that over for a minute, and then said, "Oh, you mean like Iago?"
I think Harpo must have been telling him Othello stories, because neither Frenchie nor I have been...
I'm always talking about the first grandchild here, GS10. I convinced our daughter to have her oldest tested for the gifted program at school since she just moved to our district for this school year. GD8(9 in 3 days!) tested gifted! (But, I already knew she would!) I suspect GD6 is also gifted, but our district doesn't offer services until the third grade so they don't test until the end of the second grade. I also suspect GD10weeks is advanced, she's mimicking faces and sounds already.
DD2.11 has learnt to recognise her name after 3 pre-school sessions, she goes 2 mornings a week. Then i catch her and DS5.5 spelling thier names. She can get up to the 3rd letter before DS gets annoyed that she is going so slow and finishes it for her. Her name isn't phonetic either.
My DS8 is interested in food and food science (he loves the set of Good Eats/Alton Brown dvd's we just got.) I was experimenting with new types of chocolate and gave him a piece to taste. I asked what he thought and he gave me the so-so gesture with his hand and then asked what I was going to use it for. I told him that I was going to make truffles with it and he replied "oh, I can see it would be good for that application." I think I am creating a food snob.
Scary stuff! The kids asked for night vision goggles for Christmas. When asked why, they said so they could read in the dark. Does anybody know if you can see clearly enough to actually read with night vision goggles? Does the page light up or does it have to be a heated page to show up?
There are two types of devices - one works on infrared and the other works using ambient light.
The latest generation of NVDs that use ambient light allow you to read quite well. There has to be enough ambient light for them to work right - you cannot be in a totally sealed room. They are not cheap. Under a starry sky, or even an overcast, you can see very well. Depending on the light present, you may need a suppressed LED to read stuff. But, in most urban locations, you can read quite well with them.
I have not worked with the IR systems in 20 years.
I just posted this on my usual baby group, but I toned it down, and that's not enough, I'm too excited!
DS7m walked!! Not well, yet, or anything, but it's been building for about a week, and yesterday he stood up off my ankles and walked a bit over a meter to get to a shoe display, and he did similar things several more times after.
My little critter!! -Michaela (thank goodness for semi-anonymous webforums)
just to chime in that I wish our children were closer since your son sounds like my DD3 and it would be great for her to have someone close to her age to talk with...
I remember last year whe she was two we were at the park and she ran into other children her age and said,"Lets sit down and have a conversation" and they all just stood there blankly.
I'm feeling most sheepish to be even writing in this thread, but I just can't help it! I'm overjoyed by Miss 8's school report. It's awesome. Quick reminder...
Last year, Miss 8 was languishing in year 2, mainly a C/B student and quickly gaining the reputation as a bit of a troublesome kid. Her teacher suggested we have her hearing tested, etc. And I know you know where that testing lead us...
Yesterday she got her year 4 report, mainly As (!) and some Bs (!) The only average grade was for writing, and that's certainly not surprising. But the real delight is that her effort (ranked rarely, sometimes, consistently, outstanding) has now clearly shifted away from rarely and sometimes, to mostly outstanding and consistent!!!
You never know if you're doing the right thing with acceleration, because the tangible feedback isn't immediate. But 12 months down the track, I can confidently say that we did the right thing. My child is thriving and the teacher says she is a joy to teach!!! What heaven!!!
The cat is out of the bag. Mr W (23 mos) walked up to another kid in his current daycare, pointed at word on his shirt, and said the word.
I thought he was sight reading - this weekend he was looking at every sign in the mall and has been taking newspaper and magazines and looking at them. For instance, at the barber, he grabbed a "Car and driver" from the magazine rack, climbed up in a chair, and leafed through it. He counts things out loud now.
He is into much older kids. He had a sleepover recently with a 3.5 year old and they sat up until very late talking.
His eyes move so fast sometimes, I cannot track what he is looking at.
We found a Montessori school that will put him in with 3-5 year olds. He starts next month.
Deep breath...Hi! I have only posted a couple of times and have mostly been lurking, but I am so excited tonight I need to tell somebody somewhere!
DD7 has been having issues with a neighbor-girl who is also a classmate and good friend. They have been arguing, and the other little girl has come off the bus in tears a few times. Her mom called this evening to "discuss" it, and how her DD is sensitive, and crying ("why is __ so mean to me?") Now DD can definitely be bossy (very bossy) but (granted I'm her mother) she doesn't seem malicious or mean, so I wasn't sure what exactly was going on. Another mother told me that her daughter has had problems w/ the other girl, too, and that my DD stood up for her DD.
DD told me that she gets so mad at this girl b/c she doesn't like the way she treats other kids ("and she's always mean to the kids who are shy, or just embarrassed b/c she's yelling at them!") So, whoa, that's quite different than what it looked like coming home off the bus...
More long story, but her teacher called tonight and said DD is a wonderful child. She confirmed the DD was being completely honest that she is standing up for other kids. Teacher described the other girl as a bully that gets upset when DD stands up to her. She said DD is strong-willed, and often her voice might be the loudest, and she can work on her tone, but her behavior and words are completely appropriate. I am SO PROUD of my girl for standing up for other kids! I am so proud of her honesty and integrity!
I received some more good news from the conversation: DD got into the gifted program!! Her teacher stressed that it was top secret as the official results have not been sent out yet(I guess it's ok on an "anonymous" forum, however ;))
I hunted around and couldn't find an "Ultimate Irony Thread," so I'm tossing this here.
My son, the speller of all spellers (at least in his little universe) has run into a mental block with one word recently.
He made this cute little sign for his desk: "Genuis at Work!"
I'm still laughing. He even doubted me when I called him on it. So I made him look it up in the dictionary. Poor guy. That'll be going into his "permanent record" at home, and will likely haunt him for years & years & years to come.
Oh, I love the "Genuis at Work" sign, that is just the sweetest. And I love hearing all these stories, I think it just goes to show how amazing kids are and in so many different ways.
My son, a huge Star Wards fan, when he was six, wrote a series of 3 books called "Attack of the Oompazhans." Oompazhans were a creature he made up that played a pivotal role in the battle of the Clones. He worked and worked on those books and I thought it was pretty great.
But a more recent proud moment came when one of the girls in his class, who struggles a bit, called him a "Math Machine." That part isn't so shocking, but the great thing was simply that he turned the compliment around and said "I'm pretty good in math, but you are an amazing draw-er." (apparently he isn't gifted in grammer ;), he meant artist). That made me feel pretty great.
Here mine for the day. My DS9 loves monopoly. He had no one to play with so he just played two players. So, he was king of the money and all the land. If he lost he could still win. He just talked himself thru the whole game and had a great time. I call that adapting. It's a little cute and funny too.
Haha, that's brilliant, onthegomom. I bet he gave himself a great challenge too.
I just blogged about this and my blog is private, so I wanted to share it here;
My 4 year old blows me away sometimes, he is always throwing surprises out there.
He surprised me as a baby because he would smile at people when he was just a couple of months old. I remember one of the mums from my oldest sons school commenting on how he smiled so young and how he smiled every time she looked at him. I would have had to see it to believe it myself, but he really did and it was the cutest thing (and sometimes, it felt a little strange, because he seemed too young to be doing that).
This is the same kid who taught himself to read somewhere between the age of 2.5 and 3 and then one day, just decided to let the rest of the world in on it (much like his older brother).
Today he gave me another one of these nuggets that I'll have to relay to him one day. I was taking a bath in the master bathroom and he came bursting in (because, you know, nothing is sacred), holding a laptop. The laptops are cumbersome and heavy for him and consequently, he isn't allowed to carry them around, so I told him to go put it on my bed, to which he replied "but I want you to get me to Poptropica" (Poptropica is a web game that all my boys like), "I can't do that right now, my hands are wet and I don't want the laptop to get damaged". Off he went to put it on my bed.
A couple of minutes later, he comes back (he had obviously just opened the laptop, booted it up and opened a copy of Firefox) "how do you spell Poptropica?". I kind of giggled to myself at the hilarity of it all, here is my just turned 4 year old asking me how to spell something, so that he can type the URL into the address bar of the laptop that he has just booted up. It was amusing, since he is only four, but he seemed so self assured, that I decided to humor him. I began to spell it out; 'p', 'o', 'p'.... "I already did that part", he said (at this point I'm thinking, "really?"), "I just want to know how to make the 'trr'", (Ok, now I'm really impressed!), "ohh ok, it's 't', 'r'" I reply. He gets the information from me, turns around and heads back into the bedroom thanking me as he goes. As I relax back in the bath trying to comprehend what just happened, I hear "It worked!". I get out of the bath, head through to the bedroom and sure enough, he is sitting on my bed, playing Poptropica!
Total chin on floor moment, I had NO idea he knew how to open a copy of Firefox AND type in a URL AND spell. None at all, I mean, he JUST turned four years old in September!
Your post reminded me of a funny/scary moment when my DS was a few months off his 3rd birthday. This particular day he asked to use the computer I told him he could only play for about 15 minutes as I needed to do some banking. When I came back into the office, DS ruefully informed me that he was sorry he couldn't help me more but he just couldn't remember the numbers. My attention was then drawn to the fact that he had my bank login page up, had correctly typed all characters of my customer number, and had entered most of the password! The latter apparently had stumped him because he was typing by memory of where my fingers went (touch typing)... Never a dull moment with these kids
Very proud of DS this week - He randomly decided that he wanted to learn to jump rope and... has practiced for an hour or more every afternoon! He has set a goal of 20 jumps in row without catching the rope and is determined to get there. DH and I are thrilled for our little perfectionist, as he is persevering with this and has not had one tantrum about it being too hard. It's been an absolute pleasure to watch and encourage his effort
Total chin on floor moment, I had NO idea he knew how to open a copy of Firefox AND type in a URL AND spell. None at all, I mean, he JUST turned four years old in September!
I really need to watch this child more closely.
Really really closely tofu. Once, I found my then just turned five year old not only signed on the to computer without my knowledge but signed into my Ebay account (how did he get the pw???) and bidding on a video game! What impressed me (or terrified me) was that he was bidding competently. He told me "I just need to keep bidding one dollar more and then I am the winning bidder again." Needless to say computer security was heightened intensely - computer security from a five year old! Watch out tofu!!!! LOL
My DS started the computer early too. When DD started I was surprized it wasn't as easy for her. Probally a year later, I realized she should of been using the mouse on the left side. LOL Oh well,she still does the computer mouse with her right hand despite being a lefty. That's good adapting.
Just a funny note since we are talking computers. DS8 talks a lot. The other day he was playing a role playing game online that allows you to chat with other users and I could hear the keys chattering away. I went and sat and watched and he even talks(types) non-stop while he is playing the computer game! It totally cracked me up. Whatever drives him to talk is not inhibited by the keyboard.
Bear was assessed this morning for the tantrums and sensory issues he has and of course he was a perfect angel, didn't let them see the demon baby, but that's not the brag...
The assessor is coming back next week because in the cognitive section he "surpassed everything she had brought with her." They were also very impressed with his imagination. At least we aren't fooling ourselves about him being smart!
DS6 was reading the menu that was posted on the board at the little place we go to for lunch sometimes. I was at the counter doing our order. There was a man and a woman listening to him and commented on his reading when I walked over to our table (really small place) I thanked them and the man said to DS "you must really like to read" to which DS said "It ok, but math is better." Poor man should have known when to quit... He asked DS what he was learning in math and that was all it took for DS to launch into this whole dissertation of scientific notation and algebraic functions and on and on and on.
The look on their faces was priceless. Thank heaven the guy didn't ask about science. LOLOL I definitely don't have a low profile kiddo!
DS8 was working on the Plato Physical Science curriculum today, and they were dealing with the elements. He said--with a gleam in his eye--"I'm going to list off all the elements I can think of: hydrogen, helium, surprise..."
DS8 was working on the Plato Physical Science curriculum today, and they were dealing with the elements. He said--with a gleam in his eye--"I'm going to list off all the elements I can think of: hydrogen, helium, surprise..."
I was tickled!
Hahaha, brilliant! That element of surprise is a tricky one to remember. :P
My son has been tinkering for the past several days with something that he's not sure he wants me to see. He keeps saying it's not right yet, it's not finished etc. He told me he'll let me see it when it's done.
Last night I was cleaning off his desk putting stuff away and came across his "tinkering". I think my son is "discovering" Pascal's triangle for himself. To the best of my knowledge he hasn't been exposed to it yet. There are lines and numbers all over the page that have been erased several times. How I ever ended up with such a "mathy" kid?
There are times when he really does scare me......
mine is in third grade and just picked up a moh's hardness scale and used it to determine minerals. as far as i know that isn't even intoduced until grade 6. how did he do it.
[quote=BWBShari]Last night I was cleaning off his desk putting stuff away and came across his "tinkering". I think my son is "discovering" Pascal's triangle for himself. To the best of my knowledge he hasn't been exposed to it yet. There are lines and numbers all over the page that have been erased several times. How I ever ended up with such a "mathy" kid? quote]
I have no idea what that is. How did you know what this is if your not Mathy? He sounds amazing.
My kids have figured some math ahead of school too and it's kinda strange. Why are they even thinking about it? It's like math is developmental like naturally learning to walk. But walking is something they see done.
He was in basketball for 2 years outside of school but they didn't play games. 3rd Grade is the 1st year for basketball at DS's school.
*******************Today was 3rd game of the basketball season and DS just scored his first shot!*********************
Wow did that feel great and his team mates really were excited for him. There is something special for him being part of this team with his class mates. This one shot is a big boost to his confidence. I feel very thankful.
this morning I just realized that DD2 knows all her letters! I felt kind of dumb because I knew she knew about half of them...but I saw her naming a bunch this morning and DS tells me "yeah mom, she knows all of them" and then proceeded to show me by quizzing her. I was shocked (and feeling a little bad that I hadn't noticed earlier but she barely ever plays with letter stuff) She was having so much fun with it! I am surprised by this because letters and numbers aren't big interests to her like they were my DS5. He knew his letters and numbers much early because that was his thing. DD2 would rather put on a princess outfit or build something.
Discussing Charlie and the Chocolate factory with dd3, and she was describing the Violet Beauregard character, and really expressing shock about her turning into a blueberry. I said, 'You know, her name is Violet!', although I was pretty sure she would not recognize that as a color. She said, 'Yes, her name is Violet, and she turned violet!'. I asked her if she knew what violet meant, and she immediately said, yes, bluish-purple. Oh, and this funny thing happened yesterday - she was bugging my dh with a toy that say 1 phrase over and over. After stopping for a while she pressed the button one more time. Dh was starting to ask her to stop and she just pipes up, 'You know, according to my research, this makes NOISE!' And just cracked everyone up.
DD 2.9 got several 48 piece jigsaw puzzles for christmas. we knew she could do 24 piece ones by herself, but today she quickly did one of the 48 piece puzzles with absolutly no help, and she was totally goofing off during the whole time talking about snowbellies. She told me a snow belly is a belly that is covered with snow, and prehaps it would be white since snow is white. LOL. Which was totally random since the puzzle was of types of transportation LOL
My DD3 just amazes me with the words she uses casually: concentrate as in "please be quiet so I can concentrate on my activity!", taunting "why were the reindeers taunting Rudolph?", version "Do you like my version of this nursery rhyme...(then makes up a poem), flatulence "HA, sorry. That was flatulence....(wild laughter), structure "I am going to try that climbing structure" (said at the park at two to another child who looked at her blankly... and conversation "Let's sit here and have a conversation together" said at two to other children who also looked at her blankly and so on.
I love those Twinkle Toes. That really took me back to when my dd (now 5) really started to speak. For over a year she seemed to just be collecting nouns (bird, spoon, book) - but refused to speak in sentences. Then when she hit 22-months, she said her first real sentence, "Get her out!" (referring to her new baby sister placed in a baby seat she coveted). Less than a month later, she was spouting off sentences like, "Want to get out of the car and go to the beach with mommy and daddy."
My dd ended up with a vocabulary like your dd's. Your post reminded me of one early sentence that really struck me. She was 23-months standing by a row of occupied swings at a neighborhood park. Her eyes filled with tears (highly emotional kid) and she turned to me, lip trembling, and said, "I am waiting my turn. I am being patient." That's one I actually went home and wrote down.
TwinkleToes- ok seriously do we have the same kid. OMG they are so alike. DD amazes me to with her vocabulary....words like distracting as in "Daddy your TV is distracting me while I am trying to read my book. Turn it off" and attempting "Go away, I am attempting to hide." and concentrate " Be quite I am trying to concentrate on my work" and fascinated "I am fascinated by Christmas Lights" LOL. She has also done the "lets sit down on the bench and have a conversation" luckily it was me she said it too LOL. It is amazing, and other kids just look at her blanky and have no clue what she is talking about. I write down a lot of things she says because they just blow me out of the water.
Mr W (23 mos ) and I were at the Mall over the weekend. While in line to pay for something, he was counting out loud and pointing at words on signs and saying them. The woman in front of us heard him and turned around to see him in my arms. She was clearly shocked and asked how old he was.
It is like another switch has tuned on. He will spend a long time looking at words on everything now. I got him on Starfall for reading this weekend after a long hiatus and had to drag him away after an hour. He wanted to go over the words constantly.
We took him to the movie theater to see the Princess and the Frog before Christmas. He sat enraptured all the way through the movie, laughing and saying, "Uh Oh."
He had not seen my family in a year but remembered everyone. He watched King Kong with my dad. It is the one with Naomi Watts. At the end, Kong starts to falter, and at that point, Mr W said, "Bye Bye Monkey. Bye Bye." My dad and MIL were floored.
His intensity is formidable. Sometimes he gets so upset, but we just get down to his level and tell him to use his words to tell us what he wants. This is working well.
There are a lot of bright kids in his Montessori school, and he is having a blast and cannot wait to go every morning. I just wonder how long he will be that way. I think he is six months away from being on par with all the 5 year olds.
At that point, we may have to look for a private tutor to spend time with him while at Montessori. He loves the social aspect. I wish we knew some other parents kids like him who lived near us.
This isn't precocious, but it was soooooooo sweeeeeeet!
DS8mos signed "I love" at me today. I signed "I love you" back, and he went ballistic and kissed me. Now if only we could teach him to kiss w/out TEETH We're having a mini-language explosion today... he also signed "bathroom" in time for me to get him there
My little Bear 2.11, the one who hides what he can do academically as opposed to his brother who was happy to be put through his paces and breathed workbooks, actually read a book to me today!!! It was a one sentence a page type book and admittedly I sort of tricked him into it by starting the first few sentences and trailing off so that he would finish them, but we KNEW he could do it. Whenever we asked him to read he said that he couldn't and we responded with, "Yes you can" since we knew he could since we had caught him reading a word or two prior to this.
Not only that, but he actually did some math for me today too!!! Basic stuff, 1+1, 1-1, 3+1, but he did it out loud so I finally had proof he could.
Whenever we asked him to read he said that he couldn't and we responded with, "Yes you can" since we knew he could since we had caught him reading a word or two prior to this.
Why do they do this?
Mr W will go off with a book and mouth the words. When we find him, he closes the book, smiles at us, and acts like he is playing. Little stinker!
Whenever we asked him to read he said that he couldn't and we responded with, "Yes you can" since we knew he could since we had caught him reading a word or two prior to this.
Why do they do this?
Mr W will go off with a book and mouth the words. When we find him, he closes the book, smiles at us, and acts like he is playing. Little stinker!
There are probably lots of reasons they do that. But I think the biggest reason is toddlers still want to be babied. The smarter ones recognize if they can read they might be treated more like an adult and lose out on all those comforting things they are used to, and love. I read very early, but one of my favorite childhood memories is when mom tucked us into bed and read us a story. I still loved being read to when our 6th grade teacher read 'Johnny Tremain' to us in class.
Whenever we asked him to read he said that he couldn't and we responded with, "Yes you can" since we knew he could since we had caught him reading a word or two prior to this.
Why do they do this?
Mr W will go off with a book and mouth the words. When we find him, he closes the book, smiles at us, and acts like he is playing. Little stinker!
There are probably lots of reasons they do that. But I think the biggest reason is toddlers still want to be babied. The smarter ones recognize if they can read they might be treated more like an adult and lose out on all those comforting things they are used to, and love. I read very early, but one of my favorite childhood memories is when mom tucked us into bed and read us a story. I still loved being read to when our 6th grade teacher read 'Johnny Tremain' to us in class.
Doesn't just apply to little ones. DD7 definitely downplays what she can do and even resists learning. I think she feels she can't compete with DS8 and also she LOVES being the Baby of the family. I am working really hard on trying to bring her out of this.
DD has only ever hidden her ability to read when she's around someone who will make a big deal about it. I don't think it's a coincidence. Right now, she's hiding her math abilities, and I'm pretty sure it's because she can sense that I'm really interested in knowing where she's at in that area. (It's just a matter of curiosity on my part, and I know I need to work on that.)
I've always treated DD as though she could read, and acted like it was totally normal, so I think there was no reason for her to hide it from me. I just wish I'd done the same for math. Ah well, hindsight and all that.
We drove past the florist shop and DD6 notice the Valentine themed window. She said "why are the Valentine decorations up?" I responded, "It's a month to Valentine's day." DD said I think they should do Lincoln Birthday 1st. My DDs birtday is on Lincoln's Birthday.
I think she needs a Lincoln book for her birthday? Anyone have a suggestion?
There are probably lots of reasons they do that. But I think the biggest reason is toddlers still want to be babied. The smarter ones recognize if they can read they might be treated more like an adult and lose out on all those comforting things they are used to, and love. I read very early, but one of my favorite childhood memories is when mom tucked us into bed and read us a story. I still loved being read to when our 6th grade teacher read 'Johnny Tremain' to us in class.
Very, very good point. Mr W loves the attention for sure.
wow Amanda, they do sound similar. Now she will comment on someone's expression as in, "Did you see the expression on his face?" and will talk about a "massive pile of leaves" etc. When she tells stories with puppets she narrates things as if she is reading a story... (said in a cute little voice) Then the mother duck exclaimed,"Come out of the water immediately, my dear babies. Danger is approaching" Then the baby ducks all swam quickly to the shore and waddled in a perfect line to the edge of the woods where a slinky snake slithered through the mud..." she goes on and on like this and another child her age picks up a puppet and just looks at her and says "QUACK QUACK QUACK." Granted, sometimes she will just make weird animal noises and be very very silly with other children, but when she gets into her storytelling mode, I am often quite surprised at the depth of her stories and the complexity of her sentences for a three year old.
DD13 got her ACT scores back and it looks as if she got a national award in English and in Composite. It's really odd though because all of her scores flip floped. When she took it in 6th grade she made DYS scores for 7th grade reading, science, and composite, but now just made it in english, math, and composite. I wonder how that happened.
Here's a cute story. I was just reminded of this by reading another thread. When DD was about 4 or 5. We did alot of car time. She would play architect. She would ask me what type of building I wanted then we would brainstorm for ideas together. Usually these were themed place like a whole building just for kids to go and have fun- jumping room, icecream shop ect. I still have a collection of these somewhere. I should look for those. I hope someone here tries this too.
today my DD3 brought home a bear she painted at a pottery place and I asked her what she was going to call him and she said, "Ursa minor" and started laughing vigorously and then said, well, he is a little bear! I don't think her joke would be appreciated by most three or four year olds...
DD just turned 5..."Mom, I've been thinking a lot about it, and I believe in the Big Bang Theory"... Said at age 4 "Mom, I love you more than atoms" Also at age 4 "Mom, I'm extracting DNA from the cat" (Poor cat!!!) "I feel so bright that I don't even need a light!" "So what is the VERY last number? If there actually is infinity, than my hypothesis is there never will be a last and that is SO COOL!!!..." Oh, the joy of these little ones...LOVE all of your posts everyone!!! It's great to share with people who UNDERSTAND lol
Have you played, "I see something that starts with" as a car game? Right around then is when I noticed DS liked to play that one, we would usually start with I see something that starts with M, and he would say Mommy.
My favorite of the week here was a few days ago DS2.8s squats down over a book with "World" in the title and says, "Look I am sitting on top of the world".
I just want to share this moment with my 16-mth old DS:
Yesterday, I told Buddy that we were going to visit a pet store and look at fish. We read a couple books about fish and talked about them. About twenty minutes later, I grabbed a pile of laundry to throw into the wash before we left and noticed that the house was really quiet (BAD TODDLER SIGN). When I found Buddy, he was in the bathroom, and he had put every toy fish he owns into the toilet.
"Buddy, you know that we do NOT put toys in the potty. No toys in the potty."
My 4 yr old likes to make people laugh. So when an aunt talked about being allergic to cats, my daughter replied, "I'm allergic to stinky booties." She also told me the other day that something she heard on television was asinine.
Mine is a visual person. She has remembered all the commercials. When she was two she would name them when they first came on. Geico, Chili's etc. Now she is into infomercials and "As Seen on TV." Every time her puppy has an accident she says, "Mommy, we need a potty patch." And when I am cooking she thinks I should buy a ChopIt.
Wolf (5.6) just read the book "Flat Stanley" in less than 1/2 hour. It was his first "official" chapter book and I had no idea he could read that fast a comprehend it all!!! I went through and asked him a ton of questions and he answered all of them. I know he is reading about early 3rd grade plus or minus half a year, but he's never really gotten into a book like that before.
So, this is really just a tribute to the creative solutions our little ones come up with. My 4 year old has had a little bit of an attitude this month. She got in trouble a couple days ago for calling me stupid. She almost said it again yesterday but stopped herself and replaced the word stupid with her new word "furley". So all day I had to hear about how "furley" everything was. She loves making up secret adjectives. She thinks I can't figure out what they mean:)
I'm not sure how much of a brag this is, but it was very funny and I wanted to share.
Bear was on Starfall and his stuffed cat was the one using the mouse (with his help). He's a secret reader and I was trying to trick him into reading for Grandma so I asked if Kitty could read the text on the page. He said, "No, Kitty isn't real." He wouldn't even pretend. I can't even trick him into it!!! LOL
DD7 approached the school librian yesterday to ask for some above grade level books. WOW am I proud of her! (I appreciate her self advocacy becuase DS9 wouldn't do this.)
Last night, she was reading A Little Princess by Burnett for 9+. It's amazing how quickly she has progressed.
this is my favorite thread. I can't go around saying this stuff to many people I know. thanks.
My ds7 read Matilda by Dahl in two days took a accelrator test passed with 100% Then enjoyed the movie later on that night and loved the comparing and contrasting afterwards. The satisfied smile on his face and the excitement in his laugh was mesmerizing.
DD7 (just had her birthday!) asked my DH if atoms could be cut in half. The interesting part was the long intellectual discussion that followed. Is this my kid? And where did this man (DH) learn about all of this, she is truly her fathers daughter. So glad she asked him and not me, she would have gotten the short version.
That is one of the reasons I still love my baby monitor (even though DS is 4 now). You hear some pretty cool stuff sometimes.
I have one. We were at a restaurant with some friends and the kids were playing in one of those rooms with the slides and stuff. There is also a huge globe in there. It is a 'kiddy' globe in that it is quite simplistic but, DS still loves it.
I went and got DS because we were all going up to get some ice cream and walked by one of the dads. He asked me if DS was mine and I said yes. I was thinking "oh no, now what did he do?" The guy said, "He is amazing!" I kind of looked at him like, OK?? He said, "He was in there telling me all the countries and where they should be on that globe in there!" I just laughed and said, "yeah, he likes countries."
His speech must be getting a lot better. 8)
Of course, we let them go play again and then I got comments he was knocking kids down. (ooops...he is really big for his age and I think sometimes he doesn't realize it. He is like a great dane that thinks he is a lap dog, ha ha.)
"Yes, that's um right...then he fell 30 feet to the next branch.."
"That's 360 inches!"
Lol, I remember my DS doing exactly that. Maybe it should get added into those "you know you have a gifted child when" lists - much more informative than when they believe in the tooth fairy :-)
The only way to get him to go to the toilet is to give him a 'maths challenge'. It's harder than you'd think to come up with them, considering you need to know the answer yourself. We've moved to algebra but I feel like I need to start multiplying fractions, in which case I'll need to hide a calculator in my back pocket so I don't look like I'm clueless.
Took the lads to the optometrist today for their annual checkup. The doctor asked Chico (4) if he wanted to look at letters or pictures (I didn't tell her he could read already); he said, "well, that depends. Do the letters have serifs, or not?" which I found amusing. Then when she was taking a picture of the back of his eye, he looked at the green and purple flashes and said, "oh no, alien probes!"
Groucho (6) insisted on reading the letters, not one at a time, but as "words". After several strings of pretty miscellaneous consonants, he said, "what language is this? Hungarian? It at least looks like something Finno-Ugric to me."
Harpo (8) just did his usual quiz about how every single machine in the place worked.
I'm glad the doctor puts up with us! She's a bit eccentric herself, which is very nice.
Lots of great stories since last time I was here! Hello and welcome to all the new folks!
Grandad was over... the one who was dad of the PG dad of my kid... that one...
He spent about two hours taking pics of DS doing things he's been doing for months and being surprised by how early he's doing things.
I *will* loose my mind if DS is smarter than his dad, but I think it's more likely that some of my family's physicality is what's actually showing. I noticed that he was not surprised that DS is into numbers or is talking, it was mostly fine motor stuff that threw him.
In any case it was pretty funny. (esp since grandad keeps telling us how we're doing everything wrong ;))
Don't know if this belongs here as it's more about my feelings.
Some of you may remember about DD having a chronic medical condition and moving away to university 2 months ago. Well she drove home yesterday for a flying visit and I am just so proud of her. I have always been amazed by her confidence and adaptability but what really struck me this time is her focus. Perhaps it's due to the fact that a lot of kids her age these days don't really know what they want to do. She loves doing Psychology and has said she will do either an honours year or postgraduate study, I was half aware of her desire to do that, and then she said she is determined to join the armed forces, most likely the army, and use her skills there.
DH and I realized, within a day or two of each other, that DD 3 yrs 2 mos knows simple addition and subtraction.
I asked, "If you have two apples and one orange, how many pieces of fruit do you have? What if you also get a banana, then how many?" She got all my little questions correct.
DH told her a bed time story about five magic jumping beans. While describing in great detail people eating a bean and having some big adventure, he paused to ask, "Do you know how many beans were left?" DD said, "Two! Who's going to get them Daddy?"
We're surprised because we have not attempted addition and subtraction at home before.
This is not so much a brag, as an observation of amazingly different thinking! My DS7 has asked for more math books, more math books. I was talking with him about it today and said that when I was little I would never have asked my parents for more math books. He couldn't understand why and I commented that he really loves math. He said, "No, I NEED math." I asked him if he needed math as much as food and he said, "No, I need math WAY MORE than food." Wow, strange and cool, and I just cannot keep up with him....Nan
This is not so much a brag, as an observation of amazingly different thinking! My DS7 has asked for more math books, more math books. I was talking with him about it today and said that when I was little I would never have asked my parents for more math books. He couldn't understand why and I commented that he really loves math. He said, "No, I NEED math." I asked him if he needed math as much as food and he said, "No, I need math WAY MORE than food." Wow, strange and cool, and I just cannot keep up with him....Nan
"One of the most famous and amusing quotes from the noted scholar and translator Erasmus was, "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.""
I was watching a dinosaur show with my planet-crazy DS4 and commented, "See that man? He's a REAL paleontologist!" DS4: "Wow, I want to meet him one day!" Me: (thrilled that he might be developing interests outside of space) "That would be so cool!" DS4: "Yeah, I could tell him all about planets!"
The only way to get him to go to the toilet is to give him a 'maths challenge'. It's harder than you'd think to come up with them, considering you need to know the answer yourself.
Just noticed this one, all the stories are funny/great, but this one is just to die for.
Ds9 has come to grips again with multiplication (obviously not a brag, just a relief, as he did great last year then proceeded to dump all that stuff from him brain over the summer.) Now every thing about math is easy again, just like the 2nd part of last year. Fractions ("mom it's like arm wrestling with a baby!"), decimals, etc. He was feeling pretty yucky all last week and still went to school with some encouragement, aced his various tests, and felt better at the end that he hadn't just tummy-ached out of them. He came home from his gt class the last couple weeks really excited about getting to do the lego engineering project (like a center he gets to choose to work on for several weeks), and also this week, they did some forensic science stuff, talked about and examined their own fingerprints and stuff like that. Dd3.5 is becoming a bit of an inventor of both words (Soctopus was her latest really funny one) and things; she has a great vocab so to amuse herself she changes up the words she already knows. The other day she grabbed a plastic bag I had in the car and put her arms through the handles like a backpack, announcing that she had on a parachute! It really looked cool and I was pretty surprised (of course setting off all sorts of alarm bells, child playing with plastic bag!!).
Boodle (3.5 months) is still having a hard time controlling his hands, but he's figured out other ways of getting what he wants. Sometimes he'll cry until we help him walk and then he'll "walk" himself over to the object he wants and wrap his mouth around it. We had a meltdown when I wouldn't let him mouth the power cords in the outlet.
The other day his favorite toy (a stuffed dog in floral print) was on his legs while he was in the car. He couldn't reach it, so he lifted his leg up until it rolled to him. The first time, it rolled off the carseat so my husband put it back on his legs. Then he lifted both legs and it rolled more evenly and ended up right in his lap (where he happily put it in his mouth!)
The only way to get him to go to the toilet is to give him a 'maths challenge'. It's harder than you'd think to come up with them, considering you need to know the answer yourself. We've moved to algebra but I feel like I need to start multiplying fractions, in which case I'll need to hide a calculator in my back pocket so I don't look like I'm clueless.
LOL, that is hilarious! Sounds so much like my DS5, he always wants us to give him algebra problems while in the car. It does take a lot of thinking because if I give him an easy one he solves it in seconds and I have to think of another one (plus he tells me to give him a harder one) and if I give him a hard one I have to figure out the answer in my head first(while I am driving of course) and then try to remember it. Sometimes I get distracted and he tells me the answer and then I have to check and see if he was right. Makes car rides not so relaxing. Thankfully when I put classical music on that usually gets him singing and humming and slightly distracted. : ) On long trips we thankfully have a whole basket of mind puzzles and math stuff to keep his brain nourished.
DS6 comes home yesterday to say he's moved another level in reading. He's at the highest level in the entire first grade. He's at a higher level than many second graders too! Thank goodness he's not still in K!
LOL, that is hilarious! Sounds so much like my DS5, he always wants us to give him algebra problems while in the car. It does take a lot of thinking because if I give him an easy one he solves it in seconds and I have to think of another one (plus he tells me to give him a harder one) and if I give him a hard one I have to figure out the answer in my head first(while I am driving of course) and then try to remember it. Sometimes I get distracted and he tells me the answer and then I have to check and see if he was right. Makes car rides not so relaxing. Thankfully when I put classical music on that usually gets him singing and humming and slightly distracted. : ) On long trips we thankfully have a whole basket of mind puzzles and math stuff to keep his brain nourished.
For our car rides I am commissioned with handing out questions in all areas and you would think after 44 years and being an educator I could think of many questions...but I get brainlocked after a while...guess I should look at it as anti-alzheimer's training. :-)
Wolf was at martial arts today and the instructor asked the kids what fun things they did over the weekend/since last class. Other kids said things like played with friends, went miniature golfing, went to the beach, etc... Wolf raised his hand and said "I started writing a..." he looked at me for the word, "script for Star Wars!!!" His instructor seemed a bit startled...
My DS8 has not been much of a reader. He loves us to read to him, but has only recently been reading on his own. His school announced a read-a-thon for MS, and my son was so thrilled with the idea, he came home from school and started reading a book. That was on March 8 and as of this morning he has finished seven books, with a total of about 1,300 pages!
DS1 played the piano...well, ok, not really. But he was goofing around with a keyboard at the science center that makes oil do odd things, and he started using my hand to randomly smack at it (I think it was playing duck sounds or something at the time). Anyway, I was getting tired of the dischords, so I wrestled my fingers into thirds, so it would at least sound less bad. And he grinns at me with this lovy little "Oh, THANK you" face, and then starts using my fingers to play little patterns
Adorable lil thing! (He was really trying to get me on his side today... apparently he started planning tonight early
DS6 and I were at the library today. I asked him to pick out what his next topic that he wanted to read about was going to be. He informed me he wanted to read about WWI and WWII. I told him that we'll check out books on WWI first and then move onto WWII another times if he so chooses.
While we were at the library he began reading one of the books. When it was describing the allies and the Central Power forces beginning to fight and the amount of armies involved he said to me, "Wow, it's like a million rhinocerouses are going to ram another million rhinocerouses."
Never will I look at the beginnings of WWI the same way!
DS4 got up one morning as asked me, what numbers 11 can be divided?? I answered: "only 1 and itself, and nothing esle" "What about 12?" "Not only 1 and itself, but also 2,3,4,6" "Oh..." Then DS started to look for numbers only divied by 1 and itself,even he didn't know we call them "prime number" Soon he figured out most prime numbers within 100. Later afternoon, he asked me: "Mum, is One prime number too?" "Probably not" "Why??" "Hum...you got me, I don't know."
DD6 took a fifth grade benchmark test for language arts and got about an 80% or so. She didn't know the term "narration". Otherwise, she did really well. So this is why she is bored in school. Huh.
"Mum, is One prime number too?" "Probably not" "Why??" "Hum...you got me, I don't know."
Don't know if you're actually looking for an answer to that question, but here it is anyway!
One used to be considered a prime until pretty recently in the history of math. It turns out that various things (including the "fundamental theorem of arithmetic") work out more neatly if you define the primes to not include 1. Wikipedia sez: "the prime numbers have several properties that the number 1 lacks," so excluding 1 is the more sensible, natural definition of the primes.
Makes me want to smack the math teachers who told us smugly, "It's because a prime has exactly two different divisors, 1 and itself." And then they would give us a "gotcha" look, like they expected us to be impressed with the profundity of this insight. They didn't get it that they were just repeating the definition, without any justification.
dd8 is laying a plan to out the Easter Bunny: 3 of her friends are going to trick the Easter Bunny into giving a writing sample. They are going to write a question and leave it for the EB. Meanwhile, they are collecting samples from their dads to compare.
dd8 is laying a plan to out the Easter Bunny: 3 of her friends are going to trick the Easter Bunny into giving a writing sample. They are going to write a question and leave it for the EB. Meanwhile, they are collecting samples from their dads to compare.
While we were at the library he began reading one of the books. When it was describing the allies and the Central Power forces beginning to fight and the amount of armies involved he said to me, "Wow, it's like a million rhinocerouses are going to ram another million rhinocerouses."
Never will I look at the beginnings of WWI the same way!
Great story! And the leaders were just as near-sighted!!!
Yesterday Mr W (26 mos) went with me to watch DW play. He spent much of the time flirting with everyone and kicking a ball around. He then said hi to all her teammates using their names.
I love all these stories, especially the read-a-thon, prime number discovery and easter bunny graphology!
I am venturing a brag about DS 8.0 mos. because he has been standing for 30 minutes at a time for a month now. Yesterday I caught him on video pulling himself up to stand in the middle of the room. Not his first time to do that, but it's suddenly commonplace enough for me to film easily, and he just squats up, down, up down, like a weight lifter. (DS is adopted and started out behind the 8 ball, so we are delighted with his vitality.)
So proud of my DS3! He has been a secret reader for while, any time I would catch him reading he would shut off. Finally yesterday, he brought me a book and told me to sit down because he was going to read me a story. I guess he finally found the confidence he needed, to show me his talent. I knew he could read some, but I was very surprised at how good he was, he only got stuck on one word and did not get mad when he needed help.
seablue Congrates!! Early walking indicate giftness!! My son stand up and learned to walk by holding coffee table, walking without assistant at 10 months, running arround at 11 months, I only realized that his early motor skill matters later I found he is advanced in reading and numbers too
Since we got him piano, he is so into it, always wants to play. He can sit there hours to read his piano book and watch the DVD, and self taught himself quite many simple songs. He was in group music class with ten similar age kids, but he is away ahead of them, maybe because he pay so much attention on it, and practices it hours everyday, his log tern spam is amazing!!
My colleage said he is very jealous because his DS not very much into music:-)
I just joined today, so I'll first introduce myself...
I'm Lynn and I have one child; a son age three.
He is reading level two books, can count to 100 and identify any number up to 100. He is starting to write letters and numbers. He has a great vocabulary and sentence delivery. He knows the days of the week and months of the year and uses four and five syllable words. He's able to tell time on the hour, half hour and quarter hour. Some of his favorite things are dials and gauges. He loves his compass and he sleeps with a pocket watch that belonged to his great-great grandma.
He's a sweet and outgoing little boy. Always talking up a stranger! (yikes)
I haven't put him in preschool yet. He's not potty-trained and has some trouble with physical things like riding a bike. He's no athlete! LOL Hopefully when he's enrolled, he will pick up more physical skills.
I love all these stories, especially the read-a-thon, prime number discovery and easter bunny graphology!
I am venturing a brag about DS 8.0 mos. because he has been standing for 30 minutes at a time for a month now. Yesterday I caught him on video pulling himself up to stand in the middle of the room. Not his first time to do that, but it's suddenly commonplace enough for me to film easily, and he just squats up, down, up down, like a weight lifter. (DS is adopted and started out behind the 8 ball, so we are delighted with his vitality.)
My son is 6 - will be 7 in June - currently in 1st grade. His teacher is doing reading assessments this week - she was blown away - he is reading and comprehending at 4th grade level. She is going to continue testing his reading, and see how high he goes. Until recently, he was struggling with the comprehension part - but once he figured that he had to remember what he read, he did fine His teacher knew he would take longer than the other kids for his assessment, so she kept him after school for an hour one day, then brought him home to me when they were done - she's really enjoying having him in her class
This may seem weak to you all but this is new to me and I don't really have anyone to brag to IRL....without getting a *look*.
My 7 yr old just went thru intelligence testing and score at the 99.9 percentile. Her official classification is Highly Gifted :-)
She just seems like a normal, but bright, kiddo to me!
I am very hopeful for her future and am already working on upping her exposure to more educational things. Yesterday (on her own) she spent a couple hours happily playing math games online...working on multiplication and fractions. I had to make her shut it down.
DS9 usually dreads the school day and comes home saying it was BORING and uninteresting. Yesterday was a bit different though...he said "Well, I learned something today. They're finally making a step in the right direction with me. I actually learned something about long division I didn't know before." He cracks me up!
My 11 year old son finished the last of three musical theater performances last night. My son played the Hercules part in "Zero to Hero and he sang "Go the Distance." He also played Baloo singing "Bare Necessities" in the musical theater group's Disney animated musical revue. He had about a week to learn the Baloo part when one of the actors couldn't do it. It was challenging because he had to learn the lyrics, the choreography, and the dialogue quickly and with motor dyspraxia the choreography is harder for him to learn, especially when he has to sing and dance at the same time--but he did it and he did it well in his solos and in all of the 17 other songs he had parts in. He was able to do it even though he had to wear the brace during all rehearsals. I don't think anyone watching the show would describe him as uncoordinated. He is not the best dancer, but he did it well enough. His timing on Bare Necessities was really good and he was able to time the acting and dialogue and the singing to fit the music. His "parents" came in late for their part when he sang "Go the Distance" and he handled that well also, cutting short his dialogue and making it fit the amount of time he had before he had to start singing again. He also handled his shoe coming off during a dress rehearsal by quickly kicking it behind a group of kids in the scene and shoving his foot back in the shoe before anyone else noticed. He did not break character or seem anxious about it at all. I can't believe how much his confidence has grown the last few months. There are five girls who are close to his age in the group and they seem to like him. One of the girls used the word "cute" to describe him. He always hated it when I used that word to describe him. He seemed a little embarrassed when two of them hugged him after the show, but I also noticed that he doesn't want me to hang around as much any more.
He said the girls were surprised to find out that he is several months younger than two of them. They all thought he was older.
He had more trouble than usual falling asleep last night because of all the excitement, so he spent half the night reading history.
I remember my daughter and I reading the book "Scranimals", with poems in it. It's poems of fictional animals mixed with vegetable, very cute, very clever. She was about three years old. A couple days later she came out and said, "It's interesting that he chose a dodo as the animal on the last page of the book, after all, they are extinct, aren't they?"
That was one clue in many as to what I was dealing with.
When she was two, she announced with absolute clarity, that she found her room, "completely disasterous!"
When she was four, she found me out in the garden and told me "she'd just been reading about plate techtonics and found it fascinating."
What a character!!! She's a wild and exciting ride, this one!
I'm not actually sure he INTENDED to draw a happy face, but at 367 days old, getting a circle that was both round and closed is kinda... well... cool. Getting two dots and a curve inside and in the shape of a happy face was beyond cool, intentional or otherwise. His computer-illustrator-mom-who-can't-draw-on-paper-to-save-her-life was amused
Otherwise he's just been scribbling like a normal 1 yr old, so this is probably another one of his reading-ahead moments and it'll be a year before he does anything else recognisable
He then refused to even stand still without hanging on to something until his nap. (He walks all day when he wants to). The little nutcase.
D14 just e-mailed, she won a trophy from last weekend's Quiz Bowl tournament for getting the most questions right of all the freshman in the tournament. Funny, since in the car on the way home she claimed she hadn't known the answers to a lot of questions.
One of my first graders is doing long division. He just loves math - his whole face lights up
(I confess I bragged at a cocktail party, as part of a conversation about schools, and I've felt guilty ever since. To a teacher no less. I should have come here first!!!!!)
Yesterday DD was crying that some kids made fun of her for still liking PBS kids TV shows. I told her, you know it's really a wonderful gift to be able to enjoy simple things. Some people don't like to go for walks, but something so simple can be wonderful. I think your perfect just the way you are. I'm sorry they missed seeing that about you and hurt your feelings. She went from crying to shining.
today my DD who is three going on four used the word "soporific" then tried to talk to a two year old about molting at the library. Yesterday when someone said they needed to get inside because they were going to melt, she said, "Don't worry. I'm a solid--ha ha" Okie dokie. I can see why her preschool teacher said she seems a little out of place in her classroom.
Writing's been a weak spot for my DS8 who's a bookworm. My husband keeps telling me all that reading will eventually reflect to his writing. But I wasn't sure when it's going to happen. Thanks to my threat and persuasion, my hubby has helped my son write a paragraph almost every weekend since this school year started. English isn't my native language, so I wasn't comfortable afterschooling writing with him.
Anyway, my son showed a paper to me this afternoon and I couldn't believe he wrote the following story by himself at school without my hubby's help.
The Pirate Who Met a Giant
Once upon a time a pirate named Jack set foot on a misty island. He called to see if there were villages he could find to rob. There were no call backs but one. It was a giant. He said, "Fee fi fo fum who sets foot on my island!" Pirate Jack said back, "You scurvy giant sucm, you shall not have this island!" Then Jack found the giant and dueled and fought until the giant fell down and said, "I'll surrender since you defeated me." Jack said, "Good, now you can leave now." The giant went away and later Jack left the island to steal from villages far away. That was how the story began.
We gave him a ton of compliments. His confidence in writing got boosted 10 times at least today. Hope days of frustration in writing are behind us.
Lan- That's a great story!!! how wonderful your DH is helping him with writing.
I think frustration is part of creative. I was just reading a art teacher book that says let the kids be ok with not liking some of their work. Even Adult Artists might like 2 out of 5 drawings. Not liking work sometimes could promote progress.
DS(16)'s school was approached by the local council and asked if DS could assist the men with the mathematics in a course they were required to do on water and waste water. DS was happy to do this and did three 2 hour sessions with them. He came home from school yesterday with a lovely letter from the council thanking DS for his excellent assistance and informing him that all the men had passed the course. YAY DS.
onthegomom- Thank you! It wasn't easy to get DH involved in afterschooling but he's been more willing to help these days since he saw the result.
That's relieving. I still remember the absolute frustration when the art teacher in 2nd grade told us to draw whatever we wished to. I just stared the blank paper feeling my brain became totally blank. DS has the same tendency and gets a panic attack easily with writing and drawing. I try to divide them into small steps so he won't be overwhelmed with the frustration. I was happy to find out these days he actually likes writing although it's still hard for him.
DS4 brought me a stack of mixed-up bills (all fake, sadly!) and said, "Here's a hundred dollars for you!" I figured he had just picked a random number, but when I counted the money, it was indeed $100. I can see that there's still a lot of play money left in the drawer, so he must have counted out the amount he wanted to give me.
DD3.5 was at a birthday party for a school mate yesterday and her little friend was very upset that his lovely dinosaur pinata was going to get a beating. He refused to hit it himself, even throwing the stick away from everyone and proceeded to have a major meltdown about it where his mother had to hold him down. DD clearly saw all of this happening but it didn't stop her from taking her turn at the pinata. When it finally did break open and the candy was picked up; they tossed the pinata over the edge of the yard (where there was a ditch) and informed the poor little guy that it was the dinosaur's grave. He stood there for a little while looking at the carcass of what use to be his dinosaur and was clearly still upset. DD walked up to him and put her little hand on his back giving him a little rub and talked to him for a little bit which seemed to calm him down and they headed off to have birthday cake together. DD really has such an awareness and high empathy.
That is such a lovely story, Katelyn'sMom! What a wonderful, kind, sensitive little girl--good for her, and good for you, for raising such a sweetheart.
DS5 patiently sat and watched a friend try to solve a puzzle on cover your tracks (a thinkfun game that he was borrowing from DS). DS didn't give advice or tell them how to do it and then when they got a little frustrated he said "It's okay, I get stuck on that level too sometimes." : )
Today was the day for Mr W (27 mos) to hand out flowers to his teachers. All we told him at home was that he had to pick out flowers to give to his teachers.
He was very upset that DW put the flowers up front in the car where he could not hold them. We thought he would have a massive fit at school when he had to give them up.
Instead...
When he got to school, without us telling him, he grabbed the flowers from the car, went inside, and on his own, gave flowers to several people - not just his teachers. And he gave every recipient his 50,000 watt smile and his infectious happy laugh when they took the flower.
I just need to brag about my maybe gifted "baby" for a minute. She is 11 months old and told me today "steam is hot". (she saw steam coming from a dry cleaners) Whaaa???
She also knows most of her letters by sight and says the letters and sometimes will add a list of things that begin with that letter, ie last week she said "D, dada, doggy". Funny thing is when she sees the number 8 she INSISTS it's a B even if we tell her it's not.
Her latest 3 words: Umbrella, Hammer, and Doctor. Ok so they are not perfectly clear, but close family can understand her and signs them too, so we always understand.
WooHooo, feels so good to say all that stuff out loud! I have to keep it from my friends since they are not very supportive .
Wolf(5.8) just figured out division in his head with no real prior explanation! He had to figure out the factors of 60 and said, "Well, 3 goes into 6 twice, but then there's the zero." I jumped in and showed him how it works on paper and he got it immediately. He was so proud of himself and can't wait to tell his ISP teacher the next time he sees her.
Speaking of which, his teacher copied out the last page of his last fractions book (the first in a series of four books our school system uses to bring remedial high school students up to speed) and brought it to the high school math teacher. (I love her sense of humor!!!). She showed it to the poor unsuspecting teacher who looked it over and said, "Looks like the kid has dyslexia." Wolf's teacher said something along the lines of, "That's not the problem, the number reversal is age appropriate. The student is 5." High school teacher's jaw hit the floor according to Wolf's teacher. She added, "You're going to be seeing him in a couple of years." To which the high school teacher responded, "Nope, he'll probably skip right past me." She was curious what Wolf's teacher did with a kid like that. I think the response was, "I'm not sure, but it's working so far." LOL!
I received this from Nathaniel's (he's 6, in 1st grade) teacher, and just had to share !!! He was tested recently for the school's "gifted" program, and passed with flying colors
""" I haven't seen the individual tests, but the composite scores are certainly more than impressive! Nathaniel is an amazingly gifted child in so many ways. Academically he is more advanced than any child I have ever taught. But even more than that, he is a delightful person. He is funny and he understands humor. (I love having someone in the room who gets me!!) He is kind and caring to other people and has a deeply empathetic nature. Watching him help some of my students who struggle warms my heart. He does not judge others who may not be as bright as he is, instead, he is happy to help with a word, share a strategy, or encourage. Nathaniel's behavior is appropriate for his age, he readily accepts challenges, and is just a wonderfully well-rounded individual. I am so lucky to know him, and you as well"""
Needless to say I'm a very proud mommy - and what an e-mail to get on Mother's Day !
The other day, DS8 asked me if I could explain pi to him. He thought he was being tricky, and said it would take forever to explain because pi never ended. I told him I could explain it in a single sentence. (pi = the ratio of the diameter of a circle to its circumference.)
While I was explaining, DS6 insisted I explain to him, too, and was far more excited to discuss it than DS8. DS6 then got a bunch of different things for us to measure (e.g., cake pan, plates) and test whether we could ALWAYS determine what the circumference would be from the diameter. It was amazing to see him be able to do the multiplication, and understand the concept.
I received this from Nathaniel's (he's 6, in 1st grade) teacher, and just had to share !!! He was tested recently for the school's "gifted" program, and passed with flying colors
""" I haven't seen the individual tests, but the composite scores are certainly more than impressive! Nathaniel is an amazingly gifted child in so many ways. Academically he is more advanced than any child I have ever taught. But even more than that, he is a delightful person. He is funny and he understands humor. (I love having someone in the room who gets me!!) He is kind and caring to other people and has a deeply empathetic nature. Watching him help some of my students who struggle warms my heart. He does not judge others who may not be as bright as he is, instead, he is happy to help with a word, share a strategy, or encourage. Nathaniel's behavior is appropriate for his age, he readily accepts challenges, and is just a wonderfully well-rounded individual. I am so lucky to know him, and you as well"""
Needless to say I'm a very proud mommy - and what an e-mail to get on Mother's Day !
I don't know if this goes here, but it's more of a "story" than a "brag"...
DS6 came home yesterday and stated his teacher asked all the kids to assess the job her and her co-teacher (he has 2 part time teachers) are doing. He told her that she was doing fine except in math and that she really needed to bump them up a few levels since they are only adding and subtracting right now (DS is doing multiplication and simple division on his own). Oh to be a fly on the wall to see his teacher's reaction!!!
DD has been able to sound out almost anything for some time now...but lately she is wither doing it completly in her head or just knows the words now. This week she read snuggle, google, and several other words I know she has never read without stopping to sound them out....I have seen reading go from sounding out everything to automatic for her in the past week....and it has been really cool to see
He may be "louder" than I am... and another bragging moment. He did really well on his CRCT (achievement test). His teacher said he made a perfect score on the reading portion.
And for those of that remember, DS6 is a perfectionist, so I have him playing baseball to keep him grounded and so he understands he doesn't have to be perfect at everything. And bam, this year he made all stars! WHAT? On to find something new he's not so good at!!!
My 6 year old just showed me how he built his first FM radio with the Snap Circuit set he has ... It was about 24 pieces to put together from just a picture.
It has volume control and a rudimentary channel scan
JJ: it sounds like you have a well-rounded son there and making the all stars' team is a big deal. I remember my cousins and the joy and accomplishment they felt when they made the team.
Cawdor: You will have to let us know what his next project is ... can only imagine he will be looking to do even more complex ones after the radio!
Nautigal: Thanks for sharing the mother's day card. I love her choice of power. It made me giggle.
Yes, great stories, love the one about Bear's work wowing the high school teacher, Wyldkat!
We visited the family night for the gt pull out program my ds9 is in, and got to view the various centers he's been working on, and the group roller coaster project. He learned a lot about gears and built a cool target game with a lego engineering center which he really enjoyed. He is now speeding through a Mythology center to wrap up the year on a 'high' as mythology is a big favorite for him. He is very excited and doing really well. Best of all his anxiety about being perfect at school has substantially subsided, I am not sure why, but he is much much more relaxed if he doesn't get an 'A' on something.
Dd4 is becoming a very polite reasonable little girl, compared with the last several months of 'No No No', so I am really proud of her maturity and willingness to listen more and more often. It is such a relief.
I was pretty impressed when my 5 yr old finished the first two 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' books in a week each...until he finished the next two in a day each! He's a little dismayed that he needs to wait until fall for the next one.
Ds6 told me today he wants to study spiders when he grows up so we looked up what that was called. Arachnologist. I asked him if he wanted to write that down. Of course, he didn't because he hates to write. Dd3, as usual, chimes in and says that she wants to write it (she is really excited about it too) so I get out a piece of paper, write the word out and she proceeds to write ARACHNOLOGIST on her paper as if she writes such words all the time. I am completely floored by how much she loves to write things. It's tough when you have one that absolutely hates doing something and then to have little sister come along and do things with such ease - they are both really smart but she is going to give him a run for his money.
I really like this idea because I'm finding the same problem!
I'm proud of my almost 5 yr. old daughter's ability to do so many things. It's great that she is sitting at my husband's computer perusing the Nick Jr. website for games while I'm bragging about her here! :o)
This isn't much of a brag, but I can't find the "kids say the darnedest things" (or whatever it was called) thread any more...
We went to a military re-enactment event on the long weekend, and at one station, people were teaching children semaphore. When it was Groucho's turn (he's 6), the gentleman asked him what he wanted to spell, and Groucho said, "Well, 'nonchalant' has always been one of my favourite words." For some reason, this really cracked me up!
My 12 year old son and I went to a homeschool spelling bee yesterday. He was nervous not because he didn't know all the words, but because he competed at state level a few years ago and misspelled what he thought was an easy word. He had never misspelled the word before. He called what happened a glitch. He was worried that it might happen again. He told me he would much rather sing a solo on stage than do this, but he decided to try it.
When they finally called his group up on stage there was no outward sign of anxiety. Instead, he seemed to exude confidence. There was no glitch this time. He won. He conquered the glitch and he had a nice trophy to add to his collection.
He also found out that he got the part of Mr. Mayor in Seussical. He was very happy about it and I wish I'd had the camera when I first told him. He said he didn't really want to play the part of the little boy, even though he liked the song "Alone in the Universe" that he auditioned with. He was in the age range to play JoJo, but he just doesn't seem like a little boy any more after the last growth spurt. He is almost as tall as I am.
This past weekend was our dance recital for DD (3 1/2). She has been in ballet and tap for the past 2 years but this was to be her first real recital on a stage, with lights and production. I've been a little nervous about it, especially since she invited all the grandparents and in the past she was literally deer caught in headlights. Boy what a difference a year makes. Saturday was dress rehearsal and the only day we, the parents, were allowed to record. She was great; did all of the routine. The next day was the actual recital and she fell asleep in the car right before we got there so I was concerned that she wasn't going to do as well. She did wonderfully and though she was technically better the day before; we really saw her personality on that stage. She was super excited for the jump and almost jumped at the wrong time but realized her mistake and transitioned back into the routine with no problems, but you could see the excitement building on her face and when it was finally time to jump she was beaming from ear to ear. I couldn't be prouder of her.
We went to a military re-enactment event on the long weekend, and at one station, people were teaching children semaphore. When it was Groucho's turn (he's 6), the gentleman asked him what he wanted to spell, and Groucho said, "Well, 'nonchalant' has always been one of my favourite words." For some reason, this really cracked me up!
I love it! That's funny, that sounds so much like something my random DS (almost 6) would say. He always seems to say really funny things that come from who knows where. I actually started that kids say the darndest things thread forever ago and was looking for it the other day because I had a few good ones. I guess I will have to start it again sometime.
We were at the park, DD20months and there was a bike and she wanted to get on it and ride it. I told her it was not ours so we could not ride it and she said, "ask" Also this morning she was playing with the fridge magnets with HIT, HOT and HAT. I don't think she completely gets it yet but shes being a sherlock holmes and trying to break that code!
My DS4 loves a game called Meeblings where you can make your own levels (he's made about 150). He'd be delighted if anyone would care to play a few. Some solve themselves.
DS7 asked me yesterday if he could read me "the following narrative." I giggled silently to myself hearing that phrase and later I asked him if I could read HIM a narrative. He said, "Actually, I prefer expository writing." Being so long out of school myself, I had to ask him what that meant...:) Nan
Yeah some positives.. Last night was our elementary achievement fair. It was a chance for the kids to present research projects they have worked on since February. The kids were positively judged and given comment sheets. It felt so good for my DS with tourette's to get such great comments about his presentation. He was complimented on his in depth knowledge of subject- cats. He spoke clear with minimal stutter/ticcing. Even made eye contact. Several adults who he works with came specifically to see him and his project. They all had positive things to say and how much they look forward to working with him. It was interesting that the one teacher who he has the most problems with wasn't there. He received a badge from Math Olympiad. It was just great to see academics celebrated, even the Superendent was there. Go smart kids.
This past weekend was our dance recital for DD (3 1/2). She has been in ballet and tap for the past 2 years but this was to be her first real recital on a stage, with lights and production. I've been a little nervous about it, especially since she invited all the grandparents and in the past she was literally deer caught in headlights. Boy what a difference a year makes. Saturday was dress rehearsal and the only day we, the parents, were allowed to record. She was great; did all of the routine. The next day was the actual recital and she fell asleep in the car right before we got there so I was concerned that she wasn't going to do as well. She did wonderfully and though she was technically better the day before; we really saw her personality on that stage. She was super excited for the jump and almost jumped at the wrong time but realized her mistake and transitioned back into the routine with no problems, but you could see the excitement building on her face and when it was finally time to jump she was beaming from ear to ear. I couldn't be prouder of her.
Hey, very cool! We are going to dance recitals for our ds9 and dd4 in a couple weeks; ds has been working hard on ballet and hip-hop routines and this will be dd's first recital, she is very excited.
DD goes to an academy which is different then most places around here. Most places have a little studio and are 99.9% all young girls. At the academy they not only have classes running through high school but also their own production house so they put on a lot of in house shows as well as traveling ones. Just my opinion, but I think the way the academy is set up attracts more talent and especially boys. The night of DD's recital I got to see the older kids perform and I was really impressed with the boys. One boy who is around 12 or 13 was of real interest. I suspect he didn't come to class that much so he didn't have his routine down perfectly, but what he did perform you could tell he had naturally raw talent.
Good luck to your children ... I bet your son will do wonderfully since he has been practicing so much. And as for your daughter ... I suspect the excitement will be through the roof after she comes off that stage. (Not that she won't be excited before and during.)
During our bedtime routine tonight, DS2 ended up in a time out and was very unhappy. I noticed that DSnearly5 went out of bed to write something. He came back to the room and presented DS2 with a card that said "I love you", gave him a hug and told him he did that to make him feel better. DS2 fell asleep with the card in his hand. :*) Earlier today DSnearly5 got into trouble himself and after a while he came back presenting me with a present. He had writing in his second mother tongue 8 sentences about me starting with " I love you" to "You are a heart". His spelling was the cutest inventive spelling. :*)
DD7 is finishing 2nd grade and we just had her end of year conferences to discuss her standardized test results from the test the school took a couple of months ago. The test is called CTP4 (from a company called ERB). There are about 200 questions on the test and 5 areas they are tested in: auditory comprehension, reading comprehension,word analysis, writing mechanics and mathematics. She only got 10 questions wrong! Her percentiles were the 5th highest in the school (from 1st grade to 9th grade). Most of the subtest scores were 100%s. It was really amazing to see such high scores across the board. Usually when I look at test results for my students there is at least one section that is lower than the rest. I was sharing the results with a colleague who is a college counselor and he said he has never seen such amazing results.
I had a consultation this week to discuss DD4 testing for entering Pre K the woman doing the consultation first words were "do you know how bright your child is" I replied we know she's bright but sometimes we wonder if she is really as bright as we think she is or are we just proud parents, to this she replies she's probably brighter than you think she is and that she tested higher than any child they had tested. She went on to say other wonderful things about DD4. Makes a parent proud and reinforces that you're not making up in your mind how smart your child is. Now the fun begins entering the public school system.
DS scored overall above the 99% in achievement testing for Homeschooling this week. We did the Peabody achievement oral test so that's the highest percentile you can get. He ranged 3 to 7 grade levels ahead in every area. Just feels good to know we are doing the right thing by homeschooling, and he's not languishing! Sometimes I feel like we're barely doing school, but we must be doing ok.
He made a *BIG* math leap this year. It's especially good to have that number. I am having a really hard time wrapping my mind around what we're going to do for math next year.
Yay, Kim! I dislike the time that testing takes, but I do love getting that confirmation that the kids are doing well. It's such a relief.
What are you considering for math next year? I'm at the same place. I think we'll get the AoPS book and work through it ourselves, but I'm still mulling it over.
My 12 year old son is responsible for saving the life of his dog after seeing that the "responsible" adults in the family, his dad and I, were not acting responsibly enough to take his beloved pet Lexi to the vet.
We had come home from eating out to discover that Lexi had somehow reached a container of poison mole pellets and chewed off the lid. There were still a lot of poison pellets remaining in the container so my husband and I thought she hadn't eaten any of them at first. When she vomited, my husband did see some undigested pellets, but we thought the problem was solved because there wasn't anything left in her stomach and there wasn't anything we could do anyway because the vet's office was closed for the weekend.
My son looked up information on zinc phosphide poisoning in dogs and made a very convincing argument that we absolutely had to take her to a vet. He pointed out that she had ingested a very slow acting poison so just because she wasn't showing any signs of neurological problems yet, she could still have serious damage being done to her body. He read to us all the things that could be done, like using activated charcoal, that could help reduce the toxicity of the poison. He did not give up. He was going to do whatever he had to do to get her help. He convinced me to call poison control and they said to take her to an animal emergency hospital IMMEDIATELY.
My son didn't volunteer this time to help her when she needed to vomit--twice in the 45 minute drive to the animal hospital, because he had to deal with sitting in dog vomit all the way home when we picked her up from being spayed several months ago and he got sick from the smell. So I did that, but he talked to her and made sure she was being taken care of.
Lexi is still in the animal hospital but she is doing well and we are supposed to pick her up today. The last we heard, the bill was over $700, but my son said it is a price we have to pay for not being precautious. He was willing to do without things on his upcoming vacation with his big sister if he had to, even though it was not his fault.
He asked why we would ever take this kind of risk by having this poison anywhere near our house? He thought my not knowing we had it was a weak defense. He thought it was my responsibility to know because I was the one who let her out in the backyard. Why didn't we look for safer alternatives? This kid has always asked hard questions.
By the way, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but the neuropsychologist said he might have a few executive function issues after we said time management was sometimes a problem and he often couldn't remember to keep his computer/desk area clean. Who really had better executive functioning in this case?
Yay, Kim! I dislike the time that testing takes, but I do love getting that confirmation that the kids are doing well. It's such a relief.
What are you considering for math next year? I'm at the same place. I think we'll get the AoPS book and work through it ourselves, but I'm still mulling it over.
Testing with the Peabody is a piece of cake. It's oral, not timed and it's open ended to 12th grade level. It took about an hour in our dining room. Love it! We didn't prep at all. The tester warned us we're approaching the ceiling of this test though.
Ugh Kriston - great question on math for next year. I may start a thread on this! Right now I have Lial's College Math (which is like applied pre-algebra) and Life of Fred Algebra sitting around the house. I also have Zaccaro's Middle School Math, which looks fun. Before I had test scores, I was thinking of doing Lial's and playing around more at the pre-alg/early algebra level. But now I feel much more like we're real and rigorous algebra ready.
I know LOF gets great reviews, but the curriculum basically says 1 - hand book to child 2 - walk away and don't answer questions And that's how it's designed to work. Which is just not going to work at this house! DS is already balking at the format. He just really likes me to sit down and talk through an example or 2 with him. It doesn't take much, but I think saying "figure it out" isn't going to cut it yet.
I am VERY interested in AoPS. But I don't feel like DS is at ready to do their online course in terms of deadlines and workload. And I'm not ready for that either! I'd love to hear from someone who has used them on their own. I feel really comfortable teaching math (unlike everything else!), but I wonder how that would go.
We also have a young talented math program at a local University that starts accelerated algebra with 6th to 8th graders that is very popular with the local gifted community. I think we could do it in a year, but the work load is really heavy and kids drop extra curricular activities to do it. So that doesn't sound great either.
As a veterinarian, I say hooray for your son!!! People come in all the time saying, "I didn't know such and such was bad for my dog/cat." Kudos to your son Nan
This is kind of a brag, but kind of just a cute story about DD who turns 3 next week.
We were at a picnic this weekend and DD had 1 cookie. Then a few hours later she asked for another cookie. As I gave her the 2nd cookie I said to her "that is your last cookie...don't ask me for more cookies." Of course before she had even finished swallowing her 2nd cookie she says "can I have another cookie?" I looked at her and said "what did I say?" She replies "ummmm" and I can see the wheels turning in her head. She then responds confidently "you can only have 3 cookies." LOL. She is a bright little girl but she has a PG brother so I don't always notice some of the things she does. Lately I have been noticing more and more things though.
Last night Hanni (2 yrs 1 month) moved my magazines from a tippy spot on top of a pillow to a flatter part of the bed. "More stable," she said. She cracks me up! I just love how her little mind works.
Today at a coffee shop, I was complimenting DS on his being very polite, including a very vague reference to his age when I heard a little gasp from behind me. A very nice woman had turned around in her chair and was staring.
"I thought he was FIVE!" she said.
I guess he really WAS being polite. (mostly please and thank you, and some negotiation around what size of muffin pieces should be eaten by small boys) Politeness has been our big project lately, since I was getting tired of him hitting people and throwing food. So this is really MY brag. DS was polite, but I darned well get the credit for pointing out he SHOULD be
While shopping today my DD who just turned four was sitting in a cart with a squirrel figurine she talked me into buying entertaining the people in line behind us and told them it was a "Squirrel Nutkin" from Beatrix Potter. An older gentleman asked what kind of squirrel he was and she said, "An impertinent little squirrel" and they all just stopped since they were expecting something like "a brown squirrel" LOL This really isn't a brag per se, but a cute story I only share here
Today at a coffee shop, I was complimenting DS on his being very polite, including a very vague reference to his age when I heard a little gasp from behind me. A very nice woman had turned around in her chair and was staring.
"I thought he was FIVE!" she said.
I guess he really WAS being polite. (mostly please and thank you, and some negotiation around what size of muffin pieces should be eaten by small boys) Politeness has been our big project lately, since I was getting tired of him hitting people and throwing food. So this is really MY brag. DS was polite, but I darned well get the credit for pointing out he SHOULD be
<giggle>
Well deserved brag! I'm scratching my head why the woman was shocked by a young child's politeness though. My DD (3 1/2) has always had manners from a very young age: she learned to say please and thank you before she was even a year old. Now it is second nature for her and she doesn't even think twice about it.
These are cute- love the impertinent squirrel comment!
I was sitting with my busy 2 yo son at the start of church services, keeping him occupied till it was time to go to the play group. He was chattering away about all of the "H" cars he had seen in the lot- Hondas, Hyundais LOL. And asked if there were any Ferraris to be seen. He was working on trying to write letters with a quiet chatter. Later the lady who was sitting in front of us came over and said she was shocked at his advanced vocabulary and knowledge of letters. She kept saying, "good luck with school he's too smart as it is". LOL.
I also feel very proud because we were at the park today, and he had extremely good manners and self control with an older child who wouldn't share his cars. Nick went over, introduced himself, and asked politely if he could play with him. (the boy had 10 cars all to himself). The other LO wrapped his arms around all the cars and refused to play/share despite his mom prompting him. My sweet LO just kept politely saying, "please, will you share with me? I'd love to play with you and your cars?" He never lost his temper. He didn't hit/grab/yell. just calmly walked away after I explained that the other child wasn't in a mood to share and maybe we needed to find something else to do. I was very proud. Oh, and he grabbed and slid down the "fireman's pole" at the park unassisted.
My DC go to a sitter's house for the summer. She is an upcoming college freshman. Her mom used to watch DC for a year when DS was about 18mos (DD was born within that year) until he was 2.5. Anyway, our sitter has a sister who is an upcoming 5th grader. Yesterday DS6 was doing multiplication. Sitter's mom asked him to help her daugther (the 5th grader), as she is still struggling with multiplication!!! DOH!
my HG+ DS8 started off the school year with a total inability to spell, total reluctance to read ... and although his lexile was 392, which is average for 2nd grade, I knew he just wasn't leaping ahead as from all other evidence he could.
He just did his final Lexile assessment ... and he had jumped 500 points!!!! to 865 and mostly memorized how to spell ... and now even though he doesn't read much other than Foxtrot and Calvin and Hobbes at home, it's all good!
my DD who recently turned four has been reading words forever. I know she is capable of reading very "big" words and does so with no effort or very little effort, but never, ever will read a book to me and I don't push it because when I do, she gets more unlikely to cooperate. Last night I was really hoping she would read to me so I dug out a very, very simple book with CVC words etc. and put it in the pile of books we read before bed, and she reached over and picked up a much, much longer, much much more complicated book with long paragraphs and read it cover to cover for us and was quite fluent. I didn't even ask. What got her to do it was she was pretending she was me and that gave her more confidence I guess. Why had she hidden all that?????? Not sure if this is a brag, but I wanted to share it.
TwinkleToes- I think sometimes kids just want to figure out something on their own before they show others. Good for you being patient and letting her do this her way. Enjoy your reading time together. It's a wonderful.
At supper last night, DD7 asked about choking and what causes a person to choke. My DH explained that it happened when something gets stuck in your throat and you can't breathe. She looked at him like he had three heads. "But how does your trachea get blocked when your food goes down your esophagus?" He turned to me with a look of 'you are on your own'. I began explaining that there is a flap of tissue over the trachea and she cut me off. "Oh, you mean the epiglottis! So sometimes food can get through if it is open. I get it. Thanks!"
I agree! This happens all the with DS13. It's really hard for me to keep track of what he knows. Apparently he thinks I'm chronically underestimating him. ((pout))
DS7 had to have an ultrasound on his kidneys (long story). He was absolutely fascinated with the whole process. The tech was awesome and explained how the machine worked, what the readings meant, on and on... His 15 minute scan ended up taking almost an hour. She even let him watch her download his files. As we were leaving he turned back and thanked her again "Thank you very much for explaining it to me, it was better than the computer!" High praise indeed!
Some friends at church had their grandson with them at church yesterday. I asked the grandma how old he was, hoping he was only 2-3 years older than GS10(almost 11). No luck, he's 16. She asked how old my GS is; when I answered, she got a shocked look on her face. She thought he was 13, and stammered around why she thought he was older, 'he acts/talks ....you know...'. I laughed, and agreed, he seems older than he is.
Later in the day, GS10 & I were talking about school. I reminded him that sometime they're going to give him material to learn that he doesn't already know. He acknowledged that, said he's still waiting, and by college or maybe high school they'd teach him something new. He is looking forward to Jazz Band, Math Club & Chess club in the fall.
My DS5 was given the school's 1st grade testing today. He got a perfect score! I mean I thought he knew the stuff, but to see it and have someone else telling YOU is something neat. Is Second grade going to challenge him next year? hmmm..
DS5's school decided to have him unofficially take the end of third grade state math assessment and have it graded by someone who doesn't know him and graded like any 3rd grader. They reported to me that he only got one wrong and it was due to a vocabulary term in math he wasn't familiar with. Good news too as this helped them to see that he would definitely be able to start in 4th grade math next year (even though it still will be pretty easy for him). At least now they know they don't have any doubts that he can do it. And DS really enjoyed filling in the bubbles on the scantron. ; )
2 months ago, DS18mo started to do those Jumbo Knob puzzles. Now, he is getting bored with 12-piece jigsaw puzzles. I need to get him started on 24-piece soon.
It's so neat to see my 18-month-old doing jigsaw puzzles since I loved to do jigsaw puzzles when I was little.
We bought the BBC Life series for our budding biologist. It is AMAZING in HD, coolest thing I have ever seen. She watched the first disc this morning with her atlas on her lap and was constantly pressing pause so she could look up where each animal was from. She asked so many questions, I have no idea how she heard anything that Richard Attenborough was saying.
"How do those birds run on water? Did Jesus teach them?"
"Can I have a venus fly-trap... it would get rid of the houseflies!"
And my favourite "Oh gross... WHAT is that lizard doing to that other lizard????"
I'm going to have to rewatch it tonight after she has gone to bed so I can hear everything I missed.
We bought the BBC Life series for our budding biologist. It is AMAZING in HD, coolest thing I have ever seen. She watched the first disc this morning with her atlas on her lap and was constantly pressing pause so she could look up where each animal was from. She asked so many questions, I have no idea how she heard anything that Richard Attenborough was saying.
We've not gone HD yet, but yes, all the David (it's David who is the naturalist broadcaster btw - Richard Attenborough is his brother the actor) Attenborough programmes are fantastic, aren't they? Good thing is there are a lot of them... I think the original Life On Earth may still be the best for overall interest, but the photography only gets better as the years go by. I bought a boxed set for my own birthday, and it was promptly hijacked by DS-then-4, who insisted on me making a list of all the animals mentioned in the first episode. Lots of fun, lots of learning :-)
Oh my gosh....wow! My 21 month old barely talks. I would fall over if he came out with something like that! Unless knowing all of the Thomas trains is a talent, his is still hiding.
I think the original Life On Earth may still be the best
I watched the preview for that and thought, "WOW!" Definitely will be getting that one, too. And you're right, it is David Attenborough. I couldn't bear to listen to Oprah on Discovery's version!
We had a horrible year at school with a teacher who completely did not get my son and really managed to destroy his self-image. Recently we went to a bbq and ran into an art instructor he had two years ago at an arts/science summer camp. She immediately asked me if my son was with me and went on to tell me what a neat amazing kid he is and how she loved the way his mind works. She even starting telling another person nearby about him. My son went right over and they exclaimed over each other and reminisced about how much fun they had that year.
Last week DS 4 noticed an article in the paper titled 'Invisible man wins Democratic nomination for Senate' which was about the Alvin Greene controversy. The invisible man bit piqued his interest and lots of questions about democracy followed as well as a lot of invisible man questions:-) Today he was drawing at the table on old newspapers and he noticed the same article. He called for dad, reminded him of the article and proceeded to read it aloud in full. The only word he struggled with was incumbent. He's been pretty reluctant to read out loud up until now so this is a super achievement. I never thought I'd be sitting here in Australia discussing US electoral shenanigans with my 4 year old!
Last night, Chico (just 5, and in the grip of a long-term obsession with space) fell out of bed; I ran upstairs to pick him up and soothe him and pop him back under the covers. Poor little lad, still half-asleep, whimpering a bit with his bumped head, whispered in my ear, "oh mummy, I love you even more than ASTRONOMY--big love, big, big love."
I thought it was kind of cute the other day when my 2 yo fell and bumped his knee and anxiously asked: "mama, do you think I might have a broken patella?" LOL He's also told DH that "You are the one in my heart, not like a drawing but a real heart like in my chest, my 'bone-heart'. I love you". Very tender little sweet feelings stated in such a funny way.
We took Mr W (2y6 mos) to "Toys R Us" for the first time last weekend.
He took two hours walking through the store looking at stuff. There were a few things he wanted badly, and he changed his mind a few times, too. So we replaced items in the cart a few times.
He picked out nerf swords, a race track with electric controls, an RC car, and some books.
When he wants to play with the nerf swords he will give me one, then say either, "En Garde!" or "Defend yourself!" then come at me like a Sith Lord.
He loves his electric racetrack. He cannot hold the controller with one hand and work the toggle, so he presses it against his body and uses his index fingers to control the pressure. He figured it out pretty quick. He watched DW for a bit, then had the car going around the track just fine. He will let the car go around a few times, then pick a curve and max the speed and send the car flying, laughing hilariously.
The RC Car is a bit more involved, but he can move it around the house now.
We took Mr W (2y6 mos) to "Toys R Us" for the first time last weekend.
I'm so impressed you lasted so long without taking him! We go often for the Thomas the train set that they have set up there that the kids can play with for free. Plus they have AC and we didn't have that for a long time...
I got to watch my 12-year-old son's rehearsal for Seussical the Musical for the first time (after being asked by my son to stop helicoptering) as his musical theater group ran through the whole show for the first time. He is playing Mr. Mayor. His solos sounded really good, his timing was excellent, his acting was good and the director had only good things to say about him in her notes.
I'm so impressed you lasted so long without taking him! We go often for the Thomas the train set that they have set up there that the kids can play with for free. Plus they have AC and we didn't have that for a long time...
Well, he is very difficult.
They had this really complex miniature train system set up and he made me hold him up for 10 minutes so he could inspect it. If I had put him on top of the glass case where he really wanted to be, he would have been on all fours inspecting it until midnight. He screamed for another 10 minutes because I wanted to go look at something else.
We have to carefully think through what we do with him because he will argue with us or come back with something original.
For instance, just today he was being a handful and DW told him.
"Mr W, if you keep doing that, we'll make a trip to the bathroom and you won't like that!"
"Oh, I'll like it Mommy! IIIII WILLLL LIIIIKKE ITTTT!!!"
On other occasions, lately, he will call our bluff. We'll threaten with holding something from him. He will go get it and hand it to us then keep doing what he was doing. Or, get it and wave it around, taunting us with, "Here it is. Come get it."
my DD4 made a comment / joke about stalagtites and the 12 year old junior librarian stared blankly then said to me, "What are those?" and then she said, "HOW does she know THAT?" Just a typical day for us and a reminder that she isn't quite typical.
my DD4 made a comment / joke about stalagtites and the 12 year old junior librarian stared blankly then said to me, "What are those?" and then she said, "HOW does she know THAT?" Just a typical day for us and a reminder that she isn't quite typical.
Not so much a brag, but ds (just turned 7) was watching the news the other day, and the crawler along the bottom read "man convicted of manslaughter". Ds read it, listened to the news story, then said "that looks like 'man's laughter'." Interesting - I had never broken the word down like that before !
Is this the place to post a funny story? I squished a spider with a shoe in the hallway. Ds (almost 3) asked if I squished a butterfly. I told him it was a big ugly spider. He grins and says, "you didn't sing to it? (doing the hands) The itsy bitsy little spider went up the water spout."
We were watching an old episode of Universe which talked about the creation of craters from the impact of meteorites on the moon. In one of them, there was clearly a hill at the centre of the impact crater which seemed odd to me. When I said that out loud, DS explained, "Newton's Third Law, you know. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." I'm not sure if that's correct, but it made a lot of intuitive sense to me.
Yesterday, dd (4 yo yesterday!) called me "shareful." So, it's not exactly a word, but it was cool that she had figured out suffixes, and it's cool that she thinks of mommy that way.
Yesterday I took the baby and my five-year-old son to the pool. It was our first trip this year. Last year my son was too afraid to even float without an assistive device. This year he started out afraid and it was getting worse, with him folding up and spluttering, until I looked him in the eye and told him that he could swim if he stayed calm, since everyone could, but that otherwise he might wind up an adult who couldn't swim and was afraid of the water.
After that he was able to float. He then traveled around the whole pool holding on to the edge (it has a deep end that he was previously afraid to go into). After that he took a small, unstable paddle board and decided to paddle on his own for the first time ever, going the entire short way across the pool, and even went the length of the pool to the far deep end a few times, the last time with me out of the water. He was completely calm the whole time (I was much more afraid). He also held his breath for quite some time underwater.
He's usually very careful to the point of absurdity, and he was pretty careful in the pool too, just calm and free of fear for the first time. I was happy that he was able to simply think past his fear.
Thank you, and congrats to you too! It was a great day. I was like a fish when I was very young, and I've been feeling bad the last couple of years that I didn't take him swimming enough early on to head off the fear. But as long as it's sorted in the end, I'm happy.
DD2 has been obsessed with letters and their sounds lately, her favorites are S, O and E. She has been asking what sounds they make and how to write them, etc. and repeating them constantly. Yesterday when we were running errands, every time we went past a sign (every 2 seconds) she yelled out which letters she saw and their sounds. She even added D,N and M to her letters of choice!
They had this really complex miniature train system set up and he made me hold him up for 10 minutes so he could inspect it. If I had put him on top of the glass case where he really wanted to be, he would have been on all fours inspecting it until midnight. He screamed for another 10 minutes because I wanted to go look at something else.
We have to carefully think through what we do with him because he will argue with us or come back with something original.
For instance, just today he was being a handful and DW told him.
"Mr W, if you keep doing that, we'll make a trip to the bathroom and you won't like that!"
"Oh, I'll like it Mommy! IIIII WILLLL LIIIIKKE ITTTT!!!"
On other occasions, lately, he will call our bluff. We'll threaten with holding something from him. He will go get it and hand it to us then keep doing what he was doing. Or, get it and wave it around, taunting us with, "Here it is. Come get it."
I'm not sure if this belongs on the brag thread, but your Mr. W reminds me so much of DS13.
In 6th grade, the first month after his gradeskip and school change, a teacher said: 'How would you like a detention?' Apparently DS calmly pulled out his planner, and said: 'What day would be good for you?'
When the teacher told us this story, he said that he was so flustered that he changed the subject and didn't pursue the detention.
We explained that DS wasn't great with decoding sarcasm, and that it's really really important that the teacher follow through on any threats consistiently. But the end of the year that teacher was DS's biggest fan, but it was rough going. Midyear the teacher said: 'I don't dislike your son as much as I used to.'
DS13 was in tears, sobbing, at age 6 because he wanted to give up his Nintendo Gameboy because we used it to disipline him, and he felt that it was unbearable to be treated this way, and yet he couldn't bring himself to give up the Gameboy. Until this minute I thought that was quite impressive.
My only advice is to praise, praise,praise, in detail and with great enthusiasm, any small hints of obedience or flexibility Mr. W shows. You may also try letting him overhear you discussing his wonderful obedience and flexibility with your wife or family members whenever he gives you the opening. I don't know if this would work, but I figure its worth a try.
Little man, 22 months, put together a 30 piece train puzzle by himself today. Studied the pieces one by one, no mistakes. His sister and I have put it together for him a few times but he never took much interest in it before. When he was done he pointed at it, grunted, and then did his warped version of Riverdance.
I hosted a bridal shower yesterday (luncheon for 16!); the ladies stayed a little longer than I'd planned, so the lads got home before the guests left. All three of them chatted very nicely with everybody, but my favourite bit was when one woman asked Chico his name ("Chico"), his age ("5"), and if he was a good boy ("well...despite all appearances to the contrary...", followed by a wink and a big grin). I hooted, but the ladies looked a little nonplussed...I passed the devilled eggs again and poured a little more lemonade...
Took DS7 for a haircut yesterday. Tried to convince him to try something different. When he got in the chair, he turned to the woman and sid "Standard boys haircut please, mom will tell you which clipper to use."
"no chance of getting you to try something new?"
To which he replied "I have a certain image to maintain, nerds everywhere sport this cut!"
Took DS7 for a haircut yesterday. Tried to convince him to try something different. When he got in the chair, he turned to the woman and sid "Standard boys haircut please, mom will tell you which clipper to use."
"no chance of getting you to try something new?"
To which he replied "I have a certain image to maintain, nerds everywhere sport this cut!"
Love it! Talk about a child who knows and is clearly comfortable with himself.
I'm not sure what's happening in our house but two nonhelping children (7&9)are become helping children. No one asked them to do this. When I came home from grocery shopping they helped with the bags. I hope writing this doesn't whammie the whole deal. I hope it contiues. I'm giving them lots of praise.
I shared a little of this on a different thread, but thought I'd take the opportunity to brag here, too :)Ds just turned 7 in June, and was asked the other day if he wanted to join a new soccer program that is mainly for 9 year olds. He's pretty excited about being able to play with older kids who, hopefully, get the game better than the ones he's been playing with this summer. He's not the fastest kid (short for his age) - but has the skill, so hopefully when he's teamed up with some other good players he'll be able to shine ! He is also going to be the profiled player in the soccer organisation's quarterly newsletter - exciting stuff happening around here
DD14 will be performing piano at a shopping center on Saturday! She writes compositions nearly daily now, and she has more than an hour to play as many as she wants. Hopefully she will also play some of her popular pieces that she has learned by ear. She is really nervous, but me and DH know she will be great!
Took DS7 for a haircut yesterday. Tried to convince him to try something different. When he got in the chair, he turned to the woman and sid "Standard boys haircut please, mom will tell you which clipper to use."
"no chance of getting you to try something new?"
To which he replied "I have a certain image to maintain, nerds everywhere sport this cut!"
i LOVE it!
last night my 4 year old quickly rattled off these letters: debrofemit
i said, "aww...you are so cute....but that doesn't spell anything."
he said, "yes it does.....it is 'time for bed'.....backwards." really? lol.
DD14 will be performing piano at a shopping center on Saturday! She writes compositions nearly daily now, and she has more than an hour to play as many as she wants. Hopefully she will also play some of her popular pieces that she has learned by ear. She is really nervous, but me and DH know she will be great!
That's fantastic. Would you like to share how she was given the priveledge?
[/quote] last night my 4 year old quickly rattled off these letters: debrofemit
i said, "aww...you are so cute....but that doesn't spell anything."
he said, "yes it does.....it is 'time for bed'.....backwards." really? lol.
I think that is just amazing. I could not do that.
When my kids were in preschool they would write perfect mirror backwards sometimes. This was a little weird to me, but I was told it was normal. Anybody know if this is gifted related or just most do it? Not that it really matters. just curious.
DD14 will be performing piano at a shopping center on Saturday! She writes compositions nearly daily now, and she has more than an hour to play as many as she wants. Hopefully she will also play some of her popular pieces that she has learned by ear. She is really nervous, but me and DH know she will be great!
That's fantastic. Would you like to share how she was given the priveledge?
Her teacher arranged it after seeing some of her work. She is planning to enter some piano competitions in the fall and spring of this year, but she gets really nervous about performing. The center was giving out time slots for area pianists, our teacher snagged us a spot, and it's a bit of a less pressure way to practice her performance skills (if she messes up, it's not going to affect whether or not she wins something, etc)
This isn't a normal gifted brag because, well, I showed him what to do. And besides it's an easy word with really no diagonals or curvy letters. But I'm proud of his hard work. Here's my son's very first written word- copied, not traced two days ago. He'll turn 3 in the middle of October. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/9344beb8.jpg Here's a tougher one I gave him yesterday to try. It's not quite as readable, but it is his second attempt at copying words ever. It's a tough one with all the humps, diagonals and curves. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/3b348c21.jpg
It went great! We got lot's of compliments, almost everyone who was there stopped to listen for a while (wasn't a very busy time/area, so that really wasn't too many people) but it was still a good confidence booster. Someone asked her if she'd applied Juilliard yet (she looks a few years older than she really is).
Not really a brag in the gifted department but definitely one showing the maturity of DD.
DD's birthday is this month and we decided she was ready to have her ear's pierced. On the way over to the mall DD said in a matter of fact way that having her ears' pierced was going to hurt and then asked me if it would. I said it shouldn't but the pop sound from the gun might scare you a little. I half-expected at that point she would change her mind, but she was ready. We had to wait for others to finish up before getting her's done but DD was patient and picked out her earrings. When it was her time she climbed up into the chair and sat there by herself and waited patiently while they marked and remarked her ears for the holes. Okay ... Mommy IS a perfectionist so it took them a while.
When they finally did do her ears she was so still and never cried. She didn't even flinch! They thought she was in shock but the minute they said they were done she climbed out of the chair and ran over to the mirror to take a look at her earrings and then when we left the store she gave me a huge smile and said I was quiet. I guess she figured that was the mature way of handling it.
My DD had hers pierced at six and all seemed to go fine until bedtime that evening when she suddenly wanted to go back to get the holes. In between hysterical sobs, I discerned that she somehow envisioned donut holes, or in this case "ear holes" that we had left at the store. Sorry.
LOL ... thanks for sharing that MES! Too cute. So far no screams for leftover pieces, but she hasn't liked the cleaning routine since it stings for the first few days. However, she hasn't run away from the chore and takes it like a trooper and has noticed that the pain is a lot less which is proving to her that they are healing.
A friend of mine shared a internet link that showed a grain of rice and other small items that magnified down to an atom, showing the atom to be the smallest thing. My dd5 looked at it and said where's the proton, electron and nucleus inside the atom? my mommy brag of the day
At the library while standing in line for Story time DS 22mos. read a sign that said Make a splash for youth, make waves at your library, read! Out of the corner of my eye I saw a mom elbow another and point to him, then they both shook their heads. 0ne of them said, they must come here a lot and he has it memorized. DS had never seen he sign before.
Every time we go to the library DS3 reads something or other off a wall or book and it's all within earshot of the librarians. It's amazing to me that these 2 children's librarians, who know us well enough to have long conversations, nonetheless are really blind to noticing his literacy -- the very thing they are all about. Even when from the audience he reads words out of a book they are reading to the story hour kids, they just respond similarly to the person above: without pausing, "oh so you have this book at home!". Blows me away how boxed in they are by their expectations of normal.
Denial of reading ability is such a neat phenomenon... kind of analgous to a Piaget developmental stage or something... only this one is for adults, the definition would be: "a stage passed into right after open-mindedness ends". It's so common it should have a name -- could be called the "denial of ability phenomenon". Which can be shortened to DOAP. "What a doap", one could exclaim.
My 12 year old twice exceptional son who was diagnosed with motor dyspraxia and also has low muscle tone and endurance issues and wears a scoliosis brace and gets frequent migraines, finished his last performance as Mr. Mayor in Seussical the Musical yesterday. His timing was excellent, he performed with confidence, he sang all of his solos really well, he stayed in character and handled it well when there was a problem with the music starting early without allowing time for him to say his lines. One of the other actor's moms, a teacher, said he was good the last show they did, but he has improved even more.
During rehearsals, he was one of the first to know all of his lines and songs and the director thanked him for being "consistent" and always doing his part well. He has incredible focus and maturity and has somehow learned to pace himself and rest in between scenes so that he has the energy to do his part well. He wore his scoliosis brace for all rehearsals except the last one and was able to tune out the fact that he was uncomfortable and had pain in his feet.
He is the only kid in the group with a disability and he is doing as well or better than kids without disabilities. I liked the scene in the play when Mr. and Mrs. Mayor send their son to a military camp where the general points out the kid who hummed in the shower, the kid who couldn't color in the lines, and the one who had an opinion. My child had all of these "problems" and our public school reminds me of the Seussical's military academy.
What a trooper! Way to see it through. He's been working on that for a while now, hasn't he? I'm glad to see the production was a smash hit! Hope you got lots of pictures.
Wyatt strikes again. �I told Wyatt I don't know what the baby in the belly's name is. (don't know the gender) �"Almendarez", He said, "Let me see." �He lifted my night gown and whispered into my belly-button, "You stay there baby, the doctor will get you out." He's almost three. �I told him earlier that the doctor will get the baby out of my belly, but he figured out on his own that baby's name will be the same as ours.
We got word today that Mr W (2y6mos) will start Pre-K in 3 weeks at his Montessori School. The school director suggested it to us. ( We were going to advocate it for him, but wanted him to be fully potty trained. ) He has a blast with the much older kids when he is waiting for us to pick him up most evenings.
A few little brags here, one not quite a gifted brag, but still cool. 1. We got her (DD14's) schedule yesterday, we went to her locker afterwards, and looked at some of her classes. When we were leaving, she had to go to band practice, but wanted to compare schedules with her friends, so kept it, and then a few seconds later, she said "but I have it memorized anyway, so I guess you can have it." I said something about "you might know the classes and the teachers, but do you know the room number?" She proceeded to repeat back her schedule in order, complete with class, teacher, *and* room number. (okay, she missed one room number, but I still think that was *kind* of brag worthy) She then went on to tell me how much she like her locker combo because of some math thing that was over my head. 2. She proceeded on to band practice. The brag here is that she is started band with 3 years less experience than the other kids, and had to learn how to play the saxophone over the summer. She's had band camp for 8 hours a day all this week in the Texas heat, and I think she's having a lot of fun, and appreciating having something to do. Last night, the band marched in a parade and played some fun songs for us.
Granddaughter(9) just got the results of her state reading & math assessments. My sweetie scored a perfect score on the math portion, and in the upper portion of the reading. My daughter was shocked, I was not!
OK, don't know if this is a brag or not but it sure was funny. I always read or have dd5 read a bedtime story at night. The other night she wanted me to read the dicionary. I said "are you sure?" and she said "yes I need to know the meaning to all words."
Skylersmommy: That's funny because today my son made a "party" for his stuffed animals and one activity center was for dictionary reading....He set up two chairs facing each other with a stuffed in each chair and they each had an open dictionary on their lap! Nan
It's not a brag, but it's a funny. �Wyatt was Skypping with Grandma and my little nephew. �When they were done talking I heard my mom calling my sister saying, "how do you turn this off?". Wyatt closed the Skyppe and shut down the computer using the start button and the log off like your supposed to. �Of course I had to call mom and tell her. �The next game show they're going to make is, "Are You Smarter Than a Two Year Old?"
PMc--that's so nice. I remember when DD was five and had a kindergarten ceremony in which students were called up one at a time and given something to commemorate the occasion. Afterwards her teacher made a point of coming up to me and telling me that she was the only student who thought to stop and say "thank you". Made my whole week
It's not a brag, but it's a funny. �Wyatt was Skypping with Grandma and my little nephew. �When they were done talking I heard my mom calling my sister saying, "how do you turn this off?". Wyatt closed the Skyppe and shut down the computer using the start button and the log off like your supposed to.
That's so funny!
DS20mo doesn't know how to shut down computers because we don't ever shut down ours.
Skylersmommy: That's funny because today my son made a "party" for his stuffed animals and one activity center was for dictionary reading....He set up two chairs facing each other with a stuffed in each chair and they each had an open dictionary on their lap! Nan
Too cute! Too bad we don't live closer the kids could have a dictionary party,lol
To add to this, she's been reading it every night this week, the other day she said "whoever wrote this book is really smart!"
Tonight DD decided she needed to deconstruct a rainbow. She first did dashes with each individual color in a straight line and then she did what I can best describe as a ripple in the pond but reach ripple was a different color. I couldn't help but laugh at her 'deconstruction' and think about Top Chief.
And tonight when I put her to bed she argued that she still saw blue outside which is the opposite of night time. Yes but when you're in the middle of summer and daylight savings time you have to disregard the blue.
I don't know if anyone has seen the "chocolate math" thing that's been circulating via emails and other places (google it, it's the first thing that comes up), but it might be fun for your kids to try to figure out how it works. I didn't really know where to post this, but since I chose here, I should probably add a brag to this... DD14 enjoyed that, although it didn't take long at all, I'm sure it would be more of a challenge for younger kids from about 8-10 or so (having said that, *I* probably wouldn't have been able to figure it out very quickly or at all, and I'm in my 40's.... but I'm our family's non-gifted person)... Anyway, after she figured out how that one worked (which was at most 5 minutes), she went to work to create her own trick of the same sort. Not too big of a brag, but still kind of a fun story, I guess.
DS5 insists we go to the bookstore to buy a math workbook. I am browsing for books for my students and he is browsing in the math workbook section. After awhile he drags me over to his section and shows me a book he's chosen and says, " Let's get this, Math Fundamentals 1st Grade." I scan the book and it seems like he knows most of the material already so I go through a couple more books. I pick up one called, "Math for Gifted Students" and ask him if he would like that one because the work might be more interesting. He thinks about it and says, " I don't know. It's not a present is it? " Rather than explain what gifted means, I just let him buy the one he wanted in the first place.
1 funny/brag:
DS needed to figure out the number of lightbulbs in our apartment for a Dr. Suess book he got for his birthday. Even though we live in a 3 bedroom and pretty small apartment we have a ton of light bulbs! When he told me what he wanted to do I was less than looking forward to this tedious task because I thought we would have to go around and count all of them. DS ran to my room and counted seven light-bulbs and promptly says, " Okay each room has the same number and there are four rooms with 7 so what is 7, 4 times?" He couldn't do the actual multiplication for that but I was pretty impressed that he understood the concept and also a bit embarrassed at myself for not realizing that I actually had to think for a moment to realize that indeed all 4 rooms had the exact configuration and number of lights!
Graceful Mom: I love that type of thinking and my son does the same thing. He comes up with a way of approaching a problem that is so unique and logical and I just go, "Oh!!"
I also love your DS's hesitation about the "gifted" book...he doesn't want to waste any gift points LOL. Nan
A few minutes ago DS7's school called me. I immediately held my breath because usually they call when he is in trouble and he doesn't even start school until next week!
They were calling to tell me that he was chosen as one of 2 students in his school to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the next Board of Mayor and Alderman meeting. The other student is a 5th grade girl. I am so surprised that my son (normally the trouble maker!) was chosen for this honor.
[quote=angelsmom0605] These kids are extra observant. They notice every little details.
They are. She dosen't miss a thing. She is trying to sing some things now ring around the rosie and itsy bitsy spider so cute with the hand motions. I want her stay this age forever i am loving it.
I picked out a knife and gave it to him and told him to make cubes of the cheese. I gave him strips to cube - one at a time.
He told me he wanted four strips.
I gave him four. He stacked the strips, then cut them all the same time. (This was his invention.)
He then wanted the block of cheese.
And proceeded the cube the whole thing by doing slices, then strips, then cubes. He cut two slices, stacked them, did the strips, etc.
He can mix pancakes all by himself - even the eggs. I still do the pouring when it comes to cooking. He likes to flip the pancakes, too. We use an electric griddle as the one on the stove does not have a plastic guard around the edge and he burn a knuckle once.
[quote=angelsmom0605] These kids are extra observant. They notice every little details.
They are. She dosen't miss a thing. She is trying to sing some things now ring around the rosie and itsy bitsy spider so cute with the hand motions. I want her stay this age forever i am loving it.
Treasure it all. They do grow up fast. My DD just turned 4 and I was a little sad thinking where did the time go? But I definitely wouldn't go back. I love this little person she has become.
This is an old brag the hubby reminded me of last night. When our son was a tiny baby the hubby did the "wa-wa-wa" Indian pat on the baby's mouth once when he was crying to distract him and get him to stop. It made the baby so mad and he obviously thought about it because the next time my husband tried the same trick the baby started crying through his nose instead of his mouth so that it wouldn't work and his cry would be heard in all it's glory.
A few minutes ago DS7's school called me. I immediately held my breath because usually they call when he is in trouble and he doesn't even start school until next week!
Ha ha This is my son, too. I got an email from my son's teacher on Monday the 1st day of school around lunch time and my stomach dropped thinking OH NO, not on the 1st day of school! But it was a compliment!!! Yippeeeeeeee Nan
My DS1 Started reading! I'm so proud. (Maybe not ultra early in this group, but early enough I don't feel like I can brag to other parents) It was a big thing to overcome his perfectionism enough to try and read a word. YAY!
Week 1 of High School is over! DD14 has showed major improvements in areas of organization as she has already had many assignments and has started them before they were due. She has also had to learn to keep track of time and to make sacrifices as she now has to wake up the earliest she ever has, at 6:00, in order to make it to marching band in time. The strange thing? She mentioned that she feels really happy and doesn't know why. I've been telling her for years that getting organized is a mood improver, and she never believed me.... Also, I kind of have to brag about her challenging courseload, 3 Honors, 2 AP, Band, and Speech. 2 of the 3 Honors classes will be very easy (for her at least), but rumor has it that Honors Biology is the hardest course available at the school and that majority of kids drop down to regulars around the end of the first semester. Science is her strength, so it shouldn't be *that* hard, especially if her organization skills continue throughout the year. AP Geography will be hard, as it's an AP course, but I think she will manage just fine, as she told me that the syllabus looked like stuff she mostly already knew, and the textbook was interesting despite being, well... a college textbook. The other AP will be probably the hardest of her courses, as it is a part english, part humanities, part world history type course. She's starting band with 3 years less experience than the rest of the students on her instrument (she switched from Orch to Band at the end of 8th grade), and said that she is already about as good as some of the people in her class. (granted that she is in the lowest of the 5 bands, but still, I think that is an accomplishment) Marching is early in the morning, plus games and other things after school certain days. And Speech, well, public speaking isn't her thing... So she has a difficult course load. Yes, she may struggle keeping up with the work at points, yes she still might not be as good as the other band students by the end of the year, but... wow! I get the feeling this is going to be a *good* year. (not to mention that she is combining with 2 other schools that are about all the children of engineers and such, and there are a large number of highly gifted+ kids for her to hang out with.
This was the first week of Pre-K for DD when I picked her up her teacher said she had papers in her backpack and maybe DD would read them to me in the car on the way home; they were school rules, newsletter and menu for the month. I guess she realized DD could read since she read about 50 pages of her chapter book during rest time today. Today was the first day DD took her own book to school.
this isn't really a brag per se, but is the sort of "cute" thing that goes on at my house with my two and four year old DDs that I don't typically share: my four year old DD wanted to find the letter Y magnet so that she could pretend it was an antibody since they have a Y-like shape. Oh yeah, she had fun pretending our dryer ball with spikes was a virus too. Then I found she had my cognitive neuroscience book from college days on the coffee table and was looking at it for fun...
DD wanted to find the letter Y magnet so that she could pretend it was an antibody since they have a Y-like shape.
Oh my gosh, a girl after my own heart! I love immunology!!
My little guy will be two this week. He likes to spell his name on the fridge with magnets. Yesterday my dad came over to visit. He came in the house and said, "Where's Sean?" and little guy ran to the fridge and pointed to his name as proud as could be. He can't talk yet, but at least he can spell!
this isn't really a brag per se, but is the sort of "cute" thing that goes on at my house with my two and four year old DDs that I don't typically share: my four year old DD wanted to find the letter Y magnet so that she could pretend it was an antibody since they have a Y-like shape. Oh yeah, she had fun pretending our dryer ball with spikes was a virus too. Then I found she had my cognitive neuroscience book from college days on the coffee table and was looking at it for fun...
We are homeschooling this year dd7 & dd5, dd7 let my dh know all he had to do was give her the teacher guide and she'd figure out what she needed to know.
Not really a brag about ability, but happiness at sticktoitiveness. DS put together the first sample robot from Lego Mindstorms, Shooterbot, all by himself, though it took him a while. He seems to be picking up the visual programming environment quickly, too, though he has only recently learned a little about programming prior, and in a Java environment at that.
My son, 23 months, learned (in less than a day) to say the alphabet backwards and now we're constantly counting forwards and backwards, as he loves numbers. Last night, he wanted to count backwards from 35 (which he did), so tonight I expect we'll be doing from 40.
Without any real math instruction prior to 3-4 months ago, and no math exposure beyond simple counting and other games (Punch Buggy, The Ladybug Game, etc.), my five-year-old son is now well on his way to completing third-grade-level math, at least if you go by indications of the IXL website tied to our state standards. He has completed some of the skills up to the fifth-grade level. This is not a brag so much as a sigh of relief for me, at not putting him behind by focusing so much on verbal and problem-solving skills early on.
He continues to improve in his ability to work without fear of failure. (It has been slow going at times for us, but like anything else this is a skill that can be learned.)
I installed some puzzle games on my Android phone recently. One, called "Glow Puzzle", asks you to complete a tour of points connected by paths, traversing each path exactly once. He was excited to try this, but then was chagrined when he didn't get the eighth puzzle on the very first attempt. He wandered around for a while essentially afraid to attempt it, until I gave him a brief pep talk; then he quickly zipped up to number 35, spending no more than about 30-60 seconds on each one, and completing each one on the first try. My wife and I had previously tried these and had each had trouble on a few of them (they are a mixed bag), but not him. Before doing 35 he announced that he was getting bored with it and wanted to take a break, so after doing that one he did. He can also do quite tough "Bubble Blast" levels, which take me a while, with ease. (Edit: Over at a friend's house last night, he was able to do "GalCon" puzzles on the purple level, some in under 20 seconds.)
DS19 is really "blossoming".... I don't mention him much because he is already in college, but he is also MG (probably just MG, but maybe higher). Last year, he buckled down and got fabulous grades. He's already off to a good start for that this year. He has had a lot of (college) Major changes due to his multiple interests. He is now thinking of Minoring in one of his interests as well, which would help let him pursue more than one of his interests. (Chemistry as a minor, Enviromental Engineering as a Major, I believe is what he settled on last, but he's also tried out Physics and Computer Sciences {he's one of the top programmers in the nation, according to the FBLA contest he was in} ) This summer, he had a injury/illness of his lung which required some surgery and almost a week's stay in the hospital. He *plowed* through books on math and science. I think coming from the reluctant reader, kid who dropped out of gifted programs because they were too much work, and performed not nearly up to his potential in high school, I think he has turned into a very fine young man .
That is a wonderful update Bassetlover! It sounds like he has really come into his own and now that the choices are his he is more able and willing to work hard. Thanks for sharing.
How terrific, Bassetlover! He indeed sounds like a fine young man. It's so great for those of us with littles to hear stories about kids further along the path, too--what an inspiration!
I put this in the preschool thread but I'm a put it here too- get double mileage out of this brag. My boy's still over a month away from turning three and I wrote these words on a separate sheet of paper and he copied them by hand into a little booklet printout. I *think* that's on a level of third of the way into kindergarten or maybe something like a bright 4yr. old. ? Either way I'm impressed, again. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/ead2bff7.jpg
We are keeping our fingers crossed for our DD4 who is in Pre-K at her Elementary School. Her teacher informed us yesterday that she has talked about DD at Staff meetings and is trying to get permission for DD to go to the school library and check out AR (Accelerated Reading) books and for DD to be able to test for them on the computer. She said she will let her start on a 2.4-3.6 level. We were worried that she was just there to play and help other children. I looked up the series she is currently reading (Rainbow Fairies) and they are a 3.3 to 5.0 level so I think she will move up quickly. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
DS6.5 started last week playing "Kid Chess" once per week at school. On Tuesday, when I picked him up, the chess coach overheard me saying I was there to pick up DS, and he went on and on how he has yet to teach DS more than a few basics, and is truly amazed at 1. how quickly he's picked it up and 2. how he studies the entire game as opposed to just the move (as in he's thinking ahead). He's only played chess a handful of times with me, and it's been at least a year since the last time and that's it. It was a very proud Mom moment. The chess coach is very excited to teach him more (me too)!
DD7's 3rd grade teacher requires the kids read a certain number of grade-level books, with a 90 or 100 on the AR quiz for that book, in order to "earn" the right to read books from the next grade level up. (So you read 3rd grade books to earn 4th grade books, and then can read howevermany 4th grade books to earn 5th grade books.) They're also limited to the number of tests they can take in a week, on the grounds that if you can read it in less than the intervening time, and are unhappy about being done so soon, you picked a book that was too short.
At pickup today, she told me DD was the first kid in her class to have earned 4th grade books.
JJsMom... My DS just started learning chess too! His teacher made the same sort of comments as yours. He loves it and recommended a book to us called "Chessersize" By Pandolfi.
It has pictures of boards that you set up, then it gives you a little blurb that says "white wins in 2 moves" It is your childs job to figure those moves out. At school they call them battle drills (maybe that's why DS loves them so much?) Anyway if your DS starts pushing to learn more,you might want to check out this book.
Maybe some day we'll hook up and the boys can play each other!
DD is attempting to enter 3/4 of the Reflections program categories because she is so bored this weekend.. I have to say, though, the contest seems kind of annoying. She entered it last year and got the top scores (5 out of 5 points) for "journalistic quality" and "creativity" yet only got a 2 for for "Connection to theme" even though it seemed to have a lot to do with the theme... You double the connection to theme score, so her score was 14 out of 20. That was enough for "honorable mention". (better than Participation, I guess) Anyway, DD has never been good at chess. Am I alone in this? Seems like every gifted kid I hear about is good at chess.... :P
DD7's 3rd grade teacher requires the kids read a certain number of grade-level books, with a 90 or 100 on the AR quiz for that book, in order to "earn" the right to read books from the next grade level up. (So you read 3rd grade books to earn 4th grade books, and then can read howevermany 4th grade books to earn 5th grade books.) They're also limited to the number of tests they can take in a week, on the grounds that if you can read it in less than the intervening time, and are unhappy about being done so soon, you picked a book that was too short.
At pickup today, she told me DD was the first kid in her class to have earned 4th grade books.
Sounds as though her grade skip was well-judged, doesn't it :-)
I just wanted to share my experience. I was around a few of DS10's classmate's moms. They were saying it was recommended the students read a particular book over the summer. None of the boys did this and now they only have a week to read it. The were saying how this would be hard. This little conversation made me think about my blessings.
My son read the book the first month of summer vacation with out any promting. He also read this book two years ago and enjoyed it enough to read many more by the author. DS read several books not required weekly all self motivated.
Sometimes my kids just feel average to me and then I get in a situation like this and realize how special they are. I love that my children are big readers.
JJsMom... My DS just started learning chess too! His teacher made the same sort of comments as yours. He loves it and recommended a book to us called "Chessersize" By Pandolfi.
It has pictures of boards that you set up, then it gives you a little blurb that says "white wins in 2 moves" It is your childs job to figure those moves out. At school they call them battle drills (maybe that's why DS loves them so much?) Anyway if your DS starts pushing to learn more,you might want to check out this book.
Maybe some day we'll hook up and the boys can play each other!
Oh thanks Shari! He has asked to play chess more than video games lately, which is huge!!! LOL
My brag for the day is that my DS23 months has finally learned how to write the number 5, so now he can write all of his numbers! It was a big thing for him to do it, as he's been writing the other numbers for a while now, but never seemed to want to even try to do #5.
My brag for the day is that my DS23 months has finally learned how to write the number 5, so now he can write all of his numbers! It was a big thing for him to do it, as he's been writing the other numbers for a while now, but never seemed to want to even try to do #5.
That's great!! My son's bane was always the number 8 for some reason.
Sounds as though her grade skip was well-judged, doesn't it :-)
I'm certainly glad we did it! If anything, I'm not sure it will have been enough. Other than struggling with writing speed (which is a big enough struggle that a bigger skip wouldn't have been possible without significant support), she's breezing through the classwork. I keep thinking that the settling in period will end, and the "real work" will start soon, but maybe not?
She's not breezing through the twice-weekly gifted pullout, but her frustrations are that it's too much writing (which is the speed issue again), and boring (hard to say whether it's "uninteresting topic boring" or "I don't want to work as hard as I'm being asked to boring").
I had DS9 complete a self-evaluation checklist on overexcitabilities. He asked what "compulsive organizer" meant, so I explained it; he said, "so, that would be a person who keeps a really neat desk with no papers crammed in the back or anything?"
DD14 has gotten the highest score of her section (or 9 people) every single test this year in band. Why is this a big brag? The other kids have been playing since 6th grade, and she just learned how to play this summer! (9th grade)
Hi! I'm new here, perhaps I should go introduce myself first. My DS6 told his Dad while having his hair dried after bath-time, "There's 6000 '1/100' of a second in 1 minute." I only taught him about fractions a few days prior. Also, he wanted to learn how to write 1~100 in Japanese Kanji. He learned it all in 30 minutes from his Grandma. He started reading "Charlottes Web" this afternoon and read 2 chapters out loud for me in 30 minutes.
DD almost two made a 17 piece wood train track this morning. I started her with three pieces and went to make our lunch. When I came back she had added 14 pieces and the last two pieces joined so it was a complete track. I do not know if this is gifted but I was happy.
My little guy (just two this month) makes the most amazing train track creations. The wooden track pieces are just like a puzzle to him and he loves figuring out how to go under furniture and around corners. His train obsession keeps him happy for hours. Gifted or not... it keeps them entertained and busy!
I just wanted to share my experience. I was around a few of DS10's classmate's moms. They were saying it was recommended the students read a particular book over the summer. None of the boys did this and now they only have a week to read it. The were saying how this would be hard. This little conversation made me think about my blessings.
My son read the book the first month of summer vacation with out any promting. He also read this book two years ago and enjoyed it enough to read many more by the author. DS read several books not required weekly all self motivated.
Sometimes my kids just feel average to me and then I get in a situation like this and realize how special they are. I love that my children are big readers.
Same here! They just LOVE books, and that is a wonderful thing.
I was just speaking with a co-worker today and she told how she never felt that excited about reading until upper high school and college, but now definitely enjoys it. I can't imagine! Mom used to drop us off at the library for a few hours on a saturday and it was just the best time. lol! My kids think going to the used book store is better than just about anything. Bizarre, but I love it too, so I guess it has rubbed off.
We had a HUGE breakthrough with cursive writing this week! After weeks/months of struggling with her perfectionism, DD8 is making progress. I had the two DKs in the tub last night and took little man out to dry and dress him in his PJs. When I went back to help DD out, I found she had taken the bath crayons and written four three-letter words in cursive on the tiles (God, dad, cod and dog) along with pictures of each underneath. She told me "I like it better now that we can put the letters together, it is just like a puzzle trying to figure out how to connect all the letters together. I like it now!"
Complete credit to her psychologist and her amazingly supportive teacher for recognizing how crippling her perfectionism was and giving her all the tools she needed to be successful. This is a huge success for her!
If my new (overdue) baby is a girl (we didn't find out) we're considering naming her Esperanza (Spanish for Hope). �My almost 3yr. old has said the name correctly, but the other day he changed it to Este-panza. �Same syllables and it rhymes so-Brag! he's learning from his phonics and he made up a funny joke! �Groan! �He's already picking on the new baby and it's not even born yet. �"este panza" means the belly. �
Dd4 is doing really well with her k curriculum, it seems to be a good fit, and there is little complaining about getting up and going, so I think that is a great sign! I don't even know what to make of this, though: I read every night to her, all kinds of things, but in the last 2 months her only pick has been books on space. One night having run out of 8-10 year old books on space, I grabbed my dh's old college astronomy text and read for a while on Jupiter, etc. Figured she wasn't even listening because she didn't object and then eventually fell asleep. So I have been picking up more kid books from the used store here and there, but found a really great one on the history of the revolution in thinking about the solar system starting with Copernicus and going from there, not a kid book. I was reading along, and I thought, oh no way is she even listening, so I stopped, and immediately she says 'Keep reading!!'. Like, no way is she getting a lot of this, but who really knows??
My 12 year old twice exceptional son with disabilities that cause mild muscle weakness and low endurance made it through a musical theater rehearsal, a performance at a church and a performance at the state fair after walking a quarter mile to get to where they had to perform in the heat. He had very little time to rest in between practice and performances but he did it. He did all of the songs and dances and he did them well, especially his solo "Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile." He didn't appear to be having any problems at all even though he was wearing a suit coat and layers of clothing underneath because there was no dressing room for costume changes.
His pretty young homeschool co-op writing composition teacher who also teaches dance just happened to be there because her dance group was scheduled to perform after my son's musical theater group. She saw him perform and told him she really enjoyed the performance. It is easy to see why he is willing to do more writing for her than for me.
He made it through a physically challenging six hours and did well but he paid for it later. He knows that is the price he has to pay. That is the price he has to pay to be with kids who are more like him mentally, musically, and socially. He did not have the energy to walk around the fair after the performance. His foot pain was worse and he got a really bad headache so he missed out on seeing the fair this year. He had to walk the quarter mile back to the car stopping to rest a couple of times when he absolutely had to and by the time he got there the muscles in one of his feet were trembling which happens when he does too much. He felt bad that we didn't get to do anything at the fair and thought we might be mad at him because we didn't get to see it either.
He got home and had to put on his very uncomfortable scoliosis brace. His back and legs and feet hurt. Ibuprofen only helps a little. He can't use a heating pad on his back because of the brace.
We have lots of pictures and videos. He looked happy while he was on stage and with his friends. I hope when he looks at these pictures years from now he can forget about the pain and just remember the fun he had with his friends, his musical theater "family."
My 12-year-old homeschooled, verbally gifted, 2E son who has SPD, hypotonia, dyspraxia and motor dysgraphia, and also wears an uncomfortable scoliosis brace when clothing tags used to bother him, and also gets frequent migraines, got his first assignment back in his homeschool 7th-9th grade co-op writing composition class. It was his very first real grade since we homeschooled after he finished kindergarten and it was his first graded work by a professional teacher in a class that I thought he might have trouble with because of his dysgraphia and absolutely no experience with creative writing.
He made an A+. Her comments were "Yikes! Scary Story. Good job building up the suspense." He had made only one small punctuation error.
He turned in his second story yesterday and I think it is even better than the first. He discovered that he really can do well with creative writing if he types and is not slowed down by his mild disability. We had lunch with another homeschool mom who is a writer for our local newspaper. She looked at his second assignment and thought it was really good. She told she remembered having trouble writing fast enough to keep up with her thoughts and it was so much easier to do once she was allowed to type. I will never understand why some teachers don't want to allow this type of accommodation for kids with handwriting disabilities.
My son also finished the five pages of grammar worksheets she assigned, some of them at the very last minute in class during a break, and found that when his right hand started cramping he could write with his left hand.
One more small brag. My 2E son, who hadn't been in classes with age mates since kindergarten, noticed in his homeschool co-op state history class that none of the other kids in this class read very well when asked to read out loud in front of the class from state travel guides written at an adult level. My son read as if he were reading his lines at a musical theater audition and he is much easier to listen to because of it. He seems very comfortable speaking in front of a group of people. Most of the other kids had to stop and sound out words that he has been reading for years. But he also notices that his map coloring skills are not as good as theirs and it takes longer for him to write anything in class.
Today at his after-kindergarten daycare, DS5 was helping the facility owner's daughter do her fourth-grade math homework. Here's hoping that the public school admins see their way clear to a grade skip to first. We will know by October 15th.
Mr W (2y8Mos) has been composing his own lyrics lately. "Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Stoplight" is just one example. And "Daddy, Look at the Bare Bear's Booty." had him in hysterics at his own alliteration last night. This morning he came up with "Waaah" words for each letter of the alphabet, ie "O - OH NO!!" and "Z-Zats not funny!!'
Thanks guys. I couldn't be happier. I have a boy and a girl. Life is perfect. I don't know her score, or even what time she was born, I was so tired when she got here. I'll find out her time of birth Friday when I go for the paperwork lol. The hubby wouldn't let me buy towels that said "mamma's girl" and he bought the one's that say "daddy's princess" instead. And wyatt's been showing off to everyone- "that's my sister."
DS7 has been in his new school as a 6/7th grader for 5 weeks. He got his first progress report today and is getting a B in pre-algebra, a B+ in science and an A in LA. The change has been amazing. He doesn't complain about the work load at all! He's working really hard and I'm so proud of him. Who knew that there was perserverance in there?
Brag #2... He had to write a research paper for his science fair project. He's never written more than a couple of paragraphs, ever. He has been working on it for weeks without help. He insisted he could do it himself. When I proofread the finished product I realized that no one had ever explained the term "plagarism" to my son. Being that 7 yo don't as a general rule do research papers, go figure. Anyway, I had to explain it to him and told him that he would have to re-write his paper. Instead of the complete meltdown I expected he went to the computer, opened the file and asked for my help. I read the first paragraph to him out loud and asked him to tell me what he'd just heard. Then I asked him to write it down. We went through two more paragraphs until I was sure that he understood. Two hours and three pages later, he had a new paper. It's wonderful and I wanted to bust with pride at the maturity he showed and his willingness to correct his error.
DS7 has been in his new school as a 6/7th grader for 5 weeks. He got his first progress report today and is getting a B in pre-algebra, a B+ in science and an A in LA. The change has been amazing. He doesn't complain about the work load at all! He's working really hard and I'm so proud of him. Who knew that there was perserverance in there?
Brag #2... He had to write a research paper for his science fair project. He's never written more than a couple of paragraphs, ever. He has been working on it for weeks without help. He insisted he could do it himself. When I proofread the finished product I realized that no one had ever explained the term "plagarism" to my son. Being that 7 yo don't as a general rule do research papers, go figure. Anyway, I had to explain it to him and told him that he would have to re-write his paper. Instead of the complete meltdown I expected he went to the computer, opened the file and asked for my help. I read the first paragraph to him out loud and asked him to tell me what he'd just heard. Then I asked him to write it down. We went through two more paragraphs until I was sure that he understood. Two hours and three pages later, he had a new paper. It's wonderful and I wanted to bust with pride at the maturity he showed and his willingness to correct his error.
This alone shows the maturity level of your son. Great brag!
Congratulations, La Texican!! You have a beautiful family!
And congratulations, Shari! Great to hear how well your little (not so little any more!) guy is doing!
BWBShari - That's what I was thinking... what happeneed to your ds6?
La Texican - What joy! Congrats!
Lori H - Thanks for sharing the stories. how wonderful for your son. learning about himself, recognizing strengths, building confidence, new experiences, and more! all good stuff!
This is the only place I can post this since my parents and sister and facebook friends can't listen to me brag anymore! My son is doing so well at his new gifted school. The teacher just told us at his IEP meeting (he's 2e autism) that he is the best student in every subject, he gets along so well with his classmates that he is the one usually chosen to be an errand buddy, and he is polite and charming. She said she looks at his paper first to use as a key for grading the other kids. My little hellion apparently only makes an appearance at recess...:)
DS6 took his first unit math test with his 4th grade class (and really his first real test other than spelling tests). He got a 96%. I am very proud of him, but also kind of happy that he didn't get 100% as he always seems to get everything right.
And a funny story to go along with this. He has a spelling test today and his homework last night was supposed to be to study. He looked at his homework sheet and very seriously said "study? What does it mean to study?" LOL. Funny, but kind of sad. I had to explain to him that sometimes you don't get something right away and have to review it and go over it to help you learn the information. He was a little perplexed. It's not that he hasn't had things he has to work at (like strategy games and such) but academics in general has never been something he has had to look at more than once. I am hopeful as time goes on and he continues to be accelerated that he will have to study for something to learn that skill. Don't want him to be shocked when college comes.
DS 5 went to the park today and they were decorating pumpkins using felt stickers. After decorating the front he seemed to want to keep working on it so we suggest he do what the other kids were doing and make another face on the back of the pumpkin but he refused. He then turned his pumpkin around and started to put sticker on it so we figured he had decided to put another face on it. When he was done he turned it around for us to see. He had made a row of triangles and used a smiley mouth at the end of it. We weren't sure what it was so he explains, " It's his vertebrae and this at the bottom is his coccyx."
DS7 had to read his rough draft for his research paper in science today, out loud in front of the class. He was terrified. All the way to school he lamented his teachers decision. It would have been funny if he hadn't been so pathetic.
He did a great job according to his teacher, got a round of applause from his class and told me when I picked him up that it was about time that he "stopped being such a baby and start working on his fears".
I'm a proud momma! Wonder if this means we can revisit swimming lessons?
More 3 yr old artwork. �He'll be 3 on Tuesday. �He drew "himself" (so he told me). �Hey, it has a head, a belly, two arms, two hands, two feet, oops only one leg, and a hat! �Then he gave me a blank paper and asked me to show him something new. I said how 'bout a boat? �Here he tried to copy a boat. � http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/8a3d81ca.jpg
That first one is interesting! I love looking at kid art. My now five-year-old started making some cute, whimsical stuff when he was 2-3, which I started recording:
My favorite one of all from when he was 3 was basically the rediscovered form of Fritz the Cat, but I never got around to taking pictures of that, or some of the other coolest ones from back then.
Later, he started doing simple line drawings on paper, I suspect so he'd have an excuse to color them in (I don't usually let him color):
He first drew this one, then another picture of a very long-legged character, standing next to a much shorter fruit tree, weeping because he couldn't reach down to the fruit (I don't know what happened to that one unfortunately): http://www.smugmug.com/IMG4333/869576833_PWLv2-L.jpg
He's got a great imagination lucounu. Using snapfish.com or kodakgallery.com you can store the pictures and eventually have a book printed as a souvenir for his wedding present. If you lay it out like a yearbook you can fit years worth of drawings nicely onto fewer pages.
Thanks, La Texican! I think his sense of whimsy and heart are actually his two best qualities, or at least the most endearing ones. That's very useful to know about the layout functions at those sites. It would be fun to start a thread on child art.
My little train-obsessed DS (25 months) has fallen in love with the book "The Little Engine that Could." He wants us to read it to him constantly. Tonight, he dragged DH to the couch to read to him (he says very few words) but wouldn't sit on his lap. As DH read the book, DS took his wooden train track pieces and made a track that hung over the edge of the coffee table onto the floor. When they got to the part in the story where the little blue engine began to pull the train up the mountain he selected his blue train and two cargo cars and proceeded to drive them up his 'mountain' as he said "I dink I dan, I dink I dan!"
Unfortunately the track collapsed as he was almost to the top and he became very upset. I am still astounded that he understood the story as well as he did. I thought he just liked it because it had a train in it!
We had DD7's parent-teacher conference tonight, and got the results of her beginning-of-year testing.
STAR reading, GE 6.3 OCCT (Oklahoma benchmark - this is the end of year proficiency exam, but administered as a pre-test): Low 60s in both math and reading. As a comparison, the class average on the pretest was in the 30s, random guessing would be expected to produce 25, and the prior year's end-of-3rd graders averaged a 75 in math and 78 in reading.
The STAR was given 2 weeks after the "have to get 90% right to skip 2nd grade" test, and the OCCT 4 weeks after. She got a 92% on each. I think it's safe to conclude that they set the grade-skip bar far, far higher than "performs as well as the average kid who completed the grade to be skipped."
Mr W got his first train set when he was 18 months. He went nuts!
He could barely handle the speed control and it took a week for him to get the dexterity to get the train on the tracks. He'd play it for hours!!! I got so sick of it that I put it up for a few days..he finally wore out the engine to where I could not repair it.
Really fun to see the artwork. DS (turned 3 in june) refuses to draw lately (perfection issues) but he likes play-doh. Here are a couple recent playdoh things:
Yep, that map is pretty cool. Austin, we had almost exactly the same experience. He was getting frustrated putting the train back on the tracks, so we wound up getting some battery-powered engines for his wooden train set, about the time we bought a slew of special track pieces on eBay and elsewhere. I bet he'd love the G-scale set even more now... will have to dig it out.
All the great artwork here would make a lovely coffee table book. �What unique perspectives! You know how when babies are very young they all copy what you say just right at least once or twice. �But they're not actually talking they're just making a noise that sounds exactly like something you just said? My little girl just sneezed again and I said "bless you" and she said "bless you" back so clearly. �So this is a brag of joy not one of pride.
And Cheers to Alexsmom for such positive test results !!!
Another possibility is Sculpey, or a similar harden-upon-baking clay. Sculpey seems to be better than Model Magic in the finished product, and also doesn't air-dry.
Sculpey III seems to be a bit softer than previous versions, but you may still find that it is slightly too hard for your little one. You can use softener, or you can roll it into little balls (which is a good way to store it, in a zip-lock bag) and zap each colored ball for a couple of seconds in the microwave, which keeps it plenty soft for an art session.
My ds was also obsessed with that book at the same age and I remember reading it so many times it drove me nuts. I love how yours was able to act it out! That is awesome.
DS7 got his first report card today. 7th grade pre algebra A, 6th grade integrated science B, 6th grade Language Arts A.
Even more important than his grade are the profound changes that have occurred in his behavior. The meltdowns are gone, and he has learned to perservere when things get tough! God, I love this!
DS7 got his first report card today. 7th grade pre algebra A, 6th grade integrated science B, 6th grade Language Arts A.
Even more important than his grade are the profound changes that have occurred in his behavior. The meltdowns are gone, and he has learned to perservere when things get tough! God, I love this!
Wow - way to go your ds !! That is so cool that he is proving you all right, and that he is in the right place
Not so much of a brag, but a funny that other people would think is weird: I was trying to verbally describe something using regular words "up and down" "top to bottom" until I finally said "vertically" and DS7 says, "OH THANK YOU for speaking mathmatically, now I get it!" Nan
DD3 is a very bright creative child, but due to her brother being my PG DS6 I often worry that things will go unnoticed with her. Well she was scribbling forever until one day I asked if she could draw a person and she said she couldn't, so I showed her how I would draw one and she proceeded to draw our whole family, and did quite well. I was floored! Well this was shortly after turning 3, so now a few months later she draws a little more elaborate pictures (today she drew a beaver jumping into water, a lion, a flower, a sun, a very well decorated birthday cake with 13 candles, and then I randomly asked if she could draw the letter M for her name. I then drew one. I asked her to draw one and she said she couldn't because there was only one M in her name and I had already drawn it, lol. So she proceeds to tell me there are other letters that she can draw, some in her name and some that are not. She then draws an A, T, I, C, U, E...and did very well with it, they looked great! The more I see how she works the more she seems like she is going to be one of those kids that just suddenly starts doing something randomly and does it well. Anyhow, I brag about DS a lot and thought I would share something about DD.
I browsed amazon and came up with a remidial software program for struggling kids 1st through 6th grade. �(math, reading, phonics, spelling, science). �The bad reviews complained that the program isn't divided neatly by grade level and that it's babyish for the ages listed. �Sounds fine for an advanced 3 yr old who can barely read. �Yesterday I heard him repeatedly chose to listen to a lesson on synonym, antonym, and homonym three times through. �Today he clicked on a review.�It was multiple choice. �The computer reads the choices you scroll over. � Whenever he guesses he just hits all the buttons in order. �He didn't . He's learning! � The first quiestion was "what is a homonym?". Alike, different, opposites, two-words. �He scrolled over all the and listened to the answer choices, thinking about the right answer, and then got it!!! �He didn't know a lot of other answers. �You can tell because then he starts at one end and guesses every choice in order until he wins. �I don't know how many he got right or wrong. �I walked away. �He passed the level. �He just turned 3 last month and he just studied and passed a friggin grammar test on his own. �Granted it's educational software and it's designed to teach him, but still. . �But my three year old just studied and passed a grammar test on his own so I'm bragging anyway. �
DS9 just aced his first quarter at the new gifted school me moved out of state for! Straight A's. Also, he is in a higher level math class and got a 100% on the unit test today I'm excited to see him really challenged for the first time and seeing him rise to meet the new challenges!
DD7 also did great and made the honor roll with her A's and B's. It doesn't come as easily to her but she is growing in leaps and bounds and doing such a good job!
Life is good. DD12 was grade skipped this year and brought home straight A's on her report card. DD10 got all A's and the highest GPA in her school (free savings bond!). DD6 got all A's and insisted on going to the bookstore so I could buy her some math workbooks (for fun). They are bright and beautiful and constantly lose their jackets, belts and shoes. They excel at math, but their rooms are disasters. They read well beyond their years, but still fight over who gets to ride in the basket, crammed in with the groceries. They are exasperating and exhilarating, and I'm privileged to be along for the ride.
DS6 had his first math olympiads competition today and I got an email from the coordinator telling me he got a 4/5 right and beat all the 4th graders and tied for first place for the 5th and 6th grade teams! I love the fact that this thread exist as this is the only place I can share a cool accomplishment like this for DS
My Ds6 (who would be i kindergarten/reception here in Australia if he went to school) is a perfectionist and melts down as soon as it becomes apparent he has got an answer wrong. But yesterday when working on an activity on a website when he got 50% correct he was thrilled and said "When I get something wrong, it doesn't mean that I am bad at maths, it just means I haven't learned it yet!"
Until mid way through this year he has never done any formal maths other than the odd conversation about numbers in the car and one grade one workbook in his stack of books. He had never seen the kinds of problems he was working on (he usually enjoys arithmetic and this was matching shapes that were rotated - the differences were quite subtle). I'm so proud that he seemingly has got past this huge barrier to his learning The other thing that impressed/shocked me was that he was searching for ages for an activity using square roots. He finally found it in the grade 7 section! (I'm sure I learned about them earlier than that). He got all of the square root questions correct and the few cube root questions correct with a bit of help from me (he'd never heard of them before). But what I'm most happy about is that he is loving this stuff! I've been searching for a half decent Australian online maths program with many tears as he's found it so frustrating to get incorrect answers a he does the trial memberships. Now it finally seems worth it (even if this one isn't exactly what we are looking for, it has its limits).
My Ds6 (who would be i kindergarten/reception here in Australia if he went to school) is a perfectionist and melts down as soon as it becomes apparent he has got an answer wrong. But yesterday when working on an activity on a website when he got 50% correct he was thrilled and said "When I get something wrong, it doesn't mean that I am bad at maths, it just means I haven't learned it yet!"
Ds7 just finished his first ever session of swimming lessons (and out of 8 lessons, he missed 2) - he was in Level 1, and to our surprise, he managed to graduate to Level 2 !! Yeah !
DS seems to have had another breakthrough with timed maths as well. I introduced him to timez attack yesterday, and after a shaky start (and one big meltdown at the end of the day - he was tired)he kept going, is learning multiplication facts and is progressing quickly. He got up this morning (after camping out in the backyard lol) and has turned on his laptop and is playing again. We've had to negotiate a reasonable time limit on it (usually I let him do maths/educational stuff as long as he likes).
He also picked up one of his maths workbooks, on his own, and completed two pages last night. He has never done this. He haaaaates writing, especially numbers. He usually only works on this stuff if I sit with him, and he rarely completes a page. It has been a weekend of breakthroughs!
D20 just got an email that she got a $3,000 scholarship for next semester for her college program that she did not even apply for! Just fell from the sky...
DS7 has been working on his science fair project since the day school started. It is a VERY big deal at his school. He had to write a research paper complete with all of the bells and whistles ie bibliography, abstract etc. This was all completely new territory for him. This project was very challenging and I admit there were many times I thought he was in over his head.
Fast forward to tuesday night.... Son is supposed to practice his presentation for the judges as each student is only allotted 6 minutes. Son is in a puddle on the floor, hysterical. He can't do this, why am I torturing him? On and on it went. Finally I picked him up, hugged him, then set him down in front of his presentation board. I asked him to think about all the work he'd done. Everything on the board was there because he had a question that needed an answer and he'd done that. Then I told him it was his decision, I wouldn't force him to present if he didn't feel he could and walked out of the room.
Wednesday morning rolls around and I still have no idea what he's decided. I give his science teacher a heads up and drive away. Imagine my trepidation when I am met by the principal as I come through the door to pick him up. This quickly turns to surprise when I realize she is complimenting me on what a fine presentation my son gave. For his part, he had a smile that threatened to split his face and told me that his teacher gave him a B on his presentation and that his project had gotten an A overall!
Ds10 is putting up nicely with my asking him to continue with Algebra; since we started this fall to see how he would do, I figured why stop now? He is doing really well and has even been enjoying completing the easier math in school, oddly enough.
DD7 just finished reading the young reader version of Three Cups of Tea and she wrote a response to it for school. (she chose the book) She then brought the book, her analysis and the picture book Listen to the Wind ( the young child version of the story) to school to try to convince her teacher to let her class run a pennies for peace campaign! She did a project on Listen to the Wind last year for school and wrote a letter to Greg Mortenson and sent all of her pennies to his organization. She got a great poster and thank you card back which has just made her want to do more. She recently got the magazine from his organization ( Central Asian Institute ) and this rekindled her interested in helping out. She is amazed at the stories and can't believe that a penny can really buy a pencil or that people would think that girls shouldn't be educated. She has got a jar going at home, put one on my desk at work, and is keeping her fingers crossed that her teacher will let her class do a fundraiser at school too.
DS7 has a student teacher in his class whose family is from Haiti. I spoke to her the other day, and she was absolutely amazed at how "worldly" he was. When I asked what she meant, she told me that they were looking at a globe, and she asked if anyone knew the tiny country that is near Cuba. Andrew was the only one who piped up and said, "HAITI!" Not only that, but he informed her that Haiti recently had a big earthquake and a lot of people were hurt badly, then there was "a flood or something" and now a lot of people were getting sick. Then he asked if they could take a field trip to Haiti to help the people there. I was proud that he knew where Haiti was and that he remembered the things that happened there, but even more proud that he was making an active effort to help them. I've always tried to teach him that being smart is awesome, but being a good person is way more important.
I'm still in the new mommy stage, very proud of everything about my kids. And giddy over being a parent. I thought I wouldn't get the chance and I had my kids kind of late in life. This is horribly funny. We stayed the night in a motel in San Antonio. I washed my 2 month old in the sink. The stopper didn't work good and i lost the water too quickly. I added more, making it too cold rather than too hot. I thought I could adjust it warmer quickly. That cold water hit the baby and she rolled over and stood up and tried to walk out of the sink. (chuckling even as I type this). She has been balancing and holding herself straight to sit up, but that is the most coordination I've seen out of this girl yet.
Texican, that is going to be quite a handful!!! Shari, I meant to say how impressed I was with your ds' science fair triumph, very cool! Ds10 just finished his up, praise be, and we are all breathing a collective sigh of relief!
Pretty coordinated, La Texican! I bet it was super-cute. Kerry, it's nice to hear about a little one with such a genuinely big heart.
My son, while looking for something to do on the potty recently without a book or toy handy, invented a game he calls "Patterns, Patterns, Everywhere!" The way it goes is this:
1. Any number of people can play.
2. Each round, one person starts by saying a pattern, and everyone else has to replicate the pattern (more below on that). Then the next person gets to start a round with their own pattern, which everyone else has to replicate.
3. After everyone has started a round with a pattern containing items of the current number of categories, the original starter starts a round with a pattern including one new category as well as all the old ones, announcing the name of the added category ("farm animals", "vehicles", "states of mind", whatever).
4. The first round always uses the category "colors".
5. The starter's pattern must contain at least one item of every category. Categories may be interspersed throughout the pattern in any way, and can appear multiple times. The pattern may be as long as the starter wishes, but the starter has to say it four times. If the starter messes up saying his own pattern, he's out of the game.
6. Each other surviving player then replicates the pattern, by replacing each item from the starter's pattern with a different item of the same category (items from the starter's pattern may appear, but not in the same position). The replicated pattern cannot have two of the same item in positions where the original pattern has two different items (i.e. "red blue" cannot be replicated as "yellow yellow"). The replicating player must say the replicated pattern four times. Any screw-ups, and that player's out of the game.
7. Each replicating player must come up with her own completely new pattern (this is where it can fall apart with enough players, as it's hard to keep track, but it's mostly a good-faith requirement).
8. The last surviving player wins.
Ex. #1, using just "colors" and 3 players: Player 1: blue red green green blue (4 times over) Player 2: yellow mauve black black yellow (4 times over) Player 3: red blue yellow yellow red (4 times over)
Ex. #2, using "colors", "shapes" and "safari animals", with 3 players: Player 1: blue rhino rhino triangle wildebeeste black Player 2: red elephant elephant square lion green Player 3: yellow giraffe giraffe circle alligator red
The fewer the players, the faster you get to have lots and lots of categories. Leave one out, and you're kaput! The thing I love the most about this game is the name, and the way he says it. He sounds like he's announcing a new product on a TV commercial or something. He's an endless source of fun. I wish sometimes that I could have grown up with him as a brother.
DS had his speech-language assessment today for his language delay. He is 27 months and we were offered the assessment by his ENT. Although we aren't particularly worried, we decided to go and see if they had any useful suggestions. The outcome was that, at 27 months, he has the expressive language of an 18-24 month old. Not too concerning, said the lady, except when you compare it to his 36+ month comprehension (she figured he would have scored much higher but the test only scored to that age). Given that, there is a larger gap between expressive vs. comprehension and therefore, in their eyes, maybe more reason to intervene? She was scratching her head about it when we left.
So, not sure if it is good to brag about the comprehension given the other part of it, but who cares! His sister was 3.5 before she talked and she turned out OK. In any event, he had a great time showing what he knew.
DD's school had their book sale this week and she came home with a wish list of about $50 dollars worth of books! (and only that much because she ran out of space to write any more ) The next day she used a bunch of her "good behavior points" to buy herself a book and 2 books for her little 2 yr old sister. The following day she spent more of these reward points to buy DH a book and this morning when I went into her room to wake her up she was already up counting her money from her piggy bank to see if she had enough money to buy me a book! It was so sweet. She decided she didn't so she asked her dad for a loan to buy my book. When she got home today she was excited to show DH the new poster she had bought and tell him about lending money to a friend who hadn't been able to buy anything, and then she was in tears because she didn't have enough money left to buy me the book she wanted. By the time I got home from work she had decided that she would give me the poster she had wanted because she felt so bad that she hadn't gotten me anything! Put this together with my post a few days ago and I wonder how we have managed to raise such a sweet and caring little girl! She is such a special kid - I have tears in my eyes writing this.
kerry, that is so sweet! We have one super sweet guy here and I definitely don't know where he came from!
Fun news - ds10 did place 2nd in his science fair category! He was really happy about it, but probably not as over-the-moon as me (I'm just so silly about this stuff, I know)
My 12 year old son took an end of semester test in his writing composition class yesterday even though he was sick with a bad cold. The sniffles did not stop him, wearing an uncomfortable scoliosis brace didn't stop him, lack of sleep did not stop him, and his dysgraphia did not stop him even though there were several essay questions on the test. He had earned A+ on almost every writing assignment in the class and was determined to keep his A for the semester. He had earned those A+ papers even though he had to work around frequent migraines. He also got an A+ on a one-page paper he had to write in his history class last week.
Also, one week before his last performance, three of the boys in his musical theater group had something come up where they couldn't do the show. There were several last minute changes to the choreography and my son had to do more solos than he is used to doing, but he did very well.
Yay Lori. Give him a big old pat on the back for sticking with taking the writing class. I remember it was a new experience and on a trial basis. He gets an extra A+ in perseverance! He's doing quite well to follow a schedule, keep his commitments, and keep going with two full projects.
Ds10 earned a gift card for selling cub scout popcorn this year, and wants me to take him to the store so he can get presents for me and dh, which I thought was really sweet. Dd4 was very funny last night, she was asking about all sorts of things as usual, and finally I said 'it's bedtime, you have too stop asking questions for tonight.' She said, 'it's just how god made me, he put too many questions in my head!'.
Dd5 has decided in recent weeks she thinks it would be pretty cool to be an astronaut. It's kind of cool to know that if that's still what she wants when she's big enough to make the choice for real - she actually could be!!
The astronaut idea is big here too, except that DD7.5 wants to be an artist for NASA, so she wants to draw what she sees in space, rather than take photos of it!
While visiting family for Christmas, DD2.5 was helping me wrap DH's present. She then said that she wanted to write who it was to and from, so with very little help from me, she wrote (legibly) Daddy and her own name. She was so excited she wanted him to open it immediately!
Then on our trip home yesterday we were in a restaurant and she wrote her name again, this time with no help from me at all!
The boy (3 yrs. Old) doesn't quite get "jobs" yet. He just gets on his Harley davidson trike and says "tell me bye, i'm going to work" and zooms off down the hallway. Or says "bye. I'm going to the HEB (grocery store) and zooms off to the kitchen. What a life. He only thinks of going to work or shopping for groceries, just like his dad. He did get a fisher-price garbage truck for christmas with plastic recycling pieces. He put the pieces in the back of his toy F-150 pickup (even though we drive chevy). I told him "those go in the garbage truck". He said "no, look. That's not trash. There's food on them. I'm going to feed the cows." (it was a box of canned peas). Guess that's not a brag. He has too much sense and little imagination. But maybe it's a future in agriculture. Lord, I just hope it's not bull riding.
Giftodd, maybe one day your daughter and I can sit around daydreaming of designing the starship enterprise. There's got to be something past the moon.
DS8 has wanted to be an astronaut since age 3! But he wants to be a physicist and off-world city planner for the planet he discovers in another galaxy. He said yesterday, "I can't wait til I grow up...I have SO MANY ideas!!!" I just LOVE his big plans Nan
DS8 has wanted to be an astronaut since age 3! But he wants to be a physicist and off-world city planner for the planet he discovers in another galaxy. He said yesterday, "I can't wait til I grow up...I have SO MANY ideas!!!" I just LOVE his big plans Nan
Gasp. Are you sure you don't have my son, NanRos?
DS8 (as of yesterday!) wants to start a colony somewhere out in the universe. He needs plans for cities, for attracting humans to his settlement, for new equipment to combat the various gravitational/living condition issues, and is also pondering the moral hazards of subjugating a different species (if they're pre-existing).
ha ha Blob! Too bad they can't get together and discuss their out of galaxy plans. Mine assumes the planet won't be inhabited...I will have to ask him what he would do if there ARE beings there. DS is currently all about the physical layout of the city and the equipment needed to accomplish constructing it. The physicist part comes into play because that's how he's going to calculate where the ideal location is....someone else is going to do his grunt work of actually piloting him there. LOL
Lol. At one point my son wanted to be an astronaut, then decided he wanted to be a space lawyer. As he put it, "Astronauts and space aliens need lawyers, too." After he hit 5, his perspective settled down a bit, to where he only wants to be an astrophysicist/artist/movie director/President.
DS2 loves our new robotic vacuum (roomba), but we don�t allow him to play with it.
I caught him yesterday pressing buttons on the roomba. After reminding him the 1000th time that he can�t play with it, he proceeded to hold my finger and use it to press the buttons.
I was not sure how to respond to his out-of-the-box solution.
DS put the right planet stickers in the right places, and there were no clues other than the text and the circular shaddows... which were all the same size/colour/etc...not even in solar system order or anything. The shaddows were captioned with short sentances about the planets, so I don't know exactly how he did it, but it sure seemed like reading of some sort or other.
This is the first time he's done something so starkly... academic. He's been rapidly getting more interested in following directions, which I guess opens the door to that kind of a performance, but... I was surprised.
On pressing with your finger: Yeah. I'm familliar with that kind of dilemma. It elicits my use of DS's name in a tone of voice REMARKABLY similar to my clearest memory of my father -- him saying my name in utter exasperation. The good news about that is that it makes me think of my dad, which always makes me smile. The bad news is that DS gets away with a lot.
Ah, I guess this is not something really to brag about, just me being amazed because I'm behind the times. Santa brought the family a Wii with the sports game and Mario bros. The first time after that the boy (3 yr old) was back on the computer he called me over to see that he found demos of our Wii games we've been playing using his firefox kid's browser. I was like, what? He knows how to look up stuff? I thought he just used the favorites and YouTube and the games they put on the home page. I bought the kid safe browser because I really don't pay attention to what he's doing on the computer. He also has a remedial education package for kids struggling in 1st through 6th grade. He showed me a page the other day with something like 40 blank stars on it. He had four or five gold stars and a few silver stars for lessons completed in language arts. And he's starting to get a few scores higher than 0 in making change. (the reward being feeding grapes to a virtual pet mouse, very motivating). I guess when he's done with this he'll be ready for epgy or Aleks or k-12 or something. It will be a while, but I'll make a post asking for suggestions when the time comes. Maybe ask for early enterance to prek because he's a late birthday.
I put that link because it had The review I liked. The one that complained that the student could just poke around and it wasn't divided neatly by grade level. Amazon doesn't have reviews on the 2011 version. One of the older versions has Carmen Santiago on it. The program is common. It's at walmart and best buy.
If you haven't got Supermind and Mightymind magnetic blocks yet, they've been a big hit here. Just make sure you don't lose a single piece or the puzzles no good. It buys me close to an hour of peace to put him at the kitchen table with it. Just have to put it up and only give it to him sometimes.
I've never posted on the "brag" thread, but this one is kind of fun for us...
Our K-8 homeschool charter has been really great, and started a school-wide spelling bee (the first step in the Scripps Challenge) at our request. DS6 is technically only a 1st grader and the regional competition is for Gr. 3-8, but the school opened it to 1st graders to let him participate.
The first round was a written round, using 500 study words (evenly spread from grades 1-8). Everyone who scored 25+/35 words on the written moved to the "finals." About 30 participated, and DS6 was 1 of 8 who moved up. In the final round, he came in 4th after spelling "raisin" too fast. He was bummed to come out b/c he knew all the words, but forgot to slow down. (We were secretly just as happy that he didn't come in 1st, b/c it's good for him to do well at something but still not be the best, esp. against some GT 8th graders!)
Anyhow...we just learned that in the first round of spelling, amongst the 30 kids (all 3rd-8th grade besides him), he was the only one to get a perfect score. Apparently, the teachers and director were all buzzing about it. It was great b/c everyone knows where he is academically, but few get to see him in action. I'm hoping this will help us to open even more doors in terms of activities/curriculum I'd like the school to implement.
Next step, he wants to do a geography bee. I guess we're off to study rivers!
DS2 loves our new robotic vacuum (roomba), but we don�t allow him to play with it.
I caught him yesterday pressing buttons on the roomba. After reminding him the 1000th time that he can�t play with it, he proceeded to hold my finger and use it to press the buttons.
I was not sure how to respond to his out-of-the-box solution.
Isn't it funny that we are the only group of parents that actually find failure to be a good thing? But congrats to your son none the less, I'm betting next year he'll slow down....
AUSTIN!!! I somehow missed seeing this earlier (haven't been around that much lately). Congratulations to you, your wife, and Mr W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope you're having a lovely time with your new baby! Is it a boy or a girl? Such joyous times--I so miss having a little tiny guy to hold (though the big guys are pretty great, too)!
The hubby told the boy to tell me, "bye mom. Me and dad are going to look at the pretty girls". The boy told me they were going to look at the happy girls. The hubby tried to correct the boy, but he said, "Well I want to look at the happy girls.".
Dd4 has been improving in reading and especially in spelling out words based on how they sound. Today we were playing a game where I was asking her to write out simple " -at" words, so of course dh has to come in and ask her to spell "splat", which I thought was a bit unfair, but she totally nailed it! Not huge, but kinda hard! What I am most pleased to see however is her fondness for a good eraser -- it has cut down considerably on her throwing the whole notebook and pencil across the room when she notices that she got a letter shape slightly wrong! Also, I think the eagerness to discover more words has her less stressy about the 'perfection'. (I hope!)
We used magnetic letters to play spelling games because it helped take the fine motor component (which was and is a problem for my son)out of the equation. All he had to remember then was how to spell the word. He was younger than your DD, but we played one game where we took turns making words for each other to spell out and to read phonetically. He would delight in giving me loooong chains of consonants to "sound out" just to hear me sputter and contort my face. It was a great way to build word family/pattern recognition, though, because it was very obvious if I was only changing the initial letters, or the final letters, or the central vowels. She might like something like that in addition to the writing games. Sounds like she is really moving ahead in lots of ways, including the all-important decreasing perfectionism!
Thanks, Aculady, that is a great idea, I had sets of these for ds but they've sort of floated away, so I should get another magnetic set, or a foam one for the bath....
Have to add another brag on ds10; we took a bit of a break on the algebra, but today he was back at it and simplifying his first polynomial expressions.
Hope you're having a lovely time with your new baby! Is it a boy or a girl? Such joyous times--I so miss having a little tiny guy to hold (though the big guys are pretty great, too)!
Its a girl. She is way more active than Mr W was at the same age. Especially from 1130 pm to 230 AM. ugh
DS7 is in a chess program after school. It was his first time (fall session). They had their trophy ceremony Tuesday. He came home with a First Champion trophy (which means that he won one of the class tournaments) and the Sportsmanship trophy, which is the one that made me MOST proud!
DD3 found some word flashcards the other day with pictures and was playing with them. I know she isn't reading or anything, but she does know her letters and sounds and everything. I randomly put 2 words in front of her with different starting letters and would ask her which one was "bird" and she would pick out the right one. I did this a bunch of times and then added 3 or 4 and she still got them right. It was so cute to watch her say "buh buh BIRD" and then pick it up. DS was reading before 2 and he just knew how how to read...so I have never gotten to see this stage before of figuring it out and sounding it out, it's kind of fun. When she was 2 I guessed she would probably be reading around 4...I think she may be right on target.
My stepfather (married to my mom for 25 years) passed away unexpectedly last summer, and my mom spent the Christmas holidays with us. DS9 wanted to make something special to make her feel better. He wrote the most beautiful and touching poem for her that talked not just about my stepdad, but how last year was horrible and now it's gone and that the new year would be better. I wish I could post it here, because it is absolutely beautiful, but it's understandably private. I am proud and amazed that at such a young age, DS is able to understand someone's feelings and express himself so well.
The funny part was that my mom cried really hard when she read it for the first time, and DS got scared he had done something wrong. He learned a good lesson about grieving that day.
This is more of a freaky memory story than a brag... When DD was two she had to go to the local children's hospital for ear surgery. We went once for a consultation, and then back up a few weeks later for her surgery. When we pulled into the parking garage, she started saying colors, "red, blue, green, etc." Each level of the garage was color coded and she was naming the color of the next level. She got all six levels correct, naming each color before we got to it. The little twerp memorized the colors in the parking garage after one visit! We knew she was a smart little girl, but this was the defining moment when she really freaked us out!
My stepfather (married to my mom for 25 years) passed away unexpectedly last summer, and my mom spent the Christmas holidays with us. DS9 wanted to make something special to make her feel better. He wrote the most beautiful and touching poem for her that talked not just about my stepdad, but how last year was horrible and now it's gone and that the new year would be better. I wish I could post it here, because it is absolutely beautiful, but it's understandably private. I am proud and amazed that at such a young age, DS is able to understand someone's feelings and express himself so well.
The funny part was that my mom cried really hard when she read it for the first time, and DS got scared he had done something wrong. He learned a good lesson about grieving that day.
Well this is partially a brag on DS6's school...and partly for him. He is in 4th grade math this year and we were told at our last conference he will be completing 5th this year as well and then moving to 6th grade next year. On his homework assignment last night the math coordinator wrote that he is already ahead on the 5th grade work and and his homework was a few enrichment word problems and to "play with hexidecimals" which quite honestly I didn't know what that was until I asked DS and he explained it and started converting numbers into binary and hexidecimal. I just thought it was really cute that was his homework, and so glad to see the school challenging him some. They are also now giving him 4th grade ELA now too and will hopefully write it into his plan for next year.
DS 28 months spent the last few days in the hospital for a severe Asthma flare up. When he was discharged the nurse removed his ankle alert band and he turned to the group of nurses, techs, etc who had come to say goodbye, took a deep bow and said "I'm free at last".
hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
Love it, PMc! (Bet you were glad to have him home, too!)
I scored !!!!!10!!!! Calvin and Hobbs books from good will at $1.oo each. I still can't believe it. I almost felt guilty taking all of them, but I know they will go to good use. If laughter is the best medicine, DS will have plenty.
Ds10's report card came out a bit better than expected! He usually does well, but I thought he definitely had some rough spots last quarter with missing assignments and organization. He also got his review from gifted class and is doing very well there, it is wonderful to see. The teacher has a dialogue with students on paper as they progress through different projects and it is interesting to see he is moving into more bold thinking, even a fun relationship with the teacher. It is usually hard to tell from the outside how things are going so it is always a pleasant surprise to get a glimpse like this. I need to send her a sincere note about how well SHE is doing with him!
I'll post my giddy new mother brags. My princess(4m) has started to roll from her back to her side. She holds her legs straight up in the air, then throws them to the side, pauses, then turns her top half. Then she looks up, face beaming with pride. Seemingly saying, I did that!
This is more of a funny story and less of a brag. We went to a restaurant last night which has a great outside space with a huge play area for the kids. DD (age 4) and a little boy were trying to one up each other and he decided to climb a tree. DD turned to the playground rules and said "Hey, you can't do that! It clearly says No climbing trees!". My husband asked if I read her the rules ... uh, no. Thanks to her being a sneaking reader we really have no idea how much she can read.
Today, we were leaving the respirologist -- only the second time we've been -- and from behind the stroller, I asked the alergist "which way?" and DS said "Right, Left, Down." This was not only correct, but his first ever usage of both "left" and "right."
The alergist chuckled, said "smart kid," and gave him an extra sticker.
Actually, she gave him a lot of stickers over the course of about 5 minutes when he was actually awake (he was alseep for the actual test). It was maybe no less impressive the way he played her for stickers... when she offered him a sticker, I said "just one," she said "you can have as MANY as you like!" He said "Ummmmmmm..." and made a really big show of trying to pick JUST ONE -- so that finally she handed him all the ones she caught him looking at. I like the respirologists. They're great folks.
Oh: and the REAL brag!!!! NO POSITIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was arriving in the parking lot at a local pet store, located in a strip mall, with DS5, when he said, "That's taking things entirely too far." I shot him a quizzical look, and he said, "With babies." I hadn't noticed it yet, but next to the pet store was a new store called "buybuy BABY".
DD 8.5 was asked to do an extra project over spring break. It involved researching a prominent local historical figure to tie in with the class's unit on black history. This is her teacher's first foray into 'liberating the curriculum.' It has been a slow start to enrichment, 100% related to DD's crippling perfectionism. After a week and a half of torture (MY torture, because I had to practically sit and hold her hand the whole time and encourage her that she could do the research and do the typing, etc.), DD presented to the class yesterday and brought home two notes praising her efforts from the teacher and the principal. She gave a brief presentation and then quizzed the class about what she had said. They earned puzzle pieces for correct answers and then the put together a puzzle of the lady's picture. She did enjoy making the puzzle herself, so that part was a plus. Apparently, the class loved it!
DD tells me last night that it was so much fun, she can't wait to do it again. GREAT! CAN'T WAIT! (this is going to get easier... right?)
There seems to be a lot of new posters on the board and many seem to have voiced the same comment - that they can't share their children's accomplishments with anyone. So I think it's time for a brag thread!
What wonderful amazing things has your child done lately that you can't tell anyone? Boast away in all your glory!
I'll start: We withdrew DS11 out of the 8th grade this month and enrolled him in high school. He just got back his first ever high school assignment and got an "A"! It's a small thing I know, but confirmation for me that more acceleration was needed.
Who's next? (and I expect much more boasting details from all those posters on the "isolation thread"! Here's your chance!)
Ok. But I'll probably only tell this here, you know, to a few hundred of my closest friends and strangers (and the hubby). I thought it was cute and funny. I was nursing 5mo and 3yr old was pestering, giving her pretend cookies, pretend medicine, making compulsory random<squeak> (squawk, shriek) sounds and hopping on the bed. The girl was temporarily miserable, gassy, and hiccuping, trying to nurse herself back to sleep. I swear she said as clearly as I do "Get. Out. Of. Here." not yelling, but pausing crisply after every word. She sounded just like me. She didn't make the two t sounds, that's all. But I don't enunciate all that sharply. She has spells where she does non-stop pre-verbal baby babble. And sometimes if she's in a singing mood and I'm replaying her YouTube songs for her to coo and croon along with we'll hear something approximating a word or two from the song now and then. And I remember the boy clearly said "goodnight" at this age when we said it first. But the girl just appropriately used a full sentence in context. I probably won't even put that in a journal, but I really wanted to share.
DD8's 3rd grade class is involved in an analogy competition thing called word master. A few times a year they do 20 analogies in a certain amount of time and the top 5 scores go onto the next level of the competition. The first time she did it she scored 16/20 and was in the top 5 of the grade. The second time they did it she scored 18/20 and was the high scorer of the school! She loves analogies and has been using them for years, so it is fun for her to be able to show her ability in school.
Just got this text today from my husband. Apparently my husband and son are at Barnes and Noble by the bargain books in the kids section. My son (15 months old), is playing with a pile of Mickey Mouse books and notices that 3 books down in the same pile there's a Princess book. All of a sudden, he starts going to other piles and lifting up the first three books to see what's underneath. After 5 to 6 times of doing this, he stops ... we're assuming that he came to the conlusion that the Mickey Mouse pile was a fluke.
And then yesterday he was walking up and down a slope over and over again. He would walk up the slope and then clap - he was so proud of himself that he could do it. He would then walk down the slope, and turn around to do it again. It really seemed to us like he was practicing and working hard to being able to walk up and down slopes without falling so much.
It's really fascinating to see how much he likes to challenge himself and work at things. That's definitely an aspect of his personality that I want to keep around.
So dd3 was writing some numbers and scribbles, holds it up to show, I wasn't paying attn. and was like, "oh, that's nice"--dd10 goes, "Mommy--she wrote the date!"--she had written 3-6-11, at the top of the paper by her name. Maybe this isn't that unusual? I don't know? (Her giftedness seems to show more in the problem solving area--i.e. how do I get the cookies from the top of the fridge) But I was pretty impressed! Later found out that the teacher had just started explaining to the kindergartners in her class how to write the date that way.
We started a solar system project last night. We are reading all sorts of books (on each planet) and building a model. Today we started the model. I am amazed at how interested both kids are and how quickly they have picked up the information (ds is 5 and dd is 7)
A few months ago I received my first text from my husbands phone that my 2.3 DD at the time had composed, it said Himo for Hi mom. I am so sad because the other day I erased it by accident. Yesterday she spelled her six letter name on the keyboard!
I recently did a certification exam for my job... a really big deal, as I would have to give up my job if I failed. 8 hours of misery with oral, written and practical components. It was more stressful than I had imagined and I was really worried whle waiting for the results. DD 8.5 overheard me telling a friend that I hoped I passed because I was never going to do it again. She told me later that night that I should never say that because I was not a 'giver-upper.' She said that, otherwise, I would be a poor role model for her. How could I tell her that she needs to try hard and never give up if I was going to do it myself? Then she told me that she had faith in me. What a dressing down she gave me. I was totally humbled at the end of it and all I could do was apologize.
I found out this week that I did pass and she was more excited than anyone else. She told me that I was her hero. I want to wrap that up and keep it forever. I swear, I want to be just like that child when I grow up.
My dd13 asked to have a "family meeting" to discuss rules and chores. She showed up to the meeting with three different power point presentations that she downloaded onto a variety of "computer" like things so we could all follow along. She had research on the various topics such as make-up. etc. She led a two hour meeting on what her chores should be, what her freedom should be in regards to make-up, clothes and shoes, and what the consequences should be for not following through etc. I have to admit it was one of the most pleasurably Sunday afternoons in quite awhile.
DS5 was watching the original Willy Wonka movie the other afternoon and when I walked in the room, he said, "Mommy, I figured out Charlie's percent. It's one fifth percent."
For those of you who haven't seen the movie recently, there's a scene where Charlie's math teacher is teaching the class about calculating percentages, using the number of Wonka bars the students bought out of 1000 bars total. I think one kid had bought 100, one had bought 300, etc. Charlie said he'd only bought 2. His teacher said that wasn't enough to calculate, so he made Charlie change his number to 200 to do the calculation.
I asked him to explain how he did it and he said, "Well, 100 is 10%, 10 is 1% and 2 is 1/5 of 10, so he had 1/5%. And 2000 would be 200%"
I'm pretty sure they haven't covered percentages at school yet, so he must have learned it from the teacher in the movie. Gotta love those educational programs.
My dd13 asked to have a "family meeting" to discuss rules and chores. She showed up to the meeting with three different power point presentations that she downloaded onto a variety of "computer" like things so we could all follow along. She had research on the various topics such as make-up. etc. She led a two hour meeting on what her chores should be, what her freedom should be in regards to make-up, clothes and shoes, and what the consequences should be for not following through etc. I have to admit it was one of the most pleasurably Sunday afternoons in quite awhile.
Wow! She sounds like a kid with a very good head on her shoulders. I love hearing stories about teens like that! So did she end up getting what she wanted?
Originally Posted by PMc
Ds 2.5 went through a Solar System obsession around 18 months, learned the planets in order, the phases of the moon and much more. Last week the theme unit in his science class was space and he was thrilled. On his weekly report his teacher wrote; we have enjoyed hearing DS's knowledge of the Solar System ,it is quiet extensive. Also he gets extra credit for theme related attire.
Oh, what was his attire? We also had a phases of the moon obsession awhile back. We used to have to make them out of playdough all the time. Now in our new apt we can't see the moon at night and we have a very grumpy toddler because of it!
Ds always insists on dressing the part for whatever he is obsessed with so he has a collection of space related Clothing. The first day of the unit he chose a shirt with the space shuttle on it, day number two he wore a shirt with a picture of the earth wearing sunglasses, and the next two days he wore shirts with different depictions of the solar system.
That's really cute! DD would love those types of outfits but I've never found many cool planets/sun/moon for girls. She did have a pair of shoes with the planets on them but they're too small now and she had a water bottle with planets/stars on it but that got moldy. So instead she has a ton of dresses gifted from the relatives...
Originally Posted by PMc
Using the playdough for the phases is a great idea! I'll have to pass that on to DS's teachers, I am sure they would love it! Sorry your DD can't see the moon, DS would be grumpy too, it's part of his bedtime rountine.
Seriously, don't feel too sorry for her! We live extremely close to a major airport so she can see all the planes landing/taking off from our balcony. Add to that there's a bus station within viewing distance so we have plenty of eye candy for her.
DD brought an "brain test" to her doctor's appointment yesterday for him to complete. It was actually a pretty good grid perplexor about our cat's nicknames and food preferences. She had planned it all out in her head, used a ruler, and her best handwriting. I'm so glad he thought it was funny.
My 15-yr. old son did an astrophysics project relating to star formation. He was 1st in the Siemens Competition and 7th in the Intel Science Talent Search. His project included computer programming in IDL and sophisticated statistical analysis, both of which he had never done. Actually, he's never done any computer programming and this is his first science research project since elementary school.
Being with his intellectual peers at these wonderful competitions has been exhilarating for him. He's heading to college in the fall and is looking forward to more good times ahead.
He determined that he put in about 800 hours on his project. He loved it! He got the chance to spend three weeks at Princeton working on the project. He loved academia and now wants to be research professor.
Wow, these are amazing and fun stories. I'm going to have fun going back and reading them all.
DD7 gifts seem to be in language arts, but this one always impressed me and had more of a "wow" factor to me than anything related to language.
At age 5 she disappeared into her room for a longer time than usual and emerged with a complete working, two-player foosball game--you know, the one with the soccer players on a crossbar--made from cardboard, paper, tape, pens, toilet paper rolls and sticks (literally, twigs).
Apparently her inspiration came from being at her friends house where they have a real foosball table.
Fragile though it was (it only had two players on the field as well), it totally worked and was actually fun to play. Besides the obvious design and materials challenges, she figured out the feet (toilet paper rolls cut up) were needed on it for stability and also to allow the goals to be cut out and inset so the ball stayed in the goal when scored.
I think part of the wow factor to me was realizing had I the same time and materials I don't think I could have done as well.
Although he is more than capable, DS10 hates to write which has consistently brought down his Language Arts grades and test scores. Before a recent statewide test, his teacher asked them to do their very best. He loves his teacher and "tried his best." He received a higher score on that portion of the test than any of her other students in the past 20 years! Now we have the proof to remind him that yes he CAN do it when he tells us he's no good at writing!
A couple of months ago dd (just turned 8) who loves to play kids games online was getting very frustrated that she couldn't go that far with the game because she had to pay money(more so that we would not pay money for her to play the game to that extent). She anounced to us that she will be making her own wedsite with games she would like to play and would make it fun for anyone who would like to join. My husband has been helping her set it up and build the website (all her ideals) when she (and dh) finishes it up I'll post the site for all to see...so far it is very cute. I suggested to her to put some boy stuff in there to appeal to a bigger audience,lol will see if she does, it's looking pretty girly so far
I forgot to give the baby sitter the key, so they were locked out for three hours, late at night. (Ok, that's _not_ the brag!)
The babysitter is constitutionally incapable of underballing anyone's capacity for anything. She asked DS (almost 2) what he would like to do. So they went to the playground untill she was too cold, at which point she told him she was too cold, and could he show her how to get to the pizza place (which she knew was walking distance from our house, and that he often picks up pizza from on our games night, but which she had never seen before). It's about 5 blocks from the park, on boring residental streets with exactly one corner store per corner with very few exceptions.
He did. He took a wrong turn at one point and apparently said "oopsie," so she asked if he'd taken a wrong turn, and he said yes, looked around, and got back on track.
Did I mention this was the first time this particular person has ever babysat for us?
We arrived home in terror, having discovered the error, to find them trotting happily down the street with dinner for us (!).
DD is working on a persuasive essay on Romeo and Juliet.
She's to assign blame for the deaths of the pair, and then spend a few pages backing it up with evidence.
Since she's a stellar debater, this is actually rather entertaining for her-- if not particularly challenging, since the entire play is definitely "old news" to her. (She first read-- and we first took her to SEE R+J at OSF when she was just seven-- this is a kid that KNOWS some Shakespeare...)
So she upped the challenge by presenting DUAL arguments-- one from the twenty-first century adolescent viewpoint... which she regards as rather trite, actually. Rather "Twilight" if you think about it, as she notes. Not particularly compelling if you happen to not be in the midst of adolescent angst yourself. Which hardly explains the enduring popularity of the work.
The other perspective is that of Shakespeare's audiences. That is, the perspective of the average European of ca. 1600 London. This would include the philosophy of marraige as a contract and property arrangement, not a matter of the heart, and one which was indubitably best arranged by one's elders.
In this instance, she squarely blames the two protagonists for their own fate. Basically, all would have been well if not for their "foolishness and headstrong immaturity."
Juliet, at least is a creature of action; of course this doesn't turn out very well, and she really comes off as something of an ungrateful spoiled brat whose parents may have encouraged this by overindulging their only child...
Romeo, she characterizes as "inherently weak; his immaturity allows him to be pulled into a swirling vortex of deceit and blood" by the conniving and equally immature Juliet. After all, he's a pretty fickle guy when you get right down to it-- he goes to the party in the first place because he's looking for ONE girl that he's pining for, and winds up with one who is ripe for ANY boy that her parents don't approve of...
Their poor parents are really powerless in the face of that.
Gotta love an HG kid.
Dad even suggested a title. "Love Stinks."
He quipped that someone should write a song... ROFL....
The other perspective is that of Shakespeare's audiences. That is, the perspective of the average European of ca. 1600 London. This would include the philosophy of marraige as a contract and property arrangement, not a matter of the heart, and one which was indubitably best arranged by one's elders.
In this instance, she squarely blames the two protagonists for their own fate. Basically, all would have been well if not for their "foolishness and headstrong immaturity."
Juliet, at least is a creature of action; of course this doesn't turn out very well, and she really comes off as something of an ungrateful spoiled brat whose parents may have encouraged this by overindulging their only child...
Romeo, she characterizes as "inherently weak; his immaturity allows him to be pulled into a swirling vortex of deceit and blood" by the conniving and equally immature Juliet. After all, he's a pretty fickle guy when you get right down to it-- he goes to the party in the first place because he's looking for ONE girl that he's pining for, and winds up with one who is ripe for ANY boy that her parents don't approve of...
Oh man, I must be in the wrong century because that's what I'v always thought. I've never been able to stand Romeo and Juliet and instead of finding the play romantic I always get annoyed by the characters and how flighty their choices are. I do like his comedies but I've just never been able to enjoy Romeo and Juliet...
She's now added Tracy Chapman's Fast Car as an additional perspective; that Juliet may have been looking for ANYONE reasonably malleable and attractive in order to get a ticket away from her destiny.
In other words, she feels that things probably wouldn't have turned out as wonderfully as Juliet would have had them. In ten years, she might have wound up pretty mad that she was the one wearing the pants in the family... LOL.
She observed that the real tragedy is that the vastly entertaining Mercutio isn't around for the last act; she'd have been much more interested in his take on things than the smarmy guilt-ridden ending.
I took DD8 to school with me today because her teachers had a work day. I was teaching my honors physics class about light and it's properties and was asking a problem about microwaves(also a type of light wave even though we can't see it). Before I could finish my question DD raised her hand and asked "Mommy, are you talking about the microwaves in the ovens or the ones that are in outer space?" When I said they are the same kind of wave, her reply, "oh, that's right, I forgot" sent my class into spasms because they are still having difficulty accepting that. She then continued to participate in class as if it were her own!
Now, why is it we have her in third grade?????????
(reminds me of when my then-6yo DD attended the practices for a grad student in my group who was preparing for her dissertation talk... she kept asking questions about whether the relationships in figures 'had mechanistic explanations, or were they just correlative at this point...' )
I finally told her that she had to be quiet, but the grad student (who had known her since she was two) just laughed and said "no way-- she's right. I'm glad she said something."
Still, I learned not to take her into doctoral seminars with me.
My DS8 is wonderful, lets start there. He is also emotional, pig headed and a pain in the butt. You all know what I mean.
About two weeks ago, he morphed into someone I don't recognize. All of a sudden, his room is clean, he has stopped debating everything and is the posterr child for fabulous!
This morning, as i'm making the rounds getting everyone dressed, I find DS8 helping DS5 get his shirt on. I finally had to ask "what's going on with you? Where's my son, the cranky one?" He laughed at me and said quite simply "I've decided it's time for me to grow up." With that he turned back to his brother.
Did they put something in the water or what? I LOVE IT!!!
I took DD8 to school with me today because her teachers had a work day.... Before I could finish my question DD raised her hand and asked "Mommy, are you talking about the microwaves in the ovens or the ones that are in outer space?" ...Now, why is it we have her in third grade?????????
I'm so proud that she raised her hand! And great question, BTW
DD 8.5 won a 'building' competition at school today. Her teacher is trying so hard to find new activities to incorporate in the class to engage DD and let her shine. Today they had twenty minutes to build a tower from straws and connectors and then were graded on height, sturdiness, originality of design, etc. DD and her partner got 190 points and their tower was one meter higher than all the others (second place was 127 points). Such a small little brag, but it is HUGE for her. She is flying high and so proud of herself. She put a lot of thought into building a sturdy base and strategically taking straws out of bottom levels to add to the top to make it higher. Just listening to her talk about it made me wish she could get this engaged and excited about school on a regular basis. Sounds like her teacher is starting to figure her out, though.
How did I miss the water? Can we get it in the water tower? Three cheers for having fun at school Kathleen's mum.
Here's my brag. My draw write now book came in the mail yesterday. How old's the boy, 3.5. http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/9814a638.jpg He loves George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, although he would only recognize someone who's president if they had a podium with a presidential seal.
Went to see DS math teacher yesterday over frequency of missing homework assignments. DS is grade-skipped one grade and also in advanced math which means he is two years ahead age-wise(9 years old in sixth grade class). Teacher says that no other student comes close to DS in class and he is only one not stumped with word problems. And I thought his big strength was verbal!
My 12 year old son finished his writing composition assignment, to write three poems, early even though he had a really rough week and started wearing a very uncomfortable brace at night when he already had trouble sleeping. I didn't even have to encourage him to finish. He wrote two of the poems in the back seat of the car on his iPhone. Motor dysgraphia doesn't seem like that much of a problem for him any more since he can do his writing anywhere using his iPhone or netbook. He has maintained a high A in the class since it began last fall and he is one of the youngest students in the class.
He also made it through a difficult three-hour musical theater rehearsal with a bad headache and back pain. He had missed the rehearsal the week before because of a migraine and he could not miss this one because they are performing at a local TV station in a few days.
I am very proud of my son because he used to be sensitive to clothing tags, but is somehow managing to work through his pain and do what he needs to do to get the job done and do it well.
On a recent trip to our neighborhood bookstore DS 2.5 said Hey I need a reference atlas. A teenage girl that was standing next to us said, OMG you are too smart! DS flashed her a big fake smile, batted his eyelashes and said, "Yes and I am handsome too.
Mr W did pretty much the same thing.
Some teenage girl said he was cute.
When he got home, he looked in the mirror, said "YEAHHH.. I am cute!"
If I lose him in the mall, I just find the nearest group of teen girls - he is in the middle of them, making them laugh.
He recently started a new sport and the coach is a teen girl and he tried his tricks on her. It took him four sessions to realize that she did not appreciate his goofing off!
DD8 came running up to me when I got home from school today to tell me about what happened in Spanish class today. It is the end of the third term and her teacher was talking about grades and that she gives a prize at the end of the year to any student who doesn't have to take any retests all year. She then went on to praise DD for doing such a great job in class all year, that she has had "perfecto" on all tests and quizzes (none of which we knew were happening because she's never studied for any of them at home ) and it looks like she will be getting the special prize! Linguistics is one of DD's "things" so she was so proud of herself and so excited that her teacher would use her as an example for the whole class. She was grinning from ear to ear.
On a recent trip to our neighborhood bookstore DS 2.5 said Hey I need a reference atlas. A teenage girl that was standing next to us said, OMG you are too smart! DS flashed her a big fake smile, batted his eyelashes and said, "Yes and I am handsome too.
Here's mine: DS is signing up for a writing class at CTY for the first time ever! I hope he get in! Grinity
YAY, best of luck to your ds
This is from my 5 yo not gifted identified boy (hope that's ok).
At the dinner table... ds: Mommy when I grow up I want to be a giant lollipop. I could lick myself, but only once a day. Because if I licked myself too much I'd accidentally eat myself and be in my own stomach. How's that possible??!
me: reeeeallyy????
I was just speechless but in side LOL'ing like a crazy person!!! Kids are nuts!
Sounds like your kiddo might enjoy 1,2,3...Infinity by George Gamow. Maybe now, maybe when he's a bit older. It depends on what his reading level is. I think I read it when I was around seven or so. It covers a lot of fascinating math topics, and was my first introduction to topology. There is a section where it talks about the fact that, from a topological point of view, you can look at the human body either as a tube that is completely surrounded by everything else in the universe, or as a universe of its own that surrounds everything else.
Today dd and I were doing an errand that took a bit of driving. We were having a nice long chat full of the questions that kids are famous for -- e.g. why can't we see through clouds, are there spaces in your body between the organs, are the capillaries all squished together, how can the government shut down, etc, etc. But then it got a little quiet and I thought "she's probably reading something" when suddenly she bursts out in dramatic song. She was singing her sister's recital piece from 2010 -- in Italian. She sure got my attention!
I was joking with her about it and she said that she'd been singing it to herself during her timed multiplication test today. I said "what do you mean during the test?" and she responded -- mom, I don't need my brain to do those tests, so it was nice to have something to think about while I was putting down the numbers.
DS7 finished the ALEKS chemistry course today. There's hard stuff in there, and he really had to stick at it. He had, of course, a lot of help and parental explanation along the way (we've both learned more chemistry in the process too!) but he didn't get or need help in the final assessments: he really has mastered the material.
In fact, had I realised just how much chemistry there is in that course that I had never learned doing it until age 16, I don't think I'd ever have let him start! And he did struggle, both with his need to keep going through the dry stuff and, occasionally, conceptually; e.g. he had the same struggle with understanding how to use moles in calculations and convert between grams and moles that I remember having around age 14, along with the rest of my class - but the next day, he'd got it. Several times I suggested that he should just give it up, and a few weeks ago we even ended up doing problem-solving HTTSKWL-style on the white board, with the problem being "ALEKS is often hard and boring but Colin doesn't want to give it up so near the end", but he ruled out my suggested solution of "just give up anyway" immediately. (A dose of extrinsic motivation in his suggested form of grape tokens per topic done got him over the hump - interestingly, the tokens are still lying around rather than having been swapped for grapes.)
I feel slightly sad that I can't shout this from the rooftops at my IRL friends, but that's what this thread is for, right?
I love your post, it reminds me of how my daughter multiply's by adding it all up every single time! OK 6 sixes...! Its because they understand the fundamental concepts not just memorizing and spouting
Sometimes I'm still in shock by how much these kids absorb. They really are sponges. DD is not only learning French, Mandarin and Spanish but she is also learning sign language and boy has she learned a lot in a short time. But since her Spanish teacher is teaching it to her, she associates it with her Spanish, so as she goes through the alphabet she says it in Spanish. This is the same for the other signs such as Thank you, Mama, Papa, etc.
Colinsmum, congrats to your DS! Is the ALEKS chem course good? We had looked at that and considered it for DS8, but weren't sure about the level, time commitment, and quality. Does it start from absolute basics, or is there a level of presumed knowledge? Would you please tell more?
DS2 woke up in the middle of my history class(long story about babysitters skipped), announced loudly that "there's a lot of planets outside," and went back to sleep.
The prof said "yes, indeed" and went back to teaching dead languages.
-Mich (Can we have a "funny stories I just can't tell everyone" thread, most of mine aren't really brags, just cute kid stories with one wierd element that makes them a bit less tellable.)
The top line he traced. �The second red line he copied while I coached him using HWT words.�
This he did on his own. �He just recently learned how to write # 5.
I'm not sure if I showed you the astronaut yet. �We're working our way through a how to draw book. �The print letters I can just just tell him and he'll write them, he already knows how.
So, not a huge brag I guess since he's following instructions, but I'm a very proud Mamma. �He was 3.5 last month.
I want to share another cute brag. � I noticed a while back that ds always creates a mixture between the words "empty" and "nothing" whenever he has a reason to use either of these words. �"nenmpty", "numpthing", "nempting", "netty", that's all I can think of. �He knows about the number zero. �It is obvious to dh and me that he is doing this intentionally. �For one thing he uses variations. �When he misunderstands a word he mispronounces it the same way each time.� �
YEA! Our sensitive & fearful DD (almost 9), finally decided that she no longer needs a night light. That thing was so bright; I'm certain my electric bill go down.
With our first year of crazy skipping in (5 years)DS8 presented his report card to me. As a part time student he got a B in Language Arts, a B in geometry and a C in integrated science. All three of his teachers commented that the quality of his work was an A, organization....not so much, which pulled his grades down. I'm so proud!!! I can't believe this crazy idea actually worked! My son loves it and is already planning for next year! YAY for our side!
DD10 decided to explain Mendelian genetics to DD8. They figured out the eye color genotype for everyone in our extended family (I had to help them find pictures of some of the more distant relatives) and then calculated how likely the phenotypes of each group of kids were.
With our first year of crazy skipping in (5 years)DS8 presented his report card to me.... My son loves it and is already planning for next year! YAY for our side!
Every year I build a model ship. This year, he got all excited and demanded that we start. After an aha moment of "oh, I see, we build it upside down" he proceeded to remind me of the major error I made last year, and how I SHOULD have done it. Ok, the kid is two years old, and he remembers my boatbuilding mistakes and how to fix them... from last year?!?!?! That's just cool.
I haven't been on in a while, but finally got a couple minutes recently to check things out a bit. Lots of business going on and health stuff. But wanted to share a brag about DS6 since I haven't shared with anyone outside our family yet. DS6 won the highest score for Math Olympiads on his 4th grade team and also that same week had an essay published in a local kids magazine about MLK. We are so proud of him. He was so cute with the Math Olympiad as he got a little plastic trophy and was trying to clean it off and shine it up and came home and decided to make a trophy shelf (he has one other from t-ball last year). I wasn't sure how he would react so it was nice to see him feel proud of himself and his work.
I did post in the pre school section with pics, but have to brag about DS2 - who I always feel I neglect since DS4 is very intense. anyways - DS2 started reading this week, AND writing words and numbers AND colouring properly and doing dot - to - dot's. okay I'll admit I never gave him any, but he asked for them and now I am seriously floored at his abilities.
Oh, he also pointed out to DS4 that after 84 comes 85, 86, and then 87.
Espy8.5m old. �Yesterday she just felt like showing off to me. �She said neh-neh-neh and did nosy-nosy with me, which I showed her. �I said Aww. �She said "heh" and bumped her forehead to my forehead. �(which I didn't show her but I guess Wyatt did). �Then she put her eye to my eye and said eye. �Then later this morning she blew a kiss to me and did the same three things again. �Then she stuck out her tongue and grabbed it and said very clearly "I got your tongue." Then she said "I love you. �Morning.". I taught her I love you already only. �This evening she said I love you Mamma. �I've been trying to get her to call me Mamma. �She's made the sound crying, but this is the first time she used it as a name. �She's starting to toddle, letting go of things for a step or two. �Even letting go with both hands to bend down and pick things up. �Bursting with love and pride while thinking, "you were just born yesterday."
It has been apparent to me that dd5 has had the capacity to learn how to tell the time for a while now, but she's just had no interest. Her teacher told me this was one of the reasons she didn't think she was much ahead in maths. Then today she saw a watch she really wanted. It was a decent watch and so not a very cheap one and I told her she couldn't have a proper watch until she was prepared to put the effort in to learn to tell the time (she's had other cheap watches but never paid them much notice).
So she then proceeded to tell me the time on all the watches in the store (all of which were set to random times). Cheeky little thing. Anyway, now she has a new watch...
When DD5 was 2, maybe 3...She wondered WHY she couldn't eat the shells on the peanuts...so, I told her that there were chemicles on the shells that killed the bugs so the bug wouldn't eat the peanuts. Later that night, I found peanuts on all the windows of our 1780 old federal (lots of spiders). I said...Sydney. Why did you put all these peanuts on the windows, while I was clearing them off. She replied "NO! Leave them there! They will kill all the spiders and we won't have spiders anymore!" At five she is only a little over a year advanced for language and math is right where it should be...but she is so incredibaly creative! I will always remember that one!
AND at two, she built a house in the kitchen using anything she could find. It wasn't as pretty or as stable as her other ones, but she was going to accept it anyway...She said. Mommy Look! I'm the princess of cacophany! Seriously, she did! lol
Espy8.5m old. �Yesterday she just felt like showing off to me. �She said neh-neh-neh and did nosy-nosy with me, which I showed her. �I said Aww. �She said "heh" and bumped her forehead to my forehead. �(which I didn't show her but I guess Wyatt did). �Then she put her eye to my eye and said eye. �Then later this morning she blew a kiss to me and did the same three things again. �Then she stuck out her tongue and grabbed it and said very clearly "I got your tongue." Then she said "I love you. �Morning.". I taught her I love you already only. �This evening she said I love you Mamma. �I've been trying to get her to call me Mamma. �She's made the sound crying, but this is the first time she used it as a name. �She's starting to toddle, letting go of things for a step or two. �Even letting go with both hands to bend down and pick things up. �Bursting with love and pride while thinking, "you were just born yesterday."
Wyatt recited "Humpty Dumpty to my grandfather, then asked me a question. Wyatt: was it his wall? Me: I think it was the king's wall. Wyatt: what was he doing up there? Me: that was a good question. �What was Humpty Dumpty doing on the king's wall just before he fell? Grandfather: wiggling. ?
K. �I'm off to write the screenplay. �Just thought I'd like 2 share.
My 5 year old daughter memorized the first chaper of the secret garden...junior addition...many people don't even have the attention span to watch the whole vidoe! even though she does a GREAT job reciting it! lol
DS14 finally returned from his first year of boarding school (9th grade sub-two) and his goal was to maintain a GPA over 95% so that he could get the highest honor roll level.
He did it! He got a 96.5 GPA in his classes for the final trimester, which is heavily influenced by finals. Last year he could barely bring himself to study 3 hours total for finals. This year he set up 'on-line flashcards' 2 weeks in advance to learn vocab words for the English final, and worked though 5 pages of Physics problems to prepare for this Physics test. He got an 100% on his Physics test - the teacher had to introduce a curve to help out the rest of the class.
His may seem like a strange brag for a YS kid, but with his ADD getting the level of focus and and perspective-taking to get in the high 90s really says a lot about his work ethic, his willingness to follow the teachers' lead, and his engagement with the material. When he was young, I expected learning to be fun, but now he has matured into a kid who can do the job, fun or not. (as long as it's a little bit fun! Which it is!)
Plus he learned how to run a couple of miles for fun and and fitness, and he discovered that he enjoys casual basketball games. He's looking forward to trying out for the basketball team next year, and one the teachers is supporting him to start a 'Settler's of Catan' playing club, since it was quite popular this year after DS introduced it. His best friend at school wrote in his yearbook that DS was the person who taught him the most this year. Aww.
And the school facilitated his participation in service programs. They sponsor a Special Olympics, and set him and his best friend up to do weekly play-vists with a local 4 year old with special needs.
I'm bragging about my son, my son's school, my DH for following my lead, and ME - for finding the school and being willing to send DS there - SuperBrag!
Haven't posted in this thread since it was started way back when... DS was in first. (Now he's just completed 3rd... My how time flies).
This year our PS situation really turned a corner. Starting in the second marking period DS(then)7 was switched to take 6th grade pre algebra for first period in the Middle School. For second marking period he did great and then each marking period after his average kept going up (despite missing a FULL month for state testing).
At the end of the year he got an achievement award for ... the highest overall average in the class. (He tied with one other student).
Lots of bumps along the way but this year ended on a VERY positive note.
Grinity Congratulations! I bet in some ways it seems just like yesterday when your ds started school, and on the other hand it seems a long time ago because of all the hard work, challenges, success, and changes along the way.
A real reason to brag Grinity! congratulations to your DS, DS's school, DH and to you for all your persistence your story son's story always reminds me that it is worth it to keep going, keep looking for that fit.
Grinity Congratulations! I bet in some ways it seems just like yesterday when your ds started school, and on the other hand it seems a long time ago because of all the hard work, challenges, success, and changes along the way.
barb
I feel like I don't even 'know' let alone resemble the me from 10 years ago. But I remember my son's 1st and 2nd grade years very vividly. It all seems like so long ago. And DS who had such a great memory for the first 10 years finally has the gift of forgetting...he has forgotten so much that I would like to forget! He thinks that I've always been super organized and Flylady-ish - Hee Hee.
Haven't posted in this thread since it was started way back when... DS was in first. (Now he's just completed 3rd... My how time flies).
This year our PS situation really turned a corner. Starting in the second marking period DS(then)7 was switched to take 6th grade pre algebra for first period in the Middle School. For second marking period he did great and then each marking period after his average kept going up (despite missing a FULL month for state testing).
At the end of the year he got an achievement award for ... the highest overall average in the class. (He tied with one other student).
Lots of bumps along the way but this year ended on a VERY positive note.
DS14 finally returned from his first year of boarding school (9th grade sub-two) and his goal was to maintain a GPA over 95% so that he could get the highest honor roll level.
He did it! He got a 96.5 GPA in his classes for the final trimester, which is heavily influenced by finals. Last year he could barely bring himself to study 3 hours total for finals. This year he set up 'on-line flashcards' 2 weeks in advance to learn vocab words for the English final, and worked though 5 pages of Physics problems to prepare for this Physics test. He got an 100% on his Physics test - the teacher had to introduce a curve to help out the rest of the class.
His may seem like a strange brag for a YS kid, but with his ADD getting the level of focus and and perspective-taking to get in the high 90s really says a lot about his work ethic, his willingness to follow the teachers' lead, and his engagement with the material. When he was young, I expected learning to be fun, but now he has matured into a kid who can do the job, fun or not. (as long as it's a little bit fun! Which it is!)
Plus he learned how to run a couple of miles for fun and and fitness, and he discovered that he enjoys casual basketball games. He's looking forward to trying out for the basketball team next year, and one the teachers is supporting him to start a 'Settler's of Catan' playing club, since it was quite popular this year after DS introduced it. His best friend at school wrote in his yearbook that DS was the person who taught him the most this year. Aww.
And the school facilitated his participation in service programs. They sponsor a Special Olympics, and set him and his best friend up to do weekly play-vists with a local 4 year old with special needs.
I'm bragging about my son, my son's school, my DH for following my lead, and ME - for finding the school and being willing to send DS there - SuperBrag!
Grinity
I'm so glad to hear that his year went so well. I am so proud of you for being relentless in the pursuit of your son's success! Kudos!
Congrats Grinity and family! What a scarey and unselfish thing to send your DS away to school. Clearly it was the right decision. You guys must be so very proud!
I haven't ever posted in this thread...but I am super proud of dd14 for designing a mural and painting at her school this past semester. She also led the team who painted it, which at times was only two people.
My daughter is a musician as well as an artist, thus the music theme. The idea came from a sketch she did for another assignment in art. Her art teacher liked it and told her to expand upon it.
Hope it's okay to link to a picture file here. music mural
I haven't ever posted in this thread...but I am super proud of dd14 for designing a mural and painting at her school this past semester. She also led the team who painted it, which at times was only two people.
My daughter is a musician as well as an artist, thus the music theme. The idea came from a sketch she did for another assignment in art. Her art teacher liked it and told her to expand upon it.
Hope it's okay to link to a picture file here. music mural
I'm happy to give you a "bump"! As an artist, I know how huge it is to direct. Kudos to your daughter.
Ginger - your daughter's mural is AMAZING! That girl has Talent!It feels very whimsical and fun and makes me wish I could play an instrument! Love the signature Eeoyre.
Thanks everyone for props--they all go to dd, the art students who helped out & her teacher! I can take credit for passing along some musical talent, but not artistic talent. That come from her dad's side of the family.
You should see they rest of the murals: art, reading, science, math, home economics...the art teacher has them do 2-3 each year. They are really amazing! (And every one has an Eeyore!)
We just found out ds10 is invited to the professional ballet program at the academy he attends (not sure he'll go for it, but to get the recognition is really great). Also, he is picked for a great couple of roles in the Nutcracker this year, so he is REALLY excited!!
Dd5 just finished up K and literally lead her class in singing a bunch of great songs, and had a couple of lines to say at the end. I wasn't sure if anyone else noticed her belting out the songs with greater surety that the other kids, figured it was just my own bias, but then the teacher pulled me aside to tell me how great dd's memory for the songs has been, and how during practice she was practically the only one singing most of the time...LOl, so now she sees dd a bit more clearly.
DS10 is very excited this week. He goes to a gifted public school, everyone works one year ahead. He just finished 4th grade but had an acceleration for math, so went to a 5th grade class to do 6th grade math.
Out of over 200 5th grade students 60 were selected to test for a double-acceleration math course for next year. Out of the 60 tested 24 are accepted. Just found out DS will be in that class. He was tested as a 4th grader so for him it will be a triple-acceleration. He really wanted this and we are super proud of him
Thanks so much for the compliments! I feel like I know you guys. Ansypants & chris - you've BTDT, great with practical advise, La Texican has a wickedly good sense of humor, Madoosa LOVES HER BOYS.
It's seems like we have to be really careful who we share with IRL so it was fun to post pics here. My kids have always been almost freakishly kinetic/sensory - early motor skills, good balance, etc.
DS10 moved up to a tougher ski racing league this year, from local to regional and his best finish was 11th. He is so into it - studies weather patterns to know what type of wax to apply to the skis in the morning, talks about the different sounds the skis make in the snow depending on how icy the course is and how much carve he is getting out of the ski depending on the beveling of the edge. (I didn't start skiing till I was 35 and I'm pitiful!) Sensory-wise, he does things like touching and smelling new clothes before he will try them on. He often does the same with food. And the other day I bought memory foam bath mats for him (I knew he'd like the softness) to use in front of his bathroom sink and shower. When I went in for goodnight hugs, I saw that he put one on his desk under his computer so his hands would rest on it and the other over his pillowcase...kinda quirky.
DD is mello and messy, loves her gymnastics (she is fearless on the beam and has 5 NV State gym titles) and learns best by hands-on. She loves science and her favorite part of 4th grade was dissecting a squid. She loves to read Lemony Snickets and thinks she's bad at math but scored at 96% on MAPS.
This fall will be the first time they will not be in the same class. DS was accepted into the SWAS (School Within a School) for 5th grade. They will both take the EXPLORE in October and we'll go from there.
Love this forum and find it a little addictive - have to check in at least once a day to see how everyone's doing
your son sounds like he has found his thing - and that is so cool!
I have to agree - I check in here at least daily as well, I think the big thing is knowing that somewhere, someone else is experiencing what I am, trying to figure out stuff the same as me etc. and that you guys will understand. That above all means so much!
Mr W (3y5m) had an earache. We went to the Pediatrician. His normal Ped was out, so another Doc filled in.
When the Doc came in, he said, "So I hear we are not feeling good."
"Daddy is ok. I am the one sick." said Mr W.
Doc looks over at Mr W.
"My right ear hurts, again. Its probably an ear infection. I think I need amoxycillin. My mommy is taking it now."
Doc looks starts looking at his charts. "How old is he?"
LOL
---
Mr W (3y5m) got a new baby sitter.
He let her get the tour before starting the interrogation. After the third question, she sitter just stared at him with her mouth open.
"How did you find out about this job?" "How old are you?" "Do you have a boyfriend?" "Do you like to watch the movie cars?" "What kind of car do you have?" etc etc
What a wonderful forum...you do start hiding what your kids do for fear others will make a comment about you bragging. We are all just proud mama's so it's nice to hear things other gifted kids do!
A few stories of my own:
Very proud of DS11 this year. He was asked-by a very picky piano teacher-to play in an adult performance festival. Not only did he memorize his entire piece-the only one to do that-he and another older adult pianist chose the same piece. DS performed unfortunately after him, and played it better, receiving a standing ovation. I had tears in my eyes...
DS10 just took state assessments 2 years ahead of his class-just because-and received the only perfect score by anyone in the school. He also told a substitute teacher when she was making small talk that he was feeling "melancholy" because a friend was "distraught about the loss of a beloved pet".
Just this last month our son is finally consistently dry at night. (4.4 years) One of his pet-peeves is pulling up his underwear after using the toilet. Yesterday morning he told DH that "in the future there will be electric underwear that pull themselves up." Then he went on to say he's an inventor and will invent them.
I thought he did a good job seeing a "need" and figuring out a way to meet it.
Today DS10 was in a mini Spelling Bee they had at camp for fun today. (It's Summer Institute for the Gifted) Anyway, he told me the words were too easy. He said they gave him some easy word so he told them to give him a harder one. I think it was pedestrian, which he spelled correctly. He said, "they should have given me words like sternocleidomastoid or gastrocnemius" Both of which he defined and spelled correctly which I had to confirm by googling lol
DS 2yr 9mo had his follow-up speech assessment today. He was a late-talker and we went through a program this past spring to encourage language development. It really was a bunch of hooey, in my opinion, but it coincided with his language explosion so they are taking the credit, LOL. Anyway... he totally kicked butt! I was so proud of how well he paid attention and interacted. The SLP just kept going and going and at the end was flipping through the assessment a few pages at a time until she gave up somewhere around 4 yrs of age for comprehension. His language was pretty close behind. He will still need to be followed for a few phonetical sounds, but otherwise he has made great progress.
At the end, I could see him hitting the wall. Finally he looked at her and said in his lispy little voice "Litbit" (her name was Elizabeth) "I all done. I need apple juice and a bear paw now." I told him that he did a great job and he smiled and said, "Yes, now I done like dinner." I could just squeeze the stuffing out of him sometimes.
In a lot of ways he is starting to show increasing speed, to the extent that he often thinks his way to a problem solution faster than me. It can be a little daunting, although I usually feel better when I remind myself that I can easily beat him at arm-wrestling. A small example: tonight he just did this problem in about a minute, less time than it took me to read and understand it enough to start on the solution (after a long day and sundry other rationalizations, lol):
"Who is lying and who is telling the truth?
There are exactly three truth tellers among five people. Person A says that Person C is telling the truth. Person B says that Person A is lying. Person C says that Person B is lying. Person D says Person B is telling the truth. Person E says Person D is telling the truth."
We have been having a terrible time with DD3 lately (horrible tantrums, fighting, outright defiance etc.), so this is huge in our house right now.
Starting Sat. afternoon, the girls found DH's old matchbox cars and some track. They made more ramps and raced cars around the house all afternoon, all day Sunday AND all morning today! Not once was there a fight, squabble, or even a raised voice -other than in excitement. They added all sorts of other stuff to their ramps and made jumps and bumps and silly tunnels for the cars to go through. They started asking if they could get more track so they could make bigger and better stuff. DH was ready to say no when I came up with the idea that if they did a bunch of chores this week maybe they would be able to earn enough money to buy some. So far we have had them helping make lunch, setting the table, cleaning off the back porch, cleaning up their rooms (including throwing away junk and donating books)! They have both done all that has been asked without moaning or groaning and have asked for more to do!
On the way home from Violin class two weeks ago, Aiden (4.5 yrs) asks me what's 1 million plus 1 million. I say "2 million". after a short silence he says "so you add the numbers up and then put the word on the end - hundred, thousand, million" I was quite impressed that he made that association. Then he asked me to give him an example to work out. So i say "what is 2 plus 2" he answers 4. I say "what is 200 plus 200?".
He says um... and before he can answer - in that breath of a second it took to get his answer out, Nathan (2.5) says from behind his dummy (pacifier) "400". poor aiden was unimpressed that his brother stole his moment.
I was just giggling and trying to hide my obvious delight and amusement.
DD3 has learned to steer and peddle her tricycle as well as swim without floaties! She can now swim with her head in the water in the cutest version of the crawl I've ever seen!
DD8 has learned the ride her bike without training wheels, how to use her pogo stick without the large starter base on it and has just about mastered her multiplication tables (they have been too boring to bother to learn up until the bribe of being able to decide where we go out to eat for supper and dessert on the night she knows them all.)! She also made it to the 50% mark for her summer reading goal at the library program (her goal: 4500 minutes of reading )
My kids have been challenging each other with their math skills. DD7 (going into 2nd grade with math acceleration to 3rd) and ds5 (starting kinder math acceleration to 1st). She has been giving him adding with carrying and subtraction with borrowing (no clue when or where he learned this) and multiplication. He has been giving her 2 and 3 digit multiplication and asks "is this hard enough).
My kids have been challenging each other with their math skills. DD7 (going into 2nd grade with math acceleration to 3rd) and ds5 (starting kinder math acceleration to 1st). She has been giving him adding with carrying and subtraction with borrowing (no clue when or where he learned this) and multiplication. He has been giving her 2 and 3 digit multiplication and asks "is this hard enough).
I think its too cute
I love when they "play/learn" together. It's awesome to watch
DD7 struggles with worry and anxiety and we struggle to understand why. Last night she refused to tell me what she feared in the dark because it was a secret. Today I gave her the book, "What to Do When You Worry", and she read it tonight and told me it made her feel nice. On one page, where it instructs you to write the names of people you know who worry, she filled the entire space with "me, me, ME, ME!"
Just before bed, she handed me a little piece of paper. It was from Puppy, the two-inch stuffed dog she takes everywhere, who "wrote" on it the following haiku:
[snip - sorry I wanted to submit this for publication and they require it not be published online; I will add it back if the magazine rejects. I'm sure you parents understand. ] It took all my strength to hold back the tears. It was so beautiful in itself, but even more so in its context. She is finally starting to come to the surface.
We went camping this weekend with some friends. One of the adults pointed to a star and proclaimed it the North star. My DS6 told him he was wrong, that the North star is always in line with the Big Dipper. To which my 5 yo added "it's not bright cuz it's summer". The look on the guys face was priceless!
Apparently these two have been paying attention when they're 8yo brother is giving them Astronomy lessons.
DD15 was on a walk yesterday when she saw a dog near a creek that seemed extremely hot, wet, and dirty. She looked around, but couldn't locate the owner of the dog. She couldn't get the dog to follow her home, so she sprinted back home to get her cell phone (she had forgotten it) to try to call the phone numbers on the collar. When she arrived back, she whistled for the dog and it looked like it had left. After several minutes of looking around, she saw it all the way on the other side of the creek. She ran all the way around and was able to get a hold of the dog and call the number of the owner but he didn't answer. In addition to the owner's cell phone number, the dog had a tag and phone number for a microchip company, so she called that number and gave the dog's ID # (which was also on the tag), and the company was able to get her through to the owner somehow, who was frantic and said the the dog was actually deaf and only had half vision, and lived on the other side of an extremely busy street from where DD found her, which he is amazed she was able to cross, with her limited senses. The man drove up, retrieved the poor dog who had, apparently in a break-in attempt at the man's house (while he was at work), escaped, possibly many hours before, in the 102 degree heat. The man gave her *100 dollars* for the ordeal. (which she refused at first, but he explained that the dog was all he had, and that she probably wouldn't have survived much longer with her health problems, and practically forced it on DD) She went into it just wanting to help the dog and reunite it with the owner, and ended up walking away with a good little cash reward. I know anyone could have done something like that, and it was mostly just luck that it happened, but I still couldn't be prouder of her actions and her perseverance with the whole ordeal.
Total brag here - DS 4 competed in a couple of poetry speaking classes in our local speech and drama competitions. The youngest class is under 8s so most of the other kids were 7. He got second in both of his classes and picked up the 'Most Entertaining Performance' award for the whole festival too. So proud of my boy!
laura0896 - That is really interesting, I wonder what it feels like? Bassetlover, what a compassionate thing to do!
I just listened to DS1 reading some of The Folk of Faraway Tree (I think he was avoiding getting ready for bed ) and I am just so happy for him. Its not so much the reading, its that he has been reading for a while but was too worried/perfectionistic/embarrassed to read anything but those pathetic readers we borrowed from the library. I am so pleased for him, that he wanted and ASKED to take a risk and read, aloud, from a more challenging book.
oh i just had a funny memory! DS10 was almost 3 and he had this foam shapes puzzle that he really loved and i brought it along when we had to go to the bank offices to close on our refinance. I was busy with DD8 who was almost 1 at the time so DS got to sit on his own chair and entertain himself with the foam shapes puzzle while we did grown-up business.
After we were done the attorney/bank manager/smarty pants older gentleman (i don't recall what he did lol) started to interact with DS. He started to ask him the names of the shapes. When he didn't stump DS with the easy ones he moved to Octagon, Pentagon & trapezoid (that was his fave which he pronounced twapeeyoid, so cute!) so, finally he pointed to a starburst shape and gave him a "well, little mr smarty pants, what's THIS one called?" and DS thought for a second and said "It's a polygon" Mr Grown-Up pretty much said "Ha! You're Wrong!" lol I wasn't going to get into with him but we giggled on the way home :P
After we were done the attorney/bank manager/smarty pants older gentleman (i don't recall what he did lol) started to interact with DS. He started to ask him the names of the shapes. When he didn't stump DS with the easy ones he moved to Octagon, Pentagon & trapezoid (that was his fave which he pronounced twapeeyoid, so cute!) so, finally he pointed to a starburst shape and gave him a "well, little mr smarty pants, what's THIS one called?" and DS thought for a second and said "It's a polygon" Mr Grown-Up pretty much said "Ha! You're Wrong!" lol I wasn't going to get into with him but we giggled on the way home :P
This is a great story!
Your DS reminds me a lot of Mr W. Whenever an adult starts up a discussion with Mr W assuming he is a toddler, I want to reach for the popcorn.
Wow! That took me a couple of minutes and I used the binomial theorem... Can I ask, in what sense did your DS do it, and do you know how? There are three different things that come to mind, with different contexts for the question to occur:
- if he had started with the answer, cubed it, and then commented that [answer] is cube root of 12167, then this demonstrates formidable multiplication skills and a knowledge of what a cube root is;
- if you know the answer is a whole number, then you can work out which whole number it has to be using fairly basic techniques. (You can see what digit it has to end with, and then for the other digit you use Goldilocks.)
- if on the other hand you are answering "Is the answer a whole number, and if so, which?" then you have to be able to do both of the above things - or maybe you use some other method that isn't occurring to me!
I'd love to hear how he did it, or how he thinks he did it!
Wow! I read your post about the dog and burst into tears! What a great kid! She was running around in the 102 degree heat and doing such a good deed.
Same here, tears! Awesome story.
Love reading all these great stories!! Austin and Antsy, I feel the same way when dd5 gets into conversations with adults, they are not expecting her answers at all...even as she gets a bit bigger there are still some serious surprises.
We were at a kids' concert in the park yesterday; the singer started taking requests from children in the audience. Nearly all of the kids requested songs from his CDs, but one little girl asked for "a song about a butterfly." Stumped, he turned to the audience and asked if anybody knew a song about a butterfly. Chico (6) instantly burst into "Non pi� andrai, farfallone amoroso..." from Le nozze di Figaro. Frenchie and I hooted!
Hope everyone is having a great summer; it has been so cool here that my garden is sulking (and so am I).
NAthan (2 years 9 months) is reading the level 1 BOB books. He picked it up and read it. Just like that.
So excited for him - he has been desperately sitting and staring at words in books - trying to make sense of them so that he can read like his big brother.
And now he is so proud of himself - reading books and words and stuff. My big boy
My son attends classes at a local middle school which has a gifted magnet, though he is not part of it. He tried it briefly, and decided it was not a good use of his time, and has been taking online classes instead. Consequently there are some kids who are under the impression that he is "not gifted material". Recently he was bantering back and forth about band instruments with a few of the program kids. One, who is just kind of a snotty little thing in general, commented that his choice of instruments would not get him into college-- to which he said "Carnegie Mellon, Notre Dame, Simon Fraser, VMI..." "Oh, like you have a chance of getting into those!" <hairflip>
Funny thing is, he's far ahead of the magnet program in math, and does quadratic equations in his head (which I will assure you is not a trait inherited from me). He's ranked first in his class (including both the magnet and no). Perfect FCAT scores. But...y'know. He doesn't fit in the box our county deems "fits all gifted children", so he's clearly...not...in the eyes of some of his schoolmates. Fortunately, he's amused by it. We refer to it as "ninja gifted", because apparently no one can see him.
My 13-year-old twice-exceptional son finished his last performance as the prince in Once Upon a Mattress with his childrens' musical theater group. He did really well. The month long musical theater camp was five days a week with 7 hour days. It was difficult for him physically. Even though he had finished physical therapy it was difficult for him to do as much as the other kids when they practiced the dances and he had to sit and watch part of the time. Three days before the first performance he somehow hurt his knee and it hurt to even walk so he had to say his lines from a chair. He went back to physical therapy and his knee got better in time to do the show.
He was able to memorize his lines and do everything he needed to do to perform well even though he usually didn't get more than about six hours of sleep each night. Even with melatonin the brace that he has to wear for ten hours each night makes it very difficult for him to sleep. He usually had to use caffeine to wake up and Aleve for the almost daily pain, but he was able to do what he needed to do and he did it without any help from me. He only got about four hours of sleep the night before a local television performance, then he did the 7 hour rehearsal and an hour of physical therapy and still couldn't fall asleep until 3:00 a.m. the next morning. I don't know how he did it, but I am glad he did. The director told me several times that he was really pushing himself physically. He is learning to work through the pain to accomplish what he wants to do. I am very proud of him.
He also had to write a short play using the older kids in his group as the cast and then he had to act as the director and get them ready to perform for an audience. I think that was a really good experience for him.
Hi, Lori! I've been thinking of you lately, wondering how you were doing. Congratulations to your son! What a great accomplishment--I'm sure he's really proud of himself. Three cheers from everybody here!
Over the weekend, I had one of my son's car gauges (real) drop on my bare toes. It really hurt and he could see that. He burst out crying and said, "Not again!" (He had hurt himself earlier.)
I have to share this with people who may understand. No one in our real life gets why this is such a big deal to us.
Our almost 9yr old DD is halfway through a week long science camp. She is having the best time of her life. She is engaged, excited and raring to go each morning to get there as soon as possible. Our disengaged, underachieving, ADHD child who can't sit through one hour of school without wanting to pull her own eyelashes out is in a learning environment that excites her!!
Not a brag about anything particular that she has done, just that for once in her life she sees that learning can be fun. Oh, and she gets to a dissect fish tomorrow ... also fun!
Congrats LoriH, You have taught him to persevere and keep on going...hard lessons to learn under best of circumstances! Like hearing what you have accomplished gives me hope for my little one!
I asked DS (almost 2.5) "where, between the ground and the clouds, do you think the sky starts?" (I was having a painterly moment, 'k).
He paused, looked, squinted a little. "The sky has no beginning" he says.
Now if he'd only said "It doesn't start," that would have been cute enough, but no, he HAS to say it poetically. Little squirt!
Ok, because I can't resist, two somewhat less brag-worthy stories... I tried to delete them, but I CAN'T.
Then there was the joke he made about someone's shirt which is sufficiently too complex for me to actually explain here, but suffice it do say it depended upon the marital law section of a 1000 year old code of laws I happen to make random reference to here and there, the fact that that code is no longer in effect, and the gender of the kid in the shirt. Um. Yes, it was a dirty joke, now that you ask. And yes, all the adults around DID make me explain it. Whereupon it became clear he _knew_ I was going to have to explain it! Little Squirt!
Meanwhile, he has moved his number-stuckness to 7. For a long time he was making it clear enough he understood fairly big numbers, but couldn't say "three," which lead to some confusion when enumerating. Now, he just refuses to acknowledge that "seven" is a number name... and says "eleven" instead, but then if he's counting more than 11 things, he goes back to 8 after 11, and looks increasingly confused each time he loops. Predictably, people have been setting him up for this, which comes out being incredibly cute -- which has led, predictably, to him counting EVERYTHING IN SIGHT whenever he thinks he might be about to get in trouble. Lil Squirt!
-Mich (who might, maybe, just possibly, be a little bit taken by the kid)
Mr W really likes the Muppet movie trailer because of the song, "We built this city (on rock and roll.)"
He got DW to download the song and he listens to it in the car on the way to school
At the movies on Friday, right after the Muppets preview, he belted the chorus out perfectly. At first, I thought it would disturb everyone and almost stopped him.
I really want to post here. I only know this stuff is somewhat ahead (according to baby books.) I have had some other people remark that she seems very advanced. I don't really tell them this stuff, though. I want to tell someone besides DH!
DD will be 9 months in a week. I can come up with at least 25-30 words and commands that I know for certain she understands (commands - come here, put that there, wheres the noun?, find the, give that to me, throw the ball, go get the, turn the page, clap, etc.), but she still is only saying mama for me and "mabwa" for milk and for when she wants to drink my water out of my glass.
Oh, and she signed "milk" the other day (The same day she finally clapped and showed me she knows the word clap without me clapping) and has signed "potty" before when I was taking her to the potty for awhile.
She is almost walking completely alone and walks across the room occasionally. She understands how to put shapes in a shape sorter. She likes to take my glasses off my face and last night I said "Put them back on" and she attempted to put them back on my face! Of course, her fine motor skills make it difficult for her to gets the shapes in / put my glasses on, but she does try. When I ask her to put puzzle pieces back down, or show her how to stack a block, she tries to drop the block or piece down where it goes, but isn't capable yet of getting it where she wants it.
Last night, she dragged her shapes book off her toy shelf and made me read it to her 8 or 9 times in the row. I'd tell her the name of the shape, then she'd turn the page. She let me name all the shapes on the last page, then made me start over again.
The other day I lifted the tray off the high chair and she proceeded to turn around and back down the high chair like she backs off our bed. I taught her how to back off the bed. I never taught her how to back down a high chair (I did have to catch her, as she is too short to land safely lol.)
I feel like a switch just flipped right after she took her first steps at 8 months. I felt like she wasn't listening to me before, but now it is obvious she is listening to my words and understands and wants to learn more.
I have to share this with people who may understand. No one in our real life gets why this is such a big deal to us.
Our almost 9yr old DD is halfway through a week long science camp. She is having the best time of her life. She is engaged, excited and raring to go each morning to get there as soon as possible. Our disengaged, underachieving, ADHD child who can't sit through one hour of school without wanting to pull her own eyelashes out is in a learning environment that excites her!!
Not a brag about anything particular that she has done, just that for once in her life she sees that learning can be fun. Oh, and she gets to a dissect fish tomorrow ... also fun!
Mr W really likes the Muppet movie trailer because of the song, "We built this city (on rock and roll.)"
He got DW to download the song and he listens to it in the car on the way to school
At the movies on Friday, right after the Muppets preview, he belted the chorus out perfectly. At first, I thought it would disturb everyone and almost stopped him.
But everyone laughed and some people clapped.
I love this. Now to explain the artists' motivation behind that song? (It's not for a typical juvenile; that's for sure.)
DD, 7.5, is reading Little Women. She saw a play version this summer and has been asking to read it--I finally remembered that I do have a copy. I thought for sure that she would put it down right away, but no. She read some aloud to me today for school (she has to read aloud for homework) and I found that it is actually a lot more age-appropriate and engaging than I remembered, but still, it's quite the grown-up tome for a second-grader.
DS6 can correctly label the 50 states on a blank map. His primary interest has been the human body now for months. He is finally switching over to something else, chemistry. He said last night he wanted to memorize the Periodic table of Elements. He read a book on it last night, and by this morning was able to explain to me how the table is set up and what the numbers mean. I am curious to see if he stays interested in chemistry long enough to really get into it.
DS4 can now read the Magic School Bus books independently.
Her new reading matter also prompted this non sequitur comment to my husband, which bewildered him:
"Dada, I'm really glad you don't have to go fight in the Civil War."
Ha! Really, though, I'd forgotten what a "moral virtues" book Little Women is. There's a lot in it about pulling your weight, helping others, and exercising self-control. I'm actually pleased as punch to have that delivered to her in palatable fiction form. We aren't religious and sometimes I worry that we are not doing our job re "character education" and that kind of thing.
We just returned from a trip to Ireland so two of my kids (dd9 and ds13) could compete with their respective instruments in the All Ireland music competitions (kids from around the world and from all the counties in Ireland must qualify in their areas then get to compete at the All Ireland).
My dd9 has been the MidAtlantic under 12 fiddle champion every year since she was 6 years old so has gone to Ireland for this event 3 times. Her brother competed in America for the first time this year in accompaniment on his guitar and qualified by placing 2nd.
They did not place in Ireland but being one of the top 14 kids on your instrument in Irish music is, in itself, a huge accomplishment. My dd has been the youngest to compete in her age group at the All Ireland every year and the only child competing on a fractional size fiddle. She plays just as well or better than all those kids up to 3.5 years older than her. Many people felt she did not get a fair shake either due to size or political reasons but both kids are ready to go back and try again next year. I am very proud of their determination and hard work.
DD, 7.5, is reading Little Women. She saw a play version this summer and has been asking to read it--I finally remembered that I do have a copy. I thought for sure that she would put it down right away, but no. She read some aloud to me today for school (she has to read aloud for homework) and I found that it is actually a lot more age-appropriate and engaging than I remembered, but still, it's quite the grown-up tome for a second-grader.
DD9 read Little Women last year and loved it. She enjoys historical novels better than any others. What a great book, I remember reading it three or four times when I was younger!
I do not think this is necessarily a brag...but it made me laugh. DD2 yrs 10 months at the time had to accompany me to buy a swimsuit as we were traveling and mine spontaneously fell apart. Swimsuit shopping is the worse and I had my fair share in the changing room. She had one that she was trying to put on. She found the white large device that sounds an alarm as you walk out the door. She states, "Look mom its a white blood cell eating some bacteria" I decided not to buy that one!
ds5 read his first (short) chapter book last night/this morning. It is a series call Fly Guy. He loved the story and could't stop reading it!. Today we are at the library and picked out 5 more books from the series!
DS6 is reading Mary Pope Osborne's "Stories from the Odyssey." 5th grade-ish reading level, and really enjoying. Love Magic Tree House too, and still reading them, but really too easy for him now.
ds5 read his first (short) chapter book last night/this morning. It is a series call Fly Guy. He loved the story and could't stop reading it!. Today we are at the library and picked out 5 more books from the series!
DD, 7.5, is reading Little Women. She saw a play version this summer and has been asking to read it--I finally remembered that I do have a copy. I thought for sure that she would put it down right away, but no. She read some aloud to me today for school (she has to read aloud for homework) and I found that it is actually a lot more age-appropriate and engaging than I remembered, but still, it's quite the grown-up tome for a second-grader.
DD9 read Little Women last year and loved it. She enjoys historical novels better than any others. What a great book, I remember reading it three or four times when I was younger!
The Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are good. I loved mine so much, I've kept them and hope my son will enjoy reading them like I did. There's a lot of fascinating lessons to be learned from them.
I'm bragging on my son setting up addition problems for his dad this morning. On a napkin, he wrote out double digit problems and then solved them. For a "super challenge", he had dad write the number one billion out and wanted to learn to add it to one thousand. (He's still not understanding that big numbers don't always mean difficult to add numbers!)
I wanted to keep that napkin, but it got smeared up with maple syrup. *sigh*
Thank you for mentioning the Fly Guy Series. I had not heard of these before. DS4 read book 1 today We are off to the library in the morning to pick up a few more.
Not a brag but I couldn't resist sharing this chuckle. DD8 was getting dressed this morning and asked out of the blue, "What would happen if you got your ears bitten off by a giraffe?"
Ametrine, This is what the magic of digital cameras was made for! You can "save" all of that stuff that you can't actually keep, and it will all fit on a flashdrive.
I have a funny "brag" story about both of our DDs. DD14 is a freshman at Interlochen in voice. Wants to perform at the Met in New York City someday. And she's academically gifted, too. So, DD14 is marveling over and over about how she gets to go perform in New York over spring vacation. DD8, also gifted, sick of the boasting, looks up and vehemently says, "Yeah, well, I'm probably going to (old home town) over my spring break where I have real friends. All you have in New York is a dream!" Once we picked up our jaws off the floor, we all burst out laughing, both DDs included.
DS6 was coloring today. Instead of drawing spiderman or a cow or something, he drew a color coded picture of neurons and synapses, and correctly labled the parts. The sad part is, I don't know all the details about neurons, so I genuinely had to ask him how one works, and he had to explain it to me. Yet another humbling moment.
DD11 has been going to the same library for 11 years. He would never go to check out or ask for anything. Yesterday, he went up and asked for his computer print out. PROGRESS
DS, 3.5, is reading. Very early reading, but it's definitely reading--he'll go through the BOB books sounding out, get a bit distracted and start reciting from memory, and then stop, correct himself, and start actually reading again. In any case, I tested him with random easy phonetic words on the whiteboard and he got them all right.
It's all sounded out--no sight words except for "the" and "and," which he picked up because he had to to read those books. So that's interesting. I'm not sure if this is still a party trick or if he'll really learn this way or what.
To be perfectly honest I think this clicked because I've been letting him watch streaming episodes of Word World on my weekly drop-dead work deadline day. (Where's the embarrassed smiley?) We really don't do TV as a general rule.
DD9 is the ultimate end-of-the-driveway salesperson. Each weekend, she and her friends set up a different stand: lemonade, orange juice, car washes, etc. The sign and stand go up first, and then they come running in the house in a panic looking for supplies when the customers start. (Organization is a work in progress around here). The item of today was ice cream sundaes (we, of course, have no ice cream in our house... a minor detail). They came in with their sign of menu toppings, looking for tape. I glanced at it and nearly aspirated my coffee. God love her, really, I know she struggles with writing and we are in the process of investigating for stealth dyslexia, but there was no way I could let her put up a sign offering chocolate sperm sundaes!!! (I think she meant supreme?)
To be perfectly honest I think this clicked because I've been letting him watch streaming episodes of Word World on my weekly drop-dead work deadline day. (Where's the embarrassed smiley?) We really don't do TV as a general rule.
I've learned TV is a cold media for learning but when used with good progamming I think it's great. My kids learned alot about Science and Nature from TV and Videos.
DD13 refused to take the US History course she was first enrolled in due to the biased approach of the teacher. She said that the teacher would only allow positive perspectives of the United States. She advocated herself out of the class into a painting class.
Also she passed the writing test and will be taking her first university level English class.
SOOO funny about sperm sundaes! DD6 came home from school on the seceond day of first grade with a book she stapled together..She wanted to make a signature book for her friends to sign...it says on the cover...."Sin Book." I had to have her explain that one!
This weekend he trapped me on the couch with his notebook and pen and wanted me to write out some "Really big words" so he could practice writing them.
We started with "House" and "Football" and ended up somewhere near "Grilled Cheese Sandwich" and "Automatically" all of which he faithfully wrote down.
Spelling is a big deal with him. He wants to learn to spell the word before he "reads" it.
"Spelling is a critical skill for success, Daddy, and I must master it."
LOL
He is also into writing out "words" and asking me what they mean. Sometimes they are nonsense, but other times they are real words.
Ds is in kinder. His assignment was to draw a picure and write a story about a pumpkin, a bat and the moon (picture not included). Here is his story (hope this works)
DD8.5 has been going to high school ceramics after school club/open studio at the school I teach at this year. Her progress has been amazing, and just this week the teacher told her that she would like her to be part of a 2 person art show after Christmas! (The other person in the show is a grandmother of a student who has fallen in love with art since her granddaughter started bringing home art homework.) The teacher has been great about nurturing DD's artistic talents and honestly thinks her talents are amazing. DD is so excited she can hardly contain herself. She will have to write an artist's statement for the show and a little piece about each selection in the show. (If I knew how to, I would post some of her work here, but I don't know how to do that yet. When I do, I will share.)
DD6 is in first grade, and the library books are color-coded for reading levels. A few weeks ago she shared her frustrations with me that she couldn't get blue books. I suggested she advocate for herself and speak to her G/T teacher about the issue, but apparently there was some miscommunication, so after that I got involved, and her G/T teacher kicked off whatever processes the school needs to verify her reading level and get her access to harder books.
So yesterday was her library day, and the librarian told DD she could get any books she wants, but if she wants to get gray or (some other, non-blue color) books, she'd have to read a page to the librarian before she could check it out. DD was very happy about this development, and her explanation for WHY she was so happy was:
"Because my favorite thing is learning, and my second favorite thing is reading."
DS7's 1st grade class read a story called "an egg is an egg." They then had to come up with an example of something that changes (caterpillar into butterfly, seed into plant, etc)
DS came up with: "a star goes supernova and becomes a white dwarf."
The teacher, to my disgust, asked DS to come up with something a little more "earthly." DS rolled his eyes, and said, "a lake can freeze."
That woman is going to completely break his spirit.
DS7's 1st grade class read a story called "an egg is an egg." They then had to come up with an example of something that changes (caterpillar into butterfly, seed into plant, etc)
DS came up with: "a star goes supernova and becomes a white dwarf."
The teacher, to my disgust, asked DS to come up with something a little more "earthly." DS rolled his eyes, and said, "a lake can freeze."
That woman is going to completely break his spirit.
after many rounds of "just do what the teacher tells you to do" (which I am really beginning to hate saying, but that is another story ;)), DD8 went along easily with yesterday's writing assignment...I'm sure it helped that it was about dogs and they could go right to the computer, instead of writing a rorugh draft... Mrs W provided an outline with some questions to help them get started and they were allowed to "Geronimo Stilton", play with fonts, etc...so apparently, DD writes EXACTLY the minimum 5 sentances required to qualify this as a paragraph! Another parent, Mrs G, was there, assisting and she is telling me this and comments that she was sure DD would have lots more than 5 sentances. Mrs W is pleased, but I'm sure, since she sees DD interested this time, she will encourage her to do more, which is great...so she suggests 5 adjectives be added. Mrs G asks DD some questions to help her along..."Why don't you describe the snow?" and DD looks at her and says "everyone KNOWS snow is cold and white". We are both totally laughing and honestly, I am just happy the child did as asked this time!
Espers turned a year old last month. I mentioned a few months ago that she said very clearly, "get out of here" when her brother was trying to interrupt her nursing. �I had said the same thing when he did that every day for a week. �So, she wasn't talking. �That was echolalia. �She just used it in the right context. � Now she uses some words and names, this, yeah, up, eye-it, and many wrong words, like "hot" asking for food. �But she does not talk beyond those few single words, and sometimes she'll answer you. She studies. �She watches her brothers phonics lessons. �There was a game on the video that goes like "ugly umbrellas open under something." She answered "uh". �That was cool because me and Wyatt had been playing the game, we had been answering the sounds. �So she just played along and got one right. � Well, that one I can tell everyone. �But since she doesn't really talk yet, she squeaks for please and squeals for no, I'll save this other story for here. �She did another echolalia in the correct context. �I was reading a teaching spelling website on my phone. �Wyatt asked what I was reading. � I read outloud the list with the same ending sounds. �Espy said clearly, "they rhyme." � I don't want anyone to think I think she knows what it meant, she just remembered for a second that's what I say when I say rhyming words and it came out of her mouth. I think she'll be good with languages because Wyatt's first echolalia was "goodnight" and Espy's was a four word sentence.
I met with DD9's teacher for parent-teacher interviews today. She had a lot of positive things to say, which was a nice way to start the conversation :-) She related that she was impressed with DD's memory. She was asked to write an autobiography as a writing assignment in class. It took her a really long time... she asked to spend recess indoors to work on it. After it was three weeks overdue (she gets extra time as an accomodation) her teacher asked if she was almost done and she replied, "Well, I just finished grade 1 so I only have two more years to go." She ended up writing a three page, typed, single-spaced, incredibly detailed autobiography... from her premature birth to the death of her dogs when she was two to her very detailed difficulties in grade primary. She only got a B on the assignment because, honestly, it was poorly written in a literal sense. I, on the other hand, wanted to do cartwheels because my dyslexic, ADHD daughter who HATES to write worked hard on something and went above and beyond to do her best.
When I told her how proud I was she said, "Mom, a B in writing is like an A to me!"
Now I feel silly about all the hedging I did on my last post. Espers used a sentence "I want it" with her hand out at the dinner table to get something from her dad. I've heard a couple of times that I thought she was making a sentence. But I know babies sound like they're talking before they actually do. And I know that babies talk before people realize they're really talking. This probably isn't even the right thread to put this in. (^.^') -(embarrassed emoticon)
My ds9 and I were talking to my dd7 about testing for the GT program( she tests at the end of this school year) and he said I think the pictures clinched it for me. I asked what he meant and he said- they showed me pictures and asked what it looked like. He answered that it looked like a scythe. The teacher did not know what it was, had to write it down and look it up. LOL! I guess it did help get it Brandy
Now I feel silly about all the hedging I did on my last post. Espers used a sentence "I want it" with her hand out at the dinner table to get something from her dad. I've heard a couple of times that I thought she was making a sentence. But I know babies sound like they're talking before they actually do. And I know that babies talk before people realize they're really talking. This probably isn't even the right thread to put this in. (^.^') -(embarrassed emoticon)
I had to go back and read about the echolalia to see what you were talking about. Butter was absolutely communicating with us well before her 1st bday. We taught her some simple signs like more, milk, sleep, etc so she used those, but, beyond that...for many months, probably as young as 8-10 months, she would push away food, books, whatever, and say what sounded like "monkey shoes". We didn't know what she was saying, but the meaning was clear. At that point, would you call that talking? I didn't, but she was communicating and we could tell it meant "no more" or I'm done...this child was never very chatty though...fast foward to about 20 months, when her physicality caught up to her intellect and suddenly we realized she had been saying "No thank you" all that time! Maybe the phrasing was echolalia, but when the context is correct after a few times, it becomes apparent that it's not a fluke, the child IS talking!
Maybe the phrasing was echolalia, but when the context is correct after a few times, it becomes apparent that it's not a fluke, the child IS talking!
It's always a little shocking when a little baby actually TALKS to you! My DD6 who hasn't really shown any signs of giftedness was a super early talker. Around 7 months she started saying 'I want a snack." Of course, it sounded like "I-na-sna" but it was consistent, and when we acted like we had no idea, she would crawl to the pantry and beat on the door! (She still loves snacks, lol.)
Maybe the phrasing was echolalia, but when the context is correct after a few times, it becomes apparent that it's not a fluke, the child IS talking!
It's always a little shocking when a little baby actually TALKS to you! My DD6 who hasn't really shown any signs of giftedness was a super early talker. Around 7 months she started saying 'I want a snack." Of course, it sounded like "I-na-sna" but it was consistent, and when we acted like we had no idea, she would crawl to the pantry and beat on the door! (She still loves snacks, lol.)
I just assume they can all completely understand what I'm saying and speak to them like I would any other person. We have a few "cute" words, mostly caused by the mouth that can't quite do what the brain wants (fagric for fabric, hangaburger and mazagine), but I never baby talk. My MIL joked she was surprised our children didn't come from the womb speaking
Also, when you have no frame of reference, like a large family or the kids in daycare or social groups from a young age, it's hard to know what is "normal". I didn't know it wasn't "normal" for a 2yo to use a complete sentance or for a 4yo to read...
I just assume they can all completely understand what I'm saying and speak to them like I would any other person. We have a few "cute" words, mostly caused by the mouth that can't quite do what the brain wants (fagric for fabric, hangaburger and mazagine), but I never baby talk.
My step-mother (the English teacher) is a HUGE fan of this and drilled it into my head when I was pregnant. We never baby talked to our kids. I always spoke in complete sentences and would correct mis-pronounced words.
Also, it's not normal for 2yr olds to use complete sentences? LoL
My two year old great niece talks a lot, just like my son did at her age, and has been using complete sentences for a while now. At a recent family gathering my niece told me that her daughter's pediatrician said her verbal ability was advanced and she had also noticed a difference between her daughter's verbal ability and that of the other kids her age in the daycare. My cousin's wife, who overheard this, said "oh that's just normal" but I don't remember her kids talking like that at two although they are bright and very athletic. My niece will have to learn to make sure nobody else is listening to her talk about her daughter's abilities. The only ability that is socially acceptable to talk about here is sports ability.
We found a *little* baby talk to be VERY helpful early on.
We carried on normal, adult conversations with DD as a baby all the time, and we found that within the first 4-6 months, she started picking up her own words... and they were typically baby versions of the words we were using, because she was struggling with the linguistics, as early speakers do. When she was thirsty, she would ask for "juice," so that was easy, but most of her other words were of the "ma-ma," "da-da," "nite-nite," "tub-tub" variety. We gave her "nite-nite," but we always rephrased ourselves in both baby and grown-up terms: "Awww, are you tired? Ready to go to sleep? To go nite-nite?" "Tub-tub" was something she came up with independently, derived from a silly song I made up for bath time.
As I've mentioned before elsewhere, by the time she was six months old, she had a word for everything she needed, and if there was a word she lacked for something she wanted, she'd just point and say, "That!" and if we still couldn't figure it out, we'd say, "Show me," and she'd get as close to it as she could, still pointing, and we'd pick her up and move her closer to it if necessary (because "that" might be cookies in a high cupboard, or a toy in her bedroom upstairs), until we finally understood what she was pointing at.
The one exception was she still didn't have a word that said, "I'm hungry." When she was 8 or 9 months old this was resolved, when my mom started babysitting on a regular basis, and she'd sit there baby-talking all the way through a feeding, saying, "Mmmm... num-num!" over and over again.
All these baby words made things SOOOOO much more peaceful in our home. And if DD said, "Mama, num-num," and DW responded, "You're hungry?", she was learning proper speech while still being able to communicate her needs. So it doesn't really have to be an all-or-nothing approach.
oh, well we had some of that too Dude, when you put it that way. We used "num-nums" for all food, bottle, breast and foods when they started, snacks, etc...but also, like you are saying, you're using "regular words" then the cute "baby" word. A few of the mispronunciations we let slide too because they were just cute, especially when jumbled up in a more advanced sentance. It also sounds like you were very tuned in to what she needed and was trying to communicate to you. That's special Not all parents are "listening", kwim?
oh, well we had some of that too Dude, when you put it that way. We used "num-nums" for all food, bottle, breast and foods when they started, snacks, etc...but also, like you are saying, you're using "regular words" then the cute "baby" word. A few of the mispronunciations we let slide too because they were just cute, especially when jumbled up in a more advanced sentance. It also sounds like you were very tuned in to what she needed and was trying to communicate to you. That's special Not all parents are "listening", kwim?
DW and I were just discussing yesterday how special her early malapropisms are to us, and we try to keep them alive. They became a part of our own lexicon.
The weirdest one was this sound she made in the back of her throat VERY early (like 2 months or so), something like, "gnnn-gnnn." We assumed this was her way of saying she was tired, because anytime she made this noise, we'd hand her her blankie, she'd seize it and curl up, and if we were home, we'd put her to bed, with no fuss. Fast forward a year and a half, and she stunned me with this phrase, "Dada! Where gnnn-gnnn go?" It turned out that "gnnn-gnnn" was the blankie all along. Looking back, I'd have to say that makes it her first "word," beating "Dood-le-bop!" by approximately a month and a half.
She still has one of her two original gnnn-gnnns, which she keeps in her bed amid that mass of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals she sleeps among. We told her about the story, she laughed, and began referring to that particular blanket as her gnnn-gnnn. And so it lives on.
Meanwhile, we're in a house where the adults announce the need to "peepee potty!" and prepare "monkey and cheese."
I'm sorry La Texican. I am a bit confused. I thought you were just being a bit sarcastic about echolalia because someone had made a snide comment about her. It's obvious that the kids understand conversations at that age it's great that she can tell you what's on her mind.
Anyway congratulations on Espers first sentences.
DS7 first said Mommy and Daddy at 7 months. We tried to teach him signs, but he never picked up more than 3 or 4 because at 10 months most anyone could understand him.
I am warped...What would be a "complete sentence"? DS 23 months said a couple of weeks age "No shoes in granny's house". Would this be a complete sentence? I am thinking full on conversation is not normal, but that a simple sentence like that IS. He is almost 2...DS4 would say 5-6 word sentences when turning 2 as well. I thought that would be pretty average or just slightly above....?
I think that would more than qualify as a complete sentence. Typically they start with 3-4 word sentences like "I want milk." or "That's my ball." Very simple, but more than just yelling 'want milk' or 'my ball'.
I no longer trust that I have any idea what's 'normal.' hah! I thought my son's early development was normal until recently.
Quick speech screener item from the 24-month handout: Does your child say two or three words that represent different ideas together, such as "See dog," "Mommy come home," or "Kitty gone"? (Don't count word combinations that express one idea, such as "Bye-bye," "All gone," "All right," and "What's that?")
My DD was not a talker, and did poorly enough on the 18 month questionnaire (didn't have 5 words in regular use) and the 24 month questionnaire (didn't repeat 2-word sentences, didn't use pronouns, didn't really use two-word sentences) that she was referred to a full screening with a speech pathologist. Which showed her to be meeting the 33-month milestones. The SLP said that it was clear she had absolutely no trouble communicating, which is really what they were checking for.
For a kid who didn't really talk, the stuff she did say at that age was weird. "Wind blow. Tree. Noise. Sound. Outdoors." At each full stop, she waited for us to repeat the word back to her, so she could be sure both that we were listening and that we understood what she said.
sooooo Butter(8) takes Multimedia at her new school. They use garage band, Imovies, etc. Today was only the 2nd time she went and last week she was the youngest kid and only girl, but it obviously lit a FIRE under her because she has been talkingabout it all week!
Anyway, today I go to pick her up and the other kids have left and she is standing by the computer while the teacher is jamming away on his electric guitar...turns out, Butter "composed" some music during class time and the teacher (who also teaches guitar) liked it so much, he felt compelled to get out his guitar! We were discussing it briefly and he asked if myself or my husband were musicians...because apparently he thinks she has some "gift" (HIS WORDS!) in the music dept! I was so excited and happy for her, to hear this! She hasn't really shown a huge interest or talent in music, playing instruments, etc (her sister sings nonstop) sothis is very new and exciting and something that has come totally from her.
I'm so happy for her and I'm hoping she will also ask if he will let her join the guitar class (it's supposed to be for 4th and up)
Just caught DS (3 1/2) doing DD's chess "homework" (a sheet of board set-ups where you need to put the king in checkmate in one move). He also starteled his grandfather by playing a pretty darn serviceable game last week (granddaddy is a darn good player).
This kid is going to be a serious chess contender by the time he's in K at this rate. The problem is that I HATE playing chess...
The lighting's bad. �We were sitting on the couch first thing in the morning before the baby woke up. �The boy was reading his book, I was reading mine. �I noticed he was reading it right and reading it well. �He has not memorized the book. �It's a library book. �He's reading it thanks to his reading eggs lessons. �He mis read a few words. �When I said, no, he would quickly look at the word and correct himself. �He had to ask me a few words from the book. This is the first book he's read by himself! �Woo-hoo! �It starts! �4yrs &1mo. �Not very brag-worthy as being a early reader, but very brag-worthy as a proud mamma- my boy's reading! �(fly guy series, about one paragraph per page.)
Over the holiday we were at relatives and Mr W read the backs of a couple of cereal boxes aloud. And we found him in a cousin's room reading the boxes of some toys while the rest of the kids were rough-housing around him - just this little boy crouching down to see what the boxes said.
DS8 had to make his presentation today for the Research Expo at his school. The research expo is the qualifying round to determine who gets to go to the district/regional Science Fair.
Last year as a 7yo in 7th grade, he crashed and burned. He choked and couldn't remember anything.
Fast forward, now 8 in 8th, he kicked butt! He stood tall, was articulate, fielded all of the questions with confidence. It was AMAZING!!! He will find out next week if he gets to advance, but I could care less. I am sooo proud of my little man!!
I just want to "brag" that my son is asking what is inside of practically everything now. He has so far been able to see what's inside of a VHS tape, a DVD/VCR player, a Honda car's dashboard, and a door knob. (The car dashboard is a piece my husband got at a junkyard for him. He's fascinated with MPH, RPM, etc.)
From what I've read, (Ruf) this isn't something children do until they are typically in second or third grade.
I just want to "brag" that my son is asking what is inside of practically everything now. He has so far been able to see what's inside of a VHS tape, a DVD/VCR player, a Honda car's dashboard, and a door knob. (The car dashboard is a piece my husband got at a junkyard for him. He's fascinated with MPH, RPM, etc.)
From what I've read, (Ruf) this isn't something children do until they are typically in second or third grade.
DD has been doing this since 3. Anytime I'm doing any kind of repair work, she HAS to know all about it.
Once is never enough, either. I can't count how many times I've been asked to lift the lid on the toilet tank and describe all the parts and functions.
This is not really a brag-- although I'm proud of DS6, who is, shall we say, highly focused on convincing others that he's right when he is. There's no "Great Big Commiseration Thread" or "Courage in the Face of Grim Adversity Thread", so here it is:
DS was given a math homework problem dealing with a child walking to the library, then the grocery store, then straight back home. The first part of the question asked how long the total distance would be, after giving the distance from the kid's home to the library, and from the library to the store.
DS came to me and said, "I don't get it. There's not enough information." He'd drawn a diagram with a circle around the library with a radius reprenting the distance to the store, and then drawn a bunch of lines from the house to the circle to show how the distance home would vary. I told him that his answer was right, and to write out that there wasn't enough info for a solution of that part.
I just found out from my wife that the homework sheet came home with the teacher's red mark and comments that it was indeed possible, adding the two numbers together for a "solution" based on the assumption that the house, library, and store were all in a straight line, as of course they always are in the real world, or at least in Lineland, and additionally assuming that the library was in the middle.
This teacher told us at the last TAT meeting that in her opinion, DS was having trouble with word problems, which shocked us. Now I know what she must have meant. She also mentioned that he's argued with her on many occasions about being right. I'm proud of him for being strong enough to stick up for himself, and proud/heartsick that he never mentioned this sort of thing to us. With his brand of perfectionism, every unjustified red mark must be like a slap in the face.
I just found out from my wife that the homework sheet came home with the teacher's red mark and comments that it was indeed possible, adding the two numbers together for a "solution" based on the assumption that the house, library, and store were all in a straight line, as of course they always are in the real world, or at least in Lineland, and additionally assuming that the library was in the middle.
Two vectors without direction.
Derive the magnitude of the third vector if the sum of the vectors is zero.
Even in a One-D world, there are two possibilities.
In a two-D world, the solution is an infinite set.
Quote
This teacher told us at the last TAT meeting that in her opinion, DS was having trouble with word problems, which shocked us. Now I know what she must have meant. She also mentioned that he's argued with her on many occasions about being right. I'm proud of him for being strong enough to stick up for himself, and proud/heartsick that he never mentioned this sort of thing to us. With his brand of perfectionism, every unjustified red mark must be like a slap in the face.
I'd fire the teacher for making assumptions and retain your son for asking questions. Good for him.
My DS has been writing and illustrating books with a couple of friends at school. I was thrilled with this already, but today he told me that after he and his friends started producing these books, the other kids in the class liked the idea and began to follow suit. Now the teacher has set up a little library in the classroom of all their books.
This made me happy for so many reasons. Despite the fact that he is a very outgoing and fun kid, I have worried about his friendship making because of his SPD (he tends to invade personal space, touch people too often and too hard) so to see him spontaneously working together with a group of friends on a project like this warms my heart. And to see him playing a leadership role in the class and inspiring other kids to be creative too, well that is just fantastic!
Oh for heaven's sakes, lucounu, that is just ridiculous! Sounds like the teacher is the one with the difficulty with word problems. I hope he recognizes that he is right and doesn't take her criticism to heart.
There's no "Great Big Commiseration Thread" or "Courage in the Face of Grim Adversity Thread"
Start it, and they will come! But yes, well done him, and I'm sorry he had to deal with the teacher not understanding. Did he put a copy of his diagram in his answer, or simply write that there wasn't enough information? If the latter, this is a teachable moment that when you want to convince someone of something they aren't likely to want to believe, you have to give more detailed arguments than when they will want what you say to be true! (This will stand him in good stead later :-)
Thanks, people. Yep, the diagram was on the answer sheet.
I wound up submitting scans of three worksheets, including that one, to the TAT team, at the risk of angering his teacher, to show why the current system isn't working. Anyone can make mistakes, but I really think he deserves to be taught math by a person (and preferably one who has somewhat of a feel for math), instead of being parked in front of a computer or just left to do worksheets. No matter who was administering these worksheets, the communication is just too restricted to constitute teaching, nor is he being taught to a curriculum or at the right level.
My DS has been writing and illustrating books with a couple of friends at school. I was thrilled with this already, but today he told me that after he and his friends started producing these books, the other kids in the class liked the idea and began to follow suit. Now the teacher has set up a little library in the classroom of all their books.
Iucounu, while I understand your frustration, we have had many incidents like this, and I think it's important to encourage kids to look for "the answer the teacher wants." Yes, your son is right, and I would tell him that he is right, but I also would have him write the answer the teacher wants. If you wanted to, he could then write in the margin why the question is confusing. There is so much danger of overthinking and then responding "wrong" to poorly written questions with these kids. It's a life skill to know what is actually being asked and at what level--albeit a depressing one. Now, I would agree that his response IS evidence of a child who is thinking at a higher level and who needs more challenge.
Iucounu, while I understand your frustration, we have had many incidents like this, and I think it's important to encourage kids to look for "the answer the teacher wants." Yes, your son is right, and I would tell him that he is right, but I also would have him write the answer the teacher wants. If you wanted to, he could then write in the margin why the question is confusing. There is so much danger of overthinking and then responding "wrong" to poorly written questions with these kids. It's a life skill to know what is actually being asked and at what level--albeit a depressing one. Now, I would agree that his response IS evidence of a child who is thinking at a higher level and who needs more challenge.
We talked about what the intent of the problem writer must have been, but he still gave the right answer and I think that's best. If this were a computer-graded test that mattered, without any option for "insufficient info" as an answer, I might think it was for the best to intentionally give a wrong answer, but not when a human's supposed to be grading it. If he winds up a person who's sometimes thought to be wrong but can always prove himself right, I'll be happy. I could probably have him work on explaining himself with more than one sentence in addition to a diagram or something, but I'm also hoping these bum questions don't pop up often. (ETA: I guess I could see having him explain "X yards would be a wrong answer, because...", but I can't contemplate him actually giving it as an answer.)
Here, the teacher either doesn't understand how to do math problems very well, or she didn't give it a passing thought despite his answer and diagram, and also may have wanted to mark him wrong to prove a point that he's not infallible and/or not at as high a level as his testing and previous learning suggests.
This shows the problem with having him not actually being taught by a person in my opinion. With a halfway decent math teacher in a class, the teacher would have understood his explanation or asked for more info, and DS would have been able to explain in class as well. I'm not so worried about him missing a life skill here as not being given what everyone else at the school gets-- instruction. I'd feel differently if the teacher, despite not getting it, had asked for more info. And the diagram makes it pretty obvious. (In a different case, he gave the correct answer and the teacher graded him wrong without apparently looking at the answer sheet.)
I was once given a 0 on a group assignment (and my other group members were also given 0s) based on the comment "This is professional work, not appropriate for class" or some slightly different wording. It was true, we had submitted the idea we'd earlier abandoned for a project where the new idea was produced professionally and successfully. The teacher had marked various things wrong, and we'd provided our explanations and proofs, and things had gone back and forth a few times. When the principle got involved, the teacher came up with this excuse. The principle wound up leaving the 0s, but only counting it towards my overall grade, it was left out of the others' grades. I don't really know why it was left in my overall grade, asside from the fact that I was the group leader, and also the only person in the group who could have been described as a professional in the area. This kind of thing did not do wonders for me socially.
The course was a required Grade 9 credit, and my "professional" status had not gotten me out of taking it. The 0 counted for a significant portion of my mark, and I almost failed (she marked me very harshly on everything else, too, and stated it was due to my "professional" status, even reducing some of my earlier marks.
These kinds of arguments can be dangerous. I still can't figure out what answer the teacher wants unless I spend more time on that than on the course material. I don't have the foggiest notion WHAT to do about it. Except maybe cry.
Here, the teacher either doesn't understand how to do math problems very well, or she didn't give it a passing thought despite his answer and diagram, and also may have wanted to mark him wrong to prove a point that he's not infallible and/or not at as high a level as his testing and previous learning suggests.
Certainly possible, but IMO, the more likely explanation is that she wants him to think in the same way I described--"What is the answer the teacher wants me to give?" because she knows it will serve him in the education system. She doesn't want him to overcomplicate things or to think outside the box on a question that was intended to be simple.
We have run into various versions of this ourselves, and I agree that it's frustrating and that a better teacher would respond differently. I still remember an essay on "What Being An American Means to Me" I had to write in 6th grade; I said I was too young to know this or to have any perspective on the question. I had a good teacher, and she loved it and gave me an A, but I could have been failed.
Certainly possible, but IMO, the more likely explanation is that she wants him to think in the same way I described--"What is the answer the teacher wants me to give?" because she knows it will serve him in the education system. She doesn't want him to overcomplicate things or to think outside the box on a question that was intended to be simple.
But he didn't overcomplicate or think outside the box-- he gave the right answer, and the answer key's wrong! I really think a likely explanation with this particular teacher is that she didn't understand his explanation. I don't know what she would have done if she had understood, but I suspect I'll find out soon. :| I love your essay answer.
@ Michaela: I know what you mean. It could seriously complicate things to try to anticipate every notion someone else can have. I think a clear explanation of what you're saying should be enough.
Iucounu, while I understand your frustration, we have had many incidents like this, and I think it's important to encourage kids to look for "the answer the teacher wants." Yes, your son is right, and I would tell him that he is right, but I also would have him write the answer the teacher wants. If you wanted to, he could then write in the margin why the question is confusing. There is so much danger of overthinking and then responding "wrong" to poorly written questions with these kids. It's a life skill to know what is actually being asked and at what level--albeit a depressing one. Now, I would agree that his response IS evidence of a child who is thinking at a higher level and who needs more challenge.
I'm with locounu on this one. I will always encourage my child to give the best possible answer to any given question. For one thing, in later math classes if you make assumptions about information you will get that problem wring. I would not want to teach my child that for now you should assume to know the unstated information but later on you're going to have to do it exactly the opposite later. Also, I believe strongly in not hiding knowledge or ability. I won't tell my child to try to think at a lower level just to get a problem right- his brain just doesn't work that way. Lastly, I remember being in these situations myself as a child and standing my ground (with my mom's support). Sometimes I got the credit, sometimes not- that's life- and that's a lesson I am willing to teach my kid.
CFK, you give the rest of us hope! Pop in every now and then just to say HI, pat us on the head and remind us of the light.... First Dottie, then Kriston, now you..... Ageing out sucks!
I hate to see you go but I'm very happy for your family's success and happiness. Thanks for sharing. I always enjoy reading about when things go right! Like Hallmark would say, "congratulations! Now go out there and make a Splash!"
Congrats CFK!! awesome to read about your child's success!
I have a cute Nick quote- we were tucking him in last night, and he still sleeps with 'Lovie'- a giraffe/blanket thing with a rattly head. We have several that we rotate/wash from when he was a baby. My DH handed Nick his Lovie for that night, and we noticed Lovie was MUTE his 'rattle' noise was gone/broken. Nick took one look at him and said, "That Lovie is a dead ringer!" and burst into laughter.
I love to read success stories. Thank you for posting yours. I hope to be able to write about how my twice-exceptional son successfully managed to learn everything he needed to learn by homeschooling while simultaneously dealing with disabilities that cause frequent, sometimes distracting pain.
He has been asking me if I thought there was a light at the end of the tunnel for him after reading the "We are the 99 percent" letters online. Some of these letters were written by young adults that had finished college and couldn't find jobs. Most of them don't mention having disabilities.
I tell him that he does have what it takes to make it despite the disabilities because his intelligence and his ability to express himself so articulately and his ability to not give up even though he can't see that light at the end of the tunnel will carry him through.
As an example of his ability to succeed in spite the disabilities, Saturday night he did a really good job playing Linus in A Charlie Brown Christmas. An hour before he was to perform he started getting a bad migraine and the headache pill was not yet working. He knew if it got to the point of no return (throwing up) that he might not be able to perform. He also knew that grandfather, who had not seen him perform in years was going to be there to see him. He got up out of bed, got himself ready, and when he got on stage he became Linus. Even though he had been getting used to a new painful scoliosis brace and having frequent migraines he was still able to learn his lines and act his part well. Several people told me they could hear him and understand what he was saying better than some of the other kids who do not have any disabilities at all. Most people are surprised to find out that he has disabilities because he is able to compensate so well. There was a lot of applause from the audience after he finished telling Charlie Brown what Christmas was all about and his grandfather was very proud of him.
4 yrs � + 3mos. The artist takes his� Next step! ! He followed the directions from Jan Brett's online video "how to draw a chicken". � I erased the line at the head and neck and explained to him to "make m's & w's" for the comb on the chicken's head and feathers on it's neck. �Also when he tried to draw one line for the chicken's leg I pointed out that "she (Brett) drew two lines on the leg". � I paused & started the video as he worked. He's obviously not in preschool because when she said to draw a square for the beak he drew a perfect square. �:D �that boy sure can follow some directions though! �And he seems to have a gr8 sense of scale a lot of times!
DD13, 8th grade got a B in her College English Freshman Comp. class. She had to learn what many of us had to learn when we hit college... Her first essays were not passing material, as she wrote them and turned them in with little work. She also got an A in her Algebra II class..but what was really great is that she got an A on the district wide comprehensive mid-term. She went from a sixth grade Algebra I class self taught, no finals etc. to high school Geometry and now high school Algebra II and she has struggled with the comprehensive district wide mid-terms and finals. The other reason that I like it is that I feel more comfortable with her comprehension of the material and her acceleration. I find myself not always so sure we have made the right decisions. YIPEEE
I was playfully asking her where was her brother, she promptly looked in his direction. I "tested" her a couple more times, and she did it every single time.
I gave her a bottle yesterday and she did not want it. So I put it down in the back bedroom and carried her into the kitchen.
A few hours later she left the kitchen with a sense of purpose, crawled down the hall, up two flights of stairs, and went right to her bottle by the armoire.
We've always known our DS was above average but only recently found out he's in the EG range...so now I feel like I've found a home here where I can tell others about the things he does without getting a crazy look back! Our recent brag - he (6y) along with his sister (4y) know all the presidents and the preamble to the constitution and have done for over a year. He also knows most of the bill of rights and spends his time reading the constitution. Funny part was when he told me that he wanted to be the youngest president and asked how old he would have to be to be able to run as president. I told him he needed to be 35yrs old, to which he replied, "Not unless I make an amendment to the constitution!" Way too funny especially when we are totally not into politics!
is this where I can say how thrilled I am that Butter's Christmas wants included a magnifying glass, binoculars, a Chemistry set (we got the Thames and Konos C500 to start), TWO guitars (electric and acoustic), Legos (NOT a particular set please, she wants to invent her own stuff), a dictionary and thesaurus as well as a French/English dictionary and a plethora of advanced art supplies like watercolor pencils, oil pastels and a really nice set of drawing pencils?
Of course, now Chops (the husband) has thrown out his back and Butter is not so patiently awaiting his recovery so he can explore the chem set with her, lol!
CMK-you give the rest of us hope! I am both thrilled and terrified of what the future holds for Butter (and let's not even go there with The Diva yet...) but I know it will be a wonderful, exciting journey
Out of the blue, DS10 decided to develop a proof for the Pythagorean theorem last night before bed. And after about 20 minutes he developed one that was very elegant. While I have encouraged his math ability, I never taught him any proofs so I'm not quite sure where he picked it up.
It wasn't a unique proof as I learned later from an Internet search, but it was his original work. For those that are interested, it is quite similar to Proof #4 on the following page: //www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/index.shtml
DS3 appears to have found his "thing" (other than chess), at least for now--ocean science. This started with one read of a Magic Schoolbus book and has taken off like gangbusters with this just in the past week or two. Today he ran into an adult friend who also happens to be very interested in the ocean and I listened with amazement and amusement as DS brought up the following and discussed them with great verve: the eating habits of the giant squid, the definition of the intertidal zone, the depth of the Marianas trench, the high pressure under the ocean, the abyssal zone, the differences between a sperm whale and a great blue whale, the average size of animals in the deepest ocean, underwater volcanoes and their role...I could go on. It actually would have made an excellent DYS application video. ;)It was all the more awesome because his conversational companion was just as into it as he was and treated him like a peer.
DS6 has been getting some fairly lame writing assignments for homework lately-- at least from his point of view, with which I openly concur much of the time. The latest was to use all of the months of the year and days of the week to write a story (I think that this was done to reinforce the spelling of these words, which appeared on the standard spelling list for the week). His story which he is turning in today:
Once upon a time there was a boy named Mud, who was given an assignment to write a story containing all of the months of the year and days of the week. Mud's story listed January, February, March, April, May, June, July, September, October, November, and December. (He forgot to add August.) [I think he stuck this in because he forgot to add it. ] Then his story listed Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. When Mud turned in his story, he got an F-.
Gotta love that self-advocacy. After he wrote this he brought it to me to look at, and told me he had been thinking of using infinitely nested frame stories but that he was too tired to write it all down. I'm guessing he was too muzzy-headed to think of how to structure it properly, never having done anything like that before (it was around midnight when we realized his homework was due today and it was a rush job).
I told him he should take some time this weekend to write a proper deeply nested story, and we'll probably start by reading over "The Three Storytelling Machines of King Genius", which contains possibly my favorite bit of whimsicality by Lem, the tale of Mymosh the Self-Begotten. I also put a copy of the Arabian Nights by his bedside.
In case the teacher misses it (a lot of teachers aren't looking for that kind of cleverness from kids so young), please let your boy know that someone else not related to him gets the joke about how the boy's name was Mud even before he turned in that F- story.
So the kids got off the bus yesterday and EJ is just jumping with excitement. He said the BIG kids on the bus (his school is prek thru 6th grade) were quizzing him on the bus with multiplication and division. I have NO clue how they figured him out, maybe someone was doing homework and asking questions and he answered? But he only missed one of their questions. AND he somehow figured out the 11 and 12 tables lol Yes my kinder kid has been accepted by the BIG kids ahahaha
Have to share. DD 4 spent the morning asking me if she could "please please please dissect the owl pellets you ordered" LOL. I finally got them out and she just spent to the last 3 hours dissecting 2 of them, identifying the bones, figuring out that the pellets she dissected contained 2 complete vole skeletons each, and then decided to figure out how many pellets an owl produces a day, week, and year and how many voles her eats a day, week, year, assuming that the owl produces 2 pellets a day and thus eats 4 voles a day. She came up with the owl eats,4 voles a day, 28 voles a week, and 1460 voles a year. Seriously impressed with her focus and math skills. She even figured out how to multiply 365x4 when before I had only seen her do simple 1 digit number multiplication.
Owl pellets! The boy just asked me, "mom. Can we kill a bird and cut it open and see what's in it?". I'm going to assume it was something he saw on Wild Kratts. Either way he has a chemistry set, microscope, box of motors, wires, and battery packs. I was thinking, you just had to have "pouring science". Can't that last a little while before you ask for something new? I was going to wait until hunting season. He's seen the deers skinned and hanging upside down, but he hasn't seen their guts. I was going to ask a neighbor who hunts to help him dissect a hog or a deer instead of buying a frog. But it sounds like owl pellets is maybe a starter to dissecting and identifying? I'm typing this thinking it makes my kid sound a little strange. Maybe it's just his mom that should say "ew" when he asks to kill a bird and see it's insides instead of thinking, really?! Another Science kit?! We just bought a Science kit not long ago!?
Nope, doesn't sound strange at all! My daughter gutted fish this summer and was fascinated by the salmon roe (eggs) LOL. She asked dad if he could buy a gun so that they could go duck hunting this spring/summer. She wants to see the inside of a duck LOL.
DS 4 is also fascinated with the insides of living things. Dissection is the most loved part of fishing! I don't think I learnt what he knows about the human body until highschool but I did enjoy dissection then (still do)
DD is in a much better place this year, but I credit our awareness and our advocacy efforts in heading off many of the problems that school otherwise seems to be determined to shove her direction... anyway. I digress.
DD, 12, polished off both 10th and 11th grade honors English with a great deal of aplomb and relish. Her 11th grade English teacher announced to her (and me) that one of her writing assignments was "the best she'd ever seen" for the assignment and read it to her typically-aged classmates as a stellar example of innovative and masterful descriptive writing!!
Her algebra II teacher also told me privately that she's at the 95th percentile (and stays there) in that class, too.
Her high school GPA is at 4.4 for fall term, and her cumulative GPA is 4.2 (because of weighting for honors coursework and AP).
We've also really tackled perfectionism issues this year and have a MUCH better handle on those things now; DD is in a much healthier, better place overall. Of course, life with a mouthy, quick-witted adolescent girl is far from perfect. We occasionally tell "Katie" (as in Katie Ka-Boom) to "go home now." LOL. But it is so much better than a year ago.
Wow, HowlerMonkey, that's a bit of a contrast with how things were going last time I remember a long post from you! That's fantastic. Long may it continue.
Yes-- we think that we *might* be able to eke out a high school diploma with the current school, but probably only if they are willing to consider full-time dual enrollment after next year, and maybe sooner.
That would put her into the local community college when she's 13, but I really think she's close to being ready. She's had some reassurance this year that being 12 and a high school junior isn't THAT obvious, and that her behavior and maturity are still in the normal range with her academic peers at this point (regular GT 10th-12th graders).
College seems intimidating to her, but I think that she'll find that she's grown up a lot since she was 7 and 8 and tagging along with me in the labs and meetings with grad students and faculty. Her peers wouldn't be 23-26yo grad students, which I'm not sure she 'sees' yet.
Next step is a side-by-side class in a soft discipline like art, history or foreign language so that she can see that she'll be more than able to hold her own and not stand out too much.
It was really amazing how her mental health issues VANISHED within 72 hours of school ending last spring. Watching that happen made DH and I realize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with our DD other than a vastly inappropriate academic placement that inists on treating our lovely cheetah (and all of the other cheetahs) like a very capable sheepdog.
It was really amazing how her mental health issues VANISHED within 72 hours of school ending last spring. Watching that happen made DH and I realize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with our DD other than a vastly inappropriate academic placement that inists on treating our lovely cheetah (and all of the other cheetahs) like a very capable sheepdog.
Bad school situations can really trash a kid's life. It is hard to really see in the middle of it.
DD4mo was in a Bumbo seat playing with a toy, and she dropped it on the floor. It was funny to see how determined she was to get the toy from the floor.
I am sure it won't be funny when she is determined not to listen to me when she gets older.
Ironic brag: DD7's school has a positive motivation policy where students can be instantly recognized for good citizenship by any school personnel who notice unusually good behavior. The librarian presented one to DD yesterday for quickly selecting a book and reading quietly.
Next, she'll get one for singing off-key and having ears attached to the sides of her face.
I have some interesting quirky things that have caught me by surprise lately.. DD is 14 months. When she was 11.5 months I gave her a book to look at in the car seat and didn't want to read parts of it to her (like the picture of a bottle of milk, because she'd want to nurse.) So she started flipping the pges by herself and when she got to milk, she pointed to it and signed milk. After that, she regularly started "reading" all her books. She was already looking through them alone, but now she signs for all the pictures she recognizes. She signed a questioning "airplane" once when a semi truck pulled up next to us when she was in her seat. I thought that was interesting.
She mastered her 3 piece shape knob puzzle by 13 months and is now doing pretty well with an 8 piece knob shape puzzle. The handles are so tiny that she has a hard time manipulating the shapes, but she seems to usually know where they go. I believe she knows over 70 asl signs now, too. She isn't talking a lot and I'm really happy we got her the Signing Time DVDs, because when we *don't* know what she wants she gets tantrum-y very quickly.
A month or so ago I decided to give her a play wooden dinnerware set. She immediately took the play utensils over to drawer we keep silverware in, got on her tip toes, managed to open the drawer and throw the play utensils over the top of the drawer to get them in. Then she closed the drawer and went on her way. I about died. She has never attempted to put them in any other drawer except the one we keep the utensils in, too.
She also started throwing papers she finds on the floor (a PROBLEM in my messy house lol) in the trash and we showed her how to work the pedal so she doesn't have to touch the lid. We got her her own cleaning set because she is always trying to sweep the floor, use the dust pan and uses rags to "clean" the floor like she sees daddy doing.
Embarrassing (to me) brag: So I was rushing around getting the kids packed into the car to bring them home from the daycare. I put my 28 month old in her seat, then put my 10m old who was in her infant bucket into its base. Hop in the front seat, about to get going, and from the back seat I hear "Mommy, Mommy!!!! (very urgent tone) You forgot to buckle me in!" I looked back at her and said, wow, you're right, thanks for telling me! Quickly hopped out and got her all buckled in, then we went home.
I was pretty worried/embarrassed I'd done that, and amazed that she told me...
At this point it feels like something she says daily surprises me.
My daughter has been playing a bit of starfall here and there, and has a few phonics based educational apps for the i-pad. A couple of weeks ago she started sounding out words. At first I thought she was memorizing, so I wrote something simple out to test her. After she read it to me, I exclaimed "I can't believe my 2 year old is reading."
She responded "I'm not two. I'm two and three quarters."
DS9 won the school spelling bee! Of course, now he's going to be insufferable, since he said he didn't have to study for anything and then proved it.
This year, for some reason that has something to do with another school pulling out of regionals, the elementary school is not sending anyone on up the line, so we don't (thank goodness) have to worry about what to do if he goes to state. Maybe next year we'll have a better answer for that and have to worry about it.
DS, about to turn 4, is making a "book" for his sister, because she is making one for him about his beloved deep sea animals. So far it says: ET B LONZ TO (DD's name).
My dd9 will be playing Irish fiddle on stage with The Chieftains next month when they are in our area. She is really excited. It will be her 2nd time on stage with them because she played with them last year.
Our local paper had an article about a week ago about the ACT test and studying. They posted in the article a table of the average ACT scores for all of the local high schools (about five or six of them) including one that is one is ranked by US News as one of the best performing high schools in the nation. I do realize that average ACT scores include the low performers, but this one charter in particular has a reputation of not attracting or running out the lower performing kids so their test scores tend toward above average for most, if not all, students.
Dh has always been skeptical that dd13 is particularly smart for some odd reason despite her being 1-2 yrs younger than her classmates and ample indication that she quite intelligent. I pointed out to him that dd beat the average ACT score for every local high school including the charter as a young 12 y/o (8th grade). He said something to the effect of, "wow, maybe she is smart."
Due to the change in where he goes to school, Mr W (4) has not had lessons in 6 weeks. He has missed his piano teacher and she has missed him. This week he started his private piano lessons and is really enjoying them, working off sheet music and incorporating vocals. He told her when they had played a bit that the piano sounded wrong at the higher notes and she verified that it was out of tune.
Before bed this evening, my son (who is just over 3) said, "I'm not going to use the potty until I'm 99 years old." I'm not sure whether to brag or sob...
Before bed this evening, my son (who is just over 3) said, "I'm not going to use the potty until I'm 99 years old." I'm not sure whether to brag or sob...
Oh, yeah, I remember that. I think at our house it was that she'd stop calling me to wipe after she went when she was 10.
I'm pleased to say she did not hold out as long as she planned, so there's hope that yours won't, either.
DSalmost3 wrote a book. It includes a picture entitled "a world with wires" which looks pretty much like a wild impressionistic drawing of a... ball made of wires. Which says little about his drawing skill, but much about his ability to sort out what things look like
And for his next trick... he was in quite a mood today, and he had me write (beside the drawing he put into a comment box which asked the quesiton "what should Canada do with its rainforest?") That he had drawn them a picture of a cut-down tree on their tree which had been cut down and cut into tiny pieces. (which I am assuming is the paper. I did not know he knew how to make paper, but can see at least 18 000 ways he could possibly have learned.)
Aww my little guy, Boo just turned 5, won the library book contest at school. I doubt it was much challenge for him since he's in prek and reading at 3rd grade level but still... His first award yay! Also finally got him gifted tested and found out he's 99.9% but was super proud that the testing lady said he was such a gentleman =]... I've done my job hehe. Working on acceleration to 1st grade for next year. And lastly I got him a "how to draw pokemon" book and he was having issues because of his perfectionism but the last 2 days he had a great time drawing a few of the pokemon with no melt downs! Yay... I'm sure many of you must know what the drawing / perfectionism thing is like =]. So glad he's learning to handle discrepancies between his mind and physical abilities.
Our daughter is ranked first in her class. She is in her freshman year in high school. For years, she had so much trouble turning in homework and organizing herself. Suddenly, she is taking care of all of it herself. Yea!
DS, just turned 4, seemingly effortlessly wrote this Valentine's card by himself without any help or anything in sight to remind him of how these words are spelled:
Happy Valentinse Day Love, (DS)
(He explained to me that he put an "e" on the end of "Valentinse" because of the long "I.")
He also spelled "weathervane" in fridge magnets the other day (well, "wethrvane"--pretty darn close).
Our daughter is ranked first in her class. She is in her freshman year in high school. For years, she had so much trouble turning in homework and organizing herself. Suddenly, she is taking care of all of it herself. Yea!
Wonderful. Some days this subject is exahausting us, but it feels like it's getting better.
DS (just turned 4) and I just toured a pre-K in preparation for possibly enrolling next fall. They had a big board full of sight words in the classroom, which he of course walked up to and gleefully read. (His response when I told him we were going to go tour a big-kids school was "Where they will teach me to READ MORE WORDS?") So that got a bit of a response. Then they asked him if he liked to play on the computer, to which he replied, "I like to play computer chess. Do you have a chess club?" (His sister is in chess club at her school.)
It might seem like a weird thing to be bragging about, but... DD7 just got knocked down for the first time in a soccer game last weekend.
She's been playing for months now and showing flashes of ability, but there's always been something holding her back from putting in her best effort, and as a result she spent a lot of time ball watching. We knew this was coming from a highly-developed sense of fair play, where she was afraid of hurting any of the other girls, and she had no tolerance if someone was going to be making contact with her.
Endless coaching from her coaches and parents hadn't yielded any results. Finally, I sat her down at the computer and we watched video of women's World Cup action, and I pointed out where the players were making contact and the refs were doing nothing. Her next practice was a revelation.
On game day she was always in the thick of the action in the first half. That's when she got knocked down (on incidental contact), and she got right back up and into the play. In the second half the mind was still willing, but the body was not. Poor dear wore herself out in the first half.
DS (just turned 4) and I just toured a pre-K in preparation for possibly enrolling next fall. They had a big board full of sight words in the classroom, which he of course walked up to and gleefully read. (His response when I told him we were going to go tour a big-kids school was "Where they will teach me to READ MORE WORDS?") So that got a bit of a response. Then they asked him if he liked to play on the computer, to which he replied, "I like to play computer chess. Do you have a chess club?" (His sister is in chess club at her school.)
Butter has a penpal. When her first letter came, she ran right upstairs to read it, then hurried back down to pester me for a piece of paper to write back right away!
I know alot of our kids have writing issues and Butter and I have gone to the mat over it, so its great to see her so excited about pen and paper. ANd yes, she WROTE it with her hands, NOT the computer!
Butter has a penpal. When her first letter came, she ran right upstairs to read it, then hurried back down to pester me for a piece of paper to write back right away!
I know alot of our kids have writing issues and Butter and I have gone to the mat over it, so its great to see her so excited about pen and paper. ANd yes, she WROTE it with her hands, NOT the computer!
Once again, not exactly a brag, but it made me laugh a LOT.
We were going through the third grade STAR test pretest (state mandated stupidity) and got to a section about Tables of Contents and Indexes. There was something called a "clue" on the page explaining what the two things were (isn't that what they are testing?!? The kids' knowledge of what they are???). At this point Wolf(7) dropped his head onto the test (a pile of paper as big as his seventh grade science book) then looked up at me, eyes wide in disbelief saying, "I knew that in PRESCHOOL!!!"
Where are you? We are in Northern California. My third grader last year told me how dumb he thought the STAR tests were- they had questions about telling time, which he thought was some kind of a joke! He got the highest possible score- I think he only missed one on math and one on reading.
Latest DS3 quote: "There are over two hundred billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy." Apparently he read this in Terrence Dickinson's, 'The Universe and Beyond.' Thanks for letting me share this!
Just have to tell someone that DS4 (just turned!) is sitting on the sofa reading The Cat in the Hat to me with pretty darn good fluency. His reading has been churning along, but he's never sat and read a full book to me before.
Two from DS6 recently: 1. DS--"Mom, Celcius is kind of like an adult and Farenheit is kind of like a little kid." Me--"Okay, I give. Why?" DS--"Because Celcius is like a grown up with long legs that doesn't have to take as many steps to go as far as the little kid with short legs." He had figured out the relative difference in scale between the two temperature systems
2. DS--"Know what's really funny? Counting by 3's. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15... It's a pattern. Get it?" Me--"You mean that it gets larger by 3 each time?" DS (exasperated)--"No! It's a pattern of odd, even, odd, even. Get it?" It actually took me a second to get it, but I did
Also today, to the painter coming to give me an estimate:
DS: "I like oceans." Painter: "How many oceans are there?" DS: "Five. You know, the Pacific Ocean covers 1/3 of the world's surface and plunges to 35,898 feet at its deepest depth!"
"Mama, did you know our first president was George Washington in 1788? Our 14th was Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama is our 44th. Did you know that? I read it in a book today."
I just want to let everyone know how much this thread makes me smile. I don't have time to respond to people often, but this thread has pulled me out of the "No one else has to deal with this insanity" dumps on a regular basis.
DD2 is potty trained. We also have been discussing solids and liquids which she understood immediately. I showed her ice in water, etc. The other day she went to the bathroom and pooped, turned and looked, then declared "Oh look, it's solid!"
and more seriously, tonight she was pondering her younger sister's impending birthday. Little sister will be 1 which I've told her is no longer a baby. Out of the blue in the car she asked, "Mommy, is _2ndDaughter_ going to be a big girl, or not?"
So I explained that she'll be a toddler, which is in between baby and big girl.
The other night I was explaining nocturnal animals, and DS28m picked up one of his toys and said, "He not noc-turtle."
ETA: it's just a cute story I wanted to share, not really a brag, but I couldn't imagine starting a sentence at playgroup with, "I was explaining nocturnal animals to DS2 and..."
these posts are usually about younger kids...and I LOVE reading them!! But, I needed a place to say that I am SO proud of DD12! She scored in the 99%ile on the EXPLORE test with perfect scores in Math and English! She took the test without study guides, putting in any form of preparation other than to put her snack, pencil, caluclator and required paperwork in a backpack.
Cricket3 - YIPPEEE for the quiz bowl team!!! and FIRST CHAIR!! WOW!!
My dd is hoping for more challenging music in band...I am looking for a private teacher...as DD goes too fast for the school band director..so she spends all her time in a practice room with an electronic coach!
Great stuff, everyone! I laughed out loud at "momgos".
This is not a brag, but a deep sigh of relief. DS2 is finally fully talking in fully formed sentences, and his vocabulary seems to be taking off rapidly, or maybe he just had a lot of it already. He still mumbles and is hard to understand for most people, but his pronunciation is improving dramatically too.
This isn't related to giftedness much, but I was happy and a mite proud after his combined tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy last week. As soon as he woke up (fairly quickly at that) he insisted on dressing himself, then walking out to the car. When we arrived at the store to buy ice cream and popsicles, he picked out a ton of different things and insisted on getting each item out of the freezers and putting it into the cart on tiptoe, and even bagged the groceries. Later on he wouldn't take his medicine most of the time, even though he was obviously hurting. I'm liking this new ultratough side of him-- he should get flesh pieces lopped off more often.
He's also taking more of an interest in games and puzzles. When he first started doing puzzles months ago, he did a few of the animal Melissa and Doug ones that were in the 3-5 piece range, and that was about it. We have a fair number of wooden 12 piece jigsaws and up, cube puzzles, etc. but he was never interested in them. At Christmas I looked for a Dumbo puzzle for him, since he loves that movie, but the only decent one I could find was twenty pieces. About two weeks ago he all of a sudden started doing the 12-piece ones, and then the 20 piece Dumbo puzzle, and then started pulling out and doing some wooden 48 piece ones.
He also started doing some Clever Castle puzzles (a Thinkfun solitaire puzzle game), and also started horning in on my backgammon games with DS6. He insisted on rolling the dice for one or the other of us for each game, and then was able to start moving the pieces-- his strategy obviously sucks / is nonexistent, but he's really showing an interest in it.
Wolf just got an award at the county science fair after an absolute fiasco of getting him there (a bunch of adult stupidity and old boys club stuff, that thankfully we'll never have to go through again after this year).
His project was how quickly do rats learn and he found that 75% of the sample learned a series of 4 necessary correct choices in under 6 repectitions.
DS4 read me pages and pages of Frog and Toad are Friends yesterday, needing help only once a page or so. It's always so magic when the reading thing really clicks. Everywhere he goes he's reading words, and he's delighted. The world is full of them, after all!
(I still remember DD's first airplane flight after she learned to read--in tones of great skepticism, she said, "In case of emergency, seat cushion can be used as a flotation dee-vice??")
Ds12 has really enjoyed taking the AMC exams the past few years. According to him, the 10 is a pretty big step up from the 8 in terms of difficulty -- I don't know whether your son has looked at old exams already, but he might want to before taking the real thing.
One good thing about it, for mathy kids who love competition, is that it's given twice each year, and students are allowed to sit for both.
DS4 read me pages and pages of Frog and Toad are Friends yesterday, needing help only once a page or so. It's always so magic when the reading thing really clicks. Everywhere he goes he's reading words, and he's delighted. The world is full of them, after all!
(I still remember DD's first airplane flight after she learned to read--in tones of great skepticism, she said, "In case of emergency, seat cushion can be used as a flotation dee-vice??")
DD4 just read a Froggy book to me this afternoon and needed very little help! It has been a few weeks since I've had her read to me because of a crazy schedule, but today she wanted to read with me again and wow - what a difference.!
Ultramarina - I too had a plane trip like that with DD9, but her concern was about why we would lose cabin pressure - was an asteroid going to come and rip a huge hole in the plane or something?
DD4 also has started doing pages and pages of workbooks during the day while DD9 is doing her schoolwork. She is matching words that start with the same letter, circling the picture with the correct number of objects in it etc. This is huge for her because up until recently she has refused to do any of these things because "I'm too little to do ...."
Next year I will encourage him to take the AMC 10 as well as the AMC 8.
Boston, that is a great brag and congrats to your son. Doing well on the AMC is a true achievement. The AMC8 is not a trivial test even for most adults.
This is a brag on the people on this board. There are so many good suggestions here and invariably each is either a hit with Mr W or helps DW and I make things work better.
I am going to brag about my adult daughter--a smart, pretty girl who didn't get good grades in high school, who got in trouble for talking too much and spending too much time socializing and not enough time doing homework. The combination of good social skills and intelligence allow her to be very successful in sales and marketing. I wish those teachers who called me regularly to complain about her could see her now.
My daughter, despite being raised by a mother with social anxiety issues, is not intimidated by anyone. When she perceives a problem with the way someone is treating her she does not worry about it, she takes action. She somehow always knows what to say so that she resolves the conflict and everyone is happy.
Now she is advocating for her 13-year-old brother who is being homeschooled by me and trying to help find solutions to problems that we are having. She calls her little brother daily to provide moral support. She knows that he is going through a difficult time living in a small town with a lot of sanctimonious Bible thumpers, living in pain from a brace 14 hours a day, a brace that makes it difficult for him to do anything with other kids except for the 2 hours he is allowed to take it off for musical theater rehearsals, and homeschooling in chaos.
Okay, I'm sorry to brag about the same thing yet again, but holy crap, my DS4 is blowing my mind a little bit. He's gone from going slowly through The Cat in the Hat to being mostly able to tackle what have got to be 4th grade level nonfiction science books in a couple of weeks. He does need help sometimes, and he doesn't read for long periods, but still. I'm just stunned by the speed of his progress, and I have no one else to talk to about it.
My daughter (just turned 3) is very shy. She has gone mute for as much as an hour in new situations, and usually cries when forced to interact with new people... but in the last 2 weeks she:
Behaved absolutely perfectly at the dentist, accommodating every request without hesitation, and prompting the dentist to say that she's very mature for her age.
Behaved similarly for her doctor's appointment.
Started going to preschool, and didn't cry or go mute once. She looked a little anxious as I was leaving on the first day, but the teacher distracted her. (Thank you, teacher!)
Stood up for herself at the playground, telling a little boy who kept getting in her way that "Actually, I'm going to use the slide now."
She's like a whole new girl. I never knew she had it in her. I'm so proud of her.
...
Oh, and she started reading familiar words without sounding out every single letter anymore. For most kids I guess that would be a bigger feat. For her, that accomplishment pales in comparison to dealing with her shy nature.
Another "cute" brag. Un-likeliest homonym ever. My 4.5 said, there's all kinds of sicks. There's the kind of sick where you get old and die. There's the kind of sick where you sneeze. There's the kind of sick where you cough. There's the number six. Sicks six. That's a homonym. I've never heard "sicks" as a word, but he pulled it off.
So Wolf ended up with 4th Place in K-3 Zoology for the county fair. There were 470 students participating. I'm really proud of him!
I'm also proud of Bear for going to the awards ceremony in a new place, full of people, where the lights went down and not only surviving it, but being quiet and polite for the whole event! He did meltdown for about 40 minutes afterwards, but still it was a HUGE accomplishment.
Boston, that is a great brag and congrats to your son. Doing well on the AMC is a true achievement. The AMC8 is not a trivial test even for most adults.
Do you go to any math circles in your area?
Thanks to you, hip, and Colinsmum for your kind words. Our son does go to the Math Club http://www.themathclub.com/ , where he participates in MOEMS.
My first grader just completed the reading "contest" at our local public school. He read 400 books or chapters in books in 4 months! You could choose to read the books to your child, but he wanted to try to read them himself. He actually read 107 books, mostly chapter books. They were all at a second and now third grade level. The school gave little prizes at each 50 book increment. At the 400 level, you get a special medal and a party with the principal. He still hasn't caught on to reading for pleasure but maybe next year. He read 45 minutes a day to get there!
So my DS8 is grade accelerated and in an HG classroom. He also has ADHD. He struggles (relatively) with getting his thoughts on paper and finds long assignments that are not broken down difficult. He just got assigned one of those and even though they worked on it in class for 2 weeks, he did not finish. The teacher let him bring it home where he still struggled until we helped him piece it out. Anyway, part of the assignment was to reflect on the book he was reading and one his reflections was:
"Percy has ADHD and dyslexia. Even though those are disabilities they are also advantages. I think this is part of the author's message. I think the theme is you are more powerful than you think you are."
I thought it was a nice theme and a nice message. I am very proud of how powerful my DS thinks he is.
Here's another story that can only be a "brag" among people who have dealt with gifted perfectionists who have a history of meltdowns over simple setbacks:
DD7 went to a birthday party at the roller rink. She stumbled. She fell. She got back up and kept at it. She noticed everyone else was falling, too, and she adjusted her personal expectations accordingly. I skated alongside her for the first little while, and supported her whenever I noticed she was falling. Eventually, she shooed me away. When she was done, even though she was sore, she declared she wanted to come back the next day. We decided to give her a few days to heal up first, but DW and I mentally high-fived over DD's resilience.
Also, last night we worked together on her homework, where she had to locate several objects in the house that were standard 3D shapes (cylinder, sphere, rectangular prism, etc.). I took the time to explain to her what they mean by "dimensions." I took her through the different dimensions, ending with the fourth, time. I demonstrated by picking up a random toy, and said, "This is a three-dimensional object." Then I hurled it across the room, and said, "Now it's a four-dimensional object." This delighted DD, who went running up and down the halls for the next ten minutes, shouting, "I'M A FOUR-DIMENSIONAL OBJECT!"
This is why gifted kids are so much fun... you just don't get that kind of mix of intellectual exploration and impulsive silliness when most kids are ready to learn this stuff.
Later on in the homework, the question was asked, "Explain the difference between a 2D and 3D shape." DD's response: "A 2D shape has only length and width, a 3D shape has length, width, and height." I'll bet her teacher thinks I dictated the response, but my only contribution was to spell "height" for her when asked.
Cutie Patootie Report The eighteen month old must know some numbers because I've heard her say several in a row. 4,5,6,7 or 234, different ones different times. I was surprised the other day when a YouTube video displayed Episode 6 and without context she read the #6. I thought she was just saying number sounds before that, but I guess she knows some by their symbol. Then the other day she was scribbling on her brother's easel and said "three" while she scribbled over a number 3. Then, just now I was counting pieces for my son while he moved them and I said, 1,2 my daughter said 3. But she doesn't know amount yet. I had a few tic tacs in my hand and I told her to "take one" and she said "two" but took three. She's getting all her # names by watching me & her brother work on place value & carrying/borrowing. She's not talking that much yet although I've heard her sing the whole first sentence row row row a boat she usually just says ro-ro-ro-ro.. She'll say "here a go" and hand you stuff and stuff like that. And when Franklin's bike got run over by an icecream truck on tv she told me "ook. Bike. Uh-oh."
Our dd5, about to turn 6, is moving along well with her reading, she realized about a month ago "I can read chapter books", and since then has collected about 10 and started about 9 of them...gotta work on finishing them, lol. She came home with a great worksheet on 3d objects, which I did not think they'd go over in kindergarten, but I just jokingly started asking about how many faces a cube has, which she got, then a sphere, and even a cone, and I was very surprised she really seemed to know these, and to know the definition of a 'face'...pretty cool.
She signed a few letters the other day when I showed her some flashcards with the letters while I was cleaning out a drawer (she does not have the fine motor to REALLY sign many of the letters at all, but she was trying a few and came close.)
She definitely knows the color "red" and any "rainbow" colors she sees. She's got all her chunky puzzles down and she was trying to help me with a 12 pc jigsaw yesterday, but I don't quite think she gets the concept (edit: Mom's wrong, she gets it. Her fine motor skills just are not close to allowing her to actually complete these.)
I asked her the sign for pretend and she started signing pretend and imagination, danced and sang a few notes of what sounded to me to be the on-pitch tune to the song about imagination from Signing Time. She seems to have most of the DVDs memorized, too. Like she'll roar right before the lion comes on and start dancing and jumping before the hopkin's hop song comes on.
She also tried to say "May I (while pointing to her eye lol)" and signed excused. This is GREAT because she has been signing exclusively and not wanting to talk or jabber much til now.
I don't know which (if any) of these things is advanced, but it is so cool getting to see what she is thinking about now.
DS 3 finished his piano book in six months that usually takes a six year old a year. He only practices once or twice a week however he does have a MAJOR Crush on his teacher!
DS 3 finished his piano book in six months that usually takes a six year old a year. He only practices once or twice a week however he does have a MAJOR Crush on his teacher!
DD3 does not eat easily. We had agreed on 10 more bites of her dinner before she could have dessert. While eating she gave us a run down on addition facts to ten including five plus five is ten. When she got to bite five of her dinner I asked her how many more she had to go. She counted on from five to ten and then counted those numbers as though they were in the sky in front of her pointing to each one and said 5.
We were driving home from vacation the other day and the girls were hungry. The only thing we had in the car were apples. DD9 starts saying "an apple a day keeps the doctor away", so DD4 says then we should eat 15-20 a day. About a minute later she says "um, no, I was incorrect, if you eat 15-20 apples you wouldn't keep a doctor away, you'd be calling one quickly because you'd make yourself sick!"
by 2 her older siblings were reading quite well so we were beginning to thinK #3 child was a bit delayed LMAO! ...... until she brings me a book and says "2 o's", in the title of the book - there were 2 o's ... I went on to ask her to point out all the other letters.. she knew them all!!!!! Soooo - she is just deciding to do things a little differently to her bro and sis!!! <3
Not exactly a brag, but had to share because I figure you all will appreciate this.
Bear(5) is horrendously irritated by the fact the classic Valentine's Day heart doesn't look like the anatomical one. He went into a several minute long tirade on it the other day.
Proudest moment ever: DD9.5 defended a classmate who was being bullied on the bus yesterday. Hearing the story secondhand (from other kids) she screamed and yelled at the bully at the top of her lungs and gave her a dressing down that had her exiting the bus in tears. Today at school the bully apologized to the classmate, on her own accord.
My 3-year-old son informed me last night that Pluto's moon is called Charon. Apparently he read it in a book. The boy officially knows more about space than I do. ;-)
DD 16.5 months mastered her knob puzzles a while ago, but wasn't "getting" how her 12 piece jigsaw made one whole picture. I got her a 4 piece yesterday and after seeing me do it a few times, she got it. She could match up the pieces and went straight over to another 8 piece chunky picture puzzle she wasn't getting and did that one, too! (I still have to help connect the pieces, though, once she puts them together. Her fine motor skills aren't quite there yet.)
DD 16.5 months . . . went straight over to another 8 piece chunky picture puzzle . . .
Stories like this always blow me away! Hanni, just turned 4, knows words like "diurnal" and "instability" and "cephalopod," but she can barely put two puzzle pieces together. Brains really are different!
This one takes some time to properly set up, so feel free to skip to the last paragraph if you like:
DD7 has been taking guitar lessons for about 7-8 months now. DW and I were inspired by that to learn ourselves, so I bought us our own instrument, but DW hasn't touched it since the first day I brought it home, because arthritis in her hands has prevented her from forming proper chords. I suggested she try the keyboard instead, but the idea hadn't really caught fire with her.
I've already had significant exposure to music (choral), so I've moved ahead pretty quickly with the guitar, and I'm always helping DD practice, showing her some things she hadn't seen in class yet, etc. Meanwhile, DW has sat on the sidelines, watching us both progress, and I guess this slowly fanned that ember within her. This month she determined she was going to learn keyboard, and picked up a beginner's book. After maybe a week she gave up in frustration, and decided she just didn't have an ability to learn it. But I had looked at her book the day she brought it home, and I already knew the problem... she was basically expected to be fluent in reading music on day one. It bears mentioning here that DW had zero exposure to music, except as a listener, and a little bit of church singing. I told her she needed to use our guitar books, because they break down the staff into smaller, more digestible chunks. There are three notes on the first string you learn, with some exercises to practice, then three on the next, two on the third, and so on. They take a similar approach with rhythms, different keys, chords, etc.
So, Sunday morning, I grabbed a guitar book and the keyboard, and brought them to DW. I gave DW a quick description of time signature, a measure, and how many counts are a whole, half, and quarter note. Then I flipped the book open to the first exercise, with three notes. DD7 came to see what we were up to, and she hunted down a Sharpie to write the note names on the keys (they'd been written before, but DD and her friends played it so often they'd been rubbed off, and DD didn't need them anymore anyway). I left to buy donuts.
When I got back from the donut shop, DD7 was observing as DW played "Ode to Joy," which is a more advanced exercise from the second lesson, involving six notes, which DW was reading for herself. DD's magnetic board was lying on the bed, full of things she had drawn out to help explain various points. DW was really excited that she was playing actual music, and she was gushing with admiration, not only for how well DD demonstrated her own deep knowledge of the concepts, but also for DD's demeanor and ability as a teacher.
Hi, I am new here and I posted a new topic earlier about trying to find out if my 2 yr 8 mo is gifted. Anyway, I thought I would share this. We were at a grocery store when a woman's cart accidentally hit me. My daughter immly hugged me and said," mom, come here to me. Friends cannot attack family. I am your family. I will protect you." I am so proud of my little girl. I know she had been trying to figure out for herself the whole concept of family and all others, ie friends.
I know you all will appreciate this brag, it's not really something a lot of people consider brag worthy for a five year old.
Bear has finally started brushing his own teeth, spitting and rinsing! He hasn't gotten it down yet, but he's actually showing initiative!!! It gives me hope for the potty.
He has also finally moved away from a bottle by his bed at night to a sippy with water!
A bit more common brag, Wolf(7) can now do an almost perfect cartwheel and a free standing head stand!
DS8, doing an ALEKS topic on equations involving logarithms, gets a "Your answer is incorrect", which it is, because his calculation has given him a spurious solution (one that would have made the original equation involve the logarithm of a negative number), and he has entered it without noticing.
Me, perhaps slightly patronisingly: Remember, you can't take the logarithm of a negative number.
DS8, more patronisingly: Well, you can in fact, it's just that the answer is complex.
He has met Euler's identity, but we're confident that nobody, and no book, has ever talked to him about anything closer to this statement than that.
DD3's reading stamina and endurance are continuing to improve week by week. She read 40 pages of an early chapter book to me yesterday (half of a book leveled 2.6.) All by herself. Only taking small breaks between each chapter. And, tonight she read me 40 pages of another book (about half of a book leveled 3.0) straight through. 40 pages seems to be the magic number here right now. It is kind of crazy. She seems to be just memorizing every single word she comes across and reading almost strictly by sight now.
DS11 topped out the Explore test the last 2 years, so now in 6th he registered for the ACT. Much longer, I totally left it up to him whether to try it. He said yes. Day of, he was the ONLY 6th grader we could see in a sea of about 400 HS seniors. At the front of the huge line, they tell him what room - I ask if I can walk down with him and they say no. He looks at me, shrugs nonchalantly, and positively swaggers off down the hall, casually asking the nearest adult if he was heading in the right direction. Who is that grown-up kid?!? Then when I picked him up, he had a huge grin on his face - he said "that was SO hard. I don't know why I can't stop grinning!" :-)
just a funny- 4 yo Nick's favorite show is the local High School Quiz show. He sits and tries to call out answers...he usually only gets the music ones right, but sooo funny
DS2 (5 mos) learned to pull up today. Yesterday I'd have said he had no interest. He also said "mama" really clearly a bunch of times today in what seemed to be a meaningful way (A near stranger and a babysitter picked it out before I did). We shall see if any of it sticks, but quite the day when it was happening.
This is all particularly funny to me because his older brother pulled up at 2 mos (cruising as his main locomotion from 4mos on), and didn't say anything resembling "mama" until he was almost 2. "Elevator" "backhoe loader," and "usually" took serious precedence (grumble).
DS1 (3y) also gets a brag: He was counting a lot today, but always looping from 11 to 8 (11 rhymes with 7, eh?), so I counted out to 20 making little tic marks in groups(we were colouring at the time). And I'm not sure exactly how we ended up there, but he was asking me to show him additions and multiplications on little arrays of circles. Just like me, gotta learn to multiply before you can learn to count! Counting don't make no sence w'out it. Lil Suck. Oh! DS2 got two brags, so DS1 gets two, too... After reading a book on evolution DS1 and I planted potatoes, and between those and a comment I made about avocados, he dragged me into a pretty fine-grained explanation of the process of domestication. I was about to say "what 3 yr old knows about ratchets on wheat," but then I thought of one who probably does. Oh well. Still
I love my kids. They're gonna make me so proud screwing with people's minds
DS8, doing an ALEKS topic on equations involving logarithms, gets a "Your answer is incorrect", which it is, because his calculation has given him a spurious solution (one that would have made the original equation involve the logarithm of a negative number), and he has entered it without noticing.
Me, perhaps slightly patronisingly: Remember, you can't take the logarithm of a negative number.
DS8, more patronisingly: Well, you can in fact, it's just that the answer is complex.
He has met Euler's identity, but we're confident that nobody, and no book, has ever talked to him about anything closer to this statement than that.
How's that for a wibble-brag?!
Off to google what your kid actually did. I had just used reading context clues to assume he made a math problem that needed negative numbers which mixed up two lessons in a way they hadn't taught yet.
Ah, the base of an exponent. Your kids got a great number sense!
Mr google tells me that's part of number theory which AOPS says is appropriate for 6-9th grade if they've already finished Algebra 1. Um.. Not a bad "stumble upon" for an eight year old to deduce.
My 5 1/2 year old started creating addition problems for himself; 4 digits up three levels deep. for example: 1563+ 1225+ 7171= He also started writing in cursive. Go figure....
This is a bit of a backwards brag, but this is the only place anyone will even understand why I consider it a brag.
Wolf's FINALLY hit a level he has to actually work at in Language Arts. His percentage on EPGY is finally dropping near 95% and one area is down to 75%. Darned esoteric parts of speech! I'm doing the happy dance while he is grumbling about having to look up a definition for the fourth time. Hooray for learning how to deal with frustration with schoolwork BEFORE college!
While at the library my 6 year old dd used the computer all by herself to look up the books she wanted. And then when they didn't have what she wanted she went and asked the librarian to put them on hold for her. She has always been very shy but is finally starting to come out of her shell more. Then she went through a whole list of authors that are her favorites to put books on hold. I can never remember people's names so it amazed me how she was able to just rattle off the names just like that. She was so grown up and independent... I was proud, yet mournful at the same time.
His percentage on EPGY is finally dropping near 95% and one area is down to 75%. Darned esoteric parts of speech! I'm doing the happy dance while he is grumbling about having to look up a definition for the fourth time. Hooray for learning how to deal with frustration with schoolwork BEFORE college!
Hooray indeed! Yup, we get it ;-)
MountainMom, hooray for your daughter overcoming shyness and getting what she wanted done, too. I doubt my DS8 could do that now.
La Texican, it's actually much, much worse than that. If even here nobody "got" my brag that's double-wibble, so anyone who did understand what it was that DS realised might drop me a PM just to reassure me ;-)
Tonight my daughter (about 32 months old now) was scribbling on a notepad. I was prepping some dinner for the kids nearby. Conversation ensued something like this:
"Mommy, don't break my papers. Be careful with them." "Ok, I will be careful, but I don't think they will break, since they are papers." ..works a few minutes more.. "These are my notes!" "What are your notes for?" with much gusto "My presentation!" Laughing, I said, "Your presentation? What is your presentation on?" She did not have an immediate answer but we decided it would be on how to be a good big sister.
I'm in grad school and recently had to put together a project and presentation. I never discussed it with her that I recall, though I may have told her not to touch the printed stack of articles I had or something similar. ?
Tonight my daughter (about 32 months old now) was scribbling on a notepad. I was prepping some dinner for the kids nearby. Conversation ensued something like this:
"Mommy, don't break my papers. Be careful with them." "Ok, I will be careful, but I don't think they will break, since they are papers." ..works a few minutes more.. "These are my notes!" "What are your notes for?" with much gusto "My presentation!" Laughing, I said, "Your presentation? What is your presentation on?" She did not have an immediate answer but we decided it would be on how to be a good big sister.
I'm in grad school and recently had to put together a project and presentation. I never discussed it with her that I recall, though I may have told her not to touch the printed stack of articles I had or something similar. ?
LOL. It reminds me of the phase my DD (4 at the time) had where she kept presenting DW and I with scribbled sheets of paper and declaring, "This is a contract. You HAVE to sign this contract!" We never did sign, because we suspected it was unreadable on purpose, and there was always a lot of white space for things to be added later.
mountainmom2011's post reminded me of this one time when my 2yr5mo daughter and I were at the Library info desk and I was asking the librarian to look up a book on her computer which she said she could not find. My daughter interrupted and said," If you cannot find it, let us go look for it." LOL. Another funny event I was reminded of after reading Dude's post was when I was getting ready to go overnight for a conference and my daughter pleaded with me not to leave her and go. I said," But I am presenting". She said," Mom, I will give you presents." I said," But I am going to be on TV." She said," Oh, come on, mom! Be on TV at home." LOL. She was 2 yr 7 mo when this happened. She cracks me up for sure.
DS2.5 had his play tools out and was banging on some boards. I came to see what he was doing and he told me with a serious little face, "I'm working, Mama, I can't play with you. Go play by yourself."
I overheard a conversation my 5 year old son was having with another kid while waiting in line to get into preschool class. They were arguing about how many seconds it would take to do something (I forget what). The other kid says it will take 4 minutes. My son replies immediately, "No way, that would be 240 seconds!"
My brother who's a 6th grade math teacher came to visit this weekend and likes to quiz him. He asked him what -12 + 9 is and he answered correctly. I had no idea he even knew about negative numbers. He then went on to teach him exponents.
I overheard a conversation my 5 year old son was having with another kid while waiting in line to get into preschool class. They were arguing about how many seconds it would take to do something (I forget what). The other kid says it will take 4 minutes. My son replies immediately, "No way, that would be 240 seconds!"
My brother who's a 6th grade math teacher came to visit this weekend and likes to quiz him. He asked him what -12 + 9 is and he answered correctly. I had no idea he even knew about negative numbers. He then went on to teach him exponents.
Your brother is amazing! Wolf was doing negative math on his own at 3 or 4. Amazing what they figure out isn't it?
My dd10 heard a song at a talent show that she liked on Friday called "The Show" by Lenka. She bought an iTunes card on Sunday, found wifi to download the song on her iPod and learned all the words. On Monday, after homework and school and ballet, she taught herself some of the piano. On Tuesday, she asked grandpa to come over after school, homework, ballet class, and a softball game to show her the piano parts she didn't get. She watched him figure out the song and on Wednesday she could play and song together with all the chord changes in perfect rhythm and time and she sounds great! She has never taken voice and only took piano for a year when she was six. But iT was mostly just reading music. I am so proud of her skill, but mostly I am proud she has found something she could follow through on! Yay music! Funny. She was the one who asked to quit the piano lessons!
DS3 demanded to know why people can drown in water when it has oxygen in it. I explained lungs and gills a bit, but it was hairy, I don't really "get" this stuff yet chem still escapes me, generally. Fast forward to breakfast time. Long conversation about why you can't/shouldn't put out a gas stove fire with water, Canada's eternal flame comes into it, then that weird gas vent with the river on top. Finally, the child appears satisfied... Now immagine a breathless mama thankful for a break in the questions. Wait for it...
DS: "Mama, how do[es] water put out fire if it has oxygen in it?"
Mama: crash. and. burn.
I never even thought about that.
So, I guess I'm bragging that my three year old broke me before breakfast hit the table
DS3 demanded to know why people can drown in water when it has oxygen in it. I explained lungs and gills a bit, but it was hairy, I don't really "get" this stuff yet chem still escapes me, generally. [...]
DS: "Mama, how do[es] water put out fire if it has oxygen in it?"
Mama: crash. and. burn.
I never even thought about that.
So, I guess I'm bragging that my three year old broke me before breakfast hit the table
Lol, donchajustlove conversations like that that go into areas you're not comfortable with? Our last one was about the European debt crisis and what money really is... I know I read a book once about M0 and M1 and so on, but I definitely wasn't comfortable trying to explain it to DS and he wasn't letting go!
I can answer yours, though, in case you haven't looked it up since! Fish etc. breathing through gills is nothing to do with the oxygen that's chemically in the water as H2O - that stays right where it is. The fish are breathing the gaseous oxygen (from the air and from plants) that is dissolved in the water, which is an unrelated thing. This is why fish die if something happens that means the water no longer carries the usual amount of dissolved oxygen, e.g., it's why if you keep fish you need to either have water plants in the tank with them or aerate the water. Similarly, water doesn't dissociate into hydrogen and oxygen because of heat alone, so it doesn't do so when you use it to put out a fire. I bet your DS would enjoy seeing an electrolysis experiment some time soon, though...
That's a great story! Your kid is really thinking hard.
The reason that water puts out many (not all) fires is that it cools the fuel below the temperature needed to maintain the combustion reaction, and most common fuels do not have an exothermic chemical reaction with the water. While there is a small amount of molecular oxygen dissolved in most water, the bulk of the oxygen is already "burned", chemically combined with hydrogen. The fuel would have to be able to break the chemical bond between the hydrogen and the oxygen in order to re-use the chemically-bound oxygen in water for combustion.
Not all chemical reactions that generate heat and light (the sorts of things we like to think of as "fires") require oxygen. Magnesium is a great example of a fuel source that can burn under a multitude of circumstances (under water, in a pure nitrogen atmosphere, etc.), which would extinguish most other fires.
I can answer the firefighting question... there are three required elements for fire: heat, oxygen, and fuel. Take out any one of the three members of the "fire triangle", and you end the fire. All firefighting agents work to remove one of those three elements.*
Water works by removing the heat element, because water absorbs heat and evaporates, which is a highly endothermic process. It cools a fire the same way sweat cools your skin.
* There are some uncommon agents that are exceptions to this rule. They remove neither heat, oxygen, nor fuel. They're said to operate on the free radicals that allow combustion to continue as a chain reaction. In some fire studies this is considered the 4th side in the "fire tetrahedron," and in others it's the three points that connect the sides of the fire triangle. Either way, this is pretty advanced chemistry stuff here, so feel free to disregard.
DD 17 months appears to know her ABCs (or at least most of them.) She signs all of them and has been pointing out a few of them for a few weeks now (the first time she did it was in a picture book. I asked her if she saw the letter "E" anywhere and she got excited and pointed to Elmo's "E" bath rug and towel. When we asked if there was a potty in the picture, she also said "YES!" - crystal clear - and pointed to it with excitement. That was the first and only time she's ever said a word that clearly.)
She learned them from Signing Time and me telling her what they were. She tries to say a few, (B - Bah!) but most of her words are still very hard to understand.
She also showed interest in a semi-complex 6 pc shape sorter the other day and had it mastered by the 2nd day. I think all those puzzles she loves helped.
(the gas just bubbles up through the water, and gets unpredictable, like the fire dances from gas bubble to gas bubble, or a cloud of gas forms and then suddenly ignights when it gets big enough to reach a part that was burning the whole time.)
I had never paid much attention to my DD8's MAP test results, other than to notice that they were continuing to go up. But after reading another thread here, I went and looked them up. Last month, she got a 1328, which would be 90th percentile for a 12th grader. :-O
She tore through the Percy Jackson books earlier this year, and has organized a complicated "goddesses" game on the playground (now that playing "Warriors" has been banned due to general misbehavior).
I had never paid much attention to my DD8's MAP test results, other than to notice that they were continuing to go up. But after reading another thread here, I went and looked them up. Last month, she got a 1328, which would be 90th percentile for a 12th grader. :-O
She tore through the Percy Jackson books earlier this year, and has organized a complicated "goddesses" game on the playground (now that playing "Warriors" has been banned due to general misbehavior).
That is awesome! And the game sounds like something my 8 yo dd would love to play!
Must be Lexile. We don't exactly get inundated with information about these tests. At least they haven't attempted to restrict her reading based on them.
Background: We're in the van, driving home from daycare. We having been talking about something completely separate from the following conversation: DS: Mom, you know there's no vampires on this Earth, right? Me: Yeah, how do you know that? DS: It's easy. See, if there was a vampire he would have to bite a person and that person would become a vampire. Then there would be two vampires and they would both have to bite people so then there would be 4, and then they bite people and there's 8, and then 16, see...? Me: Okaaayyy.... DS: Well, pretty soon if all the vampires keep biting people like that then everyone would be a vampire. And since you're not a vampire and I'm not a vampire then that means not everyone's a vampire so that must mean that no one's a vampire.
This is the kind of weird conversation that I don't think is happening in the vehicle next to me at the stop light.
DS8 (Gr 4) did fabulous on his state testing again this year....still sticking my tongue out at his rediculous school who scoffed at the thought of him being in the correct grade when we moved here (he was skipped at our prior location)...two years in a row he's stuck it to them!
A milestone of sorts (related to the last post, actually) - I just went and looked over my bookshelves with DD, and we picked out a book for her to read. (Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.)
This is the kind of weird conversation that I don't think is happening in the vehicle next to me at the stop light.
Oddly enough I think the same thing very often. Then shared that with one of my Cub Scout parents and they told me a story that made them think the exact same thing! You aren't alone. It's a fun ride, huh?
A milestone of sorts (related to the last post, actually) - I just went and looked over my bookshelves with DD, and we picked out a book for her to read. (Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.)
I am SO looking forward to sharing Anne McCaffrey with my kids! Love her! I think once DS is through with Rick Riordan I might be able to entice him with dragons! Don't think he's quite ready for the sexual content in the Lessa stories yet, though. lol
Not sure if this qualifies as a brag, but I recently had the opportunity to take DS8 to an author appearance for his most recent favorite book (The False Prince by Jennifer Nielsen). He was the only person there under the age of 12 and talked very knowledgeably with her about the plot, character motivations, etc. It was so much fun to watch and Jennifer Nielsen was fantastic with him! It was a great night for DS and for me!
DS 6 has avoided taking off his training wheels for a year now and as the summer approaches he has already seen several of his friends riding their bikes around town sans training wheels. Today despite his fears, he bit the bullet and is now training wheel free! Yippee!
DS 6 has avoided taking off his training wheels for a year now and as the summer approaches he has already seen several of his friends riding their bikes around town sans training wheels. Today despite his fears, he bit the bullet and is now training wheel free! Yippee!
So is Wolf as of today and doing amazing! Yay for 2 wheelers!
we've been tinking we heard "mama" for a couple of days, and I though t I saw waving... Today, DS6mo definitly said "bag" "that," "[olderbro'sname]wandat" (to mean I want that), and waved in a socially apropriate way.
My 4.5 just started doing the how-to-draw books Independantly. Before that I modeled on my page while he worked on his. This train and these dragons he copied alone.
we've been tinking we heard "mama" for a couple of days, and I though t I saw waving... Today, DS6mo definitly said "bag" "that," "[olderbro'sname]wandat" (to mean I want that), and waved in a socially apropriate way.
and he got a tooth
That is so cool.
DD3 was in her room playing with her imaginary pet lizard "Geese" (not to be confused with her imaginary ghost friends, Meesum and Geesum.) From across the hall I heard her frantic theatrics as an (imaginary) owl had come and snatched the poor little guy.
Then I heard her say something like, "Geese, if you can answer three of my questions right, I will let you go," in a deep owl voice.
She asked the very clever Geese:
Which states begin with the letter A? What is 2 plus 2? and Which planet's rings are made of ice?
I have no idea where she got this idea from, and was floored by how well she formed her questions! Geese was spared.
New here and eager to share things that we normally keep to ourselves. My DS5 is away with his grandparents (sniff). I got him a notebook and special pen for doodling during the plane ride. My inlaws tell me that he is creating a trip journal and writing about all his 'discoveries' complete with illustrations in it instead. Go figure.
My DD2 has been successfully potty-training for 3 days! She is also waking up dry from nap and nighttime.
Anitdote to a tough day: this is more of a revealing anecdote than a brag.
2 mos ago, DS3y "failed" his level one swim class, (really because he is very young for it, it's for 3-5 yr olds, they are expected to be able to pass level 3 by the time they have their 6th birthday) but they gave out report cards with checks and x's, and I pointed out to him that he could actually do many of the x'd things a year ago. He was taken aback or something, and wanted to go back in the pool and rectify the situation immediately.
This morning, he got his "report card" from the next set of classes. He passed level two (despite being enrolled in level one), with every single point met. This is particularly shocking, because I am VERY sure I did not know he could do half of that stuff.
We've had them in the water since they were 4 mos old, becasue with DS1 it was one of the only times he'd stop crying! When we switched pools, I was a little annoyed to encounter report cards, alas, the other was destroyed by fire.
Not a brag but this tickled us: DD8 was at a recent check-up and the pediatrician asked her what books she likes to read. After a thoughtful pause, she said, "Pretty much every genre but horror."
Last week, Dh was reading a science article on his phone when DS2 ran up to him. Dh tried to shut the phone off quickly and DS2 yelled, "Hey! I wanted to read that science thing!" There were not any contextual clues for him to gather that it was a science article. Then yesterday, DD4 is laboring through her BOB book and DS2 runs up behind her, reads the sentence she is struggling with and then hops away giggling. DD was so focused that she didn't even notice him. We just started the BOB books this week (I just learned of them last week)and I am hoping that DD will be fluently reading before she figures out her little brother is reading.
So cute, Cawdor! DS has been asking for music lessons again lately. I'm going to show him some of your son's videos to inspire him. We don't have money for lessons right now, but we do have some books bought a while back. He used to play around on the keyboard and come up with some interesting songs, but sadly that's fallen off.
Hanni (4) has such a scientist's mind. Last night we were talking about how at her swim class we saw scuba tanks discharging, and she said, maybe the noise was from air going in, not out. I said, no, that couldn't be it, because we put our fingers up to the valve and felt the air coming out. (I didn't feel like getting into an explanation of compressed air.)
I felt bad for being the know-it-all grownup and squashing her thought process, but I needn't have worried. This morning when I thought she was still asleep, I heard her voice from the bedroom: "Mama, I just thought of another idea about why they were emptying the tanks. Maybe it was to get old bad air out and put in new fresh air."
It trips me out that she was still thinking about it the next morning.
You can tell her that scuba tanks are generally considered "empty" with 500psi still in the tank, because you want to keep positive pressure to keep out impurities that you wouldn't want to inhale. But at least once a year they have to be emptied completely, for visual inspection. The insides have to be verified to be clean and free of corrosion.
Just had to share this one- DS6 just asked me "Mom, do you know why people have schools? It's because it's kind of awkward when grown ups don't know something that they're supposed to." I didn't bother to reply because I figure that this might be as good a reason as any.
Oh, and he also explained to me when he saw the full moon the other night that the earth was turning around so the sun was starting to face the other side of the Earth and that now the moon was reflecting the light from the sun. I asked him where he learned this and he looked thoughtful for a minute and said "I don't know. I think it just sounds right." He's such a sponge for knowledge that he just absorbs it all the time and later has no idea where the information even came from- it just IS.
Vwmommy....you DS sounds sooooooooo much like my DS5(going on 6). He will usually say, "i just know" when I ask him where he learned something.
My brag is that I coped well the past two weeks DS5 was visiting grandparents 800 miles away. He haf an awesome time and brought home a journal he made from the trip. He was most excited to find an early bday present waiting for him when he got home: a world map floor puzzle. He gathered all the continent pieces together in a bunch and exclaimed, "Look! I made Pangea!"...which he thought was hilarious.
"Look! I made Pangea!"...which he thought was hilarious.
Oh my, our sons should get together to play drifting continents LOL My DS is 6 and when drifting continents were his passing obsession, he drew dozens of world maps showing Pangea and Gondwanaland.
Over time I've wanted to teach my son study skills. He just watched khan academy you tube division video. He asked for his white board markers and took the phone in there and making use of the pause button he took pretty thorough notes for the 17 minute video. He put notes for every major point of the video on the board. I was excited he made all those notes on his own and that he asked for his marker and decided to do it on his own too. He didn't teach himself division, but he learned how to take good notes already. I have an idea that's a big part of being able to teach yourself or to learn anything you want. He's just over 4.5 yrs. old. and he already made his own notes on a division video. I guess I couldn't brag so freely about this one without pointing out it's the acquired note-taking skills that I'm bragging about.
Wolf just got promoted to blue/red belt after his best testing ever!
Bear (5 years, 4 months) finally for the first time EVER pooped on the potty!!! It took a full sized candy bar sitting on the counter taunting him for a week and a half, but be finally did it! AND he's finally willing to wear pull ups again only nine months after he was traumatized by a bad counselor.
WyldKat...amazing sucesses! What a great way to start summer!
Maybe not so much a brag but cracked me up: My DS5 adores maps. He was looking at Hawaii. I asked him what he knew about it. He answered, "It's full of beautiful waterfalls, amazing volcanoes, luxiurios hotels, and scenic golf courses." Where did you hear that? "Wheel of Fortune," he smugly replied. I was rolling!
Re Wheel of Fortune: My son, 15, jokes that he is planning to write a book, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Video games. It's amusing when he comes up with a correct Jeopardy response and says, for example, I learned that in Age of Empires. Many of the games in question are historical simulations, which goes to show an eager learner can amass knowledge whereve he can find it. . It's the approach to the material; not the material.
DD4 - asked me to teach her how to read a clock so that I would get her a watch (analog) (she caught on in about 30 min while she was taking a bath lol) - DD asked me about odds and evens...she caught on to the concept in about 15 minutes - we were looking for new puzzles / games and found some neat puzzles of different part of the world...asked her which one she wanted and she chose Africa "because I have never been there" - she loves geography and wants to constantly discuss how it is warmer near the equator; how when it is day here, it is night in India; that the moon reflects the sunlight; that when we flew from the midwest to FL, we were going south and slightly east - she also asked me the other day how many stars were on the flag (50)...oh, one for every state. I asked her were she learned that and she said she did not remember...
Many of these conversations happen in the car on the way home from school...I am usually shaking my head and laughing at the same time
My 8yo son has qualified for the Study of Exceptional Talent by scoring at least 700 on the math section of the SAT. His verbal and writing scores were in the 400s, which are also good at his age.
He prepared as follows. After finishing Honors Beginning Algebra at EPGY I challenged him to get a 600 on the math SAT and mentioned 700 as a "reach". He read an SAT math book by Richard Corn as well as The Official SAT Study Guide and a Kaplan book, and he took three practice tests (just the math sections). He has participated in MOEMS (Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools) for 2 years.
Besides his scores, I am pleased by the effort he put forth to prepare and to sit for a 4-hour exam. My advocacy of a grade skip in math has failed so far (skipping 3 grades to 8th grade Algebra I would be conservative), but so far our after-schooling appears to be successful.
My 8yo son has qualified for the Study of Exceptional Talent by scoring at least 700 on the math section of the SAT. Besides his scores, I am pleased by the effort he put forth to prepare and to sit for a 4-hour exam.
That's great Bostonian!!!! Very very impressive - both in terms of work ethic and in terms of talent.
I hope that the scores also help with advocacy. There is something magic about SAT scores for people who live in the New England states that is worth more than 1,000 words. Smiles, Grinity
Wow! Good for him. I'm sure that you and your wife helped him, so congrats to you both as well.
Sorry to hear about the refusal to let him skip a grade, but I suppose it's not surprising. I used to do a deal with my 12 year-old when he was that age: I would do his math homework (faked his writing) and in exchange, he would do his algebra. It worked well for us, but YMMV.
My 8yo son has qualified for the Study of Exceptional Talent by scoring at least 700 on the math section of the SAT. His verbal and writing scores were in the 400s, which are also good at his age.
He prepared as follows. After finishing Honors Beginning Algebra at EPGY I challenged him to get a 600 on the math SAT and mentioned 700 as a "reach". He read an SAT math book by Richard Corn as well as The Official SAT Study Guide and a Kaplan book, and he took three practice tests (just the math sections). He has participated in MOEMS (Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools) for 2 years.
Besides his scores, I am pleased by the effort he put forth to prepare and to sit for a 4-hour exam. My advocacy of a grade skip in math has failed so far (skipping 3 grades to 8th grade Algebra I would be conservative), but so far our after-schooling appears to be successful.
I used to do a deal with my 12 year-old when he was that age: I would do his math homework (faked his writing) and in exchange, he would do his algebra.
DS4 has started reading silently. I don't remember when DD started doing this, but it seems like a milestone to me. His stamina is also improving, such that he's able to read entire short books at a time (leveled readers in the grade 2-3 range).
DH was asking me how DS learned to read last night (he hadn't had him read aloud to him for a while and was surprised at how far he'd come), and just as with DD, I have to answer that I'm not really sure. We did help him learn to sound out, and he was in a very phonics-rich house and played Starfall, but it's just like with her in that I have no idea whatosever how we went from helping him with "Stop!...Do...not...hop...on...pop!" to "Houndsley and Catina were having a delicious lunch of strawberries and biscuits when the doorbell rang outside." Good lord, the human brain is so bizarre!
21 month old picked up a pink toy cash register from a shelf in the store and said (completely to herself, walking away with it) "Here a go. It for you. Thank you. You're Welcome.". Lmao
I used to do a deal with my 12 year-old when he was that age: I would do his math homework (faked his writing) and in exchange, he would do his algebra.
LOL!!!
That had me laughing, too.
Congratulations to your DS, Bostonian-- that's really terrific!
Per Duke TIP: DD12 was in the 99th percentile of talent search kids in each of the 3 SAT sections: critical reading, math, and writing. Loooong test, for which she didn't do any preparation.
"many seem to have voiced the same comment - that they can't share their children's accomplishments with anyone"
aw, that made me tear up!! Boy can I relate.
I'm reading through all these neat stories and my brain has seized up (lol) because I don't even know where to start... so, I'll start at the beginning:
DD9 had a cardiac ultrasound when she was 5 days old (her heart is fine :-) but during the ultrasound she tried twice to push the wand off her chest. The cardiologist was taken aback: "Wow! Did you see that? They normally can't do that at this age!" (meanwhile DH & I were too worried about her heart to care, lol). Now I think it's pretty cool though
DD(4)held her pacifier in her mouth at the hospital and at one week old was batting at toys on her exercise mat. The pedi exclaimed that she was the most alert newborn he had ever seen...
DD(4)held her pacifier in her mouth at the hospital and at one week old was batting at toys on her exercise mat. The pedi exclaimed that she was the most alert newborn he had ever seen...
Early baby stuff...I'm on this forum for my DS5, though he was a preemie and slept A LOT as a NB (luckily perfectly healthy at 35 weeks!). But my DD2 blew us away as a NB...she could hold up her head right away, the nurses couldn't believe she was a 37 weeker. She was sooooo alert, it was almost creepy.
On another front, my DS5 is FINALLY having success with swimming lessons after sinking like a panicked-rock. He even taught himself to float on his back in our blow-up pool yesterday. He doesn't come by physical achievements easily (though he's doing well at summer soccer). I was worried my DD2 might swim before him. We'll see if he can ride a 2-wheeler before her. Fingers crossed.
My daughter's smart. She knows what she wants. She has a quick temper. She's beautiful and very charming. Sometimes she gives me a genuine "thank you" for something as simple as changing her diaper or getting her dressed. She's a daredevil. She scares me when she goes on the big slide. My brag today is FUNNY. She sucked on a sweet tangy grapefruit for nearly a minute and a half. Then she let out a whooping yell of refreshment. It was the biggest "Woo" yell I've seen. I was ready to take the pick because I was expecting the lemon pucker face.
She randomly read the word "easy" on a sign. She said "easy. ee ee ss ss". That was the sound of her doing the phonics after it. My mother in law saw the baby correctly spell cat on the iPhone app. first try. She has counted to 13 at the most. She sings "twinkle, twinkle, little star. Uh-uh-up . Like a star.".
La Texican...love the pic! My kids have always sucked on lemons from our water at restaurants (probably to please Daddy). Your DD sounds amazing!
I had to make a brag today. I have several friends with boys 1-2 years older then my DS5. DS had had his fair share of getting the 'little brother's treatment. Yesterday, I overheard this conversation between the 7 year-old and my DS.
"You're still a little kid." DS: "No I'm not." "Do you know math?" DS: "Yes."
...and then DS was quizzed on a myriad of math equations. He answered them happily and not smugly...but got every one correct (go DS!).
"OK, you do know w math." And the little twerp walked away
This is probably the only place that I can post this brag and have someone understand how important is is to DD.
DD9, with mild dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD, got an "A" in writing on her final report card. She worked her friggin' patootie off for it and I am so proud that I could bust. Previous to this year, she has only ever managed a "C". But, with fantastic teachers and appropriate accomodations she was able to show what she can do. The smile on her face was worth every $ we have spent on diagnoses and anxiety-therapy over the past three years. Not only is she writing to her potential... but the phrase 'gifted writer' was used!!
I'm very new to this forum, and I'm going to purge what I haven't been able to say to anyone! This has been an awesome ride, albeit a daunting one.
My kid is amazing! He's 6-years-old and has finished his first year of school- First grade. He taught himself to read at age 3, so reading wasn't an issue for school. He'd never seen any type of math anything, but by October had mastered the first grade curriculum having never attended kindergarten. By the end of the year, his teacher had him working third grade math sheets. He'll be starting his second year of school in September- Third grade. He'll be 6-years-old.
We started the testing process because he was having attention problems, and monopolizing all of his teacher's time with his compulsive talking in preschool. They recommended he be tested, as well as move on to first grade because of his reading ability. We had no idea that testing would reveal absolutely nothing...except the fact that we had a profoundly gifted son. Ummm...excuse me? I thought he was being tested because he was a spaz? ;-)
He's been accepted to CTY, and is attending SIG this summer. We're in the process of submitting to DYS now.
I can think of lots to brag about but I will keep it short.
Both my kids are so loving and compassionate. My daughter has a special place in her heart for animals, and she puts that off in her energy because animals gravitate towards her and she just loves them all.
My son who is 4 still has a lot of "baby" left in him and I love it, he still calls me momma and always finds his way towards my lap. Both my kids have a heart of gold
This is more a teacher brag than anything Ds9 (turned 9 last month) has been attending a gardening camp at his school -a couple of hours each morning. There is also summer school going on at his school, so he's been bumping into his (4th grade)math teacher quite a bit. They have been discussing ds9's soccer, and the teacher said he would try and get to see him play sometime. The other night at summer soccer, his teacher showed up and watched him play for an hour ! How cool is that ?? Of course, ds scored a bunch of goals and totally impressed his teacher LOL
Can I get a high-five from my fellow introverts? Both my kids are home and they are both in their respective rooms silently reading. SCORE! (This isn't unusual for DD8, of course...but DS4 has just recently started reading "in his head" and also hasn't had much stamina for reading till recently. Usually DD goes in her room to read and DS pesters her to play/interact till she relents, or he gives up and pesters me instead. I mean, not that he is a pest, usually.)
I told you the other day my girl read "easy" on a sign and then said "ee-ee-ss-ss" acting like she was doing the phonics on it. Yesterday she pointed to an O & S and called them by name then blended the sounds correctly and said the "os" sound. That wasn't the word. The word was lots on the Big Lots shopping cart handle, but she blended the two letters that she named. That's new. Almost 2. Sings along with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song. Gets is mostly right. Also sings with the big numbers song on YouTube and often knows what numbers coming next (sings ahead). 1-100. Is not potty trained but has pretended in a lot of different ways. The latest is that she's potty training her doll, complete with grunts & "are you done yet"?
She's taking full advantage of her brothers hand-me-down education. She's learning so much before I get around to teaching her, but she has a lot of stuff in the house that Wyatt had to wait for, including an older sibling.
Wyatt read a list of picture books long enough to almost fill a notebook page over the summer. I wrote them down with dates because I was proud.
Just "taught" my DD(4) to add and subtract 2 and 3 digit numbers (no carrying numbers yet). I showed her one simple math problem and she kept asking for more and more and more...and then said "let's review our work" lol
In addition, she is still in the process of figuring out / memorizing basic math facts and used the following process to figure out a what 3+ 4 equals..."I know 3+3 = 6, so 1 more must be 7" I think I may have shown her that once or twice...but it has been awhile and she just pulled it out of her memory to use it... Hard to think that she has 1 more year until kindergarten...
It was a rather inappropriate thing with five verses and no choruses, which he particularly likes when I sing it, which I do a lot because it has just the right rythm to get his little brother to sleep. It was ammusing to note that he mumbled the same words I usually mumble when singing it in public... because it's rather inappropriate. Anyway. He did it rather well, even grabbed his turn rather ellegantly. The turn-grabbing shouldn't really surprise me, since one of our ongoing problems is that he refuses to really admit that being a kid should interfear with being taken as seriously in an adult situation as an adult. But anyway.
He sang a whole song! In public! OMG, my BABY, he's growing UP!!!!! Eeek!
I used to do a deal with my 12 year-old when he was that age: I would do his math homework (faked his writing) and in exchange, he would do his algebra.
LOL!!!
Oh that's brilliant!! I'm going to remember that one (Seriously. I can fake handwriting, lol)
My dd6 has been saying every day for about a week that she "can't wait!" for school to start! She's in an HGT program with the same teacher her DYS10 brother had in 1st grade, so she already knows the teacher. I'm so excited and happy for her that she's ready to go. (And I'm so excited for me, that someone else will help address her insatiable need to learn that's sparked by virtually every new experience she has.)
DS is only in his second week of preschool, so I'm wary, but he seems to be enjoying it. His teacher appears smitten, which is good. It helps that he is extremely cute (I'm not just saying this; he is rather cherubic) and has a sweet personality. Anyway, she told me today that he always knows all the answers to everything and that she has to tell him to let the other kids have a chance, but she said this in a doting way, not negatively. She also has discovered that he can read, thusly:
Teacher, holding up book: What do you think this book might be about? DS: Well, it's called ___________, so....
We just found out that they're letting DD into Geometry this year! This is after a year of homeschooling algebra and multiple rounds of testing at the end of last school year to see if she qualified for the class. They finally got the results from the state Algebra exam and she's in!
The day my lo turned 20 months she put her first 4 pc jigsaw puzzle together. For a straight week she had me helping her 15-30 times a day. She worked so hard! She'll be 21 months in a few days and she can do her 4 pc, 6pc, and 9 pc jigsaws without help- and 12 pc ones with a little help. She is getting good at figuring out her 24 pc with my help, too. *proud*
Did some browsing just now on Scholastic.com looking for reading levels of books DS8 has read. At age 7, grade 2, he was reading at about grade 4.1 - 4.5 level, and he has a language processing disorder and ADHD. Yay DS!!
My son is 15 months old, and he is in love with language. He can clearly speak more than 100 words, can identify six or more letters of the alphabet, often speaks in sentences (His very first sentence was "I see a deer"), loves to look at books, and "reads" signs everywhere we go. He also loves music and is starting to sing while playing the guitar, tambourine, or xylophone.
Wow we can actually talk about our kids here. This is great. I guess I'll post something about my son. He is 2 years and 10 months and reading at a 1st grade level. I am very proud of him.
DS 3.8 was curled up on the couch with Harry Potter 1 last night. After spending thirty minutes with his nose in the book he said " this is a great book"! He read a couple of pages out loud without missing any words! I guess his reading level increased by about 2 grade levels over the summer.
Interesting run of literacy ultimate brags lately! As we come to the end of the long summer holiday, I thank my lucky stars for a bookworm child - it makes life so much easier! My best potential current brag is probably that DS8 has been reading and rereading The Silmarillion with great pleasure. The new stage we've reached in the last year is that it now makes sense to recommend selected not-specifically-for-children books that we think he'll enjoy; other particular hits have been Agatha Christie's Poirot stories (although they don't half lead to interesting questions: "what is a vegetable alkaloid?", "how do you smoke opium?", "what is a pawn shop" - thank goodness I got him to spell the last before answering it ;-) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I don't often get round to commenting on the Ultimate Brag Thread postings, but I love reading them!
The literacy brags are interesting. DS7 seems to be advancing fairly steadily in his reading tastes, but it's hard to tell how much his reading skills themselves are advancing because he reads so much squirreled away in his room and doesn't like to read with me so much any more. Giving him a laptop with access to dictionary.com helped to make him more independent. Right now he's reading "Footfall", "Startide Rising", the "Wrinkle In Time" series, and a smattering of science-related stuff including his Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines. He looooves THGTTG.
Originally Posted by Khombi
DS 3.8 was curled up on the couch with Harry Potter 1 last night. After spending thirty minutes with his nose in the book he said " this is a great book"! He read a couple of pages out loud without missing any words!
That's pretty good accuracy. IIRC DS7 played fast and loose with articles and prepositions around that age, especially when reading fast.
Originally Posted by islandofapples
The day my lo turned 20 months she put her first 4 pc jigsaw puzzle together. For a straight week she had me helping her 15-30 times a day. She worked so hard! She'll be 21 months in a few days and she can do her 4 pc, 6pc, and 9 pc jigsaws without help- and 12 pc ones with a little help. She is getting good at figuring out her 24 pc with my help, too. *proud*
She might like this rainforest 48-piece puzzle. It's got a neat layout with well-defined regions. For some reason both of my sons started with the blue butterfly when doing it the first time.
DD4.5 got bumped up to jr kinder this year (youngest in the class). The jr kinder class is the same room as the kinder and based on her level, they are going to have her do the kinder work this year (private preschool). The teachers seem really excited that she knows so much and learns so quickly. I just told them that my main objective was that she was happy and continued to have a love of learning (and that she still gets to act like the 4 year old she is). She is extremely excited about just being in the room with the older kids and said that she was so excited she was crying lol. Not sure what will happen next year when she goes to public school, but we will tackle that when it comes.
There is a store not far from us called "Pawn King."
DS4: "LOOK! That store is a CHESS STORE!!"
Speaking of DS4, he claims to have read The Magic Finger, by Roald Dahl, to himself. I have seen him wandering around with it and apparently reading it, so I guess maybe he did. It has pictures and isn't very long, but still. I'm never really sure what he can actually read, because he hasn't been at the "sit down and read a chapter book" stage. (Till now? I don't know if that's really a chapter book...sort of a long picture book or something.) He tends to be more of an obsessive consumer/rereader/random flipper-through of nonfiction books that are hard to categorize as to reading level.
This is another "Is this a Brag, or... um..." brag.
DS 3:4 has been asking about the 'facts of life.' We've told him most of it, and he seems to be pushing on the "how does the sperm get to the egg" question, which makes us nervous. Anyway, today I drew a pic of him and his brother. He said "draw a pic of ____ while he was inside your body" so I drew a fetus. He said "draw ____ when he was an egg" so I drew an egg. Things got a little more difficult from there. Suffice it to say there are two things I didn't draw. If figuring out what's missing is the hard part... he's got it down.
An accomplishmant from June. So, proud of the little guy. At kindergarten graduation, with 8 adults on stage, over a hundred little kids, he was not only the only one to not just get on the stage from the wrong side, but he remained blissfully unaware despite the counter urgings of all the adults as he crossed over to get his certificate. If you are going to be in the 1%: own it.
Seems worth mentioning as I'm sure it will remain in family lore and be retold to all future dates he may have.
The day my lo turned 20 months she put her first 4 pc jigsaw puzzle together. For a straight week she had me helping her 15-30 times a day. She worked so hard! She'll be 21 months in a few days and she can do her 4 pc, 6pc, and 9 pc jigsaws without help- and 12 pc ones with a little help. She is getting good at figuring out her 24 pc with my help, too. *proud*
She might like this rainforest 48-piece puzzle. It's got a neat layout with well-defined regions. For some reason both of my sons started with the blue butterfly when doing it the first time.
I didn't buy the rainforest one, but I thought about it! I did get a few other M&D 48 pc puzzles for Christmas. A princess one, horse one, and another 24 pc. We work on a 24 pc M&D one with safari animals right now. She's very good with picking patterns that match, but not as good at figuring out where they go right away. With a little guidance from me she often gets it and can pick the next piece out.
She is finally starting to talk more! She tries to name all the letters now. Before she would (could?) only sign them.
I took my three year old to a store that sells swtiches and capacitors and stuff. You know the type, shelves full of dusty. narrow boxes with labels like "mystery logic" and "broken stuff with parts." We went to get a magnet and some lightbulbs (because I, acting like Red Green or somewho, blew his with a bigger battery).
DH and the younger one were a little worried about us when we got back out the door 1.5 hours later. I honestly had no idea we'd been in there so long.
My three year old enjoys spending 1.5 hours compairing switches, examining miniature drill bits, and trying to find an excuse for buying engine parts. (He is going to build a viking ship with a triangular sail, electric motor, and fighters on it, apparently... next year when he's an adult)
He's... just... so... awesome.
Edited to add: So is the store; the clerk understood every word he said. That never happens. They talked about the Mars rover, and the viking ship, and building a marble sorter out of cardboard.
I pulled out the addition flashcards I had made two years earlier for my older boy. My younger one just started second grade. They are things like 8+9 = 17 or 5+ 7 = 12. He knows them all cold, even though we never did them formally! I'll check subtraction next week, but he probably knows them. My older boy has a processing disorder learning disability, so we did flashcards (addition, subtraction, etc.) almost daily with him for 2 years. He now knows them cold too but it was a big time commitment. My little one also knew all 500 second grade words the teacher gave us at back to school night, as words they should know by the end of second grade.
Tonight DD9 says to me "I think I should go to bed at 8:30 tonight instead of 9:00. I was really tired this morning, and you know how long it takes me to fall asleep. Actually, you know what? Maybe I should go to bed at 8:00. If I do, can you wake me up at 6:00 so that I'm wide awake for school?" (which starts at 8:47)
Wow. Can you say "executive function development" ?
(you'd have to know both my erratic, impulse-driven kids to understand how freaking AMAZING this is)
Funny: DD4 likes old Roger Miller novelty songs, so the other day as I was getting her out of the car, I sang the lyric, "You can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch..." after which she responded, "Actually, Daddy, you can if you're fishing for watermelons."
DD7 had her first soccer game of the new season, with a new team. She scored the first goal of the year, and assisted on two others. She had one more goal taken away by a teammate, when she broke out on a clean breakaway, her teammate ran her down and stole it from behind her, then stumbled and lost the ball.
You can still see her being ever-so-careful in tight quarters, because she doesn't want to cause anyone to get hurt, but it's a huge improvement from this same time last year, when she was so careful she might as well have been a spectator.
my first time posting on the Brag thread! ... not sure if this is anything to brag about or not? Just realized my DS2.5 can do pattern block puzzles? I never showed him ... he got seriously attached to DS4's Leappad two weeks ago and hasn't let it go since and in those two weeks has learned how to play all the games and read the books, etc. ... and just now I overheard the UmiZoomi game telling him "congratulations! you fixed 7 toys!" ... and I look over and see him working on pattern block puzzles! lol ... I love it when they figure stuff on their own! On one hand our biggest problem is that both boys are so self-directed ... but that's just what makes them be the person they are!
Ok, when people start posting on here it gets contagious, which is probably a good thing, tight? All of us thinkin' happy thoughts? Thanks for making me thing sweet thought about my critters.
DS engaged in polite dinner table conversation! He asked all his relatives if they know of any dinosaurs that are still alive but do not fly. There was some confusion about brontosauri and Komodo dragons, but emus and ostriches were mentioned.
DS2 gets a lil brag; he is now waving and saying hi and bye
After that success, he managed to stay at the joiner table tonight, as well, though we did not accomplish conversation, quite.
Bear (my 2e super sensitive, ultra-timid, anti-group and VERY anti-group movement activities kiddo) just had his first all charter play practice. I had been ready for all sorts of problems and you know what I got? After an initial bout of basic shyness he JOINED IN!!! Laughing, smiling, making eye contact, hamming it up... in a group.... in a group that was milling and following director's instructions... with students he didn't know... with a teacher he didn't know... I'm so beside myself I can't even type sensibly. I'm actually crying as I write this. It was nothing short of miraculous!
Bear (my 2e super sensitive, ultra-timid, anti-group and VERY anti-group movement activities kiddo) just had his first all charter play practice. I had been ready for all sorts of problems and you know what I got? After an initial bout of basic shyness he JOINED IN!!! Laughing, smiling, making eye contact, hamming it up... in a group.... in a group that was milling and following director's instructions... with students he didn't know... with a teacher he didn't know... I'm so beside myself I can't even type sensibly. I'm actually crying as I write this. It was nothing short of miraculous!
that is so great! I hope DS4 and DS2 will be able to join in like that someday too!
Another fabulous milestone: on a 2-hour drive, both kids were dead silent most of the time because both were reading to themselves. (Meanwhile, DH and I had a civil, uninterrupted conversation sotto voce in the front seat. Yessss!) Boy, this "two kids who can really read" thing is the bomb.
Don't know if this qualifies as a brag... it's more like a developmental moment of self awareness... by my adorable DS8 just announced that Zane is his favourite Lego Ninjago character because "he's strange and smart."
Last year (April 2011) EJ was reading Biscuit books. Last year, kindergarten, he started in guided reading level "d" and finished on "j". This year, in first grade, he was assessed at a level "n". I think his reading is starting to catch up with his math!
Boy, this "two kids who can really read" thing is the bomb.
Ooo, I'm so jealous! I can't wait for my kid to become a fluent reader. It's like having a pre-potty-trained toddler -- part of me doesn't believe the day will ever come.
Another fabulous milestone: on a 2-hour drive, both kids were dead silent most of the time because both were reading to themselves. (Meanwhile, DH and I had a civil, uninterrupted conversation sotto voce in the front seat. Yessss!) Boy, this "two kids who can really read" thing is the bomb.
It can backfire, however, when your reading -riders heave all over the backseat from newly onset carsickness brought about by (you guessed it) READING in the car. Sigh.
Last year (April 2011) EJ was reading Biscuit books. Last year, kindergarten, he started in guided reading level "d" and finished on "j". This year, in first grade, he was assessed at a level "n". I think his reading is starting to catch up with his math!
Yay for advanced reading! I'm really curious where ds will fall on his reading eval - we do the letter system here also.
OK, I've joined this board for my ds who has the "classic" gifted signs : very eary reader /mathy-sciency /incessant questioning.
But my dd2.5 blew me away yesterday, after coming to me with a "peanut butter" face, I told her she needed to go get a napkin and wipe her hands and face (but we were out of napkins in the usual place). So, I told her she needed to get into the drawer in the table on the left to get a napkin ...and she understood this and did it!
I could see her computing the instructions. My ds was late with this type of multi-direction following, so it's fun yo see dd excel in her own way!
It can backfire, however, when your reading -riders heave all over the backseat from newly onset carsickness brought about by (you guessed it) READING in the car. Sigh.
BTDT. My girls love to read and do logic puzzles, etc., in the car, but we've had to switch to audiobooks instead.
BTDT. My girls love to read and do logic puzzles, etc., in the car, but we've had to switch to audiobooks instead.
Indeed. Put me on a boat, and I'm fine. Put a book in my face in a car, and I'm nauseous. My DD and DW read in the car all the time, and I don't know how they do it.
Yep...the Dvd player is our saving grace on tgr frequent 15+hour drives we take as family is quite far.
Incidental: I had never experienced car sickness when I became quite ill on a drive back from a grad school interview in D.C. My fiance wryly suggested it may have been the two -plus hour reading of the Washington Post's classified section that caused the issue.
We can't read in the car either. The three of us, DD, DS & myself are horribly prone to car sickness. Lucky DH on the other hand has never suffered from it. So yes... thank goodness for DVD players!!
I do have another brag: DD8 (attending a gifted magnet) recently got her first report card and it was straight As. We're all actually a bit baffled by this, since this year has seen MANY more wrong answers (in most cases she has left things blank or not followed instructions correctly) than we have EVER seen before in her life, and her teacher is grumbling about "attention issues." We were all quite sure there would not be an A in math, especially. However, an A it was. I think it's possible her teacher was either grading on the curve or going easy on all the kids for the first period, because it doesn't actually make sense numerically based on what I've seen come home. So it was a bit weird to talk about this with DD! But, you know, what can you say? It would seem she's still meeting expectations, in any case.
Moving and reading... DS6 takes timing things seriously, so for his "school required 30 minutes reading a day" he walks around the house reading his book going back and forth to the clock on the microwave to check the time every few minutes. No history of motion sickness in my family.
We had mid-term reports last night, which begged a follow up question to his teacher this morning. No level was marked for his reading (they use the Fountas/Pinnel levels.) End of kindergarten it was T, when questioned she said he rated an L for specific measures (like exact word reading,) but that his comprehension "was off the chart."
Moving and reading... DS6 takes timing things seriously, so for his "school required 30 minutes reading a day" he walks around the house reading his book going back and forth to the clock on the microwave to check the time every few minutes. No history of motion sickness in my family.
We had mid-term reports last night, which begged a follow up question to his teacher this morning. No level was marked for his reading (they use the Fountas/Pinnel levels.) End of kindergarten it was T, when questioned she said he rated an L for specific measures (like exact word reading,) but that his comprehension "was off the chart."
Yay for off the charts!
LOL hour ds "walkreading". I theorize that my inability to jogread inhibits any use of my treadmill. That the TV in view of the treadmill is a different matter entirely. But I'm pretty sure it's still not my fault.
I love reading these brags. My dd who turned 3 earlier this month was scribbling on the window with her markers. She said," mom, please come here. I have writed your name." So I go and she has clearly written MAMA. The lettering was PERFECT! I was and still am in shock since we have not taught her how to write. I knew she was starting to spell words but didn't realize she was learning to write on her own. Lol! One more quick brag. She saw the Cinderella play this summer and was very upset at how rude the stepmother was. Anyway, weeks later she said," mom, I will say to the stepmother that she is a beautiful lady." When I asked her why she said," because if I am kind and nice then the stepmother will say I am sorry for being rude and I will say that's okay." How sweet!
Moving and reading... DS6 takes timing things seriously, so for his "school required 30 minutes reading a day" he walks around the house reading his book going back and forth to the clock on the microwave to check the time every few minutes. No history of motion sickness in my family.
LOL
Oh, you know what I just remembered? My car-sickness prone DD9 once read a novel I bought for her at the supermarket as we walked home. She didn't finish it (it was about a 40 min. walk) but she was reading and walking the entire time. I'm getting queasy just typing about it.
DD, almost 22 months, shocked the heck out me the past two days. She told me the microwave was going in circles, said the roof on a picture of a silo had a circle (sure does if it were 3d and you look at it from another angle), and then pointed up at a popcorn popper (cylinder shape) on the stove and told me it had a circle. When I lifted her up, she signed circle again and pointed to the lid. I know she knows a bunch of shapes, but I didn't know she could consider the shape of an object she isn't touching and figure out what it looks like at a different angle! She did a 24 pc jigsaw floor puzzle pretty much unaided this morning, too.
Perfectionistic DS4 made it through his first day of hockey!! With his SPD, I did not think we would be able to even get him in the gear (cup, shin guards, elbow pad, shoulder pads, scratchy socks, tight skates, heavy helmet with face mask, stiff gloves). And I figured he would fall once, scream hysterically and refuse to try anymore. He thought he would step onto the ice and skate like our hometown hero Sidney Crosby. Not only did he tolerate the gear, but he kept going back out on the ice after every bout of hysterical crying. He wanted to play hockey SO bad.
Now, he never actually stood up on his skates, but at the end he was scooting around on his knees and shooting at the net. He left with a smile on his face. May seem like a small victory, but it is huge for him!!
My DD8 lost another tooth last night. We told her that she is lucky and she was going to get money from the tooth fairy. She smiled and said the tooth fairy A.K.A Mom will put money under her pillow. We asked why she thought Mom is the tooth fairy. She said when she lost her teeth when she was 6, she googled tooth fairy and she was very sure then it was us putting the money and not tooth fairy. And the same goes for Santa Claus!
But she admit she likes getting money from tooth fairy or whoever and presents from Santa Claus or whoever :-)
Dad: conversation into "... Violence is never the answer." Bear (5): "It is if you are in the Army." Dad: "Ok well, violence is rarely ever the answer." Bear: a minute or two later, "What about if someone is trying to kill you?"
I can relate to holding my breath while I get my DS6 into his gear. I fear asking "too tight, too loose." but he gets out there on the ice and all is forgotten and he has never had a bad day on the ice.
What do you have on top of your refridgerator? (or just out of reach?)
I have a ziplock bag of rehydrated moss, a microscope, several "petri dish" containers of dirt, moss, rocks, etc. put up high so my DS6 will at least try to go to bed and stop thinking about finding tardigrades in his "discoveries".
I was just contacted by someone hoping to schedule an audition for DD for an upcoming local theater company production (semiprofessional production, I guess you would call it--it's mostly adults with some small children's parts). She went to theater camp there, not this last summer but the one before. Unfortunately, she couldn't possibly do it--the commitment is insane and she would have to miss many mornings of school to perform in matinees (the play is performed for hundreds of school children during the holidays) not to mention daily 6-hour rehearsals and twice-daily performance on weekends for weeks. Her homework load makes it an impossibility and I doubt she has the maturity in any case. However, it's nice to be asked.
My five year old is learning Kumon Division workbook using the khan academy method to work out the problem. He is solving 45'/.5=?, and such by drawing "ten-sticks" for 10s and "dots" for ones, and converting the sticks to dots where necessary. I posted a while back that he was watching the youtube Khan video and taking notes on how to do division.
He has the concept of fractions from the book Apple Fraction, so now I'm teaching him the adding decimals and fractions workbook.
He's doing the Kumon #s 1-150 dot to dot which has been awesome for visual digit discrimination. Whoever made that workbook made sure you have to pay close attention. They put numbers like 42 close to the 93 and other similar looking numbers, also clusters like 46, 47, near 84. You have to watch what you're doing with that dot to dot.
My two year old has just started the Kumon tracing workbook and also phonics, formally. She already knows a lot of phonics and a little blending from watching PBS.
My son's K teacher took me aside yesterday to comment on something "shocking" he said in class. I immediately thought he had said some horrible swear word. He has sort of grown up in a law firm and his language can be colorful at times. Luckily that was not the case.
They were on the letter "m" yesterday and at circle she was asking the kids to say "m" words. At first he said microphone which she thought was good but he followed that with macrophage. She thought he said microwave but he corrected her and provided the right definition. Anyway, apparently that was a first.
I was putting away the girl's Halloween candy, yeah, and eating some. She read another word, you know she's read just a few. She looked at a yellow box with just the words on it and called "milk duds" chocolate milk. She had to have read the word "milk".
I tried to convince my 22 month old that his flashlight was broken. I flipped the switch and it didn't turn on. "It's broken." I told him.
"It needs batteries." he replied.
I wasn't prepared to be called on my lie, so a big smile swept over my face. I admitted defeat and went to get replacement batteries. You win this round DS. I wont underestimate him next time.
Texican; my ds3 doesn't read, erm, sorta... But it's amazing how many candy bars i'm pretty sure he's never heard of that he can ask for by name . "Learn2read; the halloween method!"
In other news, ds11mos who took his first steps months ago, as of today is walking regularly. This means he only did two months of occaisional walking, compaired to the olderone who took five months to go from occaisional to regular . He has plenty of words, and a whackload of phrases like hi/bye x, but today's "hahaha i'm yonna gachoo" (then he bit my cheek and strangled me) will be memorable.
Oh! And DS3 is suddenly a bilingual counter and starting to add/subtract... But only in spanish. The only people who speak spanish in our house are Dora, Diego, and Diego's sister, so, erm... i guess its just a mathy language, eh? Oh, and he's gotten hinself started on neuroscience, and learned to pronounce "th."
The stares on the bus have reached a whole new level. "mama, read the cerebellum part...". I keep re-reading the thread where peoe say to just go with it when they're little. And not worry about teh stares. That's not so easy. I dont't like the bits about "it gets worse," incidentally.
Haven't "bragged" in awhile. My dd2.5 is a super-imaginative kid. She doesn't read yet like her brother did, but she's amazing in her own way: today she took two plastic hangers, put one under her chin and held the other like a bow. "Look Mom!" She exclaimed, "It's a violin!". Be still my heart.
Not a brag exactly but wanted to share. DS, just turned 4 was going on and on about The difference between real and make believe and spouted off That all Marvel heroes are make believe. Then he said and guess what, Santa is make believe too but I will pretend to believe in him if it will make you feel better.
DD9 had 2 years of toxic math experiences in school, as a result, she had herself convinced that she hated it and that she was no good at it (she is currently taking Algebra 1). @ days ago after school she was telling me about what happened and the first thing she said was: "you know mom, I love math! It is so cool and interesting and fun, I love it." I was so excited to hear this. I told her teacher the next day and she was as excited as I was.
I haven't written in so long, but my just 3 yr old has started cracking jokes. And writing her (short) name, which was pretty much a shock the first time I saw it. She also walks around a lot making the sounds in words, like "ch-ch-chicken"
Here was her 2nd joke. Her dad: Do you want me to tickle you? Poke, poke, poke! Giggling, note there is a polka dot pattern on her pillow She says: Don't poke me, poke-a-dots!
The other night, I was reading a book with colorful pictures, about different kinds of families (Todd Parr). It has a picture of a fish family where each fish is a different color, and the following page is "All families like hugs." Immediately says the fish family can't hug because they don't have arms. After my initial surprise, I told her fish kiss instead...
Yesterday at a kids' haircut place, I was told I'm in trouble after she informed the stylist she wanted a hair clip on her left side only, pointing to her left side. While she has known left from right for months, it was funny to see the woman's reaction.
She is also very reliable on alive/not alive, like telling me her stuffed animal can't think because he's not alive... and some fuzzy concept of death exists (has started asking a few questions as it has briefly come up a few times).
Khombi, loved the Santa post. DS 4.5 asked the other day if he was real. I got away with "What do you think?"...although I'm guessing he might have figured it out but wants the presents to keep coming!
My brag: DS in the car today keeping himself amused...counting backwards, by twos, starting with 39, in Spanish.
What a GREAT idea. I so enjoyed reading the relief in the voices of all the proud parents, to know they are safe here, that I don't even feel the need to post something about my own child. Your pride and honesty was enough to give me the strength I was looking for when I came here. The worst thing is not being able to share anything about your child, or worse playing her strengths down to make others feel better, or to make sure the moms don't hate you!
I often come here just to feel normal. To feel like I am not the only one who worries about my PG child. Even sharing with close family members, or my husband even, how hard it can be, everyone rolls their eyes like, "Oh I feel so bad that your child is soo smart."
That is just not the way it is. I find myself feeling alienated and isolated from all the other parents no matter what. I am lucky to have a close friend with a gifted daughter, close to my daughters age but she is moderately gifted, so even though she gets it, I still feel alone.
Ok while I am here I will add my most recent moment:
My daughter just skipped 1st grade and before my daughter was even in her class the 2nd grade teacher was skeptical and I am not sure if she thought we made the best decision. But at our first conference a few weeks ago she was just beaming with how wonderful our daughter was doing. Top of the class in every area. She has kids 2 years older than her and she has won everyone over, even the skeptical teacher Very proud of her. She is 6 and teaching herself division and multiplication on the Ipad. Never ceases to amaze me.
DD9 was too sensitive to read content above grade level until recently when she took on her first big series, Harry Potter. I was worried she'd drop it when it got too intense, but she plowed through the entire series in less than two weeks, strategically reading copies at school and home, even reading an entire book on a weekend day (more if we had allowed her).
I was skeptical of her comprehension at that pace. She made me a believer when her teacher informed us DD's Accelerated Reader test scores for the series averaged almost 95% correct, a score she'd never seen so high from a student who had not seen the movies.
DD, meanwhile, has no interest in seeing the movies but has been re-reading the last book for a week straight. We finally had to pull her off it and are trying to introduce her to a new series. The sum of her feedback on the series is the oft-repeated lament, "I wish magic were real!"
I'm guessing I have a reason to brag? Just found out today my DS2.7 can add ... not only 2+1 or 3+1 but I saw him do math problems where he had e.g. 10+7 and was to choose the right answer from 14 and 17 ... he did about 10 of these with ease and after that I just stopped watching. It started to freak me out! lol ... I don't think that's a "normal" skill for a 2.5 year old, is it?
This is a behavior brag... DS8 only got off 'green' 3 times the last 6 weeks, and all three times were for TALKING TO HIS FRIENDS.
Is it wrong that DH and I barely even reprimand him for this? LoL. Just so happy there's been no meltdowns, he's doing his schoolwork each day (even when it's easy) and looks like he's actually got several friends!
DS5 really turned it up at circle time today in kindergarten today. In response to a book in which someone was dizzy he explained that they were dizzy because the fluid in their inner ear was still moving after they stopped making them feel like they were still moving. When the teacher asked how he knew that he said, "I saw it on TV"
He followed that up with naming the organs in the abdomen and explaining his dad's gall bladder surgery (including pointing out the gall bladder in the teacher's book).
Of course then he had to make it all a bit creepy. He asked one of his classmates whose parents are doctors if he could get them to bring some real body parts to class so they could see what they really looked like.
Kind of a brag - more of an advocacy success, but it sounds like a brag to other parents' ears.
DD10's private school contacted the public middle she will attend next year for 6th grade and got permission for her to take the 'skip 7' math test at the end of this year so she can go into Algebra I actually at school! Since our district has NO GT program and is on guard against pushy helicopter parents, I really doubted we could do it. She's working on Intro to Algebra now so she will already have done part of the curriculum, but this feels like a good balance between fitting into the institution and learning something new in a classroom.
Since the alternative would be doing all of 6th grade arithmetic in class PLUS all of 7th grade arithmetic as homework next year, and she would have to impress the teacher with her hard work and compliance to be allowed to take the test, this is a triumph and a relief.
This is more of a cute story that's a little hard to tell without modification.
Today my younger son, who just turned one, was out with me without his brother (something we have to do WAY more often). We were passing the museum, and he pointed said "Iwandat [museumname]," and then pointed at the dinosaur poster and roared at it. "Ok, kid, let's go." So we went in, and he carefully roared at each skeleton. He also informed me in idiosyncratic sign language that he is afraid of the... wait for it... 22lb land crocodilian. Not the gigantosaurus, or the T Rex, the 22lb vegetarian crocodilian. And he didn't freak out or cry, he told me in signs
He also picked out every dinosaur with an estimated weight around the same as his current weight, and said "baby baby baby" and got all 'cited (including the one he said he was afraid of). It was hilarious.
Thanks for letting me tell the story. When he's older I'm sure I'll get to tell it again, once the bit about him being a chunk ahead on language becomes obscured by time
I *am* kinda proud of his language. He doesn't talk anywhere near as often as his brother did at this age, but he uses a lot of regular words, and the little phrases are becoming pretty common. His brother kinda sorta had a speech delay, so it's nice to have this one so distinctly knocking off the official targets!
I was asked by a fellow parent if my DD9 could tutor her daughter in math :):) They had their first session and I hovered a little bit, and had a peek at the girl's work. DD9 said "Mom, I've already checked it. Let it go. Who's doing the tutoring here?"
We decorated for the holidays this weekend. DS 6.5 is an only so we have lots of things in groups of 3. DS says, after hanging our three initials, that we can figure out how many combinations of words our initials make using factorials. So after giving DH the look that says omg did you hear that, I asked so how many combinations are there, he runs into his room to look it up and comes running back, yelling 6. Not your normal holiday convo, ok maybe here it is!
DH: (grumblingly) Well, I have a _half_-charged phone... DS: So... add another half [dumbass --ok, he didn't say that, but it's pretty clear he THOUGHT IT].
Later, building on the fact he seems to know what a half is...
DS: how do you build an equator? ME: well, you don't really build it, it's an idea about something that already is. So think about the earth. Here's the north pole and half the planet. here's the south pole and the other half. Where they meet is what we call the equator. DS: [audible kerchunk] Ooooooohhhhhh! ok. [runs off holding his hands cupped together as per my demonstration mumbling about spheres and halves while a dozen people trip over him (we were in a mall).]
here ends about 12 days of trying to answer equator questions.
but maybe more like an "example" of how my asynchronous kiddo works.
She says to me (history textbook open);
"So, the Third Reich's salute was like so--" [gestures forcefully from the shoulder, with right palm down]
"and Winston Churchill's standard gesture was like so--" [holds up right hand in a victory 'vee']
"and Stalin's favorite salute was like so--" [extends right fist outward from shoulder]
"I've just realized something VERY IMPORTANT. I can't believe that I never noticed before now that World War II in the European theater was actually a giant game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. No wonder the Allies shouldn't have won."
My kid. Yup... don't know where she gets this stuff from.
"I've just realized something VERY IMPORTANT. I can't believe that I never noticed before now that World War II in the European theater was actually a giant game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. No wonder the Allies shouldn't have won."
This forum has no appropriate emoticon for this- I need the one that's ROFL.
My response (once I stopped laughing) was to point out that the people of Dresden might have seen it a little differently. She paused thoughtfully for a moment, and then noted...
"Well, sure. At the time, I mean. A lot of things are only this... clear... in hindsight."
Sometimes she really gets on a roll like this, and it's like every additional thing out of her mouth only makes you laugh all the harder.
(DD is disappointed that yet another one of her great ideas has already been discovered by someone else first, however...)
Got a great chuckle out of this... p.s. That's awesome that her ideas are so powerful they travel back in time.
along the brag lines... as we are in testing progress for an HG program... DS~7's WIAT-III results just came in with math subtests maxed at 160 (hadn't anticipated that with minor differentiation in school and the rest being all his own self-guided at home.) Language and reading bounced around (he skims, skips and reinterprets) but not enough to be an issue.
DD very poor on fall MAP. BUT she moved back into the 95th percentile in math with her strong showing (she had dropped to the 76th percentile in the fall). Her reading is slowly inching back up as she went from a fall 71st percentile to winter 85th percentile.
Her teacher is showing her that it IS ok to be the smart girl.
DS3, my sweet little bear- so agreeable and calm and often overshadowed by DD who has such a big personality... He completed the EPGY kindergarten math curriculum in 2 days! (We signed DD up but she didn't want to play through the K level.)
Not a brag. Just funny. Dd3 was getting annoyed at her dad trying to get her ready for bed instead of letting her play. " dad, if you keep troubling me, I will trade you for some magic beans."
DD (13) got her PSAT results today (212 S.I. according to our school counselor)-- she's disappointed because they are likely to be JUST shy of our state's semifinalist cutline (which varies from ~211 to ~216, depending on the year)...
but they are 99th percentile, and almost certainly commendation level.
She's upset (a little) that by missing just a couple of math problems, she probably missed the semifinalist level....
but she isn't beating herself up over it. Yes, I talked to her a bit, with calming statements such as "but you gave it your best that day, yes?" and "different day, could have been another few points either way, right?" It has to sting to know that maybe... maybe... if she had just... worked that one problem one more time... been more careful with that other thing...
But she is really doing fine with it.
(This is a BIG, BIG deal for my perfectionist-- HUGE win!! )
Secondarily, I'm pretty elated that (yet again) my DD has proven that being an 11th grader is probably a conservative placement in academic terms.
Oh-- and I should mention also that this was the first time she's taken a timed, proctored exam, and it was also the first time she'd taken a standardized exam somewhere other than home, or with a stranger proctoring. Her anxiety about her SAFETY was through the roof. In light of those two things, these results are pretty darned good, I'd say. I'm very proud of her.
Those are great scores! Congratulations! I don't know what state you are in but one post said you are in the Pacific NW. For 2012, the Oregon cut-off was 216 and for Washington was 220. I know your daughter is grade accelerated but it begs the question- if she waited 1-2 more years, maybe she could hit the score to be a national merit finalist (which is obviously not the end all and be all). Would it be worth waiting for?
Dd6 was just officially accepted into the gt program here, at least for the next couple of years, until they re-assess in 3rd grade. I am really relieved since I was anticipating an all out mutiny if that one tiny slice of 'interesting work' was discontinued....
and I was getting very nervous with all the odd signals from the teachers. I sent in 99th percentile scores in K, and the only mention of scores last time I chatted with the gt teacher was 'oh she got 95th percentile on the k-bit, so the scores are fine for the program, we just have to get more achievement data'. WHY would you look at the scores from a 20 minute test instead of a deeper professionally administered test? (I know "why", but really "WHY??").
Anywho, drama over, and she was admitted for both language arts and math. Breathing easy for at least a month or two, right?
Those are great scores! Congratulations! I don't know what state you are in but one post said you are in the Pacific NW. For 2012, the Oregon cut-off was 216 and for Washington was 220. I know your daughter is grade accelerated but it begs the question- if she waited 1-2 more years, maybe she could hit the score to be a national merit finalist (which is obviously not the end all and be all). Would it be worth waiting for?
Well; a) too late now, KWIM? Once you get into official high school placements and they have a graduation cohort year assigned, any funny business looks baaaaaaaaad, baaaaaad, bad. So even if that WERE the case, the instant that the school reported her as a 10th grader last fall, this was a done deal, and b) pretty sure that it wouldn't have mattered-- her problems simply aren't related to ability. She could have gotten a perfect score. If she'd not made errors related to misinterpreting/misreading questions and just dumb arithmetic errors, which she's incredibly prone to when she does mental math (which she INSISTS upon doing anyway, being both 13 and possessed of Cool Hand Luke syndrome, as noted elsewhere...).
So no, I don't think that she'd have been any better off taking it a year from now. Different day/different test, she'd have had a 225 score even this year, as we saw with practice exams. Her problem isn't ability to do the material at that level. Her problem is the same as it is with schoolwork; a) over-thinking, b) sloppy mental math, and c) speedy Gonzales syndrome (where she just flat out misses things because she's skimming the questions/answers rather than really reading them).
The easier the material, the worse all of those problems become. There's also an element of luck to things when the material is all skills that you've mastered, since misinterpreting the intent of any one question becomes so problematic. That is a known problem with scores on the ACT/SAT/PSAT above the 98th percentile.
Anyway-- explaining that because that was where MY head went, too. I actually apologized to DD in case SHE felt that being grade accelerated might have been the reason for not doing as well as she'd hoped. She reassured me that this is not the case, and explained much of the above to ME. I'm actually kind of proud of her for not taking that opening from me... since I realized after I opened my big mouth that it was a glorious opening for her perfectionism.
Even if it were true that an additional year might have added 10 points to her selection index score... I am quite confident that it would NEVER have been worth the angst of whipping her through below-level work for an additional year.
I will say that the guidance counselor was a bit taken aback that we weren't OVER THE MOON with 99th percentile results. LOL. She was speechless when I explained that DD had "hoped to do about 5-10 points better than that."
Dd6 was just officially accepted into the gt program here, at least for the next couple of years, until they re-assess in 3rd grade. I am really relieved since I was anticipating an all out mutiny if that one tiny slice of 'interesting work' was discontinued....
and I was getting very nervous with all the odd signals from the teachers. I sent in 99th percentile scores in K, and the only mention of scores last time I chatted with the gt teacher was 'oh she got 95th percentile on the k-bit, so the scores are fine for the program, we just have to get more achievement data'. WHY would you look at the scores from a 20 minute test instead of a deeper professionally administered test? (I know "why", but really "WHY??").
Anywho, drama over, and she was admitted for both language arts and math. Breathing easy for at least a month or two, right?
MAJOR happy-dance time! YES.
I'm completely with you one the "whyyyyyyy??" there, too. Makes me go "huh??" when I run into things like that.
This is small potatoes by comparison, but DS13mo was captivated by a brief youtube clip we watched of the London Symphony Orchestra today. I named the instruments as they appeared on screen. A few hours later, when I named the instruments again without offering visual cues, he mimed about a dozen instruments unprompted. He then rummaged through our bookshelves for any books on musical topics, flipped through the pages, and mimed the instruments while pointing and giggling at the corresponding pictures.
That love of learning is so heartwarming! I hope he never loses the ability to see the beauty in everyday life.
DD7 has been homeschooling for about 2.5mos now. This decision was made after she experienced more than a year of a haphazard nonsense in which she spent most of the day an age-grouped class in which the work was well beneath her. The remainder was spent in a daily, gifted pull-out in which she was at least a year younger than everyone else, and they were teaching to the level of the older kids, so they were assuming she knew things she'd never seen. Not feeling like her needs were being met or that she belonged in either group, her confidence level cratered. Resistance to challenge and to learning was rampant.
In these past 2.5 mos, her average school day has increased from 3 hours to 4. Most of the increased time is going to her daily journal entries ("You can't time creativity, Mom."), and to extra math problems, by request. DD is actively pushing her mom for more now. For example, adding/subtracting fractions was introduced to her with values that had the same denominator... DD instantly declared it too easy and boring, so they went straight into numbers with different denominators and finding the LCD. DD jumped into that with both feet, and asked for more problems.
This newfound confidence showing up in other areas, too. DD is the youngest member of an acting class, because her age would place her in a lower group, but DD sat in for a trial in both, privately observed to DW that the first one full of babies, and the teacher was very receptive to allowing her to participate in the older group ("She certainly seems mature enough."). They're doing a play next week. She got over the initial disappointment of having one of the smaller roles quickly, because she thinks her part is hilarious. As of last night, she's the only one rehearsing without her script.
Also, she was very shy about being in a class full of older kids, at first. Now she's dressing up for class in her own unique style, bringing her doll, and doing cartwheels when she's not a part of whatever scene they're working on. She recently acquired the phone number of the class alpha-girl, who I'm guessing is 11 or 12.
A couple weeks ago DD wanted a haircut, and she wanted bangs this time. She'd done it before, and DW said she looks better without them. DD did it her own way anyway, and declared herself adorable when it was over.
Also, after we rented Hunger Games, we bought the full series of books, which DW and I quickly devoured. DD declared herself unequal to the task of reading them by herself, because they were too much. Well, she has recently decided to re-read the entire Harry Potter series instead, by herself this time (we were doing it as bedtime stories last year). That's a reading project at least 3x the size.
In short... we've got our kid back, because we recognize this as the girl we had when we first sent her to kindergarten.
Over the last month or so DD4.5's favorite pass-time to to tell us all of the words that have 2 meanings, for example: back up - to go backwards and to have an alternate plan in case the first didn't work. Light - the thing that helps you see and when something isn't heavy
She is constantly coming up with them - it is getting quite a reaction from people in stores when they hear her say them.
In the car yesterday DD4, in a desperate voice, told me that she just needs to know what 8+4 is. I told her 12.
"That's great. Now I know what three fours make. Because I know two fours equals eight. So three fours equals twelve!"
I told her that you can say three times four etc.
"Like two fives is ten? Two times five is ten? What is ten plus five? So, three times five is fifteen!" And on, and on... I think this has been percolating for awhile now because she seems interested in memorizing how to add doubles-now triples.
DD8 did very well on her semester grades (all A's) and she was the top AR reader (number of books read) for her grade. Her MAP scores are still more than 2 grade levels ahead and her STAR testing says she is reading at around a 7th grade level. She isn't getting much acceleration for this, even through her GIEP, so this will be something we will need to address again for next semester.
DD7 also got good marks on her report card. I find it very odd how our district marks only what is expected for that quarter instead of what the child can actually do. For instance DD could be marked a "1" which equals mastery of a skill at grade level for counting by 2's to 50, but wouldn't be marked at all for being able to count by 2's to 100 because that skill hasn't been introduced yet. It doesn't matter if the student is capable of mastering that skill or not. DD7's MAP scores are also at least 2 grade levels ahead and she already benchmarked all the Dibels goals for 1st grade back in Kindergarten. Her STAR testing says she is at a mid-year, 3rd grade reading level. We will need to address some possible acceleration for her also for next semester.
My fourth grader is in our local public school gifted program (self-contained). He is breezing through the fifth grade math program and his vocabulary words/tests, which I realized are at a 6th grade level! He is also the only hearing-impaired child in the program.
DS5's favorite activity at the moment is listing all the countries of the world in alphabetical order...from memory.
This is not really a brag but I am not sure how he did this. He has a chart of 100 random letters in no specific order he is reading out loud for Vision Therapy. After reading it once a day for 5 days he all of a sudden sat at the table and recited the whole chart from memory....I must say I was shocked.
Apparently wax crayons and water-based finger-paints make REALLY nice atom diagrams.
:-) This reminds me of the other day when DS was tackling a 3D geometry question and was having trouble visualising it. He decided to make a model with plasticine, did so, saw immediately how to answer the question rigorously, and the next thing I knew he was bringing me plasticine robots and interestingly mottled cut faces of pladticine to inspect. Asynchrony, gottalovit.
DS3.5 just built a model airplane by himself. He turned the light back on after being put to bed. 15 pieces, so not the world's most complex model, but... hunh. I was't expecting that.
Two quick brags Dd3.3 sits down to draw a car and draws two lines. When I ask her what they are, she says wheels. "But why are they looking like lines instead of circles?" She continues to complete the drawing and then says," mom, this drawing is from the front of the car. So the wheels look like lines. The circle shape is on this side(pointing sideways)." Ps. It was an amazing drawing with wipers and side mirrors.
She has been asking me about why people have different skin color. My cousin, who is a bio major was visiting us this holidays so I asked dd to ask him the question. My cousin explained to her about melanin and sunlight exposure etc. She listened carefully. Two weeks later when we met a person with a dark complexion, she explained to me in detail why that person's skin was darker. I am so glad that my cousin explained it so scientifically and matter-of-factly to her instead of dumbing it down bcos she sure got it!
EJism of the day: (a little background.. he went to the main library on a field trip today and checked out a book on WWI) "Momma why are there wars?" Me: "because sometimes people think war solves the worlds problems" EJ: "Maybe they should just have a dance contest or something" Me: "I like that idea!"
DS14mo is a smooth Casanova. Today he captured the hearts of two young ladies at once-- 12 and 19 months old, respectively-- and even had one following him around in search of kisses. Well played!
Ok so this is not super amazing, but for my ADHD/language disorder DS8 I thought it was pretty cool.
I had him out of school recently to do some one-on-one and we were at a McDonald's. His SLP had given him a reading comprehension assignment and he didn't want to do it. Having a weak moment, I offered him a small pop if he would just try. He agreed.
I got up, walked to a cashier who had no customer (about 20 feet from where we were sitting), asked for a small pop, paid, and returned to DS. I was expecting that he'd have a paragraph read. Instead he had read the entire page (about 200-250 words) and was able to correctly answer the comprehension questions
DS4 got his preschool "report card." It's quite detailed--much more so than my third-grader's! Anyway, he got 100% on every computerized academic assessment, which is not a surpise. What I'm pleased with is that he also "met or exceeded" every single one of the 60+ social/emotional/developmental benchmarks. I was pretty sure he was doing beautifully, but it's nice to see.
Ha-Ha- report card. My son's report card says he knows almost half of the alphabet S and half of the numbers to 20. Lol. I've already read here that the report cards only cover what they've taught in class, not what the kid knows so I proudly put his report card in the souvenier box.
Here's my 2yr old's kumon letter work. The thing I'm bragging about is fine motor skills because I tell her which line to draw next. Two pics of that, then a picture of a superhero fight for good measure.
My DS 4 was reading a book and I heard him say, case in point, then he said Hey mom, case means a lot of different things, for example: Camera case, case of beer and ques a dilla!
Another funny. DD9, whom I'll call Charlotte for privacy's sake, silenced my half-joking guilt tripping the other night. I was doing the dishes and wanted her to help. She resisted, so I tried for a low blow with, "When you're grown up and I'm old and gray and unable to get out of my chair, you'll regret that night you did not help your dad with the dishes."
DS4 and I are reading Harry Potter. It's WAY below his stamina level as far as reading goes, but if we alternate paragraphs and I help him with the difficult words and mild Britishisms, he actually does pretty well. Well above his independent level, obviously, both due to the reading level of the book and DS4's lack of stamina/attention span, but fairly good as a learning experience. He stumbled over the first instance of the word "mysterious" (did you know it shows up three times in the first chapter?), but read it successfully the next two. Independently, he's reading Sideways Stories from Wayside school (just opens it up to a random chapter and reads).
He has also declared that "he's taking a break from math for right now."
I'm not a real regular here, but needed to brag somewhere because we're starting to get weird reactions about stuff like this.
My 13 month old just informed my friend that he didn't want to come downstairs... he shook his head and told her "big kid" and then marched off to where the three year olds were
I didn't see it, but it sure sounded cute when she told me about it
Back again with more brags. I am sorry but I want to share with someone and don't have many people who will just listen without judgement. So, dd3.3 was talking about how Fall means a season but also falling down like London bridge is falling down. I acknowledged saying sometimes words do have more than one meaning. She asked if spring has two meanings. I said," yes. Spring is a season but also a thing that goes boink, boink." I was desperately searching for a better way to describe spring while using my hand motion. DD just says," spring is a curly piece of metal that bounces and sticks to a magnet." I just shut up.
One more brag. One of my friends gave DD a drawing set where the papers have wax so when you color, the wax areas stay white and reveal shapes. DD loved it. She took that idea and created a negative image of a flower by herself. She drew an outline of a flower and colored the box around it. I will post a link to the drawing later. It was just so cool!
My dd13 has decided to produce "Valentines for the Personality Disordered."
Her example for Avoidant PD, for example (typography over a lovely beach scene in sepia):
Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, I'm really, really, REALLY sorry if I did anything to offend you. I'm going to go away now.
I can't decide if this activity is inherently insensitive or not. I'm guessing not since she isn't going to distribute them or anything. It's more like a personal journaling project or something. It seems to be therapeutic for her somehow, and she IS demonstrating a rather insightful grasp on the particulars of each of the Cluster A, B, and C personality disorders in the DSM IV (? I think it's IV)
DS5- Last week after less than five minutes instruction on the use of Roman Numerals, and having never seen them before (well he has prob noticed them as chapter headings or on a clock- but we have never talked about them) used them perfectly to build numbers as large as 9999. I was getting wrong answers then he'd explain to me how to do it right . we were doing 3rd grade on ixl.com so some were multiple choice, but many were type it out. No wrong answers! New motto:Five minutes to learn..a second to master;)
Today was a pretty great day. DD turned 26 months. It was the last day of her speech therapy! After we fixed her tongue tie everything took off and she's all caught up or ahead. They said she actually scored really highly on most areas of the initial test they did. The coordinator and speech therapist were making good-natured jokes about seeing DD on a documentary for child prodigies. Every time the speech therapist came the past two months, she'd always talk about all this stuff that surprised her that DD could do.
Also.. I snuck her into a 45 minute ballet class for 3-5 year olds by slightly, umm, fudging her age last month. I claimed she was a very mature 2, nearly 3. ha. I felt she was really ready for it. It's a very structured class and she follows perfectly. She does cry a little when it's over because she wants to keep dancing. The teacher said the only thing she didn't do right was she'd slightly wander from her "spot" on the floor. I confessed she turned 26 months today and her eyes bugged. heh.
Annnd. She came home and did the 36 pc jigsaw we got her for xmas and that she hadn't touched much. (She just stopped at 25 pc 3 or 4 months ago and didn't finish any until today.) She started trying to draw people in the past month, with faces, eyes, hair, nose, arms, shoes, clothes, etc. So this puzzle had 11 dancing girls on it and she'd point to the spot where a shoe or whatever should be and then go hunting for the correct piece. She also started saying all her colors, so she'd look for that, too.
She's also counting to 20, though she occasionally skips 17 or 18. She mainly counts objects to ten, though and only the stairs that high as we climb them.
This is horribly braggy, but whatever. That's what the UBT is for, right? ;D
DS15mo can now identify and say several shapes and colours. He has a puzzle with 8 different shapes, and he handed each to me in correct order when I asked for them a few weeks ago.
Today, he was rummaging through a bin full of colourful magnetic letters on his own, pulled out an "m", and ran up to me waving it and saying "mmmmmm!" (phonetically). He did the same unprompted later with several other letters.
His other recent passion is naming body parts! Today he was fixated on wrists and chins.
@islandofapples: Not "horribly", wonderfully! It's so heartwarming to hear what these impressive little (and not so little) folks can do!! Kudos to your daughter, and please keep the stories coming.
My little guy is nearly 2.25. We had some friends visit with their son who is 2.75 and who haven't seen our kiddo in over a year and a half. Our son was so excited to show his new friends his toys and books...
He pointed out countries on the map. Our friends were surprised he knew where Sudan and Kazakhstan were, among others.
He counted his cars...
He showed them the planets, dwarf planets, and asteroid belt...
He sang the alphabet while their son played with the piano in a very cute sing along. Not very melodic but very cute.
He did other things too but they thought the above was very unusual. It all just bubbled out of his excitement and we didn't prompt any of it.
I was just proud he was able to share his toys and space with a new friend. Wish they lived closer to us.
DD8 (birthday very recent) was pulled from 2nd grade/gifted pull-outs at public school and homeschooled at a 3rd-grade level for the last 4 mos or so. DW is preparing DD to take a state-wide test they give 3rd graders, primarily to see how she's doing as a teacher. This means practice tests of DW's device have been given... and the results have been pretty shocking. DD missed an average of four questions per test page, for a poor grade overall. DW then reviewed the test with her, and DD knew all the answers. For instance, she'd give her a math problem she missed, and DD would demonstrate it perfectly. The obvious pattern was that DD was working too quickly, and making guesses when she could just take a few more seconds and work out the answers properly, or not reading and following directions correctly.
The brag: DW had a conversation with DD in which she talked about slowing down, reading the questions, following directions, and checking her answers afterwards. DW shared an anecdote of how this strategy helped her in cooking school... she was always the last one done with a test, and the only one with 100%. DD responded, and missed only one question on the entirety of the next test.
The head-scratcher: DD explained why she was rushing... her public school teachers were always telling the kids to hurry through tests. Whoever finished quickly would get 15 minutes of extra recess.
The head-scratcher: DD explained why she was rushing... her public school teachers were always telling the kids to hurry through tests. Whoever finished quickly would get 15 minutes of extra recess.
I scratch my head over that one, too. DD9 will be taking the state writing test this year, and while she has excellent mechanics, she's slow slow slow at figuring out what she wants to write and organizing her thoughts. She's also not particularly fast at the physical writing process.
The test is has no time limit - if you want to write for 4 hours straight, the testing instructions say that the school has to give you a quiet place to work and let you use every minute you want. DD reports that her teacher has said that she expects everyone to be finished in 30 minutes - 45 at the outside, and that once you turned your paper in, you get free reading time. That would be the day DD's practice essay consisted of half a sentence, which was all she could manage to write under time pressure.
That sounds mighty brag-worthy to me! Way to go for your DD!
Similarly, DD13, (while we were out of the house, no less)
"I got 100% on my Physics quiz! I took notes, then I worked through some problems out of the Schaum's book you got me-- thanks, that's really helpful, Mom-- and then I took the quiz. Working the problems really helped!"
(Hurray!!! She's finally starting to connect effort and results!)
DD8 played "Chopped" with her mom yesterday. They each picked three random ingredients for the other, which had to be incorporated in some way in three courses: a starter, a main dish, and a dessert. DD did all her own cooking, and won. DW made the excuse that she slept badly, and wasn't feeling very creative.
Did I mention DW is a formally trained chef?
DD had a couple friends over, and she made her dessert for everyone last night, which is basically a new take on s'mores:
- Soften (don't melt) mini-marshmallows in the microwave. - Stuff softened marshmallows inside a waffle cone. - Pour in melted chocolate.
I love it! Sounds like an appropriate menu item for tonight, actually.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Earlier this week, my DD showed up (virtual school) for her peer tutoring shift and the teacher says "Oh thank goodness-- I'm going to put you into this meeting space right away... the other tutors and I have been working together on this problem for about thirty minutes and nobody can seem to make it work-- I can't figure it out either!"
DD factored the polynomial in about fifteen minutes.
Now, why this is a brag isn't that she was able to do something that two other hand-picked mathy kids couldn't... or even that she was able to do a problem that stumped the teacher....
No-- my moment of pride was in watching DD's determination not to give up-- I don't see "tenacity" very often in her-- but when she goes to work on something like this... WOW.
She narrowed her eyes and set her jaw, and bit into that challenge like an alligator.
DS broke the science center guy with "what happens to the cells in an apple when it gets bruised?"
I'm not sure if I'm more amused by the stumbling goofy answer (that particular guy is one of the stand-out-from-the-crowd awesome guys there, seeing him miss a beat either in clowning OR in science fact is... rare) or by the fact that DS managed to actually go up to the guy, wait his turn, and then ask a question.
So the other day in the car my DD8 asks me what is the name of the part of the eye that reflects light. I told her I couldn't remember but we could look it up when we got home. DS10 says "I know, it's called the retina", so I ask him if he was studying that in science class right now. He says, "no mom, I just like to read the posters in doctors offices"
DS broke the science center guy with "what happens to the cells in an apple when it gets bruised?"
I'm not sure if I'm more amused by the stumbling goofy answer (that particular guy is one of the stand-out-from-the-crowd awesome guys there, seeing him miss a beat either in clowning OR in science fact is... rare) or by the fact that DS managed to actually go up to the guy, wait his turn, and then ask a question.
I love our science center.
I love that That is so totally and completely a "my DS8" question... (only my DS wouldn't have waited his turn. He would have bunny hopped up to the guy, barked like a dog, then asked the question. Ah, ADHD.)
DS (just turned 5) is reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We started out reading it to him,but he doesn't have the patience to sit around waiting for us to read it, so...
I was so pleased to see the light go on behind DD's eyes when I brought home a gamed called Math Dice after a fruitless hour or two at the homeschool supply store searching for "stuff" for DS to do after preschool. The game is a bit much for DS unless played cooperatively, but DD took to it instantly and is awesome at it (better than me). This is the kid who's been saying lately how bad she is math and how she doens't like it.
DS 5.3 brought me an instruction manual he had written on how to burn CD's and DVD's on the computer. A step by step guide that was 100% correct. We now have a dozen CD's and DVD's laying around the house of programming he creates before anyone else in the house gets up in the morning.....:-/
Was just on FaceTime with my mother-in-law, who openly disbelieved us when we told her DS15mo started talking before 6 months. She still seems to think DS doesn't talk. The reality is that he doesn't know her and, so, doesn't feel comfortable opening up to her yet.
During the call, DS and I were reading a book in the background and counting 7 fish in a picture book. DH asked DS what number comes after 7, to which he replied "8". He did the same for 9. MIL was aghast.
dd 7 has really gotten into monopoly. We let her be the banker and I'm impressed with her ability to do the 2 and 3 digit math in her head. And when the rest of us gets bored of playing she keeps on going, playing for everybody.
Ok, so DS3.75 is getting older and is staring to get interested in classic "academic" things. Today he helped me sort out some tiles for a game, by number, ranging from 1-30. Apparently he's got a better sense of numbers than I thought, because he had no trouble matching a tile with an empty space, or running in the right direction once he picked a starting point, and man, he's pretty accurate considering he still can't really rote-count to 30 (it was 100% on the second try, after making some 4 for 14 type errors on the first go, but not even many of those). At first I was trying to kinda explain what needed to be done, but he just stared grabbing the tiles and doing it
I'm new here, and I was given this link for the brag thread in my first post. I'm glad there is a place where I can write about what my daughter does/says without having my parenting critiqued or having people cast doubt. That being said, my daughter (2y9mo) has been interested in the days of the week lately. However, she has come up with her own creative way to try to keep track of the days. Thus, the following conversation last week:
DD: Mommy, is today Tuesday? Me: No, today is Friday. DD: Fiveday? Me: Yes, Friday. DD: (pause, then frantic) Oh no, Mommy! Me: What? DD: Today's Fiveday! Yesterday was Tuesday! We missed ThreeDay and FourDay! Me: What do you mean ThreeDay and FourDay? DD: You know...it goes OneDay (Monday), TwosDay (Tuesday), ThreeDay, FourDay, and today is FiveDay!
DD3.5 asked me yesterday," mom, which is the last number?" Me: "what do you mean? Last number where?" DD: " last number in 1,2,3. I thought it was 100 but then I realized there is 101,102. So which is the last number?". Me:" hmmm, that is THE question. I don't know. I think it is infinity."
DD (newly 4.5)--after months and months of barely reading anything (just wasn't interested, and we never pressed)--is confidently and fluently reading ANY second grade text and doing the same with many (not all) third grade books as well.
She reads so fluently--very, very adult like. Perfect pausing and intonation. Scans ahead for tricky words. Makes good guesses using phonics and context. Her comprehension and vocabulary clearly outpace her stamina, tracking ability, and decoding skills. The other day she read the word, "quarrel." It was an educated guess. When asked its meaning she said, "another word for fight."
She is also to the point where she can deduce most addition problems save double digits in her head. So, 35 + 7, yes, 35 + 17, not yet. And, she can skip count 1-12 very well (except maybe 8s) and uses the trick to solve addition problems very creatively as well as some multiplication.
She taught herself how to write all the numbers, and I found a scrap of paper that read
2 2 + 4 7 7 + 14 5 6 + 11
She was trying. To be fair, we have only ever done math orally.
Heck,I can't really do 35 + 17 in MY head, either. (Well, not fast. But I do have math phobia.)
DS is like that too with the awesome intonation. It's interesting to me that he still will skip whole lines sometimes, though. I assume that's nothing to be concerned about. He does notice and then gets confused.
Heck,I can't really do 35 + 17 in MY head, either. (Well, not fast. But I do have math phobia.)
DS is like that too with the awesome intonation. It's interesting to me that he still will skip whole lines sometimes, though. I assume that's nothing to be concerned about. He does notice and then gets confused.
Yeah, I don't expect her to do this for a long time. I just didn't want to mislead anyone to believe that she could add two digit numbers in her head. She can add in the double digits--just not two double digits together with grouping?, carrying?
My son is in a self-contained gifted program at our public school for 4th grade. They started with the 5th grade math book and he was placed into the 6th grade vocab book. We got his report card- all As! Reading, vocab, math, etc. He is hearing impaired and the only hearing impaired child in the gifted program. He's the only kid in his class of 35 with an IEP. They are working on AMC math problems in class for fun- they don't compete this year. He and only one other boy got 4 out of 5 right! Apparently nobody got 5 right.
The jr kinder teacher just taught dd(just turned 5) the concept of multiplication and dd can now multiply all the numbers she knows how to skip count (2,5,10). She also is in the self guided reading and went from level AA to G in 2 months...
Mana, I know exactly what you feel. The voracious appetite for new experiences. That twinkle in the eye, I love to see that in my dd as well. And I agree our little babies are growing up too fast!
My 12 month old received a shape sorter for his birthday three days ago, and can already sort the circle, square, triangle, star, and moon shapes!
DS6 has just started a new trick: he loves street directories, and if you give him a starting point (say, a shopping centre), you can then say "left, straight, right" and give him ten different directions, he can tell you the street and suburb you end up!
DD10 had to perform a piece at the solo and ensemble event over the weekend because she missed the Christmas concert. She has only been playing clarinet for about 7 months, played a level 2 piece and was awarded a rating of superior - the highest you can get. She blew the judge away when she told him she'd not been playing for a year yet.
DS16mo drew a deliberate picture of a rabbit last week, complete with ears and a tail, while I was making dinner. He called out to me, "Mama rabbit hop hop" and pointed excitedly at his drawing. Needless to say, I caught the work on film!!
I am proud of her, of course, but I miss her being the little toddler who wanted to draw on the wall all day long. We're hoping that she'd rekindle her love of art very soon.
LOL that's funny... my DD10 wants to ditch the gifted math pull out next year for the gifted art program instead (she's equally strong in both), and here I am grieving the math... (no! no! Keep the math! lol.) She's allowed to do both, so I'm hoping she'll choose that.
First let me do the usual "I love reading this thread, even though I seldom comment" thing, because I do!
My brag: DS9 has his best-so-far piece of externally recognisable validation. He took the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge and scored high enough to go on to the follow-on round, the Cayley Olympiad; in fact, his score was high enough to qualify for the highest follow-on, the Maclaurin, but UKMT policy is apparently that you only sit one of the three Intermediate Olympiads and it's whichever is the lowest you haven't aged out of yet. So, he'll be competing against the best 500 entrants who are up to 5 school years ahead of him, and he scored as well as some of the best 500 entrants who are 7 years ahead of him, out of a total UK entry of about 600,000. I'll admit it, I'm proud of him :-)
Pleased, but I wouldn't say excited really. The follow-on involves writing out full proofs, rather than being multiple choice, and though his writing is much better than it was that's still a bit off-putting to him. I did get his teacher to let him write in pen, though, on finding that he was more worried about being able to write enough in pencil than about being able to do the questions!
"lavgav ding yuha blabla apple dapple blapple gumapple
candied apple rocket ship"
It took about an hour, he worked REALLY hard. I spent about 35 minutes (altogether) saying "Are you sure you want to do this?" and he just kept saying yes... I am now pretty convinced there's a non-g e somewhere in there, because, seriously, man, most people find it EASIER to do the pushing of the button than the finding of the button... but anyway... He DID IT.
We have about a dozen Melissa and Doug puzzles. They are super easy (say three and up on the back) and I was going to donate them to a local daycare.
Then DS2 found a way to make them interesting. He does them all at the same. He dumps all the pieces from all the puzzles in one box, then arranges the boards around him and then gets to work. It is so cute.
kjp- i love hearing this!!! my DS6 did that when he was 2 also!!! at 3 he was doing 150 pcon his own, and soon w/ a little help from us, even 500pc puzzles! because of him, we own lots of more difficult yet fun puzzles, and have incorporated them into our family nights, or just fun family days :)our DR table nearly always has a puzzle on it!! DS is very much visual/spatial, yours must be also?
This is probably an odd thing to be "proud" of, but I am very proud of my DD because this kind of thing is her real passion.
She is an officer in her school's honor society chapter, and she is leading the insurrection against a unilateral policy change which apparently comes from the (first-year member) president-- a policy which she has pointed out may well violate not only the spirit of non-discrimination, but probably the letter of it as well from an ADA standpoint--
she is hot over this. But she's responding coolly, with well-considered debating techniques and professional language, and she is considering how and when to escalate her concerns.
Her concerns are:
that this is a change in practices, policies, and procedures which CREATES barriers to participation for students who are non-traditional, those who are non-Christian, and those who are rural/poor/disabled.
She is positively alight with outrage over this-- it's pushed her social justice buttons with full force.
And she's going to win. She's also probably going to succeed in taking this other (PG) kid's office from him as a result, because she dotted all her i's and crossed all her t's socially before she went after him over it-- by checking with members and other officers and explaining/persuading them to see things through the "right" lens.
It's an amazing thing to watch her in full flight. WOW-- she's good. Scary good.
Go, DD!!! Fighting for the downtrodden since 1999... that's m'girl.
My DS5 just came in and told me to Facebook, Twitter and Amazon;) his exciting news. I've never even tweeted and don't FB much ever...so that right there is funny!
He loves online Scrabble and just played a seven letter word on the first turn against a random opponent. He has been trying to find a seven letter word opportunity for the last two months since he started playing. Overall he is getting good at the game and even legitimately beats my DH (who isn't so good at it;). So proud!
I picked up DS10, who does everything in his head but struggles to show the steps, after his math midterm yesterday, and I asked him how he felt about it. He smiled and said, "Mom, I showed my work!"
I guess that's not a brag, per se, but a noticing of real progress, especially in perspective-taking: both to remember what the teacher needs to see, and to be self-aware enough to think about that during the exam rather than just regretting and apologizing after the fact.
My brag: DS9 has his best-so-far piece of externally recognisable validation. He took the UKMT Intermediate Maths Challenge and scored high enough to go on to the follow-on round, the Cayley Olympiad; in fact, his score was high enough to qualify for the highest follow-on, the Maclaurin, but UKMT policy is apparently that you only sit one of the three Intermediate Olympiads and it's whichever is the lowest you haven't aged out of yet. So, he'll be competing against the best 500 entrants who are up to 5 school years ahead of him, and he scored as well as some of the best 500 entrants who are 7 years ahead of him, out of a total UK entry of about 600,000. I'll admit it, I'm proud of him :-)
That is extremely impressive. You must be wondering if there are even half a dozen other 9 year olds in the UK that did at least as well.
I'm definitely interested in how you "nurture mathematicians" as you put it in the other thread.
I'm not familiar with these British maths competitions so I googled them. Can he enter both the Intermediate and Senior Challenges in the same school year, so that he can attempt to make it into the Senior Olympiad but hedging with the more certain Intermediate one?
Originally Posted by ColinsMum
Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
That is terrific, Colinsmum! Is he excited?
Pleased, but I wouldn't say excited really. The follow-on involves writing out full proofs, rather than being multiple choice, and though his writing is much better than it was that's still a bit off-putting to him. I did get his teacher to let him write in pen, though, on finding that he was more worried about being able to write enough in pencil than about being able to do the questions!
I would seriously suggest relax and have fun.
Looking at a sample Cayley Olympiad paper from the website, it seems that the solutions have a fairly sequential structure, so if you know how to solve them you ought to be able to write down your line of thought.
That is extremely impressive. You must be wondering if there are even half a dozen other 9 year olds in the UK that did at least as well.
Wouldn't it be great if I could find them and put them all in one room with my DS? Mind you, they'd probably talk about Minecraft...
I get the impression that it's unusual for schools to put children in before the target age, especially so much before, so I expect that most of the children who could do that well never get the chance. I have seen of references online to two (different I think!) children doing Cayley, at some time, while one year older than DS; that's all, and UKMT publish no statistics on this kind of thing. I find it really hard to judge how unusual DS is. After the IMC, DH, DS and I concluded this year's paper had been exceptionally easy, explaining DS's high mark. But the thresholds are set as usual, so other people can't have found it so.
Originally Posted by 22B
I'm definitely interested in how you "nurture mathematicians" as you put it in the other thread.
This is something I witter about often - one thread with a fair bit of me opining in it is this one about how to make it work for DS-then-6-rising-7 to work independently on his own maths in the classroom. If there are things you'd like to talk about, do start a thread and I will happily witter on it and maybe others will too!
Originally Posted by 22B
I'm not familiar with these British maths competitions so I googled them. Can he enter both the Intermediate and Senior Challenges in the same school year, so that he can attempt to make it into the Senior Olympiad but hedging with the more certain Intermediate one?
He can and does; indeed this year he is sitting all three. Last April he scraped gold in the Junior (first UKMT experience); in November he got silver in the Senior. From there to qualifying for BMO1 is a biggish step; I don't think I'd expect him to do that next time. He might not even qualify for the Junior Olympiad this year; I need to remember, perhaps, that I was surprised he qualified for Cayley! (Although his teacher didn't seem to be, so, hmm, dunno.)
Originally Posted by 22B
I would seriously suggest relax and have fun.
Looking at a sample Cayley Olympiad paper from the website, it seems that the solutions have a fairly sequential structure, so if you know how to solve them you ought to be able to write down your line of thought.
Fun, absolutely. He will certainly enjoy tackling the problems; his problem is not choosing a presentation so much as the physical act of writing - this is the same kid who was difficult to get to write more than 2-3 sentences for anything not long ago! But I think he'll be fine; the expected ratio of thinking to writing is pretty good in this.
DD10 is off sick from school with a fever. I told her she could watch TV but she read a novel instead, and now she's creating "khan academy" style math instructional videos using my iPad (with the "show me" app).
DS5 told me this week that he thought he had whooping cough (he has a cold) and that it would be unfair to put the other children at school at risk so thought he should stay home
This is such a great thread. I really need to spend more time on this forum. I feel like I can't talk about my daughter much at all around most other moms because I feel like people think I'm exaggerating or acting as if she's better than their kids (which I don't think that!).
She is just over 25 months old.. she has been obsessed with the alphabet since she was about 18 months old and knows the phonetic sound of almost every single letter and is starting to recognize words. She has such a true passion for it and will do word or alphabet related activities all day long. She counts easily to 10/12 and we've been working on counting to twenty and she's already almost got that down (and I am just encouraging her leads, of course).
Most of all, what blows me away about her is that she truly CONVERSES. Her vocabulary is beyond anything I could keep track of. She uses such advanced (or so it seems for a freshly two year old) phrases and tone of voice. She will attempt any word she hears. She was even saying 'rhinoceros'.
She's also fully potty trained, even overnights! Yay!
We just got the Explore score. My DD8 (4th grade) got 22 on English, 18 on Math, 17 reading and 19 science. Not bad for a 8 years old getting 88 percentile on 8th grade test.
She meets the DYS criteria too :-) I was afraid that skipping a grade will hurt her. But she may miss out on award ceremony :-(
DS5 told me this week that he thought he had whooping cough (he has a cold) and that it would be unfair to put the other children at school at risk so thought he should stay home
Heeeeeee...
This cracks me up. Sounds exactly like some of the things that my DD has said to us over the years.
I sure love reading about our funny, wise, and spectacular moments with our kids!
... so then, DS (3, often read as younger) up and writes his name. In more than one alphabet. In front of a large and avidly watching crowd of under 6s and their parents.
But it was ok, because we were the official "freaks" anyway.
There was a pause, but no awkward looks, no awkward comments, nothing.
Sometimes I wish I had a "freak" tatoo on my forehead
My 13yo was complimented by her AP Literature teacher today for the observation that one could (and she did) posit that Hamlet is really the story of a Schizoid personality disorder's adventures in alternative reality... Spiegel im spiegel.
The teacher was genuinely fascinated by the idea-- and complimented my DD on her animated and passionate development of the idea. Her view is that the entire play is really just Hamlet's fantastic, irrational, inner life, playing out. The play-within-a-play is merely Shakespeare's clue to us.
This will resonate with the posters in the "light eaters" thread.
DS16mo was just weighed today at the paediatrician's office and, for the first time in his life, is no longer below the 1st %ile of weight for height!!! *Insert happy dance*
On the way home from school, we were playing "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash. DS6 and I were both singing along, which was fun enough. Then my son says "He should definitely go so he can explore the world! If he stays he'll get bored!"
It cracked me up that my son was the first person in twenty years that I'd ever heard answer the question!
DD is spearheading (okay-- driving. She is DRIVING the bus) an effort on behalf of her AP Literature class to turn her... um... unorthodox 'vision' of Hamlet into...
Ham-Ham, the Musical.
Envision Silence of the Lambs meets Spongebob Squarepants somewhere in the middle of An American in Paris.
It is to include musical numbers worthy of Busby Berkeley with titles as varied as "Yo-yo-YO-YOrick!" and "See-ya/Whiplash" (capping a tender 'love' scene with Opie, the doomed girl who wakes up and smells the coffee when Ham-Ham offers up a dowry of... an STD and his undying devotion (well, off and on, anyway) with seeming aplomb, looks around and realizes that she is trapped into life with someone irretrievably delusional and increasingly, dangerously, psychotic, though she is evidently the only one no longer riding on the Denial Bullet-Train of "grief takes many forms/stress will do that")...
They've now introduced "Claude-the-Broad" into things as the new king, who is being crushed under the weight of his new responsibilities, the fear that his cross-dressing might be revealed to all, and his understandable worry over his nephew's increasingly erratic (and possibly dangerous?) behaviors. Of course he seems stressed. NATURALLY he is borrowing some of Gertie's things under those conditions. What a loving and open-minded SIL she is.
This is what PG kids do when something grabs them and sparks something-- it just happens all too seldom with DD, who is so woefully underchallenged so much of the time. This is entirely outside the box. There is no grade involved, it's all unofficial and completely non-directed by any adults. I love watching this when it happens.
Though if any Youtube video of specific flashmob activity surfaces in the next few weeks...
:hiding:
DD13 is writing the script and lyrics. They've had some trouble casting Ham-Ham. It's a pretty meaty role, after all, and it requires a good actor to play someone psychotic who can (mostly?) pass for merely 'anxious' rather than delusional.
I feel silly posting this, but it's a huge brag for me.
DS, finally, at 6 years, is riding his bike without training wheels.
Having been there with an emotionally intense child, I say, brag away.
When I suggested he could take them off this summer (my comfort zone), his dad decided he was ready NOW. DS told him I said this summer! But my husband persisted and encouraged.
Now our son is showing off his newly acquired skill to his grandma. It's funny he's so proud of this accomplishment and wants to share it. He's recently learned most of his times tables, but bike riding is what he wants grandma to notice.
Perhaps this is truly what he considers the biggest accomplishment. If it is, I am a very proud mom.
i'm new, and so upset about what's happening to my kid that maybe this is what i really need right now - a break from thinking about everything.
my daughter is 5, just started school, is totally apathetic in her class - we recently found out she's hiding her abilities from her teachers. ugh.
she is currently sitting in her room drawing, quoting word for word an audiobook of the classic English boarding school series, Malory Towers. she's doing all the dialogue and narration, and filling in the interstitial music. she may have heard the series twice.
last night, she was watching more videos of surgery on YouTube (her special passion) and learning technique, noticing the differences between surgeons and wondering about the benefits of the different methods.
this is the kid they feel has trouble catching on in school. what a relief to say some of this stuff - i'm always reigning it in.
wait - there's an "isolation thread" - ha, i think i feel better already! thank you all.
I am taking advantage of this thread (which has been a joy to read over the past few months; your kids sound wonderful) to introduce myself as a newbie to this forum. I am the mother of a very feisty year old who showed signs of being advanced very early on. Considering his young age, I was afraid to be labeled as "one of THOSE parents" and refrained from posting. However, after our pediatrician refered him to a pediatric developmentalist at his 12 month check up last week, I said to myself, time to stop feeling alone and downplay my son's achievements in public and finally join this group.
Well for my brag post, I have the following: when asked, DS can point correctly to each letter in the alphabet in random order and can, since yesterday, do the same with numbers 1-10. Also passed the 30-word vocabulary mark...there I said it ;-P . Have a wonderful day!
So we talked a little about pi on pi day because it was an extra homeschool day but the charter barely gave any work, and I needed something to occupy DD while I dealt with her brother and dinner. I wasn't sure she was into it for much more than the slice of pie at the end but then this weekend she kept talking about pi and the parts of a circle, and this morning made up a whole worksheet of problems like if r=3 r*D=? And then she started solving them! Just mucking about with these terms but understanding radius is half of diameter and figuring out the steps to solve. She was so excited about how there was this "cool new big ideas" in math she got us to explain squaring and roots and more about lines and stuff... good thing geometry is my favorite math.
She also wrote an awesome adventure story about questing for a mermaid's lost magic bracelet
DD8 has been hitting soft-tossed balls with a bat for at least 5 years now... mostly indoors, with a plastic bat and those balls you'd use to fill up a ball pit the kids dive into. She's been showing real ability with it for a while now, and recently expressed a desire to sign up for softball.
So, this weekend we stopped off at the sporting goods store, picked up a regulation softball, a glove, and a bat, so she could start familiarizing herself with the right equipment. We spent an afternoon, first in the backyard, and then at the park, playing with the new equipment. Among the activities were the following mishaps:
- We played catch, and DD was making the typical beginner's mistake of catching with her hand, rather than the pocket, and this alleged "soft" ball was hurting her. She changed to tossing it to herself for a while, getting the feel for using the pocket.
- Later, at the ball field, I pitched one too high and inside. DD doesn't judge balls and strikes yet, so she opened herself up to it as she swung. The ball hit her in the chin. It hurt.
- She was hit by two other pitches later, because apparently, her dad sucks at pitching, and he should stick to other things. At least these other two didn't strike solid bone.
In years past, any one of these issues would have been the point at which she declared she hated softball, or she was awful at it, and she wanted nothing further to do with it. Also, anyone asking her about her experience would have been told that it was a terrible day, and they would have only heard about the negative moments. Instead, she talked about what a blast she'd been having, how she wanted us to do this at least once a week so she could get good at it, and how lucky she was to have parents who went out there and played with her like we did.
She did a bunch of research, and last week, during the regular meeting she delivered a SLEDGEHAMMER of a commentary on inclusive practices, the ethics of inclusion, and the LEGAL requirement for inclusion in a K-12 public environment.
Let's put it this way-- she pointed out that they would be (inadvertently) sending the message that even Stephen Hawking would be "unworthy" if he were a student. But that inadvertent or not, such a stance is W.R.O.N.G. LOL.
So.
She got word this morning that they will NOT be "voting" on whether or not to "allow" the practice going forward after all... because the inclusive thing IS to allow those hours to count. Period. She has asked for additional clarification as to whether they count for the purposes of ELIGIBILITY in applicants, or only as "annual service project hours" for members.
In part, this was the result of the national ombudsperson/compliance officer running this past legal-- at my DD's very respectful but assertive request. The local school officials got their heads delivered to them, I think. But it all happened because DD said "not on my watch, you don't, you turkeys."
I feel like I just watched a DRAGON hatching. I guess she was paying more attention all these years than I thought! WOW.
Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
This is probably an odd thing to be "proud" of, but I am very proud of my DD because this kind of thing is her real passion.
She is an officer in her school's honor society chapter, and she is leading the insurrection against a unilateral policy change which apparently comes from the (first-year member) president-- a policy which she has pointed out may well violate not only the spirit of non-discrimination, but probably the letter of it as well from an ADA standpoint--
she is hot over this. But she's responding coolly, with well-considered debating techniques and professional language, and she is considering how and when to escalate her concerns.
Her concerns are:
that this is a change in practices, policies, and procedures which CREATES barriers to participation for students who are non-traditional, those who are non-Christian, and those who are rural/poor/disabled.
She is positively alight with outrage over this-- it's pushed her social justice buttons with full force.
And she's going to win. She's also probably going to succeed in taking this other (PG) kid's office from him as a result, because she dotted all her i's and crossed all her t's socially before she went after him over it-- by checking with members and other officers and explaining/persuading them to see things through the "right" lens.
It's an amazing thing to watch her in full flight. WOW-- she's good. Scary good.
Go, DD!!! Fighting for the downtrodden since 1999... that's m'girl.
When my DD4 was 2.5, she was drawing with sidewalk chalk at a family party. We told her to say hi to someone, but she was feeling shy, so she wrote it instead.
Dude, I'm really impressed at your DD-- but also at your fortitude in standing back to see what she would do. Kudos to her for seeing the big picture rather than the bumps along the way!
DD5 was helping me make whipped cream last night. When she got tired of holding the button down on the mixer she started dancing in circles to the beat of the mixer! When she got dizzy she stopped and said "Wow mom, that is really fast - I bet it is as fast as hummingbird wings."
She also read most of a Dora the Explorer book to me today without help. A huge deal for a kid who refused to even try to read a little over a month ago.
I just had to share this report DD9 wrote entirely from her own inspiration one evening.
It's not just that I think the writing is great. What also struck me was the contrast of this inspired and self-directed work compared to the previous 90 minutes during which she was struggling to tears with busywork/homework during which I'm sure she learned nothing.
After the homework trauma I figured she was done for the night, until I shared with her an anecdote about how few Amur leopards are left in the wild. She was profoundly moved and immediately ran to the computer to begin researching and writing.
The result, less than an hour later, was this report titled Endangered Plants and Animals.
Quote
There are many endangered species in the world. Many of them you probably haven’t even heard of. ASPCA .org states, “Worldwide, there are about 500 animals listed as endangered and 39 listed as threatened.” If you didn’t already know this, 500 is A LOT of endangered species. Most of this is caused by humans. That’s right, us. The first reason that most animals are going extinct is because we are taking up a whole load of land. Like, thousands, or even millions, or acres. The second reason of the population of some animals dropping is because foreign species. For example, if you had a fish pond filled with goldfish, then you put a beta fish in, the ecosystem would change rapidly. The third reason, is us, taking WAY too much. We’re pushing ocean life to its limits. When we take a fish, the rest of the fish have to wait until another fish gives birth to even out the population again. As you can see, we are harming the ecosystems greatly.
If we keep taking and harming the environment, what will happen to us? Well have you ever stacked a bunch of blocks up, then tried to pull some of them out without the tower falling over? Think of the tower as our environment. If we take too many animals and plants away, the whole environment could come crashing down. Take this for example, people had been burning down the Pacific Yew trees for years. After awhile, they found a promising antibiotic to breast cancer made from its sap. What if some of the other plants had some mystery cure to a almost incurable disease? Think of it that way.
So now that you know about all these things, what can you do to help? Try helping out at your local nature park. Ride your bike instead of the bus, not only will it help stop pollution, it will also get your heart pumping, stretch your muscles, and you’ll have fun doing it! Recycle. I know it seems so simple, but even the smallest things help. Save water. Unfortunately, the world does not have unlimited water, and sadly, we are running out of it. So start saving water! You can also help out native species. Plant a few of them in the park, in your yard, or anywhere legal. Even something little can make a big difference.
Remember, saving the earth isn’t only Superman’s job; it’s everyone else’s too.
Omg, Pru this is so well written I cannot believe a 9 year old wrote this. Your dd is amazing in her ability to convey such a difficult topic in such a way that it would appeal to all readers. Love the tower analogy. I am an environmentalist and that image is going to stick in my head. I also love that her essay is not all doom and gloom. She tells you what we can do to fix it. The last line is the icing on the cake. Very well done. Please tell your dd that a stranger who read her essay is mind blown:)
Omg, Pru this is so well written I cannot believe a 9 year old wrote this. Your dd is amazing in her ability to convey such a difficult topic in such a way that it would appeal to all readers. Love the tower analogy. I am an environmentalist and that image is going to stick in my head. I also love that her essay is not all doom and gloom. She tells you what we can do to fix it. The last line is the icing on the cake. Very well done. Please tell your dd that a stranger who read her essay is mind blown:)
Thank you so much for your feedback! I shared it with DD and she was clearly moved in her poker-face way. She said she likes compliments but has a hard time receiving them. It really helps me too because sometimes I doubt my own impressions as being parental bias. I don't so much want to brag as to have another adult confirm this "Wow" feeling from some of the things she's done.
I've suspected DD of plagiarism more than once and always come up empty handed and embarrassed. I finally stopped doing it, and her teacher assures me she writes this way in class too.
Anyway, I'm printing your feedback to keep in a folder for encouraging DD.
1. DS17mo has started sight reading words. At the museum yesterday, he pointed out several exit signs, and a few "caution, wet floor" signs. His excitement is adorable. He giggles uncontrollably when he realizes he's understood the "secret words".
2. He's also ridiculously enthusiastic about the alphabet and counting, generally. One of our favourite activities lately is checking out the exotic cars in our condo's parking garage. He makes a point of identifying numbers and letters on licence plates and parking slips. He's also cataloging a detailed list of automotive components, like axles and chassis.
3. We bought a museum guide for a special exhibit on Patagonian dinosaurs near us. The exhibit features about 40 different species. When he first saw the cover of the book, he shouted out, "giganotosaurus!", clear as a bell. (ETA: the cover featured a giganotosaurus.) He did this completely unprompted. The next day, he asked to watch the "pteranodon movie"-- an episode of a PBS Kids show.
If you're getting the same gigantosaurus that's just leaving here, it has my younger DS's seal of approval
The way they set it up here, the toes were at eye level for a carried 16 month old... and mine was VERY excited to point at it's toes and his toes, and it's toes and his toes... he even tried to do this little piggy... erm and we'll leave it at that
They have a lot of small dinosaurs too that DS really loved. Anyway, I'm getting distracted. It was an Awesome exhibit.
Re: the exhibit, we loved it and, at times, HAD to go 2x times per week. As in, we woke up and 2 seconds later all I heard was, "Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs! See dinosaurs please!" DS loved playing with the "microscope". Fun and games! It was a stellar exhibit...too bad we have to wait 3 months for the next installation to complete.
These are not really brags just examples of things we hear every day from DS age 4.
I overheard him giving examples of three states of matter using the end products of the digestive and urinary systems.
When asked where he would like to go for a fun outing he chose the water treatment plant.
On entering a dept. Store he says, how about we split up. When asked what he meant by that, he said, you go your way and I'll go mine. Ummm maybe in about 10 years.
His teacher asked him to try to use lower case letters when writing. He said that He would rather not but he would be glad to try hieroglyphics.
When asked where he would like to go for a fun outing he chose the water treatment plant.
How about a play date to a WWTP? DD3.5 is also all into WWTP. She was really upset that she couldn't visit one. So I found this cool YouTube video. She has watched it only a million times hope your DS enjoys it too.
Thanks Lovemydd! DS loved the video! He was really proud that we do all the things to help mentioned at the end. I am sure DS Would love a play date with your DD, sounds like they would get along fine!
Lovemydd, just let your DD know that she really isn't missing anything - the WWTP field trip is not that much fun. The professor that took us on that field trip looked up the stats on the WWTP operator (former student of his) and found he was at the bottom of the class. He warned us that we could end up at the WWTP too if we didn't study...the stench was awful, even though the operator said it didn't smell bad that day.
This is more "kids say the darndest thing" kinda post. Yesterday, we took DD3.5 for a school visit as her current school is closing the end of this school year. They invited us to attend the morning school meeting. It was one girl's turn to tell a joke which went like this ,"Why does the abominable snowman like going to party?" DD raises her hand and says," Because he has a big bottom." I went beet red. On our way home, I asked what she meant and she said," Mom, instead of party I made it potty and said the silly thing because it is funny." Really? PS. answer was because he likes to break the ice.
DS7 (first grade) has mastered multi digit multiplication. He is using the lattice method. He has taught his aunt, grandma and adult cousins how to use this method. He completed 5 questions less then 10 minutes. Some examples of what he completed .. 256 x 24 ; 38 x 17 ; 67 x 45 etc..
Lovemydd, Awesome video of WWTP. I work closely with municipal WWTP's. I last toured it with a group of Engineers and Mayor's it made it more interesting listening to the questions that they asked. I would say that the actual operators may have been at the bottom of their class, however, I would say that the individuals higher up or involved with stormwater and engineering are certainly gifted adults.
Last summer, my DS5 designed on paper a wastewater reclamation system for our camping trailer. He has not toured the wwtp before but he already knew about micro-organisims. It was a very thorough draft with grey water and black water seperated systems.
I have to brag somewhere about my DS7 learning to play guitar becuase he won't let me talk about it to his grandparents or anyone else for that matter.
He has wanted to learn to play the guitar for the past 2 years. I convinced him that no one would ask him to play and he would not have to sing at all, ever. He is very much an introvert. He agreed and we found a wonderful teacher.
He has been to 2 lessons (I know, a premature brag even) but I can tell by the look on his face this will be something he will love for the rest of his life. It was the same look the first time out on ice skates of complete determination.
His teacher told him he has never had a student catch on so quickly and he has added extra things to his lessons. That statement could be just lip service from the teacher but he doesn't strike me as the type.
Best of all, I haven't had to ask my son to practice, he actually wants to practice.
Aiden (6) struggles with writing (we suspect stealth dyslexia at this stage). Today he asked me for a spelling test like his best friend does at school.
He could spell "pyroclastic" on his own as well as "igneous"
(all all fairness he also wrote "mamga" and "roc". It made me proud and made me giggle all at the same time, and I knew this would be the only place I could openly share
So proud of DD today- I saw she only got 2 problems done in her session (she said because they were so hard) so I replayed it, and this it what I found! Similar to the type of problem she struggled with in the 2nd grade level, except she didn't cry or call me in for help at all. Maybe because this one seems to be set up a lot more clearly than the previous ones and even marks the parts of the text to be used in setting up each equation. For DD that seems to have made all the difference! Not bad for a Kindergartner I must say.
DD3.5 asked me a few days back "why do we need negative numbers, I mean numbers less than zero?" (she knows this concept because I threaten her with minus points from Santa if she doesn't do xyz).I said because smetimes we have to give more than we have, so we end up owing. Negative numbers help us keep track of how much we owe. For example, if you had 3 apples and I asked you for 5, then what? Her eyes lit up and she said, "Oh, I got it. I would owe you 2. So the asnwer is -2." Since then, she has been playing with the concept of negative numbers in her pretend play. I heard her asking her teddy the answer to 10-1Million. Lol! Another brag, she decided to play the role of both mama and baby bear in Goldilocks story that she forced her dad to do the dada bear role for. She was hilarious modulating her voice and delivery for the two characters. I am moving to Hollywood!
nothing "huge" ... just something that made me feel good for DS3 last week. We had his 3rd Birthday party and before the party a lot of people asked me what to give him since they already know about his high functioning autism diagnosis and they know he is not interested in many "normal" age appropriate toys, so I suggested Lego blocks or Encyclopedias for kids and that kind of thing. I also asked them not to be disappointed if at first he pays no attention to the gifts (he spent Christmas gift opening time by playing Android games on my phone and never ONCE looked up at what he got).
So, we had the party, he was in a good mood, tolerating all the kids, running around, our happy boy and I figured lets open the gifts. One was Lego Duplo Numbers train ... he wanted to open the box right away! WIN #1!!! ... then he got to the books and he pointed to the first one and read out loud "My first atlas" ... most people's jaws dropped . A lot of our friends don't really believe me when I say he started reading around 2.5 years old (And I don't usually talk about it. Except when it comes up during conversation) but this was so spontaneous, there was no denying it So, satisfaction #1 - DS3 proved himself to everyone there #2 - he loved his gifts and most importantly #3 - my child who was diagnosed with Autism 2 months ago and we were told to teach him to communicate with pictures and expect him to be in special Autism classes is now willing to show what he's capable of to OTHERS (until this point I only knew what he can do by mainly sneaking up on him and looking over his shoulder). Overall, it was an AWESOME DAY!!!
Sorry folks, I'm pushing my monthly quota, I know. There must be something in our water these days...
At dinner last night, DS (17mo) started singing the alphabet song spontaneously mid-bite. The funny thing is he's only ever heard the letter names about 4 times at his music class when we sing the alphabet song as part of a large repertoire. I've been actively trying to avoid letter names otherwise so he can learn phonics later. After a bit of investigation, I discovered he can visually identify the alphabet by letter name and phonics. That's news to me.
Now I wonder how long he's known the alphabet. Apparently I have a stealthy observer who ferrets away new knowledge and masters it internally before springing it on his unsuspecting parents. I guess I should be especially mindful of my Ps and Qs now...
Sorry folks, I'm pushing my monthly quota, I know. There must be something in our water these days...
At dinner last night, DS (17mo) started singing the alphabet song spontaneously mid-bite. The funny thing is he's only ever heard the letter names about 4 times at his music class when we sing the alphabet song as part of a large repertoire. I've been actively trying to avoid letter names otherwise so he can learn phonics later. After a bit of investigation, I discovered he can visually identify the alphabet by letter name and phonics. That's news to me.
Now I wonder how long he's known the alphabet. Apparently I have a stealthy observer who ferrets away new knowledge and masters it internally before springing it on his unsuspecting parents. I guess I should be especially mindful of my Ps and Qs now...
nice! ... just wondering, why would you want to avoid the letters in order to learn phonics later??? DS3 started to be really interested in alphabet around 15-18 months. He would bring me these plastic letters, stick them in my face and wait for me to say the sound (the first letter he learned was W and it remains his favorite to this day). And since this game got boring for ME I started telling him "whatever letter" makes the "whatever sound". He knew the alphabet by about 20 months and most phonetic sounds and had all the upper and lower case letters and the sounds down perfect by the time he was about 22-23 months old. All it took was this little game and watching Leapfrog videos. At 2 years and 4 months he started spontaneously phonetically read words. FUN times
Fun, reflecting back on when they actually knew something.
I'll be curious to see how reflection works in XX years to see if DS7's plans come through as he mentioned over the weekend: "I want to learn calculus so I can get a doctorate in mathematics and be a professor." Me: "Well there are other things you can do with a doctorate in math. Like make big money on Wall Street." Him: "Really? How much are we talking about?"
Sorry folks, I'm pushing my monthly quota, I know. There must be something in our water these days...
At dinner last night, DS (17mo) started singing the alphabet song spontaneously mid-bite. The funny thing is he's only ever heard the letter names about 4 times at his music class when we sing the alphabet song as part of a large repertoire. I've been actively trying to avoid letter names otherwise so he can learn phonics later. After a bit of investigation, I discovered he can visually identify the alphabet by letter name and phonics. That's news to me.
Now I wonder how long he's known the alphabet. Apparently I have a stealthy observer who ferrets away new knowledge and masters it internally before springing it on his unsuspecting parents. I guess I should be especially mindful of my Ps and Qs now...
nice! ... just wondering, why would you want to avoid the letters in order to learn phonics later??? DS3 started to be really interested in alphabet around 15-18 months. He would bring me these plastic letters, stick them in my face and wait for me to say the sound (the first letter he learned was W and it remains his favorite to this day). And since this game got boring for ME I started telling him "whatever letter" makes the "whatever sound". He knew the alphabet by about 20 months and most phonetic sounds and had all the upper and lower case letters and the sounds down perfect by the time he was about 22-23 months old. All it took was this little game and watching Leapfrog videos. At 2 years and 4 months he started spontaneously phonetically read words. FUN times
Fair question!
I read spontaneously when I was 2 and my parents had stuck with phonetic letters when I asked for "decoding". I figured the approach had facilitated early reading because it avoided confusion over distinguishing between two sets of labels. My thinking was that using the same approach would allow my son to just jump from phonetics to sounding out the words on his own when he was ready.
Apparently that was all moot, since the method doesn't seem to be the causative factor.
We have some magnetic letters, too, but he's never shown an interest in them, other than as debris when he plays with his construction vehicles. Maybe they were purchased after he knew the alphabet already...? (Or, maybe, in my refusal to use the letter names, he thought I was illiterate! Ha!)
DS4.5 has been playing with our digital thermometer (one of those that you run across the forehead and it scans the temperature) and asked me what the little "." in the number meant so I explained that he needs to read it as "number point number". So he goes to check his stuffed giraffe's temperature, reads it out loud (74 point 8) and then goes to another animal and checks it's temperature, says (74 point 2) ... and then says ... "oh no! My giraffe's temperature is higher! Maybe he's sick!"
couple weeks ago we had a parent teacher conference and his teacher was proudly telling me how he recognizes numbers 1-10 well and is right on target where he should be. Might be time to make things little more challenging for him to see what he REALLY recognizes? lol
I read spontaneously when I was 2 and my parents had stuck with phonetic letters when I asked for "decoding". I figured the approach had facilitated early reading because it avoided confusion over distinguishing between two sets of labels. My thinking was that using the same approach would allow my son to just jump from phonetics to sounding out the words on his own when he was ready.
Apparently that was all moot, since the method doesn't seem to be the causative factor.
We have some magnetic letters, too, but he's never shown an interest in them, other than as debris when he plays with his construction vehicles. Maybe they were purchased after he knew the alphabet already...? (Or, maybe, in my refusal to use the letter names, he thought I was illiterate! Ha!)
DD learned letter names first because we were just caught off guard. Then she learned the alphabet song. Then she became obsessed with phonics. When she went to preschool she had trouble because the teachers thought it was funny that she called the letter names by their sound. This year (preK) they have been doing a letter of the week and that seems to have helped, but she still will occasionally identify a letter by its sound. Thankfully, she already knows how to read.
That is all to say you might have very little control and either way it can be a little hairy.
DD4.5 was accepted to a great private school that looks to be a wonderful fit for her. I am so excited for her to begin there. They have so much to offer her.
On a trip recently we brought a bag of thickish chapter-y type books. She spent nearly the entire time on the plane (4 legs) reading--Mercy Watsons, Mouse and Moles, Franklins, a Rainbow Magic and more--for pleasure. She went through the entire bag. (Meanwhile, DH and I played games on our smart devices.) We have been checking out fifty books at a time, and I love finding her with a new book, her finger tracing the lines while her lips move silently.
She also figured out negative numbers all on her own (with the help of a giant number line on the floor of our children's museum I think.) While waiting in security, she asked what was 8 minus 10? I took a deep breath. "Well, that is tricky..."
DD: "It is negative two, right?"
Me: "How did you know that?"
DD: "8 minus 8 is 0, take away two more is negative one, negative two."
She did the same thing with adding fractions. "Did you know 3 halves are more than a whole? and 5 quarters? 6 quarter equals one and a half."
She has also been really poetic recently. She will make up 6 or so lines of poetry at a time. And, she loves word play. "It says 'KEEP OUT'--I am creeped out!"
ellemenope, I don't know what the etiquette on this thread is regarding replies to posts, but I want to shout out "hooray!!" when I hear about wonderful children like your daughter. That's impressive and heartwarming to hear how much she loves learning.
ellemenope, I don't know what the etiquette on this thread is regarding replies to posts, but I want to shout out "hooray!!" when I hear about wonderful children like your daughter. That's impressive and heartwarming to hear how much she loves learning.
Thanks, aquinas. That is our goal. It is like the stack of fifty library books. It may be that only twenty really suit her fancy each week. She can choose what she likes.--We just provide her with lots of opportunity to learn and see what she chooses to enjoy.
ellemenope, I don't know what the etiquette on this thread is regarding replies to posts, but I want to shout out "hooray!!" when I hear about wonderful children like your daughter. That's impressive and heartwarming to hear how much she loves learning.
ellemenope, I don't know what the etiquette on this thread is regarding replies to posts, but I want to shout out "hooray!!" when I hear about wonderful children like your daughter. That's impressive and heartwarming to hear how much she loves learning.
I love how you cheer for everyone :)))
Thanks MK! I get so excited for these impressive children (and their proud parents!) especially when they're so joyful about learning!
The local water treatment plant is famous. It gets visitors from all over the world. My husband helped some tourists from Japan with directions to the plant.
When asked where he would like to go for a fun outing he chose the water treatment plant.
How about a play date to a WWTP? DD3.5 is also all into WWTP. She was really upset that she couldn't visit one. So I found this cool YouTube video. She has watched it only a million times hope your DS enjoys it too.
Yesterday, my DS6 bought a book on the periodic table. By today, he has memorised all the elements, and their order and uses He wants to be a science professor when he grows up LOL.
DD (5) is teaching herself simple multiplication ...we got a yahtzee game and she loves adding up all of the numbers for both of us...she is really starting to see that four - fours equals 16. Sometimes she uses really interesting approaches to figure them out..."well, I know 4 x 5 is 20 and since 4 is one less than 5 and there are four of them, I subracted 4 from 20 to get 16". I am amazed by her ability to figure things out...
It is only here that I can share this Ds(5), who is accelerated into gr 1, was formally tested by the school for reading after pointing out that the "readers" were far to easy and bringing in a book he had read that day at home. The gifted co-ordinator told me yesterday that his reading age came out at 13 (Neale analysis). His teacher has been great and suddenly we have appropriate books now and I think a new appreciation for the quietish student in his class (whose parents are not crazy after all)
So-- the (highly) competitive high school internship program in science and engineering that my DD13 applied for? The one that takes promising high school students from around the region and places about 15-20% of applicants annually? The one where we had the SNAFU re: the application disclosure of her disability?
DD landed not one, but TWO interviews (of four positions her info was submitted to)... which is pretty amazing regardless of age, since only about half the applicants even get ONE interview...
and she GOT ONE. She just found out today that she's going to be spending her summer working full time doing research in a local university stats/computer science research lab!! She is giddy with excitement.
You obviously struggled with how to handle the snafu and it ended up being not something horrible that had to be fought - so maybe not just a wonderful thing for your DD for the summer but maybe a sign of things to come that it won't always be shoveling uphill (or some other tired cliche I can't think of at the moment)
We were in line at the book store and the lady behind me was deliberating over buying a Robert Munsch treasury with her companion. I chimed in and nonchalantly endorsed the book, telling her it's a hit in our house.
The woman eyed my son skeptically and said dismissively, "Isn't he a bit young?"
I just said, "He loves the stories. Barely a day goes by that he doesn't ask to read them."
She sneered and said, "Just imagine how much he'll enjoy them when he understands them."
At which point my son, who I had in a front carrier, piped up enthusiastically when he saw the cover, "Robert Munsch! Mummy, please read Robert Munsch book!"
She bugged and said, "Did he just say "Robert Munsch?!""
I just nodded.
Isn't it nice to be vindicated in real time when people are rude? All the same, maybe I should keep my book endorsements to myself from now on. I don't want my son to pick up on the comments.
DD3.5 finished assembling her world map this week. She has been working on it at school for 4 months now diligently and meticulously punching out each continent. Poor thing, punched out Asia twice bcos the first one tore a little. She collected each continent and when she was all done, used a real world map as a guide to put hers together. I am so proud of her for her hard work and determination!
A funny post. My friend gave me some home made lemon poppy bread. When I gave it to dd she said," wow! What a beautiful name for a bread. It is like you bake a lemon and it pops into a bread! I love it!"
I took DD9 to work yesterday for Take Your Child to Work Day. They had a fair number of activities that were not really what I do at work, but her favorite part of the day was getting to write and defend a patent claim.
This was too cute not to post. DS18mo attended his first children's party today. As we were leaving and thanking the girl's parents for having us, DS sang the birthday song to the guest of honour, including her name, totally unprompted. The tune was pretty close, too!
Today, I had a well check for my 15 month old. The doctor asked what words she says and I replied, "Mama, papa [DS's name]..."
DS has an uncommon name, so the doctor said, "Oh, {DS's name]! I just got some paperwork from the school district about him. He's a frickin genius, isn't he?"
DD3.5 finished assembling her world map this week. She has been working on it at school for 4 months now diligently and meticulously punching out each continent. Poor thing, punched out Asia twice bcos the first one tore a little. She collected each continent and when she was all done, used a real world map as a guide to put hers together. I am so proud of her for her hard work and determination!
A funny post. My friend gave me some home made lemon poppy bread. When I gave it to dd she said," wow! What a beautiful name for a bread. It is like you bake a lemon and it pops into a bread! I love it!"
This is a huge accomplishment. I have been in the classroom and observed how diligently the kids work on those...she should be proud! We laminated dd's--I have another friend who invested a little more money and framed it.
Thanks so much, deacongirl. I have not seen how this work is done but dd explains that she uses a punch pin to punch out tiny holes to cutout the continents. The edges are so neatly done I wonder how she accomplished it. I have tried to google for a video on Montessori punch out but didn't find anything. If you have a link, please share. Either way, I am proud. And yes, we are planning to laminate and frame it.
Thanks so much, deacongirl. I have not seen how this work is done but dd explains that she uses a punch pin to punch out tiny holes to cutout the continents. The edges are so neatly done I wonder how she accomplished it. I have tried to google for a video on Montessori punch out but didn't find anything. If you have a link, please share. Either way, I am proud. And yes, we are planning to laminate and frame it.
What a cool idea, though. I didn't know that they used the puncher for a project like this. I'm pulling DS4 from his Montessori program to homeschool next year and I've been trying to think of some fun things to do with geography. Totally stealing this idea...
Thanks so much, deacongirl. I have not seen how this work is done but dd explains that she uses a punch pin to punch out tiny holes to cutout the continents. The edges are so neatly done I wonder how she accomplished it. I have tried to google for a video on Montessori punch out but didn't find anything. If you have a link, please share. Either way, I am proud. And yes, we are planning to laminate and frame it.
At my kids' school, they just used a tack I think? You know the big puzzles with the outlines of the countries? They would outline it on construction paper, and then just punch around the outline, and when they had all of them punched out glue them on poster board. They learn pretty quickly that you have to make the holes very close together for it to be neat. Pretty low-tech! But it requires a lot of focus and persistence (and is great also for fine motor strength) and follow-through to complete the whole map. They were all VERY proud when they were done!
OMG! I'm so excited! DS3.1 FINALLY read out loud for me! I knew he can read words and I knew he can read more than that because I've been listening to him behind the door to his room but other than when he's alone he's very quiet and never reads for us and never even talks much. Still very much behind on speech. And just now he sat on my lap and started reading in his new I Spy book ... "I spy balloons on the letter B, and snow white ice on an ice cold C." turns a few pages and reads "I spy jewels on the letter J, and bright red kites on the letter K" ... VERY fluently ... the only word he had bit of trouble getting out of his mouth was balloons but absolutely no struggle, just fluent reading. And he did it like no biggie ... you know I can read, mom so why that look on your face? ... I LOVE MY LITTLE DUDE! Since now I finally know he can ready, what's the level ... anyone? Kindergarten I'd guess? I am so excited! Not for me but for HIM ... he's my extreme anxiety child so this was a huge step for him!
Hurray!! That's a really important milestone. My DD has never been much of a 'read-aloud' girl, either. She LOVES to read, though, and that's the important thing.
Hurray!! That's a really important milestone. My DD has never been much of a 'read-aloud' girl, either. She LOVES to read, though, and that's the important thing.
So excited for you both!
Thank you! This really is huge for him . He still has a big speech delay so I'm sure if the speech wasn't an issue he would be doing a lot more reading out loud. But his speech is getting better every day and I'm really excited for him!
This is one of those weirdo things that will ONLY make sense to others here.
DD, finishing a quiz, begins making clucking, chicken noises, and then snickers while she reads me a few things from the quiz...
She then says "I'm getting better and better... at imitating that most common of domestic birds... the lowly domesticated chicken... by the time I graduate... I should be PERFECT."
Okay-- background is Grandits' Technically, it's not my fault concrete poetry anthology. Just look up "chicken-brain" and you'll see.
I think that the direct quote is as follows:
Quote
Multiple Choice:
a) One answer is right b) two are close if you're not paying attention c) One is wrong d) And one is you-must-not-have-the-brains-God-gave-a-chicken wrong.
And I must say, clearly the assessment... um.. gurus... at DD's school curriculum and instruction department are familiar with Grandits' work. Their comprehension could use some work on points A and B above, but they generally nail C and D, all right. No problem with those categories, nosirree...
Why is this a proud moment, hearing my 13yo cackling like a chicken and giggling at her schoolwork?
Well, because she is finally NOT investing so much of herself personally in these beyond-stupid multiple-choice assessments. She's tamed her perfectionism really, really, REALLY well over the past year. That has been like climbing a personal Everest for her.
That she is able to laugh at these now is amazing given where she was two years ago.
This reminds me...I wonder what DD's teacher thought of the notes I "wrote" from our pet chickens to encourage her when she was doing state standardized testing? (We were supposed to send in in empowering "You can do it! ROCK THIS STANDARDIZED ASSESSMENT" notes for them to get every day. DD was getting freaked out by the whole thing so I sent in ridiculous notes from the animals. )
DS5 went on a class field trip to a butterfly nursery today, where he identified a bush by its scientific name. The staff didn't know the name, but his teacher told them to go look it up because he was probably right. He was.
From my dd's language arts teacher, particularly awesome because she wants to be an author: " In all honesty, M. is one of my all-time favorite students in 21 years of teaching. She is truly a gifted writer. I see her “going far” with whatever she decides to do with her life. On that note, I would be happy to talk with her about the International Spanish Academy; she would greatly enjoy this challenge, I think, and be extremely good at it with her love of language and her work ethic." So glad to have a safe place to brag. Very proud of my dd!
From my dd's language arts teacher, particularly awesome because she wants to be an author: " In all honesty, M. is one of my all-time favorite students in 21 years of teaching. She is truly a gifted writer. I see her “going far” with whatever she decides to do with her life. On that note, I would be happy to talk with her about the International Spanish Academy; she would greatly enjoy this challenge, I think, and be extremely good at it with her love of language and her work ethic." So glad to have a safe place to brag. Very proud of my dd!
What a wonderful validation of your dd's art and talent. I can tell you, as an adult writer, these are the life-changing moments in a child's life. I'll never forget the faith my 5th grade LA teacher had in me and my writing.
Our eldest DS just finished his first year of college. That in and of itself isn't a brag. Anyone who has had a GT child who breezed through HS knows that the real challenge comes when they hit college and that challenge isn't even to their intellect, it's about everything else involved.
DS carried aprox. 36 college credits from HS to college, which meant he's pretty much fulfilled all of his liberal arts requirements and a half dozen credit hours for his Physics Major as well. Needless to say, there was no period to ease into college, first semester consisted of Calc II, Physics I for Engineers, Chem. I, and a Presidential Honors course. WHAM! Axe between the eyes! In addition of course was becoming accustomed to living with someone new, eating habit changes, time management, focus when there are so many distractions, new people, new bed, etc. etc.
Well, the first semester was indeed a challenge, somewhat from the rigor but mostly because of everything else. The requirements for the his Physics Scholarship and in particular Presidential Scholarship that he was blessed with are pretty demanding for GPA.
My DS and I sat down over lunch during his winter break after the first semester. He was pretty discouraged and disappointed, questioning his ability to meet his own expectations in college. From his years in club soccer he learned after each practice or game to analyse his performance taking the emotion out of it. I had him write down everything he thought he did right and everything he thought he'd done wrong during the first semester. We talked about elimination of distractions (texting, social media, gaming, etc.) how to deal with a roomy that is less than cooperative, dealing with professors and their vastly different styles of teaching, and a host of other issues. I asked my son to keep that list of what he did right and what he did wrong and look at it every day.
This last semester was a completely different story. Going into finals week he practically had to fail any final he had not to get the desired grades he was after. He disciplined himself, managed his time well, got away from distractions, was a leader in group projects, didn't procrastinate, and even found time to train at the gym 5 times a week. I'm exceedingly proud of the life skills he's applied this semester which have secured him continuation of both his Physics and Presidential Scholarships for next year!
Congratulations, Old Dad! It speaks volumes about you and your relationship with your son that you were able to help him dispassionately attack his problems and succeed so well.
The most rewarding thing about the experience was seeing how proud and confident he was in himself after this semester. As a parent, there isn't anything better than seeing your child struggle, then overcome it because of their own discipline, persistence, and determination, that's what really builds self confidence.
That's wonderful, deacongirl. Will you be sharing the feedback with your daughter? (I think you should!)
Yes, I do plan on sharing it with her. Nip any imposter syndrome in the bud early! She has already said that next summer she would prioritize a Duke TIP creative writing summer camp over anything else, so I think the encouragement from a teacher she respects would be a positive thing!
The most rewarding thing about the experience was seeing how proud and confident he was in himself after this semester. As a parent, there isn't anything better than seeing your child struggle, then overcome it because of their own discipline, persistence, and determination, that's what really builds self confidence.
I just LOVE this anecdote. Way to go to your DS, of course-- but way to go to you, too! It's not always easy to let them solve their problems when the stakes are high.
What I've learned with both of my sons is to attempt to guide more and more rather than direct starting at about age 14, giving more and more choices but adding that they will either reap the reward or suffer the ramifications of their decisions. That seems to sink in deeper and deeper the more decisions they make. Now with one DS being 15 and the other 19, I find they come to us as parents SEEKING guidance and consultation rather than us directing and mandating.
As my eldest son put it after his first semester in college, "The best part about college is the independence....the worst part about college is the independence."
On the other hand, there is still plenty of boy left even in the 19 year old as evidenced by the Mother's Day card he game his mom in which he wrote,
"Roses are red....my name is not Dave....this poem makes no sense.....microwave."
"Remember, there is no job in the world as important as making me food."
Using the Old Dad approach also prevents College PTSD, from which I appear to continue to suffer, given my recurrent nightmares which have become extremely annoying at this point in my life, 15 years out of college.
I basically went from complete mandates and imposed structure to zero assistance/guidance.
LOL, OldDad. I love your son's poem. It sounds like his sense of humor and my DD's are very close in style and substance.
I sometimes get random Haiku, for example. VERY random. LOL.
I also love the 'guiding' thing. I regard us as DD's "coaches" unless she's about to do something incredibly boneheaded that will have consequences that nobody can live with. Otherwise, we let her go right on attending the school of life experience.
It goes along with teaching children about calculated risk which I believe strongly in. I don't want to teach my kids to always take the safe path but rather to help them to evaluate when to risk what they have or would have had using a safe route. This is as you say, part of "Natural consequences"
It's good to see this thread still here after all these years. I "left" when ds9 was 6 or 7. We were finally getting his needs met. Grade acceleration, Gifted program and clustering. Then we moved...
But his new school does move them around for math and science based off ability, so that is good.
Anyway, that's not my brag. My brag is my "normal" dd7 has successfully tested and completed her first year in the gifted program. I'm so proud.
For this that remember me, Hi. For those that don't, keep fighting for your kiddos. It's great to have them actually thrive when they are placed in the right spot!
well, i'm not sure if this belongs here, but it's totally making my day. my DD5 just finished writing a story inspired by the mysterious picture of a dapper lobster in a shop window. it is a cautionary tale.
the story is called The Gentleman Lobster, Great Detective.
synopsis: The Gentleman Lobster enjoys the finer things in life, including (but not limited to) detecting, great literature and fine dining. In the course of his enquiries into the whereabouts of a missing hula hoop and bottle of hair tonic, he is horrified to find out that, depending on the context, he himself might be considered "fine dining."
hee - The Doubtful Guest is probably our favourite of the Gorey stuff.
for a long time i thought DD was skewing more to the math/science side - she's got a scrapbook of inventions as thick as my wrist, but in the past year or so, she's really developed a sense of the dramatic. as far as i know, her first-ever self-penned story began, "The light from the window glowed from above. Harry [Potter] gazed up at it, unsure." it's especially cool 'cause it's written on the inside left of a folded page, so it looks like a book. it'll probably live on the fridge door till she's 25.
man, it's a relief to be able to let some of this stuff out. thanks again!
"Roses are red....my name is not Dave....this poem makes no sense.....microwave."
Oh I just had to read this out to DH and we giggled like crazy, it's so the sort of thing my DS would write too! And then I giggled at the thought of how many of my friends would just stare blank-faced and confused ...
My brag is just a cute story about DD6. She was on school holiday recently and we were hanging around the house one day while she was on a bit of a space kick. We watched a Nat Geo documentary about collisions and impacts in space, wrapped one of her old teddies in tinfoil and stuck a jar on his head to make him into an astronaut, played with her rocket set and toy astronauts, using the pages of a solar system book we'd got from the library as planets for them to land on and collect samples ... Then we did some tinfoil modeling, and although I was exhaustedly trying to get her to make something easy like bracelets, she made a comprehensive model of the solar system, including all major moons (there are a LOT!), Uranus's sideways rings, the asteroid belt, even a comet to demonstrate the way the solar wind affects the comet's tail. She turned my lame tinfoil bracelets into distant spiral galaxies! Anyway, I was worn out and went to hide/take a bathroom break, when after 30 seconds a little note was slipped under the door: "There are no toilets in space" It totally made me laugh I've stuck the note up on the back of the bathroom door to always make us smile. I'm sure any guests must think it's weird but never mind!
(In comparison, btw, this week for Poetry class at school she had to colour in a cartoon picture of a banana. Sigh)
funny brags I painted a funky lighthouse watercolor print, two different people thought my five year old painted it. I guess that's a compliment that they think a decent adult level painting is reasonably within his grasp. But, no, I did it.
I think my 2.5 yr. wrote the first letter of her name on her bedroom wall, but she says he did it and her brother says she did it. She does trace letters, so it's very possible.
Another "little big" milestone for DS3.2 today! I've mentioned before he has a big speech delay and aside from when he's reading he doesn't speak much. We know he can, he has the words and even sentences in him, just chooses not to use them very often. And to top it off, we speak two languages in our house though we have defaulted to English being the boys' primary language since they are growing up in the States. We are raising them to at least fully understand the second language and they'll get plenty of opportunity to speak it when we go overseas once they get older. DS4.9 flat out refuses to speak the second language (other than a few words he likes). With DS3.2 I use English probably 90% of the time because I want to keep things SIMPLE for him to motivate him to finally start speaking more. And today, he came to me and in a whiny voice said in very nice clean Czech what in English would be something along the lines of "Get it out! Get it out!" ... pointing to his diaper! lol He had the PERFECT grammar and pronunciation (and trust me, it's a very hard language!). I have absolutely no idea where it came from but it just shows how much he's really absorbing. I've heard him repeat about 3 words in Czech over the last couple of weeks but never any attempts to speak the language until today! Maybe if I teach the younger one speak the language, the older one will stop refusing it? Either way, this was HUGE coming from our non-talker!
DD9 has been doing area in school, but just asked me..."Wait, but how would you find the area of a CIRCLE?" I told her and now she's going around the house finding circles and calculating their area.
My son has been getting into pi and measuring the area of circles, too. But he's still using a calculator to help him. At least he's getting into it, though!
On a non-academic note, DS6 has been learning to playing basketball for over year, but hasn't felt ready to play on a team. I have to admit, he wasn't exactly great when he started. I was worried about how his playing would agect his self esteem, and I tried to steer him towards a sport that he played well. But, no. He wanted to stick it out, and he has been practising for sooooo long- now he's ready to join a team! I am so proud of him; he never has to practise anything, and I worried that he would take that for granted. He has proven me wrong!
Frustrated by our DD-then7's school's failure to take our request to skip her a grade seriously, we yanked her out this year (again) and homeschooled her, where we found that not only was she not working a year ahead in the GT pull-out in LA and math like we were told, but she'd even missed a few things in 1st because of this haphazard GT/grade-level arrangement. DW immediately set about patching the holes, then taught her a full third grade curriculum.
We had DD-now8 take the state assessment test given to all 3rd graders. This would give us incontrovertible evidence for putting her back in school at 4th grade next year. DD is an extrovert who strongly desires to be in school to make lots of friends.
We got the test scores back today... "Mastery" in all subject areas.
Frustrated by our DD-then7's school's failure to take our request to skip her a grade seriously, we yanked her out this year (again) and homeschooled her, where we found that not only was she not working a year ahead in the GT pull-out in LA and math like we were told, but she'd even missed a few things in 1st because of this haphazard GT/grade-level arrangement. DW immediately set about patching the holes, then taught her a full third grade curriculum.
We had DD-now8 take the state assessment test given to all 3rd graders. This would give us incontrovertible evidence for putting her back in school at 4th grade next year. DD is an extrovert who strongly desires to be in school to make lots of friends.
We got the test scores back today... "Mastery" in all subject areas.
That's awesome! Congrats!
I SO WISH DS4.9 would just want to stay home. It would make schooling and managing his allergies so much easier (just added allergy and exercise induced asthma yesterday to the pile of issues he already had!) But he really REALLY wants to go to school and have friends there as he says so we are trying to make it happen. All he's talking about these days is how he's going to go to Kindergarten
Dad: What is 16x4? DS6: Um....(smile) Mom: What is 15x4? DS: Wait! Wait! (covers ears)
....10 seconds go by....
DS: 64!
Mom: Yes! How did you get that? Dad: I know how he got it. DS: (smiles) Dad: He multiplied 6x4 and added the 24 to his 4x10. DS: (grinning)
Mom: On the floor. (never would have thought of that).
that's exactly how I've been multiplying the last close to 30 years! lol
LOL!
Is that good or bad? I'm so completely NOT a numbers gal.
no idea! I have always been a numbers girl but this is the only way I can do it in my head! lol ... I could never use the ways they taught us to do math at school. I always drove my teachers crazy with having my own ways yet with correct answers
This is one of those, can only tell here things, not sure it's a brag, but I thought it was so cool, so I guess it makes it a brag!!!
So listening to Science Friday (NPR) DS 7 loves it, and we often do that. Physicist Lee Smollin was talking about his argument about time - he has a new book out - was very specific, and definition based, and a little esoteric. DS starts waving his arms and wants me to pause the recording. So I do and he says, I don't agree with him, and launches into his rationale for why this guy was wrong, based on a discussion of time Neil de grasse Tyson did on StarTalk 3 months ago - about time being dependent on the way you measure it and the ability to measure it and that it doesnt exist without the ability to measure something repeatable. It was a very scientifically reasoned and supported discussion using a different scholarly point of view - it was so awesome!
DS19mo freaked out a cashier at the bookstore today by spelling our surname. The cashier had asked DH for his personal details to look up his membership card in the computer system, but DS beat him to the punch.
DW: Please inform me immediately if you're going to accept DD8 for next year as a fourth grader and in the gifted program. I need an answer now so I can begin preparing my homeschool curriculum over the summer, if necessary.
School: Uhhh... okay. We'll take her.
Did I mention earlier that 4th grade is the year they take the state assessment test that matters, as it's the one the school gets graded on? Did I mention that they need to show improvement on those? I did mention that DD scored Mastery level on all subjects for the 3rd-grade version.
Bargaining from a position of strength, for the win.
DW: Please inform me immediately if you're going to accept DD8 for next year as a fourth grader and in the gifted program. I need an answer now so I can begin preparing my homeschool curriculum over the summer, if necessary.
School: Uhhh... okay. We'll take her.
Did I mention earlier that 4th grade is the year they take the state assessment test that matters, as it's the one the school gets graded on? Did I mention that they need to show improvement on those? I did mention that DD scored Mastery level on all subjects for the 3rd-grade version.
Bargaining from a position of strength, for the win.
j
Good for your wife and daughter! That is fantastic.
Ooh, I love that, DeHe. Also, that whole discussion sounds like something BOTH my kids would be so interested in. We are always talking about time, infinity, and the universe over here (I am NOT an expert in these subjects).
This is one of those, can only tell here things, not sure it's a brag, but I thought it was so cool, so I guess it makes it a brag!!!
So listening to Science Friday (NPR) DS 7 loves it, and we often do that. Physicist Lee Smollin was talking about his argument about time - he has a new book out - was very specific, and definition based, and a little esoteric. DS starts waving his arms and wants me to pause the recording. So I do and he says, I don't agree with him, and launches into his rationale for why this guy was wrong, based on a discussion of time Neil de grasse Tyson did on StarTalk 3 months ago - about time being dependent on the way you measure it and the ability to measure it and that it doesnt exist without the ability to measure something repeatable. It was a very scientifically reasoned and supported discussion using a different scholarly point of view - it was so awesome!
DeHe
That is pretty great! Maybe he could send them both a letter with his point of view!
It was awards day yesterday at dd12's school and she got an award for being on the principal's honor roll all year, an award for academic excellence, and probably the most meaningful one for her, the language arts writing award. Clearly we made the right choice to skip her! Honestly I think academically she could certainly use another skip, but she is happy socially and I think set up for a good year next year. I am very proud of her for adjusting well to such a big change (move, new big middle school, skipping 6th grade, having to study for the first time, make new friends, etc.)
My brag is that DD9 is her class's student of the week this week. She's only been student of the week one other time this year, and she's been pretty bummed about it, since last year she was SOTW 3 or 4 times. However, the teacher just switched to having the kids vote for SOTW instead of it being teacher-selected (why, I don't know, and I think it's a bit weird, but anyway) last week. DD's teacher may not find her vote-worthy, but I guess the other kids do. Interesting.
This is one I can't tell to anyone outside our immediate family, whereas I want to shout it out loud.
Last month, DS competed at the national chess tournament in Nashville. He did great, finishing in the top 10 for his age group (age group and exact rank hidden to preserve some semblance of anonymity).
This is one I can't tell to anyone outside our immediate family, whereas I want to shout it out loud.
Last month, DS competed at the national chess tournament in Nashville. He did great, finishing in the top 10 for his age group (age group and exact rank hidden to preserve some semblance of anonymity).
That is fantastic! Why can't you tell anyone? That kind of thing is totally celebrated around here, and I don't think it would be possible to keep it a secret. Congrats to your ds!
DW: Please inform me immediately if you're going to accept DD8 for next year as a fourth grader and in the gifted program. I need an answer now so I can begin preparing my homeschool curriculum over the summer, if necessary.
School: Uhhh... okay. We'll take her.
Did I mention earlier that 4th grade is the year they take the state assessment test that matters, as it's the one the school gets graded on? Did I mention that they need to show improvement on those? I did mention that DD scored Mastery level on all subjects for the 3rd-grade version.
Bargaining from a position of strength, for the win.
Nicely done! If only all school discussions could be so straight-forward.
You do realize that, as a father of an imminent social butterfly, you're going to need a shotgun and a shovel, right? Those teen years approach quickly.
This is one I can't tell to anyone outside our immediate family, whereas I want to shout it out loud.
Last month, DS competed at the national chess tournament in Nashville. He did great, finishing in the top 10 for his age group (age group and exact rank hidden to preserve some semblance of anonymity).
That is fantastic! Why can't you tell anyone? That kind of thing is totally celebrated around here, and I don't think it would be possible to keep it a secret. Congrats to your ds!
I just checked my e-mail and the chess results were just sent to all of the parents in the school weekly update. I think that some people aren't threatened by chess the same way they are with academic success, so here there is nothing but positive reactions to great chess players.
That is fantastic! Why can't you tell anyone? That kind of thing is totally celebrated around here, and I don't think it would be possible to keep it a secret. Congrats to your ds!
Thank you. I know it is welcome here.
But others have widely diverging reactions. Our older relatives (my or my wife's parents, aunts, etc.) are happy to hear about it.
But it's a very different ballgame when it comes to relatives or friends with school age children. We became wary a few years ago when he first won a state championship. It made several people uncomfortable, including some of our cousins.
That is fantastic! Why can't you tell anyone? That kind of thing is totally celebrated around here, and I don't think it would be possible to keep it a secret. Congrats to your ds!
Thank you. I know it is welcome here.
But others have widely diverging reactions. Our older relatives (my or my wife's parents, aunts, etc.) are happy to hear about it.
But it's a very different ballgame when it comes to relatives or friends with school age children. We became wary a few years ago when he first won a state championship. It made several people uncomfortable, including some of our cousins.
That stinks. Still--so great for your ds that he loves chess and is doing well!
mithawk, what an outstanding result for your DS. He must feel so proud that all his hard work paid off.
Thank you. When he first showed interest in chess, we encouraged even though he wasn't a natural that could immediately see the right move (we know those players too). He had to work hard for it, which makes this even more rewarding.
That's great about your daughter UM, I think the kids can be more genuine. Sometimes the teachers view seems colored by other stuff, like behavior or personality.
And space and astronomy were the major areas I knew nothing about so of course that is what DS loves. I can hang in there for awhile longer on physics, chemistry and bio but astronomy I am learning with him, it's kind of fun.
Deacongirl - love the idea of writing a letter - also really good for DS to get encourage to write or type non school stuff.
DeHe--DD is not a good fit with this teacher. Last year's teacher saw that she has a good heart underneath her occasional prickliness and constant question-authority attitude, but I don't think this one ever saw her good side. I was pretty sure that she was well liked by her classmates (though she is totally not a queen bee), but this makes me more sure. She is also an outstanding student who writes funny stories and draws well, and I think this is admired at her school, which is a GT magnet.
DeHe--DD is not a good fit with this teacher. Last year's teacher saw that she has a good heart underneath her occasional prickliness and constant question-authority attitude, but I don't think this one ever saw her good side. I was pretty sure that she was well liked by her classmates (though she is totally not a queen bee), but this makes me more sure. She is also an outstanding student who writes funny stories and draws well, and I think this is admired at her school, which is a GT magnet.
mithawk--congratulations to your son!
I am happy your daughter's classmates voted for her. The teacher makes me so sad though.
She is kind of a polarizing kid. She doesn't back down easily, and she will absolutely let you know whenever you're wrong. (She has corrected grammar mistakes on homework sheets several times this year.) At the same time, she has a soft heart and a generous spirit, and she really throws herself into things. Certain adults really don't like her, and others really enjoy her despite her challenging traits. People *remember* her--her kindergarten teacher was asking a friend about her the other day, though she hasn't seen her in three years (we left that school), and told my friend how much she had loved having her in her class (this is funny to me because it didn't always seem that way to me at that time!!) We had been pretty lucky up till this year.
She is kind of a polarizing kid. She doesn't back down easily, and she will absolutely let you know whenever you're wrong. (She has corrected grammar mistakes on homework sheets several times this year.) At the same time, she has a soft heart and a generous spirit, and she really throws herself into things. Certain adults really don't like her, and others really enjoy her despite her challenging traits. People *remember* her--her kindergarten teacher was asking a friend about her the other day, though she hasn't seen her in three years (we left that school), and told my friend how much she had loved having her in her class (this is funny to me because it didn't always seem that way to me at that time!!) We had been pretty lucky up till this year.
I would love to have a kid like that in my classroom. I hope that next year she has a teacher who can appreciate her.
I hear her potential teachers next year are great!! So we're hopeful. She has proven herself to be resilient this year in the face of this non-match (after a rocky start) and has gotten straight As anyway. I am proud of her.
DS10 got the school's only President's Award for Educational Excellence today, along with his name on a plaque! He's so proud! It was even enough that he's not completely jealous of his sister's Perfect Attendance pennant.
I thought I was recording the presentation, when I realized halfway through the principal's speech that the camera said "standby" and not "record", grrrr....
DD13 has now-- twice-- gotten a perfect 800 on the writing sections of her practice SATs.
Why is this a brag?
Because like a lot of HG+ kids, her writing is her weakest domain by far, and writing longhand generally makes things far worse.
Or it was, anyway. She has come a L-O-N-G way in two years with the assistance of one amazing English teacher.
Second run through the practice tests, she also hit >720 on the other two sections, as well. She should also be able to finish in only a couple hours. Most sections, she had 10-14 minutes leftover time, to boot.
DS3.2 got a green stuffed Leapfrog dog Scout for his birthday (I'm sure pretty much anyone knows who Scout and Violet). And while he knows the dog's name is Scout because he knows him from all the Leapfrog movies, from day 1 he had called him Dog just that ... DOG. And today when he pointed to his "Dog" he says: "S.C.O.U.T. spells SCOUT!" ... I guess reading is no longer enough? Looks like we might be entering the era of spelling attempts?
Our DS loved the Leapfrog DVD's and toys. He has a Leapster2 with a ton of cartridges (bought used on ebay) that have kept him busy in the car since he was your DS' age. It's sad that he's nearing the end of the usability of those since they only go to age 8.
Our DS loved the Leapfrog DVD's and toys. He has a Leapster2 with a ton of cartridges (bought used on ebay) that have kept him busy in the car since he was your DS' age. It's sad that he's nearing the end of the usability of those since they only go to age 8.
We have the Leapster2 as well, on top of two Leappads, Mobigo, Innotab, V.Reader but the Leappad seems to be the all time winner these days but I feel like we're already outgrowing it. Both boys are hooked on my Kindle Fire HD apps and books so I guess that's the direction where we're going next. Though I much prefer the Leapfrog and Vtech apps on their toys since I find those a lot more educational. I wish both Leapfrog and Vtech had apps that could be used on Kindle or Android phones
DD9 got her scores back from a stupid standardized test that her teacher and school terrorized her class about for weeks. The test is easy, but she was so nervous about this that I started to worry she would mess up due to sheer anxiety. I don't have her fine-level score breakdown yet, but on the broad scale she maxed out her scores.
Hi all, newbie here. My DD9 (did I get that right - 9 yr old daughter?) just received her NWEA standardized test scores. Her Math and Reading scores both put her above the 99th percentile. Both scores would put her at about 75-80th percentile as an 11th grader.
She's already in the gifted program at school, but it's a couple of hours per week, and probably not stretching her. (When I was in 4th grade, they sent me to the library and/or principal's office to help stack books and file papers because they didn't know what to do with me once I had maxed out the material available. I don't want that to happen to her.) Is there a "start here" thread on communicating with her school to get her access to challenging material?
Also, since this is the place to shamelessly brag, she recently earned her 2nd degree Tae Kwon Do black belt and performed her spring solo piano recital.
Cute, hellobaby! UM and HK, thanks for the kind words. UM, how fantastic is it that you are a published poet! Great encouragement for my daughter. I shared your remark with her.
There's nothing like reading poetry to inspire writing more of it, I find. There are some great children's anthologies of quality adult poetry out there. As a child, I was inspired by one called Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle.
I;m excited these days because I have noted a big resurgence in DD9's creativity, something that hasn't been seen much for months. I wonder if it's because schoolwork demands have really slacked off. In the past couple of weeks, she has written a short (funny) play, written pop song lyrics that were so convincingly, professionally love-song poppy that I was sure she was copying them down off her MP3 player (no), invented a new board game, invented a new, complicated origami (and it's cool!) and taught it to us all, and done some beautiful art. Wow!
"When I was alone with you, I could have sworn my smile could fill the world. But then you left me there in an empty room With nothin' to look at but a blank wall after you.
Every night I dream About you and me walkin' away arm in arm...me and you. But dreams--you can't make them come true. And you left me there in an empty room With nothin' to look at but a blank wall after you."
There were notes and scribble-outs in there that made it pretty clear she had written this herself, but I confess that I actually Googled this to see if it was plagiarized--doesn't seem to be at all.
My son just finished fourth grade in our local public school gifted program. He got all As even though they completed the fifth grade Everyday Math book and he was placed all year in the sixth grade vocab book. He was the only kid who is hearing impaired or has an IEP. His math team he was on also got first place for our city-wide math competition for his grade!
DD10 just got a letter in the mail from Belin Blank Talent Center that she has been invited to their Recognition Ceremony in the Fall for her EXPLORE test results.
I don't know if we can go to the ceremony or not, but we are excited about the recognition.
DD10 just got a letter in the mail from Belin Blank Talent Center that she has been invited to their Recognition Ceremony in the Fall for her EXPLORE test results.
I don't know if we can go to the ceremony or not, but we are excited about the recognition.
"When I was alone with you, I could have sworn my smile could fill the world. But then you left me there in an empty room With nothin' to look at but a blank wall after you.
Every night I dream About you and me walkin' away arm in arm...me and you. But dreams--you can't make them come true. And you left me there in an empty room With nothin' to look at but a blank wall after you."
There were notes and scribble-outs in there that made it pretty clear she had written this herself, but I confess that I actually Googled this to see if it was plagiarized--doesn't seem to be at all.
DD10 just got a letter in the mail from Belin Blank Talent Center that she has been invited to their Recognition Ceremony in the Fall for her EXPLORE test results.
I don't know if we can go to the ceremony or not, but we are excited about the recognition.
Thanks, HowlerKarma. It makes me happy to see him happy. I found the award for his achievement in his bag after he had gone to bed. He was still awake so I went in and gave him a big kiss and said congrats, and he just had such a sweet little smile of, like, "Aww shucks, mum". So cute
I love reading all these posts...well I admit I didn't read all 195 pages but quite a few. I'm not sure that my girls are in the same league but they still amaze me so I'm still going to brag. My youngest DD2.8 started sounding out words about 4 months ago and now she is reading quite well as long as it is a fairly phonetic word or a few she has memorized. My older DD5 started also at about 27-28 months but stopped then until she read fluently at 35-36 months. DD5 was reading books like Wizard of Oz, james and the giant peach etc well before kindergarten so I am proud that she made it through the entire kindergarten year without hating it despite learning pretty much nothing. Thankfully they did a lot of art. We are on to 1st grade now and I hope they start differentiating for her next year because it didn't happen this year.
DD finished her junior year of high school (at 13yo) with a grade-point-average of 4.47 on the year, and a cumulative GPA of 4.33-- obviously weighted with honors and AP. She is just plain good at EVERYTHING she does academically.
Living in the day to day, it's easy to forget how extraordinary she is. Pictures from last weekend's graduation really brought this home to me, though-- pictures of my DD standing with her four school best-friends-- who were #1, 2, and 3 of THIS year's graduating class, and the likely #1 in the class of 2015 (also the younger sibling of #1 '13). My DD is, in spite of being so young for grade, one of those kids. Actually, the two sibs are both young for grade, too, just not AS young for grade as DD. She's likely to be in the top 3 of her graduating class next year, and there are a lot of VERY sharp kids in that group-- moreso than either of the other two years, in fact. This year's #1 is going to an elite college on a 100% merit scholarship. Definitely bright kids; it's an amazing photo of the five of them. I have every expectation that all of them will be success stories, and two of the five have significant disability-related challenges, which makes that picture all the more special to me.
She really is a natural wonder, my daughter. She really is that rare and special. :awe:
While I would never tell her that, it does me some good to stand in awe of WHAT she is on occasion. It reminds me that all of my advocacy is about nurturing/protecting that amazing treasure. Like John Muir championing Yosemite Valley or something.
Other cool things lately:
1. DD was elected the president of her NHS chapter for the coming year.
2. She was ELATED and ENERGIZED by her first day of 'work' at her computer science internship on a university campus-- on her 14th birthday, no less. No complaints from her. That was her favorite birthday present. She loves her faculty advisor, and has already made a favorable impression for her superhuman reading speed and comprehension. She polished off three research papers and a review article yesterday in just a few hours. Evidently that was a first-- to the point that the supervising grad students challenged her, but she explained everything in short order without batting an eyelash. She has really enjoyed discussing IRB considerations for human subjects and how those differ from those for animal subjects (with me, I mean-- I have years of experience with IACUC/IRB at various institutions).
In other words, she's taken to the research environment like a duck to water and is pretty much incandescent with glee over it all. Exactly like a kid in a candy store. It's a JOY to watch her spread her wings.
We're starting the "Writing With Ease" homeschool writing course. I gave my five year old the book with the page open to copy the sentence, "The deer and the rabbits would be shy and swift." He took over an hour. The teacher at school said he wasn't doing his work she gave him so every so often I said, "Come on. Don't take all day. Why do you have to be told a hundred times to do your work. The teacher's not going to tell you a hundred times. If you have to do your work just do it." (He's a staller on a lot of things.) He finally got it done. I started to read the "explain to your student" part- these sentences are from the book Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingles Wilder about a family in Wisconsin... He said, "I know. I already read that part." I said, which part? He pointed to the whole two pages. Oh. He took so long writing the sentence because he was busy reading about how to teach kids grammer. lol
Taught my 7 yo dd to play chess today. I only had to go through the pieces once. She immediately got the game and how it worked. We have only played 2 games so far but she is catching on quick! I'm really impressed that I haven't had to re-explain any pieces/movement at all. She even set the board up all by herself on the second game without any help from me.
DS7 really wanted a math camp, so we signed up for one at the local university. The site said they did placement testing the first day, but they placed him in the grade placement (rising third) without testing. He rated the first day a 5 out of 10, but spoke up himself at the end of yesterday and got himself into the rising 6th grade pre-algebra group for today and rated it a ten!
No, not really. He got skipped in swim lessons. We weren't sure which one to enroll him in, but he WAS missing some key skills (back float, for instance) so we put him in a pretty easy level. Holy cow, did he ever improve. The swim instructor, young and a bit green, could NOT stop gushing about him all week long. ("He's the STAR! He's just INCREDIBLE!") She told me after the last lesson that he should definitely skip the next level, although they don't usually allow that.
The thing is, I don't think he's unusually skilled at swimming compared to other things. What he has that his sister doesn't has is the ability to use his smarts to immediately learn new physical skills, such that he just catches on to anything athletic very fast. The mind-body thing translates (I envy this; I don't have it.) He likes it all. Anything. Whatever. I still think of the time we went to a festival where they were selling (light, not heavy wooden) boomerangs. DS was 4 at the time and really wanted to try. The guy was like...sigh...okay (obviously humoring him). He showed DS the technique and how it worked and how to throw it, robotically. DS picked up the boomerang and did it perfectly the first time. I thought the dude was going to fall over.
DS5 is LOVING summer school. This is the first time he has gone to school all day and I was worried it would be too much. Apparently I had no reason to worry. He is having so much fun that he has asked to stay late and not get picked up until 5:30!
The summer curriculum is full of field trips, visits from experts, special projects and hours of outdoor playtime.
Today a beekeeper is coming to talk to his class and he was so excited he couldn't get to school fast enough.
DS16m just "counted"!! He counted bristles on his brush, four of many, but said "da, da, da, DA!" Putting his little index finger on each one as he counted- so cute!
DS4.5 used to have a hard time answering questions when he wasn't sure of the answer. I've been working on it with him, and the other day at the science museum, he was very good about answering my questions ("How do you think this works?" type ones) and guessing when he wasn't sure.
He's also been insisting we take his training wheels off, even though he doesn't ride his bicycle that often. We took them off of his smaller bike (safer for falling, I figured) and he rode several feet right off the bat. He then really caught on when hubby would push him down a grassy hill and let go.
DD17-months has decided she's ready for potty training and was dry all day yesterday.
We were watching "Between the Lions" together and sounding out a few of the harder words when "hot" appeared on the screen and he blurted out "HOT! h-o-t"--before the show or I could read it. (I just love how he sounded it out loud *after* saying the word, as if wanting to prove, "hey, I know how this phonics stuff works!")
He was clearly thrilled to crack the word and ran around the house chirping "hot: h-o-t!" for a full 15 minutes. Of course I made a big deal of it, complete with a goofy happy dance. Grandparents were also called, and he told Grandma "I read hot!" proudly. The achievement is quite a breakthrough, as he's been sounding out letters for several months but, more than that, I love his satisfaction and excitement!! Way to go DS, you little firecracker!
ETA: He read several other words throughout the day-- he seems to be enjoying himself.
really exciting news: I found a way to write Newton's three equations using only Poisson Brackets. I spent the past two weeks studying quantum mechanics from a textbook. I feel really good knowing that hard work and determination really can pay off if you stay motivated!
I really don't think my toddler is "highly gifted" but he isn't developing typically, either. I have found that I really can't share his accomplishments on forums like facebook no matter how much I try to downplay them (sad that I have to). He's 30 months and has been writing all his letters and numerals for months and months now. He has a few sight words. He writes upper and lower case and writes his name and words unprompted and today wrote his grandmother a card spelling out "happy birthday [her name] love [his name]." Just thought it was awesome! Thanks
no "big" accomplishments, just a funny one DS3.3 was playing with an alphabet puzzle and telling me what starts with each letter and when we got to letter "O" I said "what starts with O?" (expecting his usual ostrich or octopus or orange) and instead he looks at me, smiles and says "O for oops!"
I am new, I love this idea as I am sure my family are sick of hearing about Miss 5. This week I decided to start filling the gaps of school and began a discussion about fractions while she was having toast. So she became aware of fractions and equivalent fractions using quarters and halves, then the next day, she asked for me to cut her toast into eighths.... we hadn't even discussed them. She blows our minds daily. Thanks for listening
DS is only 4.5 and today he swam across the pool without his floaties AND rode a bike without training wheels down the road. He's always been ahead of the curve physically as well.
My mum visited my boys and I today, and a few minutes after she left DS16 months said, "Grandma gone home"! His talking is spinning me out lol. It may not be too advanced, but my eldest wasn't much of a "several word sentences" talker as a baby, so this is new for me.
DS20mo is developing his sense of words quickly. AFAIK, he started decoding (not sight reading, which he was already doing) last week. Today he spelled several 3-letter words in a game, one of which was "tub". He looked at it then said "ah" (phonetic short a), "tuba". It may not be much, but I was impressed that he was able to make an extension of the word so soon.
Thanks! It's so neat to see the process unfold as DS is our first child.
it's so great that you really saw your little one so clearly this early on - i really wish i'd woken up a bit sooner with my own kid (our one and only)! i did take a lot of notes while things were happening, so i guess i can enjoy the process retroactively, but it must be so amazing to see it in real time right from the start!
That's really exciting, squishys! From what I understand, 3-word sentences don't usually start until around 2 years, so that's advanced by at least one third, which is nothing to sneeze at.
I'll bet Grandma is chuffed to have motivated the speech, too.
Thanks! It's so neat to see the process unfold as DS is our first child.
it's so great that you really saw your little one so clearly this early on - i really wish i'd woken up a bit sooner with my own kid (our one and only)! i did take a lot of notes while things were happening, so i guess i can enjoy the process retroactively, but it must be so amazing to see it in real time right from the start!
It's lucky that DS is such a performer; it makes it easy to see what he knows when he's shouts out words he sounds out at 80 decibels.
But in all seriousness, it's a joy to watch him blossom.
Thanks, Aquinas. It seems other babies on here are far more advanced, but I am happy with my baby-o's development.
My mum was very happy, and sounded like she was crying a little when I rang her lol.
That's great that your boy is spelling! Is he into numbers? I remember my DS6 at that age doing the same; he is a mathy kid, didn't talk much, but knew a million and one words and used to type them on the computer at two. By the time he was 2.5 he typed 'strawberry jam'.
Thanks, Aquinas. It seems other babies on here are far more advanced, but I am happy with my baby-o's development.
My mum was very happy, and sounded like she was crying a little when I rang her lol.
That's great that your boy is spelling! Is he into numbers? I remember my DS6 at that age doing the same; he is a mathy kid, didn't talk much, but knew a million and one words and used to type them on the computer at two. By the time he was 2.5 he typed 'strawberry jam'.
That's impressive (and delicious)!
DS is mathy enough, but not to the extent of some of the children of forum members. He figured out one-to-one counting of objects to 10 around 1 and very simple addition and subtraction about 6 or 7 months ago to about 5, but nothing much since. But perhaps it manifests more subtly than the language. He's forever finding shapes and patterns wherever we go and loves the digital countdown on our pedestrian traffic lights. We shall see...! He seems to be on a verbal spurt lately.
Wow, that's amazing! I haven't heard of subtracting that early; my mathy one was counting and adding by 12 months, but not subtracting until two. Fantastic!
DD5 started dance camp today and apparently they sorted her into the 9+ group. she came out shining and happy and totally herself - it was really nice to see, after the year she's had.
Wow, that's amazing! I haven't heard of subtracting that early; my mathy one was counting and adding by 12 months, but not subtracting until two. Fantastic!
I'll tell DH. He thinks it doesn't count because it's only for small numbers.
DD5 started dance camp today and apparently they sorted her into the 9+ group. she came out shining and happy and totally herself - it was really nice to see, after the year she's had.
Such great news that her needs were recognized and she meshed with the group!
DD5 started dance camp today and apparently they sorted her into the 9+ group. she came out shining and happy and totally herself - it was really nice to see, after the year she's had.
Such great news that her needs were recognized and she meshed with the group!
they really are so great at her dance. if she hadn't had her dance teachers last year looking out for her and moving her up... not only would she have quit entirely, i really think it would have been hello loony bin. i literally can't say enough good stuff about those women - they really, really get it.
and ps - subtraction! seriously - YES. that's awesome.
Not a brag, but an observation... My DS16m has started to really enjoy looking through books. Today he sat on my lap for half an hour looking through an 'ABC' book. He could name most of the objects. Then he went off to find the objects and bring them back to me, and would turn to the correct page. He was also noticing colours and said "red" to a red car. He's loved books since he was two months old, but lately he just seems mesmerized. It's cool when you can see that switch flick.
That is exciting, squishys! There really are discrete jumps at that age, with interest turning on like a light switch. It keeps us parents on our toes!
Yes, it is an exciting time. I remember my eldest switching on at this point with interests in hobbies (like using the computer, building structures, etc), then at 20 months he really went from baby to kid with language and general behaviour. I'm really looking forward to that stage; 20 months to three years is probably my favourite stage of development. It's easy enough for me to keep up with, and less expensive for fulfilling activities lol.
this is probably only fun for the swimming nerds, but DD5 just started learning front crawl with me in her grandparents' pool. lesson one, she got her arms out. lesson two, she got the breathing. lesson three, she corrected a cross-over, added an effective flutter kick and zipped up and back completely unassisted.
after this success she looks me gravely and says, "it seems they weren't really teaching me at all during the school lessons. i like the way you actually explain what i can do better."
Wasn't sure if DS3.4 could spell since he's our "closet giftie" who hides his talents but I actually managed to catch him on camera with my phone today playing a spelling game on Kindle where he was spelling words like ... starfish, spider, tiger, toad, zebra, turtle ... made momma proud!
DS4 's piano teacher of two years has moved and he is devastated. She is young and beautiful and he has a major crush on her. Today he had his first lesson with his new much older and experienced teacher. I expected a bad report but apparently he really showed her what he can do. She says he is very advanced and plays amazingly well.
My son was a spontaneous reader, probably around 18 months old, but we didn't discover this until he was 2. He was never taught to read. When we finally had his reading tested at age 3, he was already on the 6th grade reading level. His IQ was estimated at 180, since he couldn't complete the IQ tests as he wouldn't answer the questions the way the "tester" wanted them answered. He scored 99& on the Stanford Binet at 5. He was accepted into the Johns Hopkins CTY program at the age of 6, scoring at the 66th percentile of 6th graders on their entry exams. We couldn't find any gifted program in our state, and we were not in a position to relocate. We homeschooled for a year, which was wonderful, but he was becoming extremely introverted, even more than he was to begin with. We put him back into public school for 4th grade (a one-year acceleration), and although he has thrived, he is still underachieving. He is now in a rut of underachievement, getting acceptable grades for an average student. Homework is a struggle because he doesn't see the point, and I can empathize with that. It's just busy work for him, and he aces every test. I wish there were things we could have done differently, but there is no support for these students. He is now 15, and I'm pretty sad that we couldn't do better for him.
Well, you can share his accomplishments here. Don't bother sharing with family and friends...they will just be jealous/haters. I found this out the hard way. They will not share your joy. Sorry to be a downer, but that's reality for us unfortunately. Been dealing with this for 15 years...
DD6 has been really into Shakespeare all summer. I thought this manga Much Ado would be too hard for her when it came (found it on sale to try out) but yesterday she insisted and took it away from me and read twenty pages of the party scenes and told me all about it today, quoting Claudio and Beatrice like a pro. I can't really wrap my head around this. It's a slightly abridged version but all original language. Some of the manga conventions are new to me, and I thought might confuse her along with the language, but she's been really into graphic novels awhile. So last night she insisted she needs to read As You Like It, too--not just the simplified quite short readers theater we read, but the manga version at least. So I bought it used online for $4 because the library doesn't have it. She's told me about the opening of Twelfth Night and randomly spouted the "If music be the food of love, play on" bit. We're going to watch the Tennet/Tate version of Much Ado on Digital Theatre when she finishes the play; can't wait!
I know, and they're even doing Midsummer. But it's very expensive and I'd have to leave my toddler at home and they only do night shows obviously, and the local grandparents are not that great at the quiet bedtime sleepy stuff. Maybe next year!
She just read a huge chunk of the play/manga, with appropriate inflection and lots of hammy acting. I was nursing DS and trying not to crack up.
Ha, I was posting while slightly delirious from cold meds and should probably point out that I meant the Old Globe theater in San Diego, near where we live. But we will definitely all go as a family to London when the boy is older and we have saved up. That's DH's dream for us
DH is sweet because he knows London is my favorite city (I've been, but not recently and no one else in the family.) And now he knows our daughter is becoming an Anglophile, too, what with her Flower Fairies and now Shakespeare. But he gets sports-obsessed DS to take to Padres games so everyone's happy!
Our personal experience is that seeing Shakespeare done well is a totally transformative experience-- our entire family loves the Bard. DD and I were pretty much gobsmacked and geeking out in a MAJOR way during her school trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon... we even stroked the original flagstone floors in his childhood home.
My brag for the week:
DD has two posters, a sewing project and several other static exhibits going to state fair this year, and will also take the Shetland Sheepdog for novice obedience. In the Senior division-- and she just turned 14, so most of her "competition" is +3y and in some cases as much as +5. Oh, and her public speaking, too-- she is giving a talk about acoustics at state fair, too.
She's been to a few performances. She finished last night so now we get to watch the stage version that's online. I can't wait til the Whedon one is on DVD so we can show her parts (it was just a tad too sexy to take her to the theater). Now she's correcting me when I try offhand to recall lines, in a little low wry voice :p
DS5 has lately been into a verbal wordplay game that uses a set of homophones. He blows me out of the water! Basically you just use two homophones, each in a different sentence, but when you get to the homophones you replace them with "teakettle". The other person then has to guess what the words are. DS thinks new ones up all day long. His best one came yesterday. He used the pair phone and fohn (which is a type of wind - and apparently he had heard about it a song by the - as he called them - Bearded Ladies, aka Barenaked Ladies, called the Crazy ABC's.) I seem to have no need to teach this kid spelling, because he seems to have absorbed it by osmosis somehow. I am pretty jealous, because I am a terrible speller. He literally has come up with hundreds of pairs of words as we have been playing this the last month.
A brag about me and not dd. I finished setting up our montessori-inspired homeschool this week and if I may say so myself, it is wonderful! DD3.9 loves it and spends most her day there. I am planning to start a separate thread on setting up a homeschool and posting some pictures and notes on how i went about it. I am still waiting for a couple of the materials to arrive by post but it is such an inviting place, even my dh loves to spend time in the homeschool.
And now a quick brag about dd. I asked her how we were going to split 7 apple between the 3 of us and she said, "mom, you can't. There will be one left. But then, you can cut it into 3 pieces so everyone gets 2 and 1/3rd."
Oh, congrats lovemydd! I know you've been working on setting up a prepared environment quite conscientiously. It must be satisfying to see your hard work paying off. Will be eager to read about your approach.
DD3.9 loves it and spends most her day there. I am planning to start a separate thread on setting up a homeschool and posting some pictures and notes on how i went about it.
Yes please! I need some inspirations and encouragement. DD was happy with her playroom/homeschool room for about 2 months then she got over it. Now, she's asking me to clear the room, install a ballet barre and sprung flooring so it can be her home ballet studio.
I feel a little bit like Cinderella's Godmother-- I knew it would happen-- but she (seriously) had NO idea. It's amazingly sweet to me that she's that self-effacing and lacking in arrogance, even while it can be exasperating that she shrugs off the amazing things that she does.
Thanks, aquinas and Mana. I will start the thread soon. Mana, it has only been 3 days since the homeschool is open, so only time will tell how successful it will be in holding dd's attention. BTW, I love the idea of a home ballet studio.
This summer I've been having DS do a workbook that helps him with reading comprehension.
Typically, there's a story (in this case non-fiction) and a set of questions (a,b,c,d choice) and one "essay" question.
Today the subject was Presidents' Day. The essay question was: "Do you think it's fair that Washington and Lincoln are the only presidents who have a holiday? Explain.
DS wrote: NO! 2P/43P is 0.8% of the presidents have holidays...that is NOT fair.
Originally, he wrote that there were 130 presidents (but oddly, his original percentage was correct for the correct-ish answer of 43/44!) We went online and I showed him that actually there have been 43 individuals who have held that office, even though there have been 44 terms.
I was proud that he used his math knowledge to support his answer.
My DD is going to get an authorship on a peer-reviewed publication. What's more, it's not just a gimme-- she is writing the materials and methodology section of the paper for the lab.
They are also very excited because the paper apparently stands a VERY good chance of being awarded a prize at the meeting where it will be unveiled first this fall.
I'm pretty hard to amaze after 14 y of parenting a PG kid-- but I'm pretty amazed at how seamlessly my DD has integrated herself into this lab environment over just 8 weeks (she began on her 14th birthday).
My DD10 goes to a very very small private school. She just skipped to 6th grade. There are only a few kids in her class. She has a wonderful teacher who was excited to have her in the class and really sees it as a challenge to come up with ways to best teach my daughter. Now, after two weeks of school, they have had a number of quizzes which she made hundreds on all of them except one and today they had their first two tests (Science and Penmanship). Her teacher was the one checking the kids out in the pick up line. When I pulled up she was so excited because my daughter made As and the two tests and a 100 on her Science tests. She was just so bubbly and she looked at me with my unintentional this-is-not-surprising look and said very dryly "..but you probably expected that didn't you?" I could only shrug my shoulders.
On another note, my dd10 who hated writing for almost all of the reasons in the article someone pointed me to on here, told me that she is liking language a lot more this year because this teacher makes it fun.
DS5 will be with the same teacher this coming year (we start after Labor Day). I stopped by the school this week to drop off his supplies, etc. and spoke to his teacher. She said she has really missed him during the break and couldn't wait to see him again. I knew she liked him but considering he went to summer school and it has only been three weeks since she last saw him, I was surprised.
I'm SO excited-- my DD is working on something that is going to (probably) be released in another six to eight months that will be very exciting for a lot of the younger kids among parents here.
I just wish that I could share WHAT it is, precisely. But I'll wait until it makes it's big-deal public debut instead.
in our news, today DD5 did the old inflate-the-balloon with CO2 experiment, and had this to say about it. maybe this shouldn't really be a brag - it might be best in the quirky thread, but anyhow...
DD5: neat! but the REAL question, now that it's conveniently inside this balloon, is... is it lighter than air like helium? i know there's C02 up in the atmosphere, so my hypothesis is that it will float. me: why don't you try it? (i tie off the balloon and hand it to her - she lets it go.) DD5: huh. carbon dioxide must actually be heavier - or at least as heavy as air. i wonder how it gets up there? me: you have a think on that. DD5: (smacks head) OH! it's a GAS. diffuse particles. so it mixes with other stuff. plus - there's wind and i guess maybe heat? me: please don't smack your head every time you work something out - you're going to have a dent.
And after spending most of the Kindergarten Curriculum Night playing Angry Birds on my cell phone, at the end, DS5 got up and told his teacher "That was DELECTABLE!" ... and she asked "Did you just say DELECTABLE?" ... and he said "YES!" and walked out the door. ... all I could say to that was "He's Mr. Big Words" ... and then we left.
The look on her face told me that at THAT MOMENT she realized what she's up against this year! lol
Doubtfulguest, I wonder if we are raising twins separated at birth. I came here to post this brag and read yours and now I feel like a copycat but I am still going to share this. Dd, almost 4, has been wanting to fly for some time now and has been trying many tricks like jumping higher and higher on the couch, attaching Halloween costume wings, tying a towel cape around her neck ( in essence, all scarily dangerous feats) in the hopes that she can take off. Today, she said that she wished to be fairy so she can fly all around the world. I told her she can be a human and still fly. She was in deep thought for a few minutes and said," mom, I have an idea. We need a box with two wings tied to it. Then, we need a belt attached to the box. You can tie the belt around me. The box will be on my back. I will flap the wings with my arms and I will be able to fly." I asked her why she needed the box. "For support." I asked "support for what? "Mom, I need a box that is stronger than gravity. Gravity is trying to pull me down. I need support to pull me up." Impressed I said," good thinking" to which she replied," I have good intelligence!" Lol:)
hee, Lovemydd - well, i actually had the same thought when you posted your daughter's story about the egg on the quirky thread. we had a good one about an egg (and a surgery, natch) recently, too!
Mk13 - not to be too doom & gloom, but keep an eye on that teacher. she SHOULD realize what she's up against and i really hope she does, but we had a pair of them last year in Pre-K who "noticed" all the vocab (DD's journal is full of words like protuberance, dilemma & metastasize)... and yet they vacillated between implying that these things were completely run-of-the-mill and/or that i must be drilling her at home. good, good times...
For kids who want to fly, parents may wish to look into a zip-lining experience. There are small scale versions offered at some gymnastic schools, local zoos, etc. This may help emphasize the safety aspects and preparation, encouraging a child NOT to try flying in their own.
Sometimes kids take great comfort in knowing that others also shared their dreams and desires (such as a wish to fly), and also appreciate seeing which aspects have been made possible over time as well as grasping the limitations which still exist.
This may be a perfect moment for parents to gather resources for an in-depth study of flight, as far as the child is interested.
Showing clips of the early Wright Brothers attempts and others... modern parasailing and hang gliding... hot air balloon rides... as well as literary references such as the mythical Greek story of Icarus... and books about birds, butterflies, and insects that fly (DK books are great) may help kids realize that human flight is not possible because we are made differently... but those differences help us do other fun things.
Doubtfulguest, MK, and lovemydd, do your children have room for a young protégé in their vocabulary club?
Yesterday, while visiting a construction site (what little boy doesn't love seeing live construction 10 feet away?), DS said that, "cement mixers make an appalling noise." When I said that a dump truck was huge, he responded, "Yes, in fact, it's enormous." He's starting to sound rather professorial with his breezy use of "in fact" and "actually" peppered everywhere.
But now DS is actually having conversations! Back and forth conversations. I've seen it with my own eyes, and heard about it. "Boy x explained it to me after class" Really? You and boy x had a conversation!!! (Of course, mom plays cool and doesn't let on how shocked and proud she is).
MON, so happy to hear that your DS had a breakthrough.
SO and DD get a death stare from me if they use the word actually. He does it as a reference to the show Coupling and DD has picked up on that it annoys me so she uses it on purpose.
The only time it occurs to me that DD's vocabulary is not age typical is when we read Fancy Nancy together and I realize she already uses all those fancy words. Since we didn't talk to her in English much during the first two years, it's fast progress.
Just today, I was interrupting her singing so she looked at me and opened her mouth wide then said "Umm. There, I crushed your mandible. Now you cannot talk anymore." She went back to singing with a smile.
I don't know whether I should be impressed by her verbal skills or be worried about her cruelty.
My introverted accelerated DS5 just won his school grade 1 public speaking competition. He had to do his speech in front of approx 130 people. He remained relaxed and calm and looked every bit like the older finalists ( except for his size!)
My introverted accelerated DS5 just won his school grade 1 public speaking competition. He had to do his speech in front of approx 130 people. He remained relaxed and calm and looked every bit like the older finalists ( except for his size!)
That's great bobbie!
I am an introvert, and I know how nerve wracking it could be doing public speaking.
DS22mo was teaching a clever little 18mo girl her colours at the library yesterday. He used a bag of crayons in the children's area, drew one out at a time, clearly enunciated the colour twice, and then handed the crayon to the girl. The sweetest thing was that he gently patted her arm as she answered and tried to give her a kiss when she answered correctly. When she got one wrong, he hugged her and said, "That's okay, try again!" I was so proud of his patience and gentleness with the girl, who was both younger and much smaller than him.
The little girl's mother was dumbfounded because her daughter had never picked up colours in her native language (Mandarin). What made it doubly impressive was that she remembered "orange" for quite a while afterward, and she didn't speak any other English! As I said, she was a smart cookie!
DD5 came home from school yesterday with 10 spelling words she needs to learn for a quiz on Friday. The words are things like egg, rat, dad and other 3 letter words she already knows how to spell. This morning while we were waiting to go to school I asked her if she wanted to practice her words, she said yes and sat down to spell them out with me. I said "rat" and she didn't simply spell it with letters, she acted out the letters with the actions from the alphabet song they had learned in class instead! She then proceeded to make me learn the actions so I could spell them correctly too. I'm not thinking the quiz will be a problem
I'm brand new to the board - it's so nice to find a place like this! I must admit, I don't even know what to write here - suffice it to say that my husband and I have all but stopped talking about what my son (3 years old) does on a daily basis because we are sick of the looks, the 'you must be drilling him', the 'stop teaching him things!", the 'oh, you're lying',...etc. it has become rather frustrating, sometimes infuriating.
So let's see what I can come up with...
The basics:
My son is a math head. He has been from the very beginning - currently, he is hovering around 3rd grade math...anything with numbers, he is immediately drawn to. (for ex. he watched a youtube video about the digits of pi, in song, and from that memorized 60 some-odd digits past the decimal...and I still only know like 5, lol!)
He can read incredibly well - of course, getting him to read is a trial (he would rather be read to.) That's a double-edged sword, because I really want him to WANT to read, but don't want to push it on him either. (if anyone has an opinion on how to help with that, please feel free to enlighten me! Though it might be as simple as...'he will when he's ready,' and that's ok, too.)
I'm only scratching the surface but I don't think I need to write a book here. Every day he amazes and scares the living daylights out of me...because as much as my husband and I research giftedness and how to deal with it, the very thought of him not being challenged and all the hurdles we will have to face (emotionally as well as cognitively) is almost too much to bear.
I just wanted to say that I love the idea of this thread - as a parent of a gifted child, you really do have to hold your tongue around people...DH and I decided to give little to no details about what my son was doing because we were sick of the 'you are lying', 'you are drilling him', or, my favorite, "stop teaching him! let him watch tv!' (which he does...sid the science kid is on more than i would like to say, lol.) So I can really appreciate a place to be able to voice our kid's achievements.
so true, Marnie! when i first showed up here in the spring (i think?) it was SUCH a relief. i felt like i had found "my people"... this one and the quirky thread are my absolute favourites - it's so great to hear about everyone's kids.
DD8 had homework last night, which included an interesting puzzle from her gifted math class. It involved a 5x5 grid, 25 numbers to fit into the grid, and 10 labels for the columns and rows... things like "prime numbers," "multiples of 5," "factors of 60," "square numbers," and "triangular numbers" (yeah, that one needed a little explanation from DD... think bowling pin arrangements). The challenge is to arrange the labels and the numbers in such a way that they all fit together, all conditions are true.
The assignment isn't due until tomorrow, but Wednesday is the day she goes to gymnastics with her friend, then plays with her after dinner, so we forced her to finish it last night, because we're cruel hothousing parents like that.
Recognizing that this wasn't your average math worksheet, I teamed up with DD to help her solve it, and as we got started, she said something to the effect of, "I like this assignment, because it's challenging. My classmates were complaining about it, because it's challenging."
DD8 had homework last night, which included an interesting puzzle from her gifted math class. It involved a 5x5 grid, 25 numbers to fit into the grid, and 10 labels for the columns and rows... things like "prime numbers," "multiples of 5," "factors of 60," "square numbers," and "triangular numbers" (yeah, that one needed a little explanation from DD... think bowling pin arrangements). The challenge is to arrange the labels and the numbers in such a way that they all fit together, all conditions are true.
The assignment isn't due until tomorrow, but Wednesday is the day she goes to gymnastics with her friend, then plays with her after dinner, so we forced her to finish it last night, because we're cruel hothousing parents like that.
Recognizing that this wasn't your average math worksheet, I teamed up with DD to help her solve it, and as we got started, she said something to the effect of, "I like this assignment, because it's challenging. My classmates were complaining about it, because it's challenging."
For an additional challenge, find all solutions to the puzzle, and prove that there are no other solutions.
that is so cool, Ametrine! i always think it's so neat to hear what actually goes on inside their heads - i hardly ever get that from my kid!
my stuff... (sorry it's longwinded - we seem to have had quite an exciting week around here.)
it's now a week into homeschooling, and DD5 has raised her reading level an entire grade since i last tested her in august, and i just got a report that she has finished 40% of the Grade 3 math in her online practice program. she also did some sick geometry this week: designing, measuring and building her own contiguous patterns for several quite complex 3D shapes.
also... we've always kept a bike for her in the shed, but she's never been that interested. this morning at breakfast, she boldly announces that "those useless training wheels are holding me back." i stifle a laugh - there speaks the Great Rationalizer - but i'm thrilled, so we get out the wrench and pop them off.
i was secretly hoping she'd finally experience a little healthy failure - but sadly, it was not to be. she climbs onto the bike, shrugs my hand off her back and RIDES AWAY LAUGHING. (yay/arg)
Love the trainingwheels story doubtfulguest! I am Bonaire how accurate my memory is, but I seem to recall being so scared to give up trainingwheels because bike riding with them was so hard - and then to find leaning without them so much easier once pushed to give them up...
LOL. My DS4.5 was the same way with training wheels. He'd been begging all summer for us to take them off and I finally did on his smaller bike (He has a bigger one where he can't quite touch the ground). He was riding within the day. The same day, he also swam across the pool without his floatie.
We went to a park with good bike riding areas, along with some other homeschoolers and there was a "bump trail" (small hills, similar to what you'd see a bmx racer riding on, but much smaller.). I thought it would be a bit of a challenge for him and it was slow going the first time or two around, but once the bigger kids got out of the way and he had the track to himself, he was cruisin around it. In all honesty, his small bike is holding him back in this case...
W00T!! Last night, DD8 declared her intentions to launch the conquest of my bookshelf!
It had become quite disorganized, so together we pulled everything out and sorted by author. As we did so, I pointed out various things she might be interested in that were age-appropriate. She said she would like something funny, so I pointed at the huge stack of Terry Pratchett works, and described the nonsensical impossibility of the Discworld. She decided that was a good place to start.
Other comments she made during this conversation:
- Books are her favorite media, trumping movies, video games, etc. - Her G/T class was offered the option of working on a particular problem, or free reading. She was the only one who chose reading. - This prompted her friend to say something to the effect of, "You're weird. You read more than anyone else I've ever seen." DD did not take it as an insult.
Also, DD8 is currently reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from the school library, despite the fact we have the full series at home. This is because, during free reading at school, she's only allowed to read school library books, not books brought from home. She had recently started the series over again, because she has yet to read the whole thing from start to finish, and wanted to give it another go.
What was brag-worthy about this, though, is that DD has a new school librarian who tried to block her access to it, as they've rated 6th-grade level (she's in 4th), and DD successfully self-advocated with the librarian to get it.
Which PTerry is she starting with? I love the witch books, either Wee Free Men or Equal Rites as a starting point. (I realize that the question of which book to read first is practically a religious matter in some areas of fandom, and I promise not to try to change your mind if it is for you, too.)
Will she be allowed to read what she wants from now on? I can't believe they're still policing at that age. DD9 was never limited in any way (she started at this school in second). That reminds me, though--I need to see if they're limiting DS5. K could very well be different.
Which PTerry is she starting with? I love the witch books, either Wee Free Men or Equal Rites as a starting point. (I realize that the question of which book to read first is practically a religious matter in some areas of fandom, and I promise not to try to change your mind if it is for you, too.)
LOL... it's funny that you use the word "religious" there, as I decided to plunge into the series when "Small Gods" caught my attention, and I'd probably commend it to DD as a good place to start.
But it's not really important to me where she starts. I have yet to organize them sequentially, but will do so tonight, and then I'll let DD know she can start anywhere she likes.
She'll likely be a while, though, as she's currently dedicated to that HP task, and she doesn't like mixing reading projects.
Will she be allowed to read what she wants from now on? I can't believe they're still policing at that age. DD9 was never limited in any way (she started at this school in second). That reminds me, though--I need to see if they're limiting DS5. K could very well be different.
Ditto. It seems foolish to me to police a child's access to any reading material for reasons other than violence or adult content. I've had this conversation with DD's school before.
Small Gods was actually the first one I read all the way through, too, but it didn't really grab me like the witch books did. (There was no Tiffany Aching back then, sad to say.) I also really enjoyed the Guards books, and I had a friend who loved Moving Pictures as a jumping-off point.
She can start anywhere she likes, but I'd strongly recommend against starting with The Light Fantastic (I read the first two chapters or so in high school, and abandoned it because it made no sense). It was much later that I learned that it was the second book in a two-part novel, and also that the later Discworld books were more developed and better.
It does seem crazy to tell kids they can't read books they brought from home, and doubly so if they are books that are in the school library.
I don't make a fuss about much, but this would justify making a fuss for me (and in fact, I do plan to make a stink if DS5 is being relegated to K books...fortunately, I know his teacher has my back). Free reading is free reading, or it should be. Ergh.
DD loves her kindergarten! And, we do too. It is challenging her in just the right ways.
Update: summer reading clubs. She is down to reading about 1.5 hours a day since school started. Over the summer I'd say her reading level has improved a few levels. (At the beginning of summer she was reading rainbow magic.) She is currently reading the Wrinkle in Time series with DH, and in the middle of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after only two nights of independent reading. I think that is about a mid fourth grade level. For some reason we are still surprised by her comprehension. She correctly predicted the end of A Wrinkle in Time, unprompted, and she is still remembering more details than DH.
We were worried about summer reading clubs messing with her motivation and love of reading, and it just did not happen. Phew.
I fell asleep reading Charlotte's Web to DD last night and we were at the very beginning of Wilbur's attempted escape. She woke me up apparently about 15 minutes later and said with tears in her eyes, "Mommy, Wilbur didn't make it. I wanted him to go back to Fern and live happily ever after." We're putting the book away for now. She sees Wilbur as Fern's baby and their separation is giving her nightmares.
On her ballet front, both her teacher and I told her that she'd be able to skip in a year or so (or later) and it's okay that she cannot skip for now. Well, she decided that that won't do and willed herself to learn to skip over the weekend. She asked me to talk her through the process. She thought about it, practiced it for a few minutes, then she was skipping.
Why is it that everything she does makes me happy and worried at the same time?
that's awesome about the skipping, Mana! it's amazing how it's possible for kids to mentally break down physical skills like that - DD5's dance teacher has always said that's where talent really lives - in their minds. congratulations to your DD!
and my thing today is that DD5 just drew a very realistic sketch of her stuffed rabbit sitting on a fully 3-dimensional chair. my jaw literally dropped when she brought it in - the legs even show perspective and depth and sit in front of a horizon line! it's especially cool because she has spontaneously implemented our homeschool exploration of 3D shapes directly into her artwork without a single prompt from me. woot!
My DD10 came home with her 6th grade midquarter grades (after skipping 5th). I suppose the school can stop being worried about if she will be able to handle the jump. Her lowest average was a 95.9 in handwriting and her next lowest was a 98 in Grammar. She had the highest grades in the class.
On her ballet front, both her teacher and I told her that she'd be able to skip in a year or so (or later) and it's okay that she cannot skip for now. Well, she decided that that won't do and willed herself to learn to skip over the weekend. She asked me to talk her through the process. She thought about it, practiced it for a few minutes, then she was skipping.
It's a pity that so many schools won't allow kids to skip even when it would clearly be beneficial.
My DD10 came home with her 6th grade midquarter grades (after skipping 5th). I suppose the school can stop being worried about if she will be able to handle the jump. Her lowest average was a 95.9 in handwriting and her next lowest was a 98 in Grammar. She had the highest grades in the class.
Mana, I think your daughter's determination is terrific.
Doubtfulguest, isn't it neat how your daughter absorbed your lessons by osmosis? If art becomes a passion of hers, I hope you'll treat us to a sample picture down the road. I'd enjoy seeing something from her perspective.
ha - i think "perspective" is the operative word, here, aquinas!
i'm not sure DD really has any particular artistic talent - her command of the pencil is pretty typical for her age, i think. but that said, her artwork has had some odd quirks pretty much from the get-go: for instance, she never, ever drew that line kids put at the top of pictures for the sky - her skies were always filled in down to the ground. she's always depicted background objects smaller than foreground ones. when she draws pictures of people from a bird's eye view - their bodies are foreshortened.
but all of these things feel like they're related to observation (and math?), rather than actual artistic ability, you know? i'd love to start an art thread - to hear all the other stories like this.
so here's the rabbit - you can just see the places where DD has erased the cube she drew to plan the seat and the back of the chair. it's kind of neat!
Doubtfulguest, thanks so much for sharing your DD's picture! That kind of perspective (ha!) is really unusual at her age. She's obviously a perceptive girl. I agree that the picture probably belies her math savvy. The chair is so realistically positioned, and her rabbit looks quite charmed to have his portrait drawn.
You definitely should start that thread!
FYI, just want to confirm that you're OK with your DD's name (or her rabbit's) on the file.
DD9 just got her letter from Duke TIP that she's eligible to take the EXPLORE test.
Interestingly, she only qualified in math, where I have just now learned she scored the absolute maximum score possible on the exam our state uses for TIP. This is rather odd since I think I and everyone else who knows her considers her a stronger reading/writing student. (Hmm...was that an anti-brag? She still got a strong overall score on the reading, but just out of the 95th%+ range.)
Same with my boy. I consider him more reading/writing yet test after test shows he just blows everything away in math and is the same as your DD on reading.
Does she only take the math part or will they let her take all parts of the Explore?
You know, I am totally confused about this and need to ask how it works. The info says: "Participation in the 4th–6th Grade Talent Search provides students with exciting, stimulating and challenging opportunities through online lessons, publications, contests, the Duke TIP Book Club and an optional above-level testing experience, the EXPLORE® test." But my letter indicates that she qualified in math. Maybe qualifying in one area lets you take the whole shebang? Doesn't it have a lot of sections?
I'm wondering if she just botched one or two on the reading and that was enough to nudge her out of the 95th+%. I suspect this test has a low ceiling, and she does overthink. Math is math and it's harder to overinterpret.
ETA: Never mind--just found it: "All students currently participating in the Duke TIP 4th-6th Grade Talent Search may register for EXPLORE. " So I guess everyone who scores highly enough on one of the tests can register. What I didn't know is that her IQ would have qualified her to take EXPLORE anyway.
DS6 just participated in his 10th chess tournament and his USCF rating is now 1038; he as thrilled because his goal had been to be at 1000 by age 7 (which he doesn't turn until late April).
He is in the middle of 4th grade math (we homeschool) and is likely to move onto 5th grade at the start of 2014. He just started 3rd grade English, and is about to move onto a mix of 3-4th grade spelling.
He is loving reading and has recently finished Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIHM, The Hobbit, and the entire Guardian of gaHoole series.
After a period of dormancy, DS23mo has picked up reading/spelling with renewed fervour. We have an app (will report back with the name) that allows him to drag and drop letters to write simple 3- and 4-letter words. This is his newest craze. We also draw pictures and use magnetic letters to subtitle the illustrations. My crappy stick figures are slowly evolving into more discernible pictures.
This morning while I tidied, DS decided to spend about 10 minutes naming off words at random and their starting letter/sound. (A harder game we play is identifying ending sounds.) We also played a game where we'd draw letters at random from a jar and identify vehicles whose names started with the letter selected. "G" drew a surprising blank, since he loves garbage trucks and graders, but DS improvised "gucker truck", which made us both laugh. A gucker truck is apparently one that does mucker jobs...
I suppose this isn't so much a brag as a global progress report. It's just such fun seeing DS carve out his own method for learning to read, and I love that all this is happening organically through free reading and play.
Oh, while I remember, here's one last story! DH and I were surprised when DS read a shop sign (Hermes) on a walk last week. I KNEW it was reading and not memory because DH and I always pronounce Hermes in French, while DS pronounced it as the Greek god's name.
DD14 just got her ACT results-- she got a composite 34!!!
She got two perfect 36's-- in reading and English, and a 34 in the Science section.
I am relieved that even though she had writing at the end of the test (and note that we strongly suspect a CTD that makes her hands fatigue badly-- and makes writing longhand VERY difficult)--
She 99'ed everything but math (high 90's), and the writing section (98th percentile combined writing/English) which probably doesn't show her actual ability-- her SAT writing test (where the written essay comes FIRST) showed a better essay score.
She did it!! Yippeeeeeeee!!
(I'm really really elated that now she's probably done with standardized testing, which is way, way, way stressful with a 2e kid. It also means that she achieved her goal of NOT superscoring anything. She's going au natural. Three-for-three, kiddo! Good for her. )
Congratulation, HK! Great going, aquinas! Doubtfulguest, the drawing of the chair is unbelievable. I learnt perspective drawing when I was in my teens and still can't get it right. I was floored by her visualization! Amazing!
Congrats to your daughter and to your methods HK! That will give the admissions folks something to put into their collective pipes and smoke now, won't it?
DD14 just got her ACT results-- she got a composite 34!!!
She got two perfect 36's-- in reading and English, and a 34 in the Science section.
I am relieved that even though she had writing at the end of the test (and note that we strongly suspect a CTD that makes her hands fatigue badly-- and makes writing longhand VERY difficult)--
She 99'ed everything but math (high 90's), and the writing section (98th percentile combined writing/English) which probably doesn't show her actual ability-- her SAT writing test (where the written essay comes FIRST) showed a better essay score.
She did it!! Yippeeeeeeee!!
(I'm really really elated that now she's probably done with standardized testing, which is way, way, way stressful with a 2e kid. It also means that she achieved her goal of NOT superscoring anything. She's going au natural. Three-for-three, kiddo! Good for her. )
woah i'm so behind on these. aquinas - holy that is amazing. i love reading about everyone's early readers - it's so cool seeing the way language clicks for them.
and HK - hurray! that must be such a major relief. hope you guys are doing a toast to the end of the standardized tests. i know they're useful, but good riddance! (ours will unfortunately begin in the spring - hold my hand, ok?)
and Lovemydd - that's kind of you to say! DD5 actually did a Suez canal drawing yesterday that includes a pretty good vanishing point - which i ALSO did not teach her - she just kind of worked it out (?!) - so today i'm going to show her how to do that for real. i should really start that art thread - i really, really want to see all the other drawings out there!
woah i'm so behind on these. aquinas - holy that is amazing. i love reading about everyone's early readers - it's so cool seeing the way language clicks for them.
and HK - hurray! that must be such a major relief. hope you guys are doing a toast to the end of the standardized tests. i know they're useful, but good riddance! (ours will unfortunately begin in the spring - hold my hand, ok?)
and Lovemydd - that's kind of you to say! DD5 actually did a Suez canal drawing yesterday that includes a pretty good vanishing point - which i ALSO did not teach her - she just kind of worked it out (?!) - so today i'm going to show her how to do that for real. i should really start that art thread - i really, really want to see all the other drawings out there!
Doubtful guest, is there a file where we can see your dd's drawing?
doubtfulguest, have you seen the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"? Your DD is already so awesome at her art, I'll bet she'd get right into that method! It's about (at least at the start, I've never been through it to the finish) drawing the negative space -- like the shape of the air in between the slats of the chair, for instance, which of course yields a picture of the chair in the positive space. I am abysmal at art, and I've always enjoyed trying things the way it shows in that book.
doubtfulguest, are you kidding me? I can't believe a 5-year old can even do that! Awesome! I think you may be right about her math ability showing through the drawings. I say this because I consider DD4 to be quite creative and artistic. She has done the negative drawings that Nautigal mentions without ever learning it from anyplace. Kind of similar to how your dd self-taught perspective drawings. But my dd's drawings are not precise, like your dd's are. Your dd could grow up to be an amazing engineer!
ooh Nautigal - i haven't seen that book, but i'll put it on my list! negative space has always interested DD5... she would always fill in the entire floor or sky - i bet she would LOVE that book.
and Lovemydd - ha - i've wondered if architecture or engineering might be where she winds up in the end? she's in her room drawing a castle scene using the vanishing point, which i officially showed her this morning. it's really shaping up - and i think the straight lines are very satisfying for her. "mastery" is her big watchword these days, and the professional output of a straight edge really appeals, i think!
i'll post the castle as the inaugural Art Thread post when she's finished - she's been at it a while now, and she's about 1/4 done the sketch. whee - can't wait to see others, so Lovemydd, you'll be adding some from your bean, right?
Thanks MumofThree, doubtfulguest, lovemydd, and KADmom! He's really taking off. I swear if he so much as breathes within the vicinity of something, he learns it.
HK, that's outstanding work by your DD! Way to show what she knows without lowering herself to the trickery some of her contemporaries engage in!! Smart and principled...that's great preparation for the next chapter of her studies.
One of my sons (6.5, 1st grade) wrote a letter to his teachers last night asking to be given addition and subtraction problems with carrying and regrouping because he needs to practice. (As enrichment, they have been giving him worksheets that have multiple digit problems, but that do not require carrying or regrouping.) He asked me to sign it, but I told him that I thought it would be better if he was the one to sign it and give it to them. I am so proud of him for self-advocating, and I told him that. So last night he showed the note to DH, and said "I am starting to self-advocate to ask for harder work." LOL. I think his teachers are going to be shocked.
The teachers always think that WE are pushing HIM by asking for "harder" work, so this letter will hopefully make it clear to everyone that the request for harder work really is coming from HIM, not us. I just hope it works.
momoftwins- that is sooo great! I am so happy for him that he is able to ask himself! (I think I should share this with my ds6 who he afraid he would get in trouble.)
that is AWESOME, momoftwins! to recognize that he needs more challenging work and then take concrete action at 6.5 is a beautiful, beautiful thing. that ability will protect him from perfectionism and underachievement no matter what his environment looks like...
and i really, really hope the teachers see the light and stop thinking you're pushing him. that stress on you is just soooo unhelpful.
Thanks! I hope his note works! I am glad to see him being proactive and asking for what he needs. I did direct him to give it to the gifted teacher, though, instead of his regular teacher, even though it is addressed to both of them.
Last year in K, he began to show definite underachiever tendencies, and it really concerned us. He really, really wants to learn, and has been so disappointed in school because it is so very easy for him.
I am definitely going to follow up with the teachers after he gives them the note. He has a GIEP, but their position is that they will not accelerate in math; only provide differentiated work. In practice, this means that they will not teach him above grade level math, but they will let him practice it. I don't think they were counting on the fact that he is going to continue to learn new math skills, though, even if he isn't being taught them at school.
ha - that really IS so amazing that teachers (of all people) could think that they might be able to stop learning from happening. i recently had a hilarious conversation with a high school teacher who had overheard DD casually drawing parallels between equivalent fractions. she was very worried that i was "letting" DD5 learn to reduce fractions at such a young age. uhhh, yeah. i wish that woman joy trying to STOP that sort of thing from happening.
Really proud of DD10. The first post-skip quarter is at an end and she made the A honor roll
Science, Bible 100 Math, Spelling, Reading 99 History 98 Handwriting 97 Language 94
Sorry to be so specific but husband and grandparents are the only ones I can share those grades with without receiving an eye roll.
The only negative is that it seems that even though she is busier during the day and actually comes home with homework, most of it seems to be unnecessary busy work. More and more, its looking like next year we are also going to have to homeschool this child with her sister until high school. I'm sure like lots of you, I wish I had known exactly how gifted she was much earlier in the game.
DS2 read parts of his birthday cards in front of my in-laws (and other family), dispelling all former snide suggestions about a previously not-quite-2-year-old not being able to read. He sounded out "Gap" and "Tonka" phonetically, and on film, too.
Subversive MIL might have needed to change herself. You might catch a whiff of something in my writing...schadenfreude.
My dd3 just drew a maze - ok so it's a bit rough but def still a maze. So proud right now. Does it make a diff that she followed it up with pointing her backside at me, waiving it rythmically while humming the tune for Big Ben? :-)
DS7 recently went to a trial art class for kids. They have a 5-8 year old group and a 8-13 year old group; my son went to the former. When enrolling him to continue, the teacher suggested he join the latter.
Wouldn't it be nice if all classes went by ability, rather than age?
Indeed. Our DD had a similar experience when trying out a drama class.
DS7 recently went to a trial art class for kids. They have a 5-8 year old group and a 8-13 year old group; my son went to the former. When enrolling him to continue, the teacher suggested he join the latter.
Wouldn't it be nice if all classes went by ability, rather than age?
goodness, YES. DD5's dance and swimming have done that for her and it is the best thing ever. she'll get stuck at a certain point (Bronze Med/pointe) and we'll need to mark some time in other ways, but if they didn't accelerate as needed, they'd lose a whack of talented kids who would otherwise drop the activities out of boredom. funny how this concept doesn't often seem to extend to academics... (sigh)
oh, and squishys... i hope we'll be seeing some of your DS' new artwork over at The Ultimate Art Thread soon!
So excited...kindergarten is actually doing differentiated learning...dd(5) is getting pulled out daily by the reading teacher for reading / writing. Nearest I can tell, they are starting with second grade work. Best of all, the school did this themselves - no advocacy needed!
DD9 has really been going above and beyond with these short ("a few sentences") expository prompts she gets at school. I loved this one:
Quote
The woman stared at me with her dull eyes. She came closer, then whispered to me in a very tiny voice. She waved her shriveled hands, telling me the story of herself. Her stringy gray hair fell into her strange eyes, and I shivered. Finally she clapped her pale hands, and walked off.
... trial art class for kids... Wouldn't it be nice if all classes went by ability, rather than age?
Indeed. Our DD had a similar experience when trying out a drama class.
Originally Posted by doubtfulguest
... dance and swimming have done that for her and it is the best thing ever... if they didn't accelerate as needed, they'd lose a whack of talented kids who would otherwise drop the activities out of boredom. funny how this concept doesn't often seem to extend to academics
Originally Posted by squishys
...Yes, it's amazing how they flourish when in the appropriate ability group- no social issues, no any-excuse-a-school-can-make issues. They do well when they have the chance to extend themselves. But the education system doesn't see this, or think it can apply in other areas...
In addition to helping students immensely, think how much easier it would be for teachers to have students cluster grouped by readiness and ability in academics! Everyone wins.
Yes! I could almost feel the character's breath as she whispered. I've been wondering what your daughter's writing prompt was...? Possibly because it is October and Halloween is just around the corner, I'm thinking along those lines...
Hello! This is my first post here. I found this forum last night and am excited I have been googling on more info on gifted kids...I'm new at this, and resources are quite limited especially here in Asia. My girl is 3. I used to post stuff about her on my facebook, but I am starting to get conscious about it.
There was once I was telling her about liquids/solids during shower, giving her examples (eg the soapy water she's playing with is liquid, the towel is solid), and she interrupted me with "pee pee is liquid, poo poo is solid!". It was very funny but it showed that she clearly understood the concept.
I had considerably more time to spend with DS4 when he was younger.
With DD2 being the second child, I spend most of my non-working hours cooking, cleaning, driving kids to extra-curriculum activities, etc.
I was always under the impression that DD2 wasn’t as intellectually advance as DS, which is perfectly fine by my book. On the other hand, she is physically a lot stronger.
I was totally surprised when I found out that she was doing 12-piece brand new jigsaw puzzle all by herself.
Now, I feel awful about underestimating her ability.
Our YDS (3) was talking at dinner last night about a very specific kind of bread (blueberry, with crunchy white sweet stuff, I assume frosting) that he had at last year's Thanksgiving buffet. Is that sort of memory normal? Yikes. I barely remember anything from the buffet! DH said he vaguely remembers said son being very fond of said bread.
I might have posted upthread but I remembered something hilarious about DS at 4 years old (he is 6 now) - he does not listen to pop music, we let him listen to classical music at home and we have no TV time. So, his exposure to contemporary culture is nil (and he has boring parents too to add to it!). My 23 year old niece was blasting out a song that said "Watch Out Bad Romance" in her car at Thanksgiving that year - and DS went up to her and said: "Yes, those Romans were very bad people. They killed a lot of Gauls in the BC years. And that made me very sad." Only a few people there got what he was saying. And those that got it still recount it every time we meet.
Our YDS (3) was talking at dinner last night about a very specific kind of bread (blueberry, with crunchy white sweet stuff, I assume frosting) that he had at last year's Thanksgiving buffet. Is that sort of memory normal? Yikes.
Normal for this crowd, anyway.
Our DD visited a home in a foreign country at around 22 months of age. Almost two years later, she returned. She looked around the room, and reported all of the things that had changed (which, since the first visit was around Christmas, was a lot).
Yes, my DS7 can still remember things that happened at age two.
ODS is 7 and has a memory like that, too. YDS has not exhibited such detailed memory until recently. I agree it is likely normal for gifted kids, maybe it is typical for all kids?
Thanks squishys for the art brag thread. Awesome stuff there.
Yesterday, my girl was playing her doctor toys and asked me to open her mouth so that she can check my mouth. She asked how many teeth I've got. Me: erm, i'm not sure. probably thirty-something. Girl: you have 32 teeth Me: Really? ok i have 32 teeth
Few hours later, she was flipping her book on the Human Body (which we have not read for at least a couple of months & i have obviously forgotten the facts), then very excitedly showed me the sentence that says adults have 32 teeth!
she also said a sentence which impressed me yesterday "later i want to wash my hands on that sink. i can reach it surely!" i never knew that she knew the word "surely"!
DS11 took the SAT yesterday to see if could qualify for Johns Hopkins SET by getting more than 700 on the math or critical reading section. So what did he say when he came out about five hours after entering the school?
A big smile on his face, he said "That was such a relaxing morning. They give you breaks between sections." Apparently when he did the practice tests, he did the tests without breaks and found the actual test "very relaxing".
It started off as a joke: a family friend who was over for Halloween, after quizzing DS20mo for fun about his body parts which he has known in detail for a few months down to his eyelashes, eyelids and earlobes. She laughed and said well, next time she sees him he'll probably know where his xyphoid process is. So after she left, we showed him once for laughs. Well he now shows it off on command, along with clavicle, pelvis, radius, deltoid etc etc...using himself or his Halloween toy skeleton as a model...his dad is an orthopedic surgeon and is just bursting!
DD5 came to my lego robotics team meeting on Friday afternoon (the team is a middle school team). We do not have many legos at home (this could be changing quickly however ) but she jumped right in there and managed to get one of the kids building the robot to rely on her alone to supply him with parts by finding all of the parts in the pictures before the other 3 boys found any of them.
Then today, while DD10 was having some friends over, DD5 decided she would do school work with me while I did some grading. She wanted to do some math, so I found an addition sheet on the web that you needed to answer the questions in order to know which color to color the octopus. It turned out the sheet was 2 digit addition, complete with carrying. She knew how to do it by drawing squares, I showed her how to write it the regular and how to carry once and she quickly and easily did most of the worksheet on her own! Including some where she did them in her head instead of writing it out. No wonder the +0 and +1 problems she is doing in school are driving her crazy.
DD4 wrote her first book yesterday (actually it is more of a poem). Anyway, she was doing a workbook and dragged her seven to the edge of the page. I commented that the 7 is escaping from the book, climbing the chimney and running out of the house. Maybe we should write a book about the missing seven. Immediately, DD started to dictate this and I had to grab an envelope to write it down. Here it goes. Mom, let us call the book The Mystery of the Missing Seven, written and illustrated by DD.
Two and four coming through What comes next six and eight And then comes ten lappy looze (with a z mom) All numbers even looking for seven.
I gave her my notes to type on the computer. I printed each line and the title on a separate page and she illustrated it today.
Mom, let us call the book The Mystery of the Missing Seven, written and illustrated by DD.
Two and four coming through What comes next six and eight And then comes ten lappy looze (with a z mom) All numbers even looking for seven.
oh my goodness, Lovemydd...not only is that adorable, but my numbers-obsessed DS3.5 would LOVE that. I am definitely reading it to him tomorrow morning. (he carries around numbers like stuffed animals - they have personalities, and he draws number people doing things like playing on the playground, etc etc...this is RIGHT up his alley )
Mom, let us call the book The Mystery of the Missing Seven, written and illustrated by DD.
Two and four coming through What comes next six and eight And then comes ten lappy looze (with a z mom) All numbers even looking for seven.
oh my goodness, Lovemydd...not only is that adorable, but my numbers-obsessed DS3.5 would LOVE that. I am definitely reading it to him tomorrow morning. (he carries around numbers like stuffed animals - they have personalities, and he draws number people doing things like playing on the playground, etc etc...this is RIGHT up his alley )
so i read it to him this morning...he was super excited and wanted to write one too:
ouik wiop went to count there were 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 but 9 was missing!
(he wrote this himself on the computer, so don't ask me who Ouik Wiop is...besides the fact that he is a fan of making up silly names for people/things)
Since this is just a total proud brag moment for me, I feel like I can share this in this thread.
Went to DD9's first 4th grade Parent Teacher Conference (public school, no G&T offerings) and her teacher just could not say enough nice things about her. Her 4th grade teacher is truly amazing. Unlike all other teachers in her past (who were great, but just not above and beyond) she is willing to differentiate between the kids learning abilities and offer more challenging work when necessary, which has made DD's school year very exciting for her.
Not only is she able and willing to do this for her (without me even asking, I gave up asking two years ago) she acknowledged DD's intelligence, which no one has ever been willing to do. It felt AMAZING just to hear an educator validate what I experience every day.
She told me to hang in there with DD this year, she will challenge her, I should continue to enrich DD and next year they will give her placement tests for accelerated course work in Math and Science.
Marnie, LOVE your ds's poem. My dd and your ds would make a great team for they both love making silly words. Kelly0523, congratulations. Very happy for you. I had a meeting like that with dd's teacher last year so know exactly how you feel. It is so good to get that validation from your dc's educators.
DS5 almost beat his grandfather in chess last night. He took Gpa's queen early on and got a number of other powerful pieces as well (came out ahead on points), but made an error late in the game when trying to checkmate and left his king momentarily unprotected. Grandpa was an extremely good player back in the day (played for his university's chess team) and is mentally still 100% there. He DOES NOT go easy on children, ever, and I could tell he was mortified to lose that queen and very relieved to win!
Discovered last night that my DS6 can multiply in his head faster than I can. We were playing math games in the car amd had to slow down several times because I couldn't keep up. I'm not "bad" at math- spent nearly ten years writing and managing budgets in the 10s of millions.
Discovered last night that my DS6 can multiply in his head faster than I can. We were playing math games in the car amd had to slow down several times because I couldn't keep up. I'm not "bad" at math- spent nearly ten years writing and managing budgets in the 10s of millions.
I can multiply just fine and quickly...I can't multiply or do any kind of math thinking/manipulating while driving. Driving must use or shut down my math neurons. I will pass back my phone and tell them to use the calculator rather than try mental math while driving.
I also am horrible if I think everyone is looking at me and judging my mental math (which is just fine if I am sitting at a desk by myself)...put on the spot and my math computations shuts down....now put on the spot to explain a concept, no problem but 8+6 with 4 people looking at me, I want to crawl under a rock.
They played many games over the visit and Grandpa did win all but two. Still! I can't believe he won at all. Grandpa reports that DS has an extremely aggressive center game and that he is using real openings (I don't know where he learned these--maybe at chess club). He still needs to improve his end game and be careful not to be so aggressive that he forgets to defend his king. I can't even tell you what DS is doing with his game at this point--he's so far beyond me--so it's nice to get someone else's take on it.
There is no hope for me regarding chess--seriously. DH and DD play DS a lot, but he is better than both of them; however, not a lot better. Both of them are working hard to try to keep up! I catch DH doing chess puzzles on his phone at all hours.
Today DS 5's piano teacher who is new to us this semester accompanied him to the parent's area. She has been teaching for many years and is a woman of few words so I thought her prescence signaled impending doom. Instead she told that me DS was better at sight reading than any student she had ever had that was twice his age. Now, if he would only practice!
In mathematics, DS's grade finally caught up with his age, now both 7!
I'm surprised how little new material there is in these courses. It seems that for middle school math in the U.S., Universal Education has been replaced by Universal Remediation!
DS5 started Parkour lessons yesterday. If you don't know, it's kind of like running with style, jumping over things. At very very advanced levels, you see these people jumping from rooftop to rooftop.
The class is technically for 6-12 year olds, but he's pretty advanced physically, so I hoped he'd fit in (especially since he has friends in this class) rather than have to go to the "baby" class.
He rocked it. There were some structures that were just too big for him to get up on by himself (It was almost as tall as he was), but he really stuck to it. When they had a bit of free time, I saw him give this one box that was hard for him a few extra times. He never gave up, even when things were difficult.
Today, I called the instructor and asked how he thought DS did, and he said, "He did great. I even saw him trying out a few moves I haven't taught yet."
This is not a brag as much as it was just a moment of achievement for us: DD9 came up to me this morning with a plan for an invention that she wanted to make. She had a materials list, the instructions, a diagram.
I told her I would take her to the hardware store to purchase the items on her material list that we did not readily have on hand, which were two magnets.
As we were shopping at the store for the magnets, DD looked at me (perfectionist) with anxiety and said: I don't think we should buy these, what if my invention doesn't work.
I calmly told her that inventions are not guaranteed to work, failed test results are legitimate and should be logged in order to make corrections to the plan and retry toward success. Not all inventions are successful, but we never know unless we try.
Her anxiety left and excitement returned. She has to use the drill for her invention so she can't start creating until DH gets home, but I am so happy to see her follow through of her own accord in the face of impending uncertainty. Normally she would have quit.
DS5 genuinely freaked us out by saying "Can I show you this chess opening I invented?" and proceeding to show us not just an opening, but what must be 20+ moves, at lightning speed. He can repeat this feat easily. It is a good opening, though obviously he cannot rely on his opponent to do what he wants him/her to. I have to wonder if the opening is based on/derived from any real openings. This was one of probably 3-5 times in my parenting life when I was literally struck dumb because otherwise I was going to spout obscenities of amazement.
This is not a brag as much as it was just a moment of achievement for us: DD9 came up to me this morning with a plan for an invention that she wanted to make. She had a materials list, the instructions, a diagram.
I told her I would take her to the hardware store to purchase the items on her material list that we did not readily have on hand, which were two magnets.
As we were shopping at the store for the magnets, DD looked at me (perfectionist) with anxiety and said: I don't think we should buy these, what if my invention doesn't work.
I calmly told her that inventions are not guaranteed to work, failed test results are legitimate and should be logged in order to make corrections to the plan and retry toward success. Not all inventions are successful, but we never know unless we try.
Her anxiety left and excitement returned. She has to use the drill for her invention so she can't start creating until DH gets home, but I am so happy to see her follow through of her own accord in the face of impending uncertainty. Normally she would have quit.
This is precious! You are an AWESOME mom to your DD and she is so fortunate to have you as her mentor and guide. Regardless the results, this may be one for the portfolio!
Oh, thanks (blushing). The invention (really more of an experiment) worked! So this entire event was a huge payday for her. Feeling blessed.
That's great - my DD went through a knock-knock phase followed by a fascination with puns and homonyms/double entendres.
It was kind of painful and cute at the same time to watch her experimenting with what works and what doesn't. The glee followed by the crestfallen look when she realised that she hadn't quite nailed it yet and the 'joke' had fallen flat was wierdly priceless.
My DS6 made it into the USCF Top 100 players age 7 and under! He is currently #82, but this ranking is based on his USCF rating from last month. His rating has since gone up significantly (like 100 points), so he will probably remain on the list and go up in ranking next month.
Dd4 is reading! Yay! Dd has been surprising us with her math and science reasoning abilities for a long time now but never showed any interest in reading. We read a lot to her but other than that have not used any method to teach her to read. I was thinking of starting to formally teach her to read but wanted to know what she knows. So 2 weeks ago, I tried to see if she can read. I wrote 10 long sentences (7-12 word sentences) with a mix of sight and phonetic words ( words like kind, beautiful, like, crayons, etc) and she read them all. She seems to know most of her sight words, guessed some of words based on context and phonetically read and in some cases corrected based on context. She was not extremely slow either. Would you guys consider this reading? She still has no interest in reading books or reading spontaneously but I am not going to force her. I think she will get there soon enough.
At the beginning stages of reading both my boys enjoyed writing over reading...they enjoyed drawing pictures (or having me draw pictures for them to color...they told me what to draw) and then they labeled or captioned by themselves or dictated to me...nobody said boo if they spelled something wrong but if they asked for a spelling I always gave it to them (that is my version of inventive spelling). They loved stapling these books together and then reading them over and over.
The other thing they liked a lot were these readers called we both read where the adult or older sibling reads the left side and the new reader only reads the right side. Later my kids would just read both sides without me.
DD5 learned long division this morning in about a minute and a half. she was actually predicting what we should do next as i started to show her - i think she did more of the teaching than i did. wheee / hold me, i'm scared.
DD5 learned long division this morning in about a minute and a half. she was actually predicting what we should do next as i started to show her - i think she did more of the teaching than i did. wheee / hold me, i'm scared.
TorsMama, that is super cool! There is a boy from our town on that list as well. Is he going to the championships in Orlando? (We are not.)
Thanks! His current rating is 1192; his goal was to be at 1000 by the time he turned seven. He just turned 6.5 end of Oct. so he blew that goal out of the water. no, we just do local stuff; I have two other kids younger than he and about to have a fourth baby. So not much traveling. We will go to k-12 nationals in the Dallas area in the spring though, that is only 2 hrs from us.
DS's chess club coach has been trying to get us to take him to Orlando, but I can't quite see spending money on this at this stage. (It is driveable for us, but hotel, etc.) Is your son in a school club, and are you experiencing any pressure from others to push him to compete more?
DS's chess club coach has been trying to get us to take him to Orlando, but I can't quite see spending money on this at this stage. (It is driveable for us, but hotel, etc.) Is your son in a school club, and are you experiencing any pressure from others to push him to compete more?
No, he is homeschooled. He and my DH started a local chess club this year that he participates in. It's mostly adults but as he likes interacting with adults this is ok. He plays in usually two local tournaments a month (one k-12 and one adult). He took a few lessons way back when he was four from a local master and the coach really wanted him to continue but we just couldn't afford it.
Tonight at dinner, DS2 was playing tic-tac-toe with my mum. She drew out about eight frames for them to complete.
Turn 1: DS marks "x" in the center of a grid.
Turn 2: Grandma marks "o" in the top right former.
Turn 3: DS marks "x" in the center of all the remaining frames then smiles disarmingly at Grandma.
My game theory work is apparently heritable.
He also talks in riddles non-stop. It's fun to have insight into how his mind processes the information. Case in point: "what truck can move in more than one direction at the same time?" His answer: an articulated truck.
I'm also certain he can read more than we thought previously. Last night, he read to me most of a new book he'd never yet seen. He's my little enigma.
Went to the LEGO store yesterday with DS5 and DD22months. I pushed DD up to the play table in her stroller so that she could stand on it because they didn't have a stool. I just wanted to keep her occupied while I browsed. She demanded the LEGOs of girly colors and we started passing her some of the regular rectangular bricks with the 8 bumps on top.
Didn't she start building her own tower? She was putting them together by herself and all in all, the tower grew to be well over 50 pieces. The most impressive parts were that she did this for at least 15minutes of intense concentration; she would dig through the big bucket of random LEGO pieces and pull out the exact size she needed, and when she didn't have any more of the 8-bump pieces (there's probably a LEGO term for that), she put two 4-bump pieces together.
This month, my son moved up to #67 in UFCF's Top 100 (Ages 7 & Under) list for chess players in the USA. This also makes him #15 in the state of Texas for his age group! If you count only his age, six years old, he is #8 in the country and #3 in the state. Pretty excited for him!
Hi This is my first post. My grandson 2yr 4 months never ceases to amaze me. He is totally engrossed with the alphabet and spends hours making words and writing sentences on his big magnetic board to his parents. Two months ago, he knew the whole chicka chicka boom boom book by heart and understood what was on each page as his eyes followed the sentences and he turned all the pages accordingly. He is now counting to 100. Is he gifted? I think so. His father, my son, graduated high school with honours at age 12 with all his final high school exams in physics, chemistry, history, English etc, high SAT and also first year university calculus with an A. Entered university at 13 in math and computer science. Now is a technical director age 29 and a great people person. Radical acceleration worked wonders with him. I was a single parent throughout with a demanding job. I really would like my grandson to have a "normal" experience in school for 12 years but can see the challenges ahead for his parents. I live in Canada.
Welcome, Shameine Ali! Your grandson sure sounds gifted, just like his father. What fun it must be to watch your grandson! doubtfulguest, long division at age 5! Oh boy, I hope you are prepared to move at the pace your DD is setting for you. Tor'sMama, CONGRATULATIONS! This is amazing!
Hi all, newbie here. My DD9 (did I get that right - 9 yr old daughter?) just received her NWEA standardized test scores. Her Math and Reading scores both put her above the 99th percentile. ... Also, since this is the place to shamelessly brag, she recently earned her 2nd degree Tae Kwon Do black belt and performed her spring solo piano recital.
DD9 just got her results from the ACT Explore test, an 8th grade test that our local university's Talent Search program uses to differentiate 3rd-6th grade kids that get 98/99th percentile on the standard tests. She scored at the 82nd percentile of 8th graders who took the test, as a 4th grader - top 10% of the gifted kids who've taken the test. We'll be meeting with the school gifted coordinators soon to go through the Iowa Acceleration assessment - they've been reluctant to do anything without "meaningful data".
whoa, Lovemydd - you need to start The Ultimate Poem Thread right away! that is really, really marvellous.
and ha, yeah - i feel like i'm really just getting to know DD5 - i never, ever thought she would eat curriculum like this. i have no plan that makes any degree of sense, so i'm just going to follow her for a bit - it's lucky she's interested in EVERYTHING.
DD is starting to tell her own stories and they are actually quite good with many colorful descriptive words. One of them started with "In a dark dark forest, a little girl found herself lost in the shadow..." but I cut her off mid sentence to ask her if she was reciting a story she remembers or if it was her own story. She replied, "It's my own story and I'm working on creating a whimsical ambiance so don't interrupt me!"
DS2 just invented a truck that cleans dirty snow called a "cleaner gleaner truck". Apparently it pulls in snow like a snowblower, melts the water, filters out the dirt, then freezes the clean water back into snow and sprays it out a chute. Is it weird that part of me wants to build one now?
Mana, I'm running out of superlatives. I like your DD's spunk but am starting to commiserate now that DS negotiates everything. So I'm starting to understand the idea of teenage sass from a toddler.
DS5 used to sit on my lap and refused to participate for weeks when we attended mommy-and-me classes.
During the Christmas program at school, he was singing and dancing confidentially the whole time in front of hundreds of strangers. It literally brought tears to my eyes.
He wasn't fussed lol. He truly believes he is a four year dare-devil- it's just amazing what he can do. I know some two year olds can ride a three wheeler, but a two wheeler?
Squishy, my then 2 year old could ride a 2 wheeler without training wheels. If he doesn't have one, I definitely recommend buying a balance bike like a Stryder or similar.
So I'm starting to understand the idea of teenage sass from a toddler.
I'm not sure if this is going to work for your DS but I finally found a way to get even with DD and take full advantage of the fact that she is three and not actually 13. When she is immersed in her imaginative play and wants me to play along, I assign myself a role that puts me in charge without a shadow of a doubt. So if she is a fairy then I'm the queen of the fairy land. If she is Cinderella then I'm her fairy godmother whose terms are non-negotiable. I try to reinforce the idea that I'm not an evil dictator on a power trip and I'm simply doing my job which is to ensure her safety so she can have as much fun as possible and to teach her necessary skills to navigate the world successfully. I don't know if the big message is sinking in but she is a lot more compliant when she is a Starfleet cadet and I'm the captain of the ship.
So I'm starting to understand the idea of teenage sass from a toddler.
I'm not sure if this is going to work for your DS but I finally found a way to get even with DD and take full advantage of the fact that she is three and not actually 13. When she is immersed in her imaginative play and wants me to play along, I assign myself a role that puts me in charge without a shadow of a doubt. So if she is a fairy then I'm the queen of the fairy land. If she is Cinderella then I'm her fairy godmother whose terms are non-negotiable. I try to reinforce the idea that I'm not an evil dictator on a power trip and I'm simply doing my job which is to ensure her safety so she can have as much fun as possible and to teach her necessary skills to navigate the world successfully. I don't know if the big message is sinking in but she is a lot more compliant when she is a Starfleet cadet and I'm the captain of the ship.
Mana, I smiled when I read your post because I use the exact opposite strategy with my DD. Since we spend about 1/2 of our waking hours in pretend play, I often choose roles where she is in charge of me. I then trouble her with all the stuff that she troubles me with in real life and watch how she tackles that. I find that being in my shoes helps her see the other side. Plus I really love it when she says "but baby" in an exasperated voice. I know I sound sadistic but believe me I am not. It is just awfully cute
Mana, I smiled when I read your post because I use the exact opposite strategy with my DD. Since we spend about 1/2 of our waking hours in pretend play, I often choose roles where she is in charge of me. I then trouble her with all the stuff that she troubles me with in real life and watch how she tackles that. I find that being in my shoes helps her see the other side.
We did this. The day DW and I played troublemaker students to DD's teacher was hilarious. We had to keep checking with DD to make sure she was enjoying the game, though. Turns out she was playing her role REALLY well, because she sure seemed exasperated to us.
To be honest, I never played like Mana suggests, because that's how we parented in everyday life, so we didn't need to pretend. Plus, it was no fun for us adults AT ALL. If I'm going to role play, I want to play as someone I'm not.
Plus, it was no fun for us adults AT ALL. If I'm going to role play, I want to play as someone I'm not.
My DD is one of those children who are naturally wired to be oppositional so it brings me much joy to hear DD cheerfully reply "Okay" to my requests rather than her usual "Yes but..."
Her preferred pretend play scenario for months was to be a ballet teacher and I was one of her students. I wasn't allowed to talk during class and nothing I ever did was good enough (unfortunately, she really is a perfectionist at heart). If I tried to ask a question by raising my hand, she reminded me that all questions had to wait until the end of the class. These days, I refuse to participate as a student but I'm the director of the school and I critique her teaching techniques ("You have to tell your students what to do instead rather than just telling them what they are doing wrong. You have to give corrections").
I will try to get DD to switch roles with me today and see how she handles being a mother to a child like DD. Now that does sound like fun.
Unsurprisingly, both of my children can whup me mercilessly in Blokus, which we just borrowed from a friend. DD9 especially--she immediately discovered a bunch of killer strategies. I was pleased for her, since DS5 gets a lot of attention these days for his chess game.
What I love about watching my DD win at Blokus is when she declares to her opponents (and she beats both DW and I sometimes) 'there is no way you can win now' - and she is right. She also does while playing Chess at times.
I just love watching my kids beat my husband at anything, since he's beat me at all games not involving acting or words for the past (ahem-ahem) years. Taste of your own...genes, buddy.
madeinuk and ultramarina Loved your posts! Today when I went to pick DD4 up, her teacher commented that DD's math is through the roof and she (the teacher) feels bad about giving her kindergarten worksheets as DD would likely find them too boring! DD chimed in to confirm and added that "the worksheets are too easy which means BORING"! It was heartwarming to see a teacher who can look at things from the kid's perspective.
Earlier this year, DD8 was revisited by an old problem, when a new librarian began at her school, and DD was prevented from accessing certain books at the school library. She expressed her frustration, but asked us to hold off on any official complaints to the school, as she was currently finding suitable literature in her GT teacher's small classroom bookshelf.
Last night, we got an update: "You don't have to worry about talking to the school about library books. I took the STAR test today, and my score was four-point(something) to eleven-point(something)."
I assume this is a grade-equivalent score. We haven't actually seen anything. We only have DD's oral report.
The upshot being, of course, that the librarian uses the STAR score to control access, and there shouldn't be anything in a K-6 library higher than eleven-point(something).
The only problem my son has now (about the same STAR range as your daughter) is that he has to ask permission to go under his STaR range which is a pain...he isn't going to read Hop On Pop but sometimes there will be series of books where most of them are 4.8 and above but one might be 4.4 for some reason. I think it is ridiculous and he should read whatever he wants. I understand 70% of the kids need guidance in selection (I am volunteering about three hours a day there and see a lot) some kids just need for the adults to stay out of the way.
some kids just need for the adults to stay out of the way.
Agree 100%. I've got a stock phrase I repeat every time this becomes a conflict in DD's school: "DD should not be prevented from accessing any book in a school library that she wants to read."
Just got word that within two days of admitting DD, the state flagship Uni opted to offer her a merit scholarship (renewable, 4yr) which will cover 40% of her tuition (and she is still in the running for one of the sixty that cover full tuition, but we won't know about that until March sometime).
She is (reportedly-- 2 different sources) the youngest regular admit that the institution has ever had. (That is, a student coming directly from a senior year in high school, with a diploma and regular high school transcripts.)
Thank you guys so much for letting me crow a little about my girl!
Yay...40%....and crossing fingers she gets full tuition. Do you know how many students are in the running for the 60 scholarships? Hundreds, thousands?
Sometime I'd like to hear how you found her that science internship, BTW. You have done such a good job of making that education happen with and for her.
Thanks, everyone-- don't know how many students are "eligible" but estimating a reasonably normalized distribution and going by the median that they claim for admits, it's about 600-800 "eligible" students in the pool. Realistically, DD is probably in the top 100 of those.
Oh-- and same day, the Navy recruiter called her about service academy/ROTC. She could have just mentioned that she was only 14... but took a different approach by politely informing the recruiter that she is "ineligible to join any branch of the armed forces due to a disqualifying medical condition." There was clear disappointment on the other end of the line, and DD had a moment of no small amount of schadenfreude, I could see, because she regards that list of automatic medical DQ's as being the most ridiculous thing ever. Just figured I'd share that one for the other 2e parents here, who might appreciate it.
Oh-- and same day, the Navy recruiter called her about service academy/ROTC. She could have just mentioned that she was only 14... but took a different approach by politely informing the recruiter that she is "ineligible to join any branch of the armed forces due to a disqualifying medical condition." There was clear disappointment on the other end of the line, and DD had a moment of no small amount of schadenfreude, I could see, because she regards that list of automatic medical DQ's as being the most ridiculous thing ever.
If I recall correctly, your DD has some life-threatening food allergies, and while I don't know what other medical DQ's the two of you might find amusing, I can promise you that, with the way they prepare foods, the Navy is almost guaranteed to kill her. Space is at a premium, and therefore cross-contamination is nearly guaranteed.
There was a meal offered just before midnight for those on late watches. It consisted of the reheated leftovers of food nobody wanted to eat at lunch or dinner. The only other option was every food allergist's worst nightmare: peanut butter.
Heck, I have no food issues, and they took a toll on my health, just from poor quality. I was already underweight to begin with, and I dropped 15 pounds in a 3-month cruise. The next time I went out for 6 months, I dropped another 15 pounds, and this despite advance planning... we hit Costco the night before and stored a ton of non-perishable food in our work space.
HK, This is awesome, no kidding, wonderful news!Hooray to your DD! Is the school close to where you live now?I remember reading in some of your other posts about possibly having to move so you can stay with her when she attends college. I am curious to know about the logistics of sending a 14yo to college. Maybe you would start a new thread to discuss some of the "yay, this is so cool" to "OMG, what are we going to do about that" conversations that your family is having. CONGRATULATIONS!
I feel kinda silly posting, but so proud for my ds6.
Even with his fine motor weakness and vision issues; he has just mastered how to read and play music on his violin. Last week, his homework was to read and pluck. After 2 tries, he developed a strategy and increased speed. At his lesson today, using his bow was added and a song! But to see the moment early this week when he "figured it out" was awesome to see! He was so proud (which is much easier to deal with than the extreme frustration as he was working on it).
Melessa, please don't feel silly. Every brag here is celebrated equally and you have very good reasons to be proud of your little one. I came here not to brag but to ask if anyone can shed some light on the legitimacy of Creative Communications (poeticpower.com). Someone on this board mentioned it and I entered dd4 poem in their contest. I got an acceptance email but now I am thinking it is just a scam. Sorry if this is not an appropriate post.
Hi LovemyDD- first, totally agree about the brags, I love to read all of them!
When DD was younger she entered a contest through Creative Communications, organized by our school's gifted teacher. Mixed feelings- DD was super-excited when her work was chosen for the published book, so it was a great motivator for her, and gave her some external recognition for something that didn't really get any notice at all among her peers/school. However, my feeling is that the contests exist mainly to get parents to purchase the books. You certainly don't have to buy one (and our school stressed that they purchase one for the school library so parents don't feel pressured). So, knowing that, I think it really depends what you want out of it. There is no downside I'm aware of to sending in her work, but because we went through the school, I didn't really have anything to do with that. We do still get email invitations for DD to enter things and also to review entries for other contests, but she has not participated since the school contest.
I came here not to brag but to ask if anyone can shed some light on the legitimacy of Creative Communications (poeticpower.com). Someone on this board mentioned it and I entered dd4 poem in their contest. I got an acceptance email but now I am thinking it is just a scam. Sorry if this is not an appropriate post.
Oh interesting. My DS entered this, too. His was also picked to be published and then supposedly a published poem is in the finals from which they pick top ten winners. Gosh I hope it is not a scam. But he feels proud to see his work in print and be a finalist. If he is actually one of ten winners, it'll have been worth it. He's also in the Totem Head Short Story Contest. That definitely does not seem like a scam.
It's a common format like Who's Who books. Ultimately it sells books, but it makes sense for the competition to be totally above board on the actual winners. The adult variations of these also get people up front with submission or reading fees. Then again, there are much more expensive ways to feel good about one's effort.
HK, I haven't been on the board for a while, but just read your great news. I am thrilled for you and your DD. You've navigated an especially challenging road. Well done.
It's a common format like Who's Who books. Ultimately it sells books, but it makes sense for the competition to be totally above board on the actual winners. The adult variations of these also get people up front with submission or reading fees. Then again, there are much more expensive ways to feel good about one's effort.
I agree! Of course their goal is to sell books and make kids and parents feel all warm and fuzzy that they were picked to be published so they want to buy the books. It did make us feel that way too. I think they are on the up and up though, and entering your work is free, so you can't really complain about that.
DD9's teacher submitted two of her poems last year (at the same time) and oddly enough one was chosen to be published in the Spring Edition and the other in the Summer Edition. We would have had to buy two books. We allowed them to be published, but did not purchase either book. DD9 was excited the first time around and basically blew it off the second time.
Not a big deal, but at a recent chess tournament all three of my children had plus scores (the eldest a perfect score) and won trophies. I am impressed by how much effort my 7yo daughter puts into her games. She actually thinks before she moves . Fewer than 10% of club members are girls, but this does not faze her.
Not a big deal, but at a recent chess tournament all three of my children had plus scores (the eldest a perfect score) and won trophies. I am impressed by how much effort my 7yo daughter puts into her games. She actually thinks before she moves . Fewer than 10% of club members are girls, but this does not faze her.
That's great!
My son's rating for this month in the USCF (United States Chess Federation) are: - #9 in the U.S. for his age -#2 in Texas for his age - #65 in the U.S. for ages 7 & Under
I came here not to brag but to ask if anyone can shed some light on the legitimacy of Creative Communications (poeticpower.com). Someone on this board mentioned it and I entered dd4 poem in their contest. I got an acceptance email but now I am thinking it is just a scam. Sorry if this is not an appropriate post.
Oh interesting. My DS entered this, too. His was also picked to be published and then supposedly a published poem is in the finals from which they pick top ten winners. Gosh I hope it is not a scam. But he feels proud to see his work in print and be a finalist. If he is actually one of ten winners, it'll have been worth it. He's also in the Totem Head Short Story Contest. That definitely does not seem like a scam.
It's a common format like Who's Who books. Ultimately it sells books, but it makes sense for the competition to be totally above board on the actual winners. The adult variations of these also get people up front with submission or reading fees. Then again, there are much more expensive ways to feel good about one's effort.
These types of anthologies and who's who type directories are sometimes referred to as "vanity press". They are similar to a yearbook in that the customers would tend to consist of those who are represented inside the book. They are not generally broadly distributed, found in bookstores, or offered by online retailers. Nevertheless, they make a nice keepsake. Some schools participate in vanity press projects and these can be meaningful as one tends to know the other contributors.
I was walking by DS3.10's room yesterday and hear him reading "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate." "I am constant as the Northern Star" "Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow." ... so I think what the heck? I go in to check, ask what are you reading? and he says "Quotations from Shakespeare" I guess it's never too early for Shakespeare??? lol (it's in the Starfall library if anyone's interested!)
But what makes me even happier ... he has FINALLY learned to WALK DOWN THE STAIRS! ... at 3 years 9 months and couple days! ... no more butt / knee scooting down!
DH walked by DS3 counting the keys on the piano this morning. He paused and watched until DS looked up and said, "There are 88!" A few moments later DS said, "There are really 91 on the piano." DH told him that he had it right the 1st time, to which DS replied, "There's 3 on the bottom." Ah yes... the pedals...
I'm not sure which surprised me more: the fact that DS gets 88+3 or that he has that amount of concentration.
I subbed for the teacher at dd4's school yesterday. The teacher had the worksheets that I was supposed to give to each kid. My dd's was 20 single digit addition problems with two-digit sums. Before I could distribute all the worksheet, dd was done with hers. When I asked how she finished it in literally under 5 minutes, she replied that she has a trick. She picks an easy one first like 5+5, then looks for 5+6, then 5+7 or 6+6 etc. so she doesn't really have to add each time. I thought that was pretty clever. Dd then went on to help the younger kids with their worksheets encouraging them, praising them for their great work and even writing dashed numbers on their sheets so they could trace. Was so much fun to watch her.
So today dd4 said that she is good at math and no one can stump her. So dh and I asked her many math questions like a rapid fire round and she did not miss any. She was laughing all through it. Some sample questions: 3/4+3/4 2.5+3.5 A girl is 4.5. her brother is twice as old as her. What is his age? You go to a store with a quarter. Candy costs a dime. How much money will you get back? You can buy 13 strawberries for $10. How much can you buy for $20? 13 strawberries weigh 1 lb. I got a 3lb bag for you. How many strawberries? Porsche car had 3 gallons. I filled up the tank with 7 more gallons. How much can the car hold? Prius can hold twice as much as Porsche. So how much? Vovlo can hold one fourth as much as Prius. How much? Etc etc. she didn't get a single question wrong and her speed was amazing. She mostly blurted the answers as soon as the question was asked. Then, she decided to stump us. She asked us just one question. There is a wooden basket. There are two people. The basket cannot be cut or shared. What will you do? The answer: Ask one person to run away.
Dd13 won a gold key award in the Scholastic Art & Writing regional contest for science fiction/fantasy. We find out on March 17 if she gets a medal and a ceremony at Carnegie Hall! Very proud of her for entering. She was so excited she started to cry. Very validating for her (she wants to be a writer) so I am happy she got the recognition.
Dd13 won a gold key award in the Scholastic Art & Writing regional contest for science fiction/fantasy. We find out on March 17 if she gets a medal and a ceremony at Carnegie Hall! Very proud of her for entering. She was so excited she started to cry. Very validating for her (she wants to be a writer) so I am happy she got the recognition.
That is tremendous news - if my memory serves me correctly, didn't you post a thread once about a teacher not liking your DD's writing? Great vindication indeed!
DD9 is not a "performer". She doesn't like standing up in front of the class to present a report, being on stage for a play, or even singing with the entire 4th-5th grade at the Christmas program. She just doesn't like being in the spotlight where she knows everyone will be watching her.
So we were so proud when she came home one day and told us she signed up for the school spelling bee. I didn't even know the school was having a sign up. She is what I would call a natural speller and must put to use that huge memory she has. With some effort and etymology training she could be really good. Well next thing I know she is rethinking her decision. We talked about how it is important to follow through on things and how good she will feel if she sticks it out and does this. We explained how it was a learning experience for her and it didn't matter the outcome because if she can get up there and do it she has already accomplished something.
Well she did overcome her fears and nerves and she won! I seriously get teary-eyed just thinking about it because I know how difficult it was for her. She says she wants to do it again next year too. SO PROUD!!!!
DD9 is not a "performer". She doesn't like standing up in front of the class to present a report, being on stage for a play, or even singing with the entire 4th-5th grade at the Christmas program. She just doesn't like being in the spotlight where she knows everyone will be watching her.
So we were so proud when she came home one day and told us she signed up for the school spelling bee. I didn't even know the school was having a sign up. She is what I would call a natural speller and must put to use that huge memory she has. With some effort and etymology training she could be really good. Well next thing I know she is rethinking her decision. We talked about how it is important to follow through on things and how good she will feel if she sticks it out and does this. We explained how it was a learning experience for her and it didn't matter the outcome because if she can get up there and do it she has already accomplished something.
Well she did overcome her fears and nerves and she won! I seriously get teary-eyed just thinking about it because I know how difficult it was for her. She says she wants to do it again next year too. SO PROUD!!!!
Wow! Great job encouraging her to stick with it and what a great lesson for her! So happy for you both!
So my DD14 just got an invitation in the mail to join The National Society of High School Scholars-- which she immediately thought was probably nothing but a vanity press sales gambit, (like Who's Who), or something like that.
In checking it out-- she NAILED this one, and in spite of the nifty stationery and hand-addressed envelope.
It's a brag because my DH and I weren't so sure-- but our 14yo knew that something about it didn't pass the sniff test.
A seems-minor-but-shows-maturing brag: DS2.25 has mostly been indifferent to puzzles up until the last two weeks. I think he associated interlocking puzzles with frustration he felt around 1. At that time, stymied by his little baby hands, he would just point where the pieces went and have me interlock adjacent pieces.
Fast forward a year and he does puzzles by stealth! He decided to chance the frustration a few weeks ago, to his great pleasure, and has quickly gone from doing no puzzles to 24-48 piece puzzles. He's getting over a nasty cold, so I bought him a new wooden vehicles puzzle with a challenging, small set of graphics. We started it together, I ran to the bathroom momentarily and, when I returned, he had finished it. 3 minutes had elapsed total, tops. Parenting lesson for me: don't push if he doesn't love something immediately, just leave it in the environment and leave him to it on his own schedule.
DH brag:
My heart swells as I type this. DS ran to DH asking for something that neither of us understood. (This is a blue moon phenomenon for us, as DS' speech is so copious and clear.) DS patiently repeated himself 4 or 5 times, and DH responded with, "I'm so sorry to not understand, Buddy. I know you must feel frustrated with me for not keeping up. I would be frustrated, too. Thanks for being so patient with me; that's really generous and good. Can we try it again? I know if we work together we can find a way for me to understand what you want me to hear."
That parenting moment inspired me throughout the day. It's the epitome of everything I strive to teach as a parent-- persistence, love, empathy, open communication--and my DH exemplified it. Makes me so proud to be his wife.
Introduced DS5 to the concept of algebra using the idea of a "mystery number" then he'd work out the problems using his balance scale. He got it right away.
(Being more humble--it's not like he's close to doing a whole lot of algebra. He doesn't know the math facts, but I've seen a few things saying that kids who don't know the math facts sometimes find interest in the higher-level areas, so I thought I'd throw it out there and give it a try. But using the balance really made the idea of balancing the sides of the equation make sense.)
This led me to apparently hit the "unacceptable level of bragging", because when I posted pics on Facebook, I only got 7 likes, and I usually get well over 20 likes for something cute or smart my kids do (recent examples being a "pretending to be a rock star" story and "Reading 'Afghanistan' in Japanese" brag).
I find that in general, I can brag about one of these things at a time, but if you put it all together, it seems that I'm going a little overboard with the bragging, so I figured I'd bring it here The first is that my son (5th grade,age 10 - turns 11 in June) has been a straight A student in 6th grade math all year. Second - he plays soccer, and he is GOOD. He plays on a U12 team (age is defined by how old they are on July 31st - so, he would be super young on a U11 team, which is his correct age group - but he has been playing "up" for several years now). This past weekend, they were in a futsal tournament, and he scored 11 goals - they made it to the final, but lost to a golden goal in extra time. He has also been asked to be part of the ODP (Olympic Development Program) for his own age group - this is a program for select players, to prepare them for state, college and national teams. What I find interesting is that he is super small for his age, but still excels - I can only imagine how good he'll be when he's grown a little and got some speed !! Third - he won the chess championship in his school - last year (his first year) he came second, so he was thrilled to win it this year). Fourth - he was accepted into a brand new full time gifted middle school program (which, happily, is at the school he already attends 6th grade math for). All in all, he's having a great year !
DD3.5 declared she wants to go to high school. I jokingly told her she needs to learn to write and be ready for at least pre-algebra. She wanted to know what that was so I showed her a couple of very easy questions then...she solved them in her head.
The only exposure she had to equations is Dragonbox. She whipped through it including the bonus section, which is mostly numbers and letters and she was picking up concepts that went beyond what the app covers but I had no idea she retained them and could apply them a month later. I knew she liked math. I knew she was ready for 2nd grade math when she was 2 but still, I am surprised.
She has a lot of gaps. We have done no formal math lessons and she doesn't have her math facts down. I think her number placement beyond 1000s is a bit shaky. I don't know where to go from here but my guess is that we'll stick to no formal instructions until she is 6.
Today was my 6yo son's 5th piano lesson. He just learned all the names of the notes. On a whim while driving home, I asked him to tell me the notes that were playing on the radio. He sang the names of the notes in perfect pitch along with the song. My jaw dropped. He wasn't supposed to answer that question! I was kind of kidding around not expecting him to actually be able to do that.
We discovered, when he was 4, that he can repeat melodies of songs he's heard only once and identify a song after only hearing it once. Now, to repeat the notes after just learning them is truly mind boggling for me. I'm glad we are fueling his interest in music!
This is probably more of a tiny-victories kind of thing, but-- my DD14 went skiing today. For the first time ever. She is not particularly sporty, and is a HUGE perfectionist with task-avoidance as a major part of her schtick there. She expects instant mastery, or she tends to just walk away.
She hung in there for a 90 minute Nordic lesson, and then spent HOURS on the trails, too-- and she was by FAR the least experienced member of our party.
She really hung in there-- and in spite of some grumbling near the end of the lesson, she is KEEN TO GO AGAIN AND GET BETTER. I was also pleased for her that she does seem to have some natural aptitude. She's very keen to try Biathlon-- and has set a goal for herself and took the first (very hard) step.
I'm really, really proud of her. I know that most people won't understand quite WHY I'm proud of this and not, say... her extraordinary class rank, etc., or the scholarships she's racking up. This felt bigger. Honestly. This was VERY hard for her.
I know that most people won't understand quite WHY I'm proud of this and not, say... her extraordinary class rank, etc., or the scholarships she's racking up. This felt bigger. Honestly. This was VERY hard for her.
I do understand. My proudest moments are when DD overcomes her frustrations/tantrums stemming from her perfectionism and finds the inner resources to try again and be okay with her imperfect work. Baby step at a time though. It is hard, for both parents and child.
I understand too, HK. The scholarships etc. are mostly due to what she was born with (although I know that doesn't mean she didn't have to work for them, too) - this is due to what you have been trying to inculcate in her, so of course you feel proud that it's working. Well done, to both of you.
1. Recently one of her rifle coaches was chatting with her and her dad at the weekly meetup after practice, you know, just kind of socializing and shooting the breeze. Apparently the subject of college and academics, and music, etc. etc. had come up. When DD had gone up to the counter to get another refill on her soda, the coach turned to my DH and asked-- amazed-- Is there ANYTHING that she isn't great at?? It was a serious and kind of awestruck question. This person (at the time) had no idea that she is only 14, making it even more of a brag. He thought she was a 17yo.
2. APUSH. DD opted to sign up for semester B once she dropped the mess of Precalc (which was a total stinker of a class), freeing up some extra time. Yes, she already has 2 AP classes. Yes, it's 4 weeks into the new term... Yes, it's the second semester. DD just shrugged. And smiled. Five days later, she's made up the first three weeks of the class (while keeping up with everything else just fine, tyvm) and earning 100% on everything she's turned in. She hasn't mentioned this one to her friends (some of them MG-HG) who have been slogging through this with a great deal of difficulty and angst. So here is about the only place that I can talk about this. She's ENJOYING this. She loves the written analysis and the references to original source literature, etc. LOVES the amount of reading to support the inferential learning. LOVE-LOVE-LOVE.
HK, Just read your brags. Truly amazing! What a girl!
Here is what I came to post: DD4.5 asked my cousin to give her a challenging math problem. Cousin asked," I need a week's supply of wood and I burn 1 log every hour. How much wood do I need?" DD4.5, without hesitation, wrote 24 x 7 on a piece of paper, and then proceeded to do the math in her head. Few seconds later, she writes 28 + 140 on the paper immediately followed by 168. Hands paper to jaw-dropped cousin and says," here you go. You are going to be spending a lot of money on wood."
DS7: I found a stock with a small market cap. I am trying to buy the majority of the stock in my account so I can control the supply. If I control the supply, I should be able to control the price. WHY IS THIS NOT WORKING!!!
Thank goodness this was in a PAPER trade account. Insert discussion on trading laws. Insert discussion on how the paper trade account is not linked to the real exchange.
Reminded me of Dude.
I am DELIGHTED he's catching on so well! Awesome brag, Portia.
You could talk to him about the flip side of price control for a small market cap firm, which is illiquidity (if the market for the stock is a thinly traded market).
I don't know if you're in the market for financial analytics web-based software, but I bet your DS would love Capital IQ. Short of a Bloomberg terminal, it offers a lot of valuable data. He can access analyst reports, comps, financial statements, filter by a number of variables there. He'd have access to firm betas, which could help him build an efficient frontier in his paper trade account.
My first brag... glad I have somewhere to talk about this:
The whole family was at the dentist yesterday. DD11 got done first (nicer teeth, I guess) and I heard the hygienist ask if she wanted to sit with DH or I or wait in the waiting room. She opted to wait... but instead of staying in the waiting room, she took it upon herself to walk over to our local veterinarian's office (same strip mall, other end). There she presented herself to the staff and asked about volunteering. When they said they usually offer a program through schools, she told them she was a home schooler and should be able to volunteer directly. She left her email and number. Then she returned to the dentist.
When we heard about this (on the way home, we wouldn't have been the wiser) I decided to call the vet and just let them know that, yes, we'd approve of her helping out. They said she'd been perfectly lovely and very mature.
Today I see an email to her (I get a copy of her incoming mail as the postmaster of our own domain) from the office saying that shadowing a vet requires being 16 (liability insurance) and to give them a call. I decide to call the office and chat with them.
The receptionist indicates that the office manager is on the phone... with my daughter. She then lets me know that DD and the office manager have sorted it all out, they are aware that she's 11, and that she doesn't need to talk to me. I think her quote was "if she's mature enough to come in on her own, I think she's mature enough to arrange something with us."
I just said "well, I guess she really doesn't need me on this one" and we both had a bit of a laugh. Just as I hang up the phone rings and it's my daughter, wanting to know if she's free on Saturday because she's going to interview the vet and write a paper. My response "you can always check the calendar on your phone, but yes you are free and we will drive you." I left it to her to call the vet back.
I guess we're lucky she didn't just make the appt without asking and take the bus or something. Part of me wants to scold, but how can I?
Wonderful HK!!! Definitely brag-worthy and well deserved! Wishing your daughter every success and happiness as she embarks on this next chapter of her growth.
Amazing HK!! Congratulations! How proud you must be, not only because of this accomplishment, but having such a well balanced teenaged girl with such love for learning. Your guidance have led her to this place in her life. You are an inspiration!
Another brag: my son's teacher is awesome! She has actually been giving him school work at his ability level. She thinks DS is the perfect student, and also believes there is nothing wrong with his social skills, and actually acknowledged that he has advanced social skills and that is the reason why he has a small, close group of friends.
Wonderful. Hoping the forums can eventually bring about more of this type of understanding so more children may benefit from a system which treats them as the unique individuals they are.
My 10 yo boy scored 770 on the SAT math and in the upper 500s on critical reading. He is taking the AOPS Algebra II course and studying trigonometry on ALEKS, in addition to going to IDEA math classes. He is motivated by standardized tests, so I may have him take the SAT Mathematics Level 2 Subject Test when his Algebra II and trig studies are over. Then he should be ready to study calculus.
Congratulations all around to HM's DD, squishys DS, and Bostonian's DS10.
HM, we're looking into compacting through virtual schooling vs traditional homeschooling so it's wonderful to hear that going the virtual route hasn't hindered your DD academically. I know it hasn't been a perfect solution for your family but given how ODD DD can be with me, it might end up being the least worst option for us at some point or another.
DD4 decided instead of getting presents for her 4th birthday, that she wanted to help "kitties and puppies without homes", so she got all of her friends to donate to the local Humane Society instead of giving gifts. We raised $50 cash, over 100 cans of cat & dog food, 50 pounds of litter, 40 lbs of dry food and bags of toys and other items & she got to bring all the "presents" to the shelter on her birthday. They even took her picture for their website - I still can't believe it was all her idea. I'm such a proud mom!
DD4 decided instead of getting presents for her 4th birthday, that she wanted to help "kitties and puppies without homes", so she got all of her friends to donate to the local Humane Society instead of giving gifts. We raised $50 cash, over 100 cans of cat & dog food, 50 pounds of litter, 40 lbs of dry food and bags of toys and other items & she got to bring all the "presents" to the shelter on her birthday. They even took her picture for their website - I still can't believe it was all her idea. I'm such a proud mom!
dd3 calls me over to show me her plate of uneaten macaroni. DD: look mummy that's where we live me: what DD: look heres Christchurch and this is where we live
Upon close inspection I see that she has shaped her food into a map of the upper south island including banks peninsula so she could find chch on it. My inner geography geek is stoked!
Eldest DS was just awarded a summer physics fellowship to do research with the dean of the physics dept. Nice first step toward building an application for graduate school should he choose to do so....it'll also keep him out of my refrig. this summer (smirk)
I've just begun looking at what a graduate degree application involves last night, interesting. It was also interesting when I found that our home state only graduates just under 100 under graduate physics degrees a year, I had no idea it was that low.
Congratulations, Old Dad! Is your DS excited? (I presume so, but you never know...)
I'm not really sure he understands sometimes the value of the opportunities that are presented him, though he seldom fails to take advantage of them. You know how it is, often it's not until years later when we realize the weight of certain events in our lives. I think he understands though that it's unusual to get to do physics research as an undergrad and that it's an important experience for the future.
Honestly I think he's more excited about sub-leasing an apt. rather than living in a dorm and the adventure of cooking for himself on a regular basis for the first time. It's going to be interesting to see how much weight he loses!
This brings up an interesting topic for another thread, I think sometimes our GT kids can get a little numb to the unique opportunities presented them, sometimes they have to be reminded just how blessed they are and be reminded to share their blessings by helping others.
Yes, I agree-- it's why I asked. DD seemed totally unfazed that the dean of the Honors College was treating her 14yo self with deference and knew her by name... was introducing her to the NAS-member dean of undergraduate research, etc. etc. at the preview/open house last month. She doesn't see how remarkable it is, because people have always sort of 'noticed' her like that. The only thing she really notices is that sometimes her peers seem unreasonably resentful or jealous of her, and she can't figure it out because she didn't "do anything to them."
So yeah, I can see her going "Oh, yeah-- that'll be cool. I guess." I know she'd love it while she was doing it, and all, but 'excitement' might be overstating things at the outset, YK?
Ds 3 has recently figured out spelling. He's been able to spell things like his name, Mommy, Daddy, and brother's name. But this weekend, he spelled "jump", "cape", "hold", etc.
(not a huge brag, but he was so against letters at all. We were excited that he is starting to break the code. He is not reading yet. I am not "trying" to teach him, nor would he respond positively to me trying. I guess we just keep wondering what's going on in his head that functions sooo differently than ds7. It's always fun watching them understand something! )
DS8 upped his math MAP score for this year 13 points which puts him at 99% for a sixth grader or around 80% for an 11th grader. It's nice that school doesn't get in the way of his learning.
We couldn't find DS6's lunch box on the Monday following spring break so DH put his lunch in a pink Susan B. Komen mini-cooler.
Needless to say he was teased. His girl friends defended him, a couple of his boy friends defended him and the teacher explained to the kids that the pink ribbon was associated with a charity. This lead to further discussion about charities and even more discussion about who all had dads who wore pink shirts and why pink was just a girl color anyway.
He now insists on taking the pink lunch box as a reminder to the teasing boy that he doesn't care what he thinks and that teasing is not nice.
I was sitting next to DD at a sporting event when she suddenly commented, "If a proper fraction has a prime number in the denumerator, it can't be simplified. Is that right?"
Me: "Huh? Um...yes, I guess that's true. Why are you thinking about that??"
DD: "I don't know. My brain just thinks about number things sometimes."
It's not such an world-changing "theorem," but the thing that gets me about this is the way she's prone to spouting these at the most random moments. My brain definitely does not work this way!
DD9 previously announced that she hated art, because she wasn't good at it. We had never decided to make this a battleground for task-avoidant perfectionism, since she had a lot more enthusiasm to work on it in other areas, like gymnastics and music. Besides, I never liked it, either... for much the same reason, it turns out. Well, DD9 decided to make it a battleground anyway, and she is turning it into a win!
Last night I came home from work to find her sketching. She told me that she decided she wanted to be good at art, and that she hated that she just drew stick figures, and she wanted to work out how to draw human forms. She had already done a couple, which were of the basic sort of thing you'd expect, one step above stick figures... faces were still very simple, the arms and legs were sticking out straight, but the rest of the shapes were more or less there. She was looking for some criticism of them, but I just asked her what she thought of them, and she did some self-critiquing without the usual "I'M SO STUPID!" that had attended that in the past.
It was her plan that really surprised me... she had several of these sketch books, and she announced that she was going to label each of them with a specific year, and work her way through them, and keep them, so she could see how she's progressing. Whoa.
The quality of her art itself is nothing to brag about, but only this community could appreciate how even being willing to tackle it is something worth talking about.
I'm convinced that her willingness to tackle art is directly related to some notable successes she's had in both gymnastics and music lately.
I think you're right Dude, some success after a bit of struggle or simply success after hard work in one area, certainly often inspires all of us to attempt the same in other areas. Self confidence most often comes from success after struggle.
It's wonderful that the motivation to learn came from within. She's taking ownership of the responsibility for developing the skill; a great display of a growth mindset.
If she's ever looking for a book as a companion to her sketchbook... many like "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" for DIY art instruction. There are multiple versions/editions, old and new.
My son is teaching himself to draw using instruction he finds on the internet. And his interest was sparked by an old sketch book that I gave him. Very similar story to your daughter only he is a lot more willing to put himself out there without worrying about being perfect.
I have to brag about our schools gifted program and parents. After our wonderful teacher passed away suddenly in the middle of the year we followed through with a plan she had about building a float for our local festival parade. After two months of planning and building, the float took a first place in youth division and we definitely made an impression on our town. We had nearly 40 people, kids and parents, walking with the float. We handed out silicone bracelets, handmade tissue flowers, and candy. It was such a healing process for the kids and parents. It was an awesome day today. And the kids found out just how much of a difference they can make in this town.
DS2.5 is into auto mechanics lately. Today I built a model with a small and large gear and a flat arm out of cardboard and some nuts and bolts to show DS tangibly how rotary motion can be translated into reciprocating motion and vice versa.
When I asked him if he knew what the arm was, he said without hesitation, "It's a crankshaft." When I asked him how he knew that, he said, "Because I looked at it, thought about it, and figured it out." Um, yes. I actually didn't know the answer (I thought it was "drive shaft"), so I looked it up and saw that, as usual, DS was right.
It took a moment to sink in: my 2-year-old is teaching ME auto mechanics, apparently. I didn't see that coming. Talk about stuff you can't mention on the playground. I am going to be in over my head when he's older...
DS2.5 is into auto mechanics lately. Today I built a model with a small and large gear and a flat piston out of cardboard and some nuts and bolts to show DS tangibly how rotary motion can be translated into reciprocating motion and vice versa.
When I asked him if he knew what the piston was, he said without hesitation, "It's a crankshaft." When I asked him how he knew that, he said, "Because I looked at it, thought about it, and figured it out." Um, yes. I actually didn't know the answer (I thought it was "drive shaft"), so I looked it up and saw that, as usual, DS was right.
It took a moment to sink in: my 2-year-old is teaching ME auto mechanics, apparently. I didn't see that coming. Talk about stuff you can't mention on the playground. I am going to be in over my head when he's older...
Isn't the crankshaft technically the thing that works the pistons in and out of the cylinder as opposed to being the piston itself?
DS2.5 is into auto mechanics lately. Today I built a model with a small and large gear and a flat piston out of cardboard and some nuts and bolts to show DS tangibly how rotary motion can be translated into reciprocating motion and vice versa.
When I asked him if he knew what the piston was, he said without hesitation, "It's a crankshaft." When I asked him how he knew that, he said, "Because I looked at it, thought about it, and figured it out." Um, yes. I actually didn't know the answer (I thought it was "drive shaft"), so I looked it up and saw that, as usual, DS was right.
It took a moment to sink in: my 2-year-old is teaching ME auto mechanics, apparently. I didn't see that coming. Talk about stuff you can't mention on the playground. I am going to be in over my head when he's older...
Isn't the crankshaft technically the thing that works the pistons in and out of the cylinder as opposed to being the piston itself?
Yeah, you're right. I may have misused the term "piston" above to describe my model, for lack of a better term in my lexicon. Maybe "arm" or "shaft" would be more accurate. It's just a generic piece of equipment moving along a linear track, not the piston in the cylinders of a reciprocating engine. I'm going to edit the OP for clarity.
DD9 just collected an award for being on the honor roll all year.
Thanks, Ms. Principal. I'd love to read back some of your comments about why skipping third grade would have been such a disaster, if you've got the time. Too busy? Okay then.
My 10 yo boy scored 770 on the SAT math and in the upper 500s on critical reading. He is taking the AOPS Algebra II course and studying trigonometry on ALEKS, in addition to going to IDEA math classes. He is motivated by standardized tests, so I may have him take the SAT Mathematics Level 2 Subject Test when his Algebra II and trig studies are over. Then he should be ready to study calculus.
What was his background, in terms of courses taken, and other activities, previous tests, when he took this? (I'm thinking of having DS8 take SAT in 2 years time, and want to see if he's on the right track.)
My 10 yo boy scored 770 on the SAT math and in the upper 500s on critical reading. He is taking the AOPS Algebra II course and studying trigonometry on ALEKS, in addition to going to IDEA math classes. He is motivated by standardized tests, so I may have him take the SAT Mathematics Level 2 Subject Test when his Algebra II and trig studies are over. Then he should be ready to study calculus.
I don't know how I missed that before. Most definitely brag- worthy.
Congrats to your DS and to you for the fine support that you have shown to him!
Deliberately vague b/c my DD is in the top 5 in the state.
My kid just launched herself into "elite" competitive status after quite a short period of time spent at that activity, however-- and is quite possibly going to be scouted by elite-elite, (like... elite-with-international-television-coverage) coaches as a result. Competing against people who are (generally) 2-5y older than she is.
I'm sort of in shock. In spite of being so accelerated, and in spite of not much in the way of parental push, my DD is evidently going to be a pretty competitive college athlete. {blink-blink}
DS2 just did his first "big boy" maths. He put two red triangles together and said, "One red square". Then, he had one train in each hand and said, "One train and one train- two trains". Pretty cool!
That's great! Do you have any pattern blocks? We have a little wooden set that DS loves, and he also enjoys building with unifix cubes, which make it easy to intuit simple math concepts while making seemingly math-unrelated creations.
DD14 was told yesterday by her dual-enrollment math teacher that she is one of the strongest math students he has this year... (He also teaches two other dual-enrollment classes-- calculus and college algebra in addition to statistics). She strongly suspects that "one of the" is only because her BFF is in calculus.
She also learned from the teacher that he thinks she is the strongest statistics student he has encountered in his teaching career (of a decade or more). He wants her permission to use her class project as an example for future students-- to show them "how to do it right."
I'm particularly impressed given that she did this with no direction from either us or from that teacher regarding the project-- the teacher has been more or less AWOL in terms of instructional support all year.
Somewhat amusingly, she has also heard lately from English and social studies teachers that {subject area} is clearly "her thing" and that she is "very strong" in those areas-- has she considered a college major in this...
It's just sweeter to hear it from the math teacher, who is really not effusive like that-- and in the math, she has to actually think pretty hard.
We only have coloured wooden blocks. Usually DS just builds buildings, but today he was laying them flat and making shapes. He can't be taught anything lol, he is stubborn and will purposely do things worse if I dare try to teach!
Nah, don't teach if you get pattern blocks. He'll figure it out himself.
This brag doesn't compare to other people's brags, but I paused to watch DS (7) play minecraft the other day. I NEVER watch this game, and don't really know what they do on there. I stood behind DS and watched as he constructed a ship. He was super fast, it was almost as if he wasn't doing it himself, but it was computer-generated in fast speed. The ship looked like a real ship, like something a graphic artist might do. I asked if he had built ships before, and he said no. He wasn't copying a picture. He said he watched a video about a ship, but that his ship wasn't the same (which I confirmed with DD who watches minecraft videos with him). Even if he was copying someone else's ship by memory, that's pretty impressive. I asked DD if she could do what DS just did and she said "No."
Considering his drawings done by hand look very preschooler-esque because his DCD and fine motor issues, I thought this was very neat.
She also learned from the teacher that he thinks she is the strongest statistics student he has encountered in his teaching career (of a decade or more). He wants her permission to use her class project as an example for future students-- to show them "how to do it right."
I'm particularly impressed given that she did this with no direction from either us or from that teacher regarding the project-- the teacher has been more or less AWOL in terms of instructional support all year.
My DD10 has shown some surprisingly advanced skill in writing patent claims (at Take Your Child to Work day last year). I think when you're around an adult who does it for a living, you can pick up quite a lot from "shop talk" and comments made around the house. Not to mention heredity from you, of course. Obviously neither statistics skill nor patent drafting are hereditary, but the underlying skills may be.
DD6 started the school year off in kindergarten where her school starts the kids on foam violins. They progress to real violins in about November, but do not start bowing until January or so. Well, in January, DD moved up to 1st grade full time, and these kids have been playing violins for about over a year. Her teacher suggested she come to some morning help sessions to catch her up. Well, not only did she catch up, but she is zooming ahead! To the point where in the spring concert last week she was the only 1st grader to play with the older students on the harder pieces! (The older students take group lessons after or before school, but do not have violin as a class and they have all been playing for 2+ years) Her teacher is amazed at how quickly she has picked it up and how good her ear is for it.
This brag doesn't compare to other people's brags, but I paused to watch DS (7) play minecraft the other day. I NEVER watch this game, and don't really know what they do on there. I stood behind DS and watched as he constructed a ship. He was super fast, it was almost as if he wasn't doing it himself, but it was computer-generated in fast speed. The ship looked like a real ship, like something a graphic artist might do. I asked if he had built ships before, and he said no. He wasn't copying a picture. He said he watched a video about a ship, but that his ship wasn't the same (which I confirmed with DD who watches minecraft videos with him). Even if he was copying someone else's ship by memory, that's pretty impressive. I asked DD if she could do what DS just did and she said "No."
Considering his drawings done by hand look very preschooler-esque because his DCD and fine motor issues, I thought this was very neat.
I think that demonstrating mastery like that is very brag worthy.
DS4 randomly decided to write a number pattern (he originally said he wanted to count by 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, etc...which I thought meant he was just going to skip-count, starting back at the beginning each time he changed to a new increment) -- but instead, it went like this:
(in case you don't want to figure it out, it's four steps of each increment: counting by 1's four times, 2's four times, etc etc.) This alone was pretty cool, until he pointed out that he would end on a multiple of the next increment every time. (so at the end of the 5's he ends with a number divisible by 6 and so on and so forth.) The pattern doesn't stop. It took DH (super gifted in math) like 15 mins to figure out why. (if you are interested, it's because you end up with 4 x the successive triangle numbers, or 2n(n-1). and if you need more explanation than that, you'll have to ask DH because honestly, it's all lost on me!) But yeah, it was just...kind of mind-blowing that he was just able to toss that off.
Seriously cool! On the assumption your DH hasn't already explained it to DS, here's an attempt at an explanation that might make sense to your DS (I'm making the assumption that he spotted the pattern, which is impressive, rather than proving it always holds, which would be mind-blowing). It'll be morally the same as what your DH did with triangle numbers, of course, but perhaps more approachable.
Write the numbers out in rows:
1 2 3 4 (row 1) 6 8 10 12 (row 2) 15 18 21 24 (row 3) etc., so that the row number is the number we're skip-counting by in that row.
What we're going to do is to show that the pattern continues for ever. We can see the pattern holds in row 1, and what we're going to do is to show that if it holds in any row, it holds in the next row as well. So row 1's pattern will force row 2's pattern to hold, and row 2's pattern will force row 3's pattern to hold, and so on as far as you like. (You may, but need not, tell him that this is called induction.)
But what exactly is it that holds in row 1? What matters is not just that 4 is divisible by 2. Actually, 4 is 2 x 1 (this row's number) x 2 (the next row's number). Let's say it like this: the last number in row 1 is the number of unit cubes that are in a cuboid with height 2, depth 1 and width 2. The pattern we're going to show holds is that the last number in any row, let's call it the nth row, is the number of unit cubes in a cuboid with height 2, depth n (this row's number), and width n+1 (the next row's number).
It might be a good idea at this point to build such a cuboid, say for n=3, e.g. in Lego.
Now, how much do we have to add to get from the last number in row n to the last number in row n+1? In row n+1 we're doing skip counting by n+1, so we have to add n+1, four times.
Imagine taking four n+1-long bits of Lego (actually do it, and make them a different colour from the old cuboid, perhaps). Put them in a two by two by n+1 cuboid shape, and line it up with the width of the cuboid we built for the last number on row n, so that the two cuboids are stuck together on the 2 by n+1 face.
Look, we get a new cuboid, and the number of unit cubes in this must be the last number in the n+1th row, because we got it by doing a new row of skip counting starting from the last number in the nth row.
What are the dimensions of this cuboid? It's still got height 2, and it's still got width n+1, but now its depth is its old depth, which was n, plus the extra bit we just added, which has depth 2. So it's 2 by n+1 by n+2.
That proves that the last number in the n+1th row is divisible by n+2, so the pattern holds for another row.
Turn the cuboid round so that the n+2 length side (which is the depth at the moment) is the width, and we're ready to do exactly the same thing again for the next row... and we could keep doing this for ever!
DD11 had a great term in school! Clearly skipping up to a bunch of higher level classes was the right thing to do:
* Judges' choice at a local engineering competition. She and one other child represented their class at the event. The other child was VERY shy, so she stepped up and did the entire presentation.
* Second place in the school science fair. A small fair, but she did a great job with her experiment and display board. The first and second place winners were just points apart.
* Impressed a teacher subbing for one of her classes so much that he invited her into his competition-based class next year (even though she's two years too young to compete).
* Decided on her own that the school needs a student newspaper and got her teacher and school director on board. She'll get to be student editor and I volunteered to be parent editor as part of my coop hours (thereby proving my point that with great enthusiasm comes great responsibility -- or if you want to run things, volunteer). I plan to let her and the other kids run this thing entirely and am looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
Thanks for being here so that I have someone to brag to!
DS10 has just turned the last topic blue in Alcumus [not counting prealgebra, which got added when he was well able to do the algebra questions and so has never been his focus: all Algebra, Number Theory, Counting & Probability and Geometry topics blue.]
And hasn't bothered to tell me - I know because I have his password.
DS10 has just turned the last topic blue in Alcumus [not counting prealgebra, which got added when he was well able to do the algebra questions and so has never been his focus: all Algebra, Number Theory, Counting & Probability and Geometry topics blue.]
And hasn't bothered to tell me - I know because I have his password.
Question: How do you turn a topic blue? It seems to me that once you hit green it moves to the next topic, when one more question in a topic would turn it blue. A few bars happen to be blue, presumably when one question's points put it from below the green threshold to above the blue.
Story: DS8 recently had almost finished pre-algebra (at green) when he figured some answer was 1/6, but instead of simply entering "1/6" he looked at the formatting rules thought he'd try "\frac{1}{6}" just to learn and try something. But when he went to press the shift key he accidentally hit enter, before he finished typing it, and his "answer" "\frac{1" was marked wrong. On the 2nd attempt at answering, despite being more careful this time, it happened again, his "answer" "\frac{1}{6" was marked wrong, and the question disappeared, and a new question appeared. DS8 was so upset he couldn't continue even though he only needed a few question to finish pre-algebra. Hopefully I can coax him back onto it soon.
DS10 has just turned the last topic blue in Alcumus [not counting prealgebra, which got added when he was well able to do the algebra questions and so has never been his focus: all Algebra, Number Theory, Counting & Probability and Geometry topics blue.]
And hasn't bothered to tell me - I know because I have his password.
Question: How do you turn a topic blue? It seems to me that once you hit green it moves to the next topic, when one more question in a topic would turn it blue. A few bars happen to be blue, presumably when one question's points put it from below the green threshold to above the blue.
Yeah; once everything is green it goes round again and turns everything blue, basically. (And while I don't pretend to understand how it's working in detail, the typical question level goes up, I think, so it's not a waste of time.)
Quote
Story: DS8 recently had almost finished pre-algebra (at green) when he figured some answer was 1/6, but instead of simply entering "1/6" he looked at the formatting rules thought he'd try "\frac{1}{6}" just to learn and try something. But when he went to press the shift key he accidentally hit enter, before he finished typing it, and his "answer" "\frac{1" was marked wrong. On the 2nd attempt at answering, despite being more careful this time, it happened again, his "answer" "\frac{1}{6" was marked wrong, and the question disappeared, and a new question appeared. DS8 was so upset he couldn't continue even though he only needed a few question to finish pre-algebra. Hopefully I can coax him back onto it soon.
Argh, yes, btdt. Makes one wonder how hard it could be to have a syntax checking phase that would ask "did you really mean that?" before marking something wrong. (Might be worth suggesting, actually.) Fwiw tolerating such things is an area where DS has improved a lot in the last couple of years, so hang in there!
Thanks, ColinsMum. I think he's over the "injustice" now. (He understood there was an exact syntax to follow, even if he didn't know where it came from, but his clumsy keyboard skills tripped him up (twice).) Anyway, Alcumus is free, so we can live with it's strict answer checker. I've never seen Alcumus make an error, unlike most other applications I've seen.
Thanks, ColinsMum. I think he's over the "injustice" now. (He understood there was an exact syntax to follow, even if he didn't know where it came from, but his clumsy keyboard skills tripped him up (twice).) Anyway, Alcumus is free, so we can live with it's strict answer checker. I've never seen Alcumus make an error, unlike most other applications I've seen.
We've seen quite a few! But if you report them, the reports get read promptly by humans. (We've seen mistakes in solutions, including one really bizarre one that began with an arithmetic error and got worse from there, more often than nonsensical questions, and I don't recall a blatant "right answer marked wrong" case.)
(I really want a school teeshirt that says that. )
Granted my freedom from {school} in 2014.
She also got invited back for a second (paid) summer by her internship mentor from last year, and she is THRILLED about that, since she'll be more useful this year, having completed a year of stats.
DD wound up graduating number 2 in her high school class. Now, there are some caveats here (and really, this isn't rationalization, but it's worth noting because, well-- you'll see).
Understand that DD took ALL of her high school requirements through her school, during the regular terms, and nothing elsewhere. Her college coursework is all dual enrollment (mostly AP), and I mention that because some kids play games with P/F grading so that a *weighted* GPA becomes higher, since it isn't dragged down by unweighted graduation requirements. DD's GPA is au natural there-- it IS significantly weighted down by things like PE (A+, of course, but still, it dings you when the 4.0 gets averaged into a 4.5 GPA on the term otherwise...) She also took unweighted elective coursework that wasn't strictly required-- which dragged the GPA down a bit as well, in spite of earning A's in those classes.
Her final high school GPA was 4.35 cumulative. This is also not a "perfect" GPA-- she has a B on that transcript. From when she was ten. {sigh} Her unweighted GPA is something like 3.98-- like I said, not perfect.
She is also a big-picture kid with a FIERCE social justice streak-- and a fierce, fierce sense of rationality-- getting A's in this system has been TORTURE for her much of the time, since merely "playing the game" well has felt intellectually dishonest to her-- she really dithers about whether to offer the "right" answer... or the expedient one. Anyway. I mention that because she is divergent in terms of compliance/system-adaptation. It tends to make her subversive and defiant. There are things about this program that make it harder for PG kids relative to MG ones.
The valedictorian is also an HG+ student-- his GPA has been goosed, I think, given what I know DD has taken, what I know he took, and some other particulars about the two of them. He's an academic all-star as well, though, no two ways about it.
Still, the two of them are WAY out ahead of everyone else in the class-- by TENTHS. The two of them are separated by hundredths. The two of them are BOTH anomolies-- higher GPA's than anyone before or after them-- by almost a full tenth, in fact. What's funny about this is that it's been just the two of them since freshman year, and both of them have known it all along. In ANY other year, nobody else would even be competition for #1. {Number 3 wasn't even close, but would have been #1 last year.}
DD was also the only girl in the top 7.
DD, Salutatorian, is considerably younger than the Valedictorian, though. Well-- by 9 months, anyway.
All of that to explain why, even at #2 (which might be a surprise/underperformance in a clearly PG kiddo, accelerated or not)-- I am BEYOND proud of her.
When DD6 was younger she refused to read because someone had told her that she wasn't supposed to be able to read until she was 5. (I know, don't get me going) Well, she started kindergarten this year reading some, but was told by her teacher that her pronunciation wasn't good enough to go to 1st grade for reading. We fought this and she finally moved up, not just for reading but for the entire day. I just got her STAR reading scores for the year and according to the scores, she went from reading at the 1.4 (1st grade 4th month) level to reading at the 4.8 (4th grade 8 month)level! She now loves reading and is trying to get the most books read over the summer from her entire class.
We just found out that DS14 qualified for the NUMATS ceremony, and he is surprisingly pleased (in his own quiet way). His brother qualified a few years ago with his EXPLORE scores (and just missed qualifying this time with the ACT). We live in a pretty high-achieving school district and many of his friends already took ACT/SAT prep classes in 8th grade. DS did no prep beyond a practice test and hasn't accelerated beyond our normal gifted curriculum (he's taking an AoPS course, but it's programming, so not too applicable). He had taken the SAT in 6th grade through his gifted program and wanted to see if he had progressed (and of course, his brother decided to tag along; he hadn't done anything except the EXPLORE that his school requested as a precursor to math acceleration). After younger DS took the EXPLORE, I hadn't thought of doing NUMATS again, feeling like it would be difficult for a non-prepped/non-enriched kid to qualify(this year, 8th graders needed a 35 in reading, 34 in math, or 33 composite to qualify for the awards ceremony), but I signed them up at his request. So, it was really satisfying to see that DS could get close to those scores (he got 34 reading, 34 math, 30 English and Science-qualifying via his math score) without special prep or advancement, but just by reading a lot and having some natural aptitude for math. I have been nervous about some of his freshman courses (like AP World), and seeing that reading score is reassuring. I know it's just one test, but it's a bit of confirmation, and I'm happy to see him get rewarded for academics. In our district, maybe because administrators are sick of pushy parents, kids get recognized for sports and music, but not usually for academics. Thanks for letting me share-obviously not something I feel like I can talk about IRL (I'm guessing you all understand why!).
Last month DS(23 months), who usually doodles in chalk in the driveway, drew the letter 'H'. He stepped back, took a look at it, and said "Perfect H!" with a big smile.
DD15 drew quite a crowd and considerable applause today for playing (really, just riffing) a public piano (part of a public art installation) on the local Uni campus-- the approval came from a piano professor and his class.
He assumed that she was a majoring in performance and welcomed her to the campus. Upon learning that she wasn't a music student, he was very surprised, and encouraged her to take some performance credits.
She played around with some Ellington standards, swung a Clementi sonatina, and realized that the recovery time wasn't good enough to try the Bartok, so she fiddled around with some stride instead.
Apparently he was particularly smitten with her thoughtful and fluid rendering of a Joplin concert waltz. She does play that loose, jazzy/gypsy stuff well-- she just FEELS it. It's amazing-- she can make the timing very elastic or something-- it's hard to explain, and she only does it when she's relaxed, so I'm pretty proud of her composure in front of a crowd! She just went to play and make performance art, and to impress the boyfriend (who had never heard her play). Little did she know, right?
They listened to her play for about forty minutes all told, evidently.
DD15 drew quite a crowd and considerable applause today for playing (really, just riffing) a public piano (part of a public art installation) on the local Uni campus-- the approval came from a piano professor and his class.
He assumed that she was a majoring in performance and welcomed her to the campus. Upon learning that she wasn't a music student, he was very surprised, and encouraged her to take some performance credits.
Congratulations to your DD! That is some praise coming from the piano professor. Hope the boyfriend was suitably impressed
Last month DS(23 months), who usually doodles in chalk in the driveway, drew the letter 'H'. He stepped back, took a look at it, and said "Perfect H!" with a big smile.
I think so, too, Mana-- but she isn't asking me either. She wasn't even playing anything HARD-- in other words, because it was in public, she was nervously trying to impress her significant other, etc., she was playing years below her actual ability.
And yes, I think that the boyfriend was impressed by her selection of jazzed-up John Williams themes, so it served its larger intended purpose. {sigh} I'm not sure if the boyfriend passed the music appreciation test; she seems to have given him a conditional pass. She tries them out like guide dog puppies at the outset, figuring out which things they'll tolerate or appreciate amongst her polymath's pantheon of interests. Those that have no appreciation for the arts are going nowhere with DD. LOL.
If she doesn't want to hear from her mother, she probably wouldn't want to hear it from me but if she quits now, chances are, she'll regret it soon enough.
And when she regrets it enough to want to take lessons again, she'd be old enough to pay for her own lessons.
Piano tuition with a good teacher is never cheap, especially if it has to come out of your own pocket.
My DD5 was assessed for a skip to 1st grade this morning. She did wonderfully on her test and maintained a great, positive attitude the whole time. She did mention to me that they didn't ask her any difficult math questions, though. I guess the focus of kindergarten is more on reading. I'm very proud of her, and there's not too many people I can tell, so here I am.
Thanks, aquinas, we are delighted about the skip. Now I have to figure out when to mention that the typical first grade math curriculum would be almost entirely review for her. There is supposed to be in-class differentiation, so there's hope. It's early, but with skipping her a grade, this school has already done more than what others on here have reported at some of their schools (we sure get some horror stories). At the moment I am pretty optimistic, and very relieved.
My 11yo boy got a Windows 8.1 laptop and on a whim decided to also install Ubuntu Linux. He did so without my help and is now learning about shell scripting. The Linux community and the Ubuntu Linux people deserve credit for making installation easier, but I'm proud of my boy too. The smaller children like Linux because they think the penguin logo is cute .
Just got a call from DS 5's school asking to skip him from K to first grade where He will be subject accelerated in reading to 2nd. While he is far ahead of these levels at least it's a start. Also the Principal is sending home information on their gifted program and permission forms for testing! We were prepared to fight at the first conference but he must have done Very well the first three weeks!
Khombi, that is excellent news. We are in the same situation so it feels especially good to hear someone else has had a bit if success! Congratulations!
DD8 took the SCAT for CTY entrance in June and finally we got a certificate and a letter saying she'll be invited to some awards next spring. I didn't tell her about the award ceremony yet. I'm sure she'll want to go, but it's a long time from now. For some reason, I've yet to receive the official scores, but they said they'd send them again. Which would be nice to have because school started yesterday and her IEP team seemed interested in having them.
I hope it is alright for me to post this here... DS (18mo) is far too young to confirm giftedness, however we have our suspicions. ;-)
In under a month, his expressive vocabulary has increased by over 100 words, leaving him around the 250 word mark (high normal for 24mo). He is also using pronouns, adjectives & other parts of speech to extend his average utterances into true sentences as opposed to single or grouped words. It feels AMAZING to be able to truly begin "conversing" with him!
Not as bragsome as some of the posts here but I am proud nevertheless and I have nobody else in our community to brag to about this.
My DD skipped 3rd to go straight into 4th last year and the NJASK scores were made available yesterday. She scored Advanced Proficient in all tested areas at the end of last year. Maths and Science were 300/300 each whereas LA was not as good - she just scraped by into Advanced Proficient with a 251/300.
The LA score was 'OK' but surprising because her VCI is higher than her PRI both of which are not too shabby. I caught her dumbing down the other day ( see my 'you know you are raising a gifted child' post) so perhaps this is the issue.
Either way, I will be watching this like a hawk this year as dumbing down is something I had to do growing up in a deprived neighborhood and I never ever want to see her doing it...
I wrote a couple weeks ago that I thought dd 2 3/4 could read more than the few words that I knew that she knew. There are several words that she learned a long time ago (Over a year ago). Yesterday, she was in a particularly bubbly mood and demonstrated her ability to read for about a 1/2 hour. Today, I am curious whether she will still know how to read, or if she will again pretend to be unable.
I often think she can read quite well as she knows things that I feel most likely she had figured out by reading, but she has been very cloak and dagger about this skill until yesterday. She has not hid the fact that she has memorized most books that we read to her and she has readily shown off that she knows what is said on every page, but it has always been a memory feat. This was different; she was very much demonstrating to us that she could read. It was as though she was ready to let the cat out of the bag.
She didn't tell us that she knows how to read, and I didn't think to ask. When I have asked in the past she has said things like "No, I am too little daddy." (I think she picked that up from daycare. I know one of the caretakers said that in her previous class, in front of all of the kids during a long monolog about why toddlers should not be shown the alphabet until they are older.)
DD10 does not know how to swim, because she is so intolerant of the noise and of getting splashed at the pool that she has never managed to take lessons successfully.
She decided this summer that she wanted to try again, and I enrolled her in swim lessons on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Her first lesson was yesterday. (In the future, she will get there on her own, but I went with her yesterday to sign her in and confirm that it would be OK for her to be there without an adult from now on.) She went under water multiple times and blew bubbles without visible distress. She clearly didn't like kids kicking in the water near her, but she turned her head away and maintained her composure. She also showered before and after getting in the pool without me telling her to.
I am very, very proud of how well she did. It has been bothering me for a long time that neither kid can swim, but she finally seems ready to learn.
My 6 year old DS came home disappointed that his teacher did not know what he was talking about and asked him to stop being silly when in the math lesson he added two numbers mentally and then gave her 2 answers: one in the decimal system and the other in the base 4 number system just because it seemed like a good thing to do!
I told him that it was OK if the teacher did not know about other number systems and how to convert back and forth between them mentally. I also told him that I was proud that he had this skill and that it would come in handy in his computer science classes whenever he gets to take them!
My 6 year old DS came home disappointed that his teacher did not know what he was talking about and asked him to stop being silly when in the math lesson he added two numbers mentally and then gave her 2 answers: one in the decimal system and the other in the base 4 number system just because it seemed like a good thing to do!
I told him that it was OK if the teacher did not know about other number systems and how to convert back and forth between them mentally. I also told him that I was proud that he had this skill and that it would come in handy in his computer science classes whenever he gets to take them!
DD10 does not know how to swim, because she is so intolerant of the noise and of getting splashed at the pool that she has never managed to take lessons successfully.
I am very, very proud of how well she did. It has been bothering me for a long time that neither kid can swim, but she finally seems ready to learn.
Dd14 was one of 10 freshman to make the second highest level of her high school orchestra (this a big accomplishment, the school is hyper-competitive in every way and there are 2,800 students). She also made it into the next level of the local youth symphony. But the big brag is that the conductor asked her to stand and demontrate and told the other students they should play like her! And when they returned from an excursion and I was picking her up, he ran over to the car and introduced himself and said he could tell she would be one of his best students and he was thrilled to have her. She was glowing! This is especially exciting because she had a few setbacks last year (didn't make it beyond first round of all-state auditions) but she buckled down and practiced hard. I am really happy for her to see her hard work pay off! edited to add: just realized I said 14! She is actually 13. Not trying to rush her or anything, lol!
Deacongirl, that is one terrific brag! Your daughter must feel so proud of her hard work.
Thanks Aquinas! Yes, you should have seen her face! The conductor is fantastic, all the kids love him, but he has very high standards--that was high praise from him!
Isn't it great to see when the effort really pays off? And when someone you and your kid really respect takes notice, it's just icing on the cake. My DD is following a strikingly similar path this year, and loving it. What a joy to be immersed daily in fantastic music, with kids who are equally passionate.
Isn't it great to see when the effort really pays off? And when someone you and your kid really respect takes notice, it's just icing on the cake. My DD is following a strikingly similar path this year, and loving it. What a joy to be immersed daily in fantastic music, with kids who are equally passionate.
Thank you! Violin has been so good for her. I am also very thankful for the amazing orchestra program at her school, and it has been a wonderful way to make friends too. Oh--and I have to add to the brag (I know you all understand because I can't really do it anywhere else!)-after seating auditions for 1at concert she was 1st violin, 4th chair--she didn't expect to do so well considering the competition so it was great!
Deacongirl, how lovely!! It's just amazing to see their pride when truly hard work pays off so handsomely like that. Way to go!!
Today was DD15's first day of college classes. She is thrilled, and completely at home in that environment. No problems whatsoever taking notes, fitting in, or having a great time being engaged. She has four professors that she likes already, and the only down side is that she is a bit petite for a monster 40+lb backpack, which is unfortunately the curse of the commuting STEM student. That was just with her mini-laptop, her chem textbook, and the reading text for one gen ed class.
She was also one of just a handful of young women in her computer science course of well over 100 people. So she wore day-glo pink, just to put a bit of an exclamation point on things, I guess. Last I heard from her, she had polished off her chemistry chapter and was happily coding away in Python before hopping a bus to a friend's house to study chemistry together and eat pizza or nachos.
Congratulations to all three DDs - swimmer, musician and computer scientist! Edited to ask HK - did you reveal the college she ended up at somewhere or is it too identifying? Would love to know where a pg kid like her fits right in...
Thanks, everyone. Yeah-- it's pretty identifying (but wherever she is would be, outside of a few places, since she's still so young, and female, and in CS)-- but I think that is the key. This is probably NOT a place (even in STEM, which is its specialty, more or less) which would still be a good fit for an 18yo PG student. At 14-15, though, sure. As long as she isn't living in the dorms, and as long as she's in the Honors College (smaller classes, higher level instruction, a bit more pampering/interaction with faculty).
At 18, however, she's going to be looking to do something like head to a major research center for a graduate program, or spend a year abroad, so this is fine. I seldom see her these days because she is both busy and spending a lot of time with her friends. She has good friends who are also living at home and 2e, and we have an excellent transit system-- which also makes a huge difference.
College quarters often start toward the end of September, but yes, it's a pretty late start. Finals aren't until the third week of December, usually.
This is a public state school identified on several engineering school lists, and on a few "best buy" ones, too. I would not pick this school for a child with interest in the humanities.
DD9 wasn't trying to brag when she mentioned this, it was just a "This is weird," kind of thing for her, because she's the one in the GT classes who has also been grade-skipped, so she's among gifted peers and a year younger to boot. Anyway, apparently her classmates are telling her, "You're the smartest one in class," based on what they're seeing on each others' graded papers.
DD later mentioned that she's the only one who passed gifted screening on her first try.
This is a public state school identified on several engineering school lists, and on a few "best buy" ones, too. I would not pick this school for a child with interest in the humanities.
I was wondering how the term was going. Glad to know that things are working out for her and that she is doing great. Is she doing a comp science major (of course, please disregard if the answer would be too revealing of her identity)?
She's doing a double major-- and effectively, it's a triple major since the honors baccalaureate includes things that no other major does (research/service learning/language requirements, etc.).
Math/CompSci.
I'm also really pleased that we pushed for her to take the major's Honors Gen Chem in spite of her lack of high school chemistry. It is pushing her to develop study skills that are weak (memorization based anything, notetaking, and just the grind of needing to look at something more than once to "get it" forever), and also pushing hard on her perfectionism-- that is, she's having to face the fact that her "best" might not be THE best.
I don't think that anyone has even noticed her age, however, for which she has been extremely grateful. She's apparently THE top student in two of her classes (including the large lecture section in her major) and in the top 10th of the class in the other two.
Feels just a bit uncomfortable to her, which (to us) feels exactly right.
This relates to Dude's post above, which we've also lived through.
Her CompSci professor and TA's expect her to be the first one done now in labs-- and have NO idea that she's not only never done any real programming before this, but is also 3 years younger than anyone else in the room.
She is just amazing and I am so glad you have these forums to shout out how special she really truly is! You must be so proud. I don't know her, but I am proud of her. Very happy to hear that she hasn't been called out as the youngest person or being treated like "the baby" of the group.
Apparently, (though he's not done it in front of her, thank goodness)-- her boyfriend's dad (himself quite a bright person and a topnotch specialist) brags on her SHAMELESSLY with their friends and family. His mom was pretty amused when I provided him with some additional fodder after laughing about that the other day;
"So-- she has two publications already, too, you know-- and the first one when she had just turned 14."
DD9 wasn't trying to brag when she mentioned this, it was just a "This is weird," kind of thing for her, because she's the one in the GT classes who has also been grade-skipped, so she's among gifted peers and a year younger to boot. Anyway, apparently her classmates are telling her, "You're the smartest one in class," based on what they're seeing on each others' graded papers.
DD later mentioned that she's the only one who passed gifted screening on her first try.
It's kind of strange when they realize that they're still the youngest among a peer group AND the top of the performance curve. I know what you mean-- it's more bemused than arrogant, when they mention it.
ds8 (3rd grade) finished 2nd in the mathnasium trimathelon... great job .. he would have been 1st BUT in the mental math he wrote notes. By the time he realized what he had done it was too late. The weird thing about this is.. it was a tie and he lost the tie breaker (how many jelly beans are in the jar). SO in reality.. he SHOULD have been in first place. He did what his classroom teacher is telling him what to do. He didnt NEED those notes lol
I posted earlier today on this subject, but deleted thinking I was bragging too much, but then thought again that that is the topic of this thread.
So here it is:
dd 2 3/4 has long established herself as verbally astute. Mommy and daddy are both math folks, but we have neither ever really tried to teach her any math. She did learn to count on her own as a function of learning to talk at a very young age. But today, on a whim I threw an easy subtraction problem at her:
If daddy has 5 gold doubloons and then gives you 3 of them. How many would daddy still have? Instantly she said 2 without a thought. I tried several more addition and subtraction and each time she gave the right answer.
Then to step it up I asked her: If daddy has 10 and mommy has 4 and each of us give you half of ours, who would have the most. Annoyed sounding she said "Me.", with a sigh as though to say why am I asking these stupid questions.
Later I repeated the exercise for my wife, and dd did answer correctly, but slower and more annoyed and distracted.
I am very proud of her, and do want to encourage her along these lines, but on the flip side she seems to be figuring this stuff out on her own, and I would like to let her keep figuring it out for herself. I feel like I need to sneak math opportunities to her without overtly teaching math. Right now, I feel like I have missed the pink elephant in the room. She has always been into singing, dancing, superheroes, and books. It never really occurred to me to ask her math questions, which is odd as my career is math intensive.
Her CompSci professor and TA's expect her to be the first one done now in labs-- and have NO idea that she's not only never done any real programming before this, but is also 3 years younger than anyone else in the room.
You know, this shouldn't even be in the "brag" thread. You are just talking about your daughter being right where she belongs, doing what she does.
We gave our 11yo boy a Windows 8.1 laptop. He installed Ubuntu Linux on his own with a dual boot and uses Linux mostly. He has taught himself some C, and now he is trying to create his own Linux distribution by compiling everything from scratch. I have explained to him that many man-years have gone into creating polished Linux distributions, but I admire his fearlessness. I amused to be getting questions such as
"Does gcc include a C++ compiler?" "What is clang?" "What are binutils?"
If he follows his current plan of majoring in computer science, he will be a well-prepared freshman .
He is teaching his younger siblings how to program in Python.
I came back from an outing tonight to find DH and DS3 adding and subtracting simple pizza fractions with common denominators. DS was grooving to the Tarantella Napoletana all the while and building an elaborate jet out of Duplo while playing the app with DH.
DS6 recently won his first chess trophy. Last year he had a difficult first "real" tournament and didn't do as well as expected...a learning experience. This time, he finished very strong and will now "play up" to the next age group.
An odd brag that only parents here could understand...
Our school behavior perfectionist DD9 told her GT math teacher off, balled up her assignment, and shoved it in her desk. I'm supposed to not react like Haymitch did when Katniss shot the arrow at the apple in the roasted pig's mouth, right?
I mean, it's only yesterday that DD politely asked this teacher for harder work, because she's been doing long division... AGAIN... and she's getting frustrated with doing all the same work she did last year, in what's supposed to be a gifted class. So if the teacher isn't going to respond to polite requests, maybe this will get her attention.
Meanwhile, I'm glad they finally got a tiny glimpse of what we have been seeing every time we've had to pull her out and homeschool. We are not those parents like they always figured... she's that kid. Teach her something new, or beware the consequences.
Oh, and that whole ball-up-your-math-and-tell-your-teacher-you-refuse-to-do-it bit? DD ripped it right from my own playbook. I did this in 2nd grade, because being the best-behaved was never a goal for me. DD has heard this story more than once, because one of her favorite chat topics is "Bad Things Dad Did as a Kid."
I am soooo giving DD a thumbs up when she comes home tonight.
I recall grade school math being something like the movie "Ground Hog Day"... And, this year we are going to learn to multiply again, but with two digits. Next year, now let's try three digits.
Well, the version of events I got at home was somewhat different than the version I got from the teacher through the filter of DW, who was feeling overwhelmed during the conversation because the teacher was talking pretty fast. There wasn't a "telling off" so much as an outraged, "Really?", and DD shoved the paper into her backpack to take home and do, so there was no refusal. There was no disciplinary issue, then, but the teacher was so shocked to see DD angry that she was calling to make sure everything was okay at home.
Oh, sure, everything's great at home, the problems are all at school, thanks.
The trigger, according to DD, was a four-question quiz on long division at the beginning of the day's lesson. Score 100%, and she can go do 6th grade work. Otherwise, it's sit through the lesson, and do the homework assignment. DD says all her answers were correct in the form she provided, but two had remainders, and they were marked wrong because she was supposed to extend them out to decimals instead. DD says they'd been doing the remainder for weeks, and there were no instructions on the paper to do anything else.
If all of her claims are true, I'd call that justifiable outrage. Not that she'd lie... I'm sure that the way she described it is how she experienced it. She may have misread the paper, or been distracted during a key instruction, or have had math errors she didn't notice, though. If they were right, but in the wrong format, the teacher could have simply sent DD back to rework the problems into the correct format, rather than just marking them wrong.
Not really a brag, more of a breakthrough. Ds 4.3 finally realized he CAN read! I knew he could. He's been spelling for 6+ months. He would read words, but kept saying, " Maybe I'll be able to read when I'm 6 or hopefully by 5.". Last night, he read "Put Me in the Zoo" by himself. (He's only heard this story once awhile ago, so I know it wasn't memorized.) Hopefully, I'll finally stop hearing, "Why didn't you sign me up for reading class?" So annoying, as all the other kids in his class are being hothoused and going to "reading class" after school.
I feel like we just won the lottery! After months of painful advocacy we found out our efforts were successful. DD5 will be starting first grade after the break! It also feels great that our case was instrumental in forcing the district and school to look and and write policy for whole grade acceleration. Hopefully our efforts will make it much easier for those who come behind us.
That's wonderful news, TNC! You must be chuffed that your son's case is paving the way for a better education for many other students. Reading your post has brought a big smile to my face.
This one's a true, unadulterated brag, with no other aspirations.
I just had to break up a fight between DS5 and his father.
It was about the order in which electrons fill p versus s orbitals. They were really going at it. DS was correct. His dad was not. Oy, but hard heads run in this family.
DS was sticking to his guns, and he gets triple points for a) being right, b) knowing it, and c) providing references to two published works to support his points(!). While bathing.
DD15 recently took the SAT and ACT for her application to an early college program. I tried to convince her to take only the ACT because she had done well on a mock ACT given at her school. Although we're still waiting on her ACT scores, she received a perfect SAT score. Her "studying" involved taking 2 practice tests in the living room while her brother was fighting with her dad about piano practice.
DS6's teacher recently tested his read-aloud speed and it's about 190 words per minute. I don't know what she gave him to read, but she knows his abilities, so I imagine it wasn't Frog and Toad. I didn't really know what that number means, but apparently it's pretty high for his age...
Took DS4 skiing, at the end of the day on the way back, I told him I needed him to help me find the cabriolet. He pointed and said, it's the one with the word "cabriolet" on it. He was right, and I was happy to hear him admit he was reading.
I know he can read but he has been pretending he can't lately. Weird/sad when your kid who has been picking up books and reading them for ages starts pretending they can't read. Combination of not wanting to grow up and realizing through exposure to other kids that not all 4 year-olds can read and not wanting negative attention. (Thanks parent of peer for calling him a freak in a nasty voice. :-/ Parent rant: why on earth would a parent think that's ok?)
DS6's teacher recently tested his read-aloud speed and it's about 190 words per minute. I don't know what she gave him to read, but she knows his abilities, so I imagine it wasn't Frog and Toad. I didn't really know what that number means, but apparently it's pretty high for his age...
That is extremely high!
See page four of this document. Note that 190 doesn't even enter the norms until spring of grade 5...at the 90th %ile:
Yeah, I did a quick Google and saw that it was not really typical 6yo speed! Which didn't surprise me, of course, since I do have him read to me sometimes. The reading is pretty wow on this kid. He does great voices, even.
I'll bet in a few years, he'd love reading aloud to younger kids, UM.
DD has that profile, too, and she's always eager to do story times for younger kids. The young children are so appreciative of that fluid ability to do all of the voices and dramatize on the fly!
He wants to read to his class now, but his teacher has (IMO, wisely) tried to diplomatically steer him away from that. (They all know he's different, but no need to overemphasize it by having him play teacher, I think.)
My son would get in readers theater groups and coach the other students in his group on how to read with expression..."Come on you can do this with more feeling...how do you sound when you are excited? Like this? or Like this?" (Some of that comes naturally to him and some of it comes from having a drama teacher dad who has always done voices with bedtime stories).
The teachers (this was an enrichment pull out group that was all kids who didn't need special intervention) let him take on the role of director a bit.
He wants to read to his class now, but his teacher has (IMO, wisely) tried to diplomatically steer him away from that. (They all know he's different, but no need to overemphasize it by having him play teacher, I think.)
My DD's pre-K teacher turned story time over to DD, and the class treated her like a rock star for it. DW volunteered to chaperone a class trip, and all the little ones were so eager to tell DW how smart our DD was... in case DW was unaware, or something. It was adorable.
And as a differentiated instructional method, it was excellent, because DD was working on a different skill set that she was developmentally ready for, while the kids were working on another one, listening along.
YMMV, depending on the personalities involved. The teacher's attitude here is an important one. If your DS's teacher is hesitant, that'll probably influence the reaction of the kids. My DD's teacher was very supportive and positive about it.
I love his teacher, but for various school- and class-specific reasons, I don't think it's a great idea to have him read to them (or to the kindergarteners, the only grade below his). I don't think the gap needs to be emphasized further. He is already doing mostly his own curriculum and not required to attend many class activities or lessons (he can stay at his desk and work independently).
I know he can read but he has been pretending he can't lately. Weird/sad when your kid who has been picking up books and reading them for ages starts pretending they can't read. Combination of not wanting to grow up and realizing through exposure to other kids that not all 4 year-olds can read and not wanting negative attention. (Thanks parent of peer for calling him a freak in a nasty voice. :-/ Parent rant: why on earth would a parent think that's ok?)
Blatant brag - DS8 blew my mind away again this week.
I finally found a history curriculum that I thought would be of interest. I targeted a semester to complete the year long course. Guess I picked well. He read it in 2 days. Yes. 2 days. My child who does not read voluntarily. Thinking he only skimmed it, I had him answer all the review questions. Nailed them all. Trying to stretch the curriculum out as much as possible, I had him write a summary for each chapter. I managed to "stretch" it to 3 days instead of 2. Sigh.
Back to piecing together something. Fortunately, this came with "supplemental reading suggestions".
*mental whiplash* Your son is quite the guy, Portia. What period was he studying?
With a kid like that I'd stop thinking in terms of curriculum and how long it will last, and just teach him all the history you can get your hands on! Fortunately, you can't run out of history.
Everyone knows the only ancient empires worth talking about were Egypt, Israel, Greece, Persia, and Rome, and the only reason to even mention Persia is because "THIS. IS. SPARTA!!!"
And by "everyone," I mean the Texas board that approves textbooks, and all that use them as a reference.
My daughter just turned four two weeks ago. She picks up a book at the library that's a 6th grade reading level and can pick any page and read smoothly. Even though she's been reading for quite a while.. she never fails to blow my mind with what she's capable of both reading AND comprehending. I could read when I was four.. but it wasn't books at the level she can read.
DD4 had an audition with a new string teacher. Our city's youth orchestra's current concertmaster and associate concertmaster are both her students so it's rather competitive to get into her studio.
DD got in and her new teacher wants to know if we'd be willing to sign up for a competition next year and DD would be chosen as one of the 3 allotted entries from her studio. So it'd be the concertmaster, associate concertmaster, and DD.
We don't do competitions so we'll likely decline for the next few years at least but it's still quite validating to know that we weren't imagining her talent.
DS8's teacher informed me today that his spelling assessment results show his level of spelling is that of a 16 year old (or older). Don't know what that means, exactly, but it sounds good.
DD's favourite word, I frequently find it written across her whiteboard - the one we use for our dyslexia reading remediation. Three months ago, it was barely recognizable; last night she wrote "supercalifragilisticexpialadoshus" - which is darn near perfect since we haven't yet gotten any where near the likes of "cious". And she then went on to explain why it had to be "su-per" and not "sup-per". Wahoo!
Thank you aquinas. I wish we didn't have to look for a new string teacher but since DD started with her old teacher at such a young age, they have bonded emotionally. That was wonderful when DD was a compliant child but now that she isn't, it has become a problem and private music lessons are too expensive to have behavioral management issues.
aquinas, I must admit, it was actually a friend of mine who urged me to find a new teacher. She took cello lessons until college and both of her DC played piano; every time I talked about DD's string lessons, she urged me to consider finding a new teacher.
I was in a denial for awhile but my DD kept on acting out yet she didn't want to quit. At first, I thought she was acting out because things were finally getting hard but in retrospect, she probably knew instinctually that she and her original string teacher needed to part ways.
Her previous teacher was a gifted performer. Her new teacher is a gifted teacher. I am glad that we transferred while DD was still a beginner.
DS7 has decided to honor PI day this year by learning as many digits as possible. He memorized 104 digits in 35 minutes and says them so fast I can't even keep up...not a valuable skill but still, he is having a blast. :-)
DS7 has decided to honor PI day this year by learning as many digits as possible. He memorized 104 digits in 35 minutes and says them so fast I can't even keep up...not a valuable skill but still, he is having a blast. :-)
If he keeps practicing and can get to 797 digits, he could win a Pizza Hut gift certificate at our school😃.
DS7 has decided to honor PI day this year by learning as many digits as possible. He memorized 104 digits in 35 minutes and says them so fast I can't even keep up...not a valuable skill but still, he is having a blast. :-)
He is awesome - one of the professors at my college could recite 200 digits of pi - he used to say that even though it was not a valuable skill, it was a great memory test as well as a source of self entertainment.
DS10 has been planning the ultimate Pi Day party for months, given that this is the ultimate year for Pi Day. The climax was to occur, of course, on 3/14/15 at exactly 9:26:53. He is crushed to discover that it's during March Break, and all the kids are travelling - in particular the only one who would think a Pi Day party was a great idea, and the other one that would have a good time just because DS thought it was cool and he's willing to go along with that.
As far as I know, DS has only memorized about 50 digits - but he's got most of his class to take on the first 20 or so after begging me to print the first 100,000 to post on the board in his math class.
I think the math teacher may be the only invitee to the party...
MichelleC, I told DS 7 about your son's PI party and he asked if he were invited. He got so excited and was very upset when I told him you guys don't live here. He said that he would have a party here at the same time, so that he knows someone is doing the same thing. But then he wondered if you guys are in the same time zone....I promised I would find out...:-) We are in Eastern, where are you.
1111 - We're Eastern (Ontario). A FaceTime toast at 9:26:53 sounds like a great plan! Send us a pm and let the good times roll.
Can't get enough pi around here. For Halloween, he made a Pumpkin Pi (sorta like this, but with a 100 digits or so circling the pi: coolmomtech.com/2013/10/8-geeky-halloween-pumpkins-diy/). I'd given up on buying him anything for Christmas until I found ThinkGeek.com (fleece pi blanket with 413 digits, pi shirt with over 4,000....).
My seven year old took the SCAT yesterday. It was his first test ever. His scores are decent, I think... Their scoring isn't very well explained.. Anyway
DD4 is back in her ballet class after a long hiatus.
She is probably one of the oldest girls in the class and behind everyone else since she's forgotten almost everything. I asked her if that's going to bother her and she replied, "I don't care about those things. I love to dance and I'm going to have fun no matter what!"
It's one of those moments that made me hopeful that she would not be a stressed-out, miserable person who's sadly confused about what it means to be successful in life.
I just realised that my DD's SCAT scores as a 5th grader SSv=477 and SSq=499. are pretty darned good when you realise that she is actually just aa 4th grader age wise.
Pretty darn good as a fifth grader too! Congrats to her.
ETA: I'm over the moon, so will come back and add one of my own. Getting dyslexic DD8 to read has always involved lengthy battles - she wouldn't even read the words on her own t-shirt. Last night, after we finished our reading remediation program, she asked if she could read me a picture book of poetry rather than having me do my usual bedtime read. Uh.... yes!!!!!!!!!!!! She whipped through it, huge smile on her face, clearly demonstrating that her reading level has already well-surpasssed a book that would have been a nightmare four months ago.
Later, watching her Dad scan some news on his iPad, she asked if he was really reading that fast. Because, she explained, it takes her the whole evening to read a page from "Percy Jackson and the Greek Gods". That's the non-fiction, not the novel, and holy dense text, Batman. She's been asking for that book, by herself, in lieu of bedtime reading all week, but I gotta be honest - it. never. occurred. to. me. that. she. was. actually. READING. it! rather than looking at the pictures and imagining, as she has been doing for all these years. Daddy explained that he is actually quite a slow reader (probably dyslexic too), and that he fully expects her to be able to read that fast, and probably faster, with all the hard work she's putting into her remediation. Inspired DD went back for another page about Athena.
While we're talking about literature and kids, my DD10 is now providing me with reading material, rather than the other way around. She bought the whole Maze Runner series with her own money, and dropped the first one on my nightstand several days ago when she finished it.
You guys are so beyond lovely. I'm all snuffling up again and can barely see the keys.
A wonderful long weekend to all!
P.S. to Dude: my book-sharing problem arises when DS10 catches me sneaking into his room at night when I think he's asleep, to steal his book before he's done with it...
Oh, I don't even bother to sneak...I just take my children's books whenever they're out of their hands. And I am not above: "Don't you have schoolwork to do?" And then curling up with the target book.
We do have a strict rule on books received as personal gifts, though. Until the recipient has finished the book, no one else is allowed to poach it.
MichelleC, that's so awesome - you must be one proud mama
DS5 has been taking piano lessons from DH for the last...2 months? He loves to create little melodies on the piano for fun. But tonight, he made up this lovely little song, with harmony, and then, with a little help/encouragement from DH, wrote the song on staff paper, including clef, time signature, notes and all. It was so sweet and I'm just really proud of him.
You know what I really love about MichelleC's post? Two parents who are so comfortable (but not passive) with their own and their DC's strengths and weaknesses that they've been able to take the sting (and the stigma) out of her dyslexia, and transform it into a victory for her character and determination.
Oh, I don't even bother to sneak...I just take my children's books whenever they're out of their hands. And I am not above: "Don't you have schoolwork to do?" And then curling up with the target book.
We do have a strict rule on books received as personal gifts, though. Until the recipient has finished the book, no one else is allowed to poach it.
And me buying a random book at the book fair isn't a "gift", I can poach those. But I didn't poach Spy Kid after he read it his review was so good and then he brought it to me. Almost done, it is very cute. Waiting for him to read his Will in Scarlet book from the fair.
DD and I started reading Romeo and Juliet together tonight. She asked for more at bedtime, and upon seeing the passage where R&J first speak, noted, "This is a sonnet-style quatrain. So this this! And this! It's a sonnet!"
I am just so amazed by DS7's reading speed and insatiability these days. He's blazing through 800+ pages a week (stuff like Redwall and Percy Jackson). I have no idea how I'm going to keep him in books, mind you, but wow.
I am just so amazed by DS7's reading speed and insatiability these days. He's blazing through 800+ pages a week (stuff like Redwall and Percy Jackson). I have no idea how I'm going to keep him in books, mind you, but wow.
Wow! That is awesome! My dd (99.9% verbal) wasn't doing that at 7!
Dd14 is having one of her book reviews published in the print edition of Creative Kids magazine! They only print 4 per year! Happy for her that she can see the results of her hard work!
Congrats to your DD, deacongirl--I need to look up that magazine for DD! There isn't much out there that's good for kids who write, I notice, but I've seen that one and it looked nice.
DS did test 99.9 verbal. He wakes up early on weekends and reads while DH and I sleep (and after school, and actually, his teacher also lets him read during class when he finishes his work early). Pretty sweet deal! I'm just always so thrilled when I find a new LONG series he likes. It's not always so easy. I really don't know what he's going to have left by the time he's say, 9.
Thanks! Dd is excited. After getting a scholastic gold key last year she was bummed to just get 2 honorable mentions this year, so it was nice for some positive recognition for her writing.
Ultramarina that is really cool- hoping there are some great soon to be published series out there for him.
Deedee thanks for the welcome back! Dd14 has been doing well. I guess I will find out soon if this is the right place for you generous people to share your wisdom to help me parent dd8.
I wasn't sure whether 8 was really the right age to start facilitating programming, or whether I really should steer clear of screen time as much as possible, but it appears that DS8 really benefits from the mental exercise. (Will still try to get him out and about and moving as much as possible this summer!) DS has been taking mind storms and scratch classes at an enrichment academy for gifted kids offered for third and fourth graders (open for all kids with teachers recommendations, and as it's in a fairly rural area, it does appear to reach the kids who are really interested, no tiger kids around) and loves it. Yesterday, after his third scratch session, the instructor took me aside and asked whether DS was enrolled in the scratch workshop scheduled to start in a month when the introductory classes were over. "Because he should be moving ahead at about twice the pace I am going, and I can't go any faster because I'd lose the other kids, but in the workshop, everyone can move at the pace they need." Considering they other kids are mostly fourth graders, presumably gifted ones, I was really proud, and yes, he will be enrolled in the workshop and hopefully busy and happy!
I wasn't sure whether 8 was really the right age to start facilitating programming, or whether I really should steer clear of screen time as much as possible, but it appears that DS8 really benefits from the mental exercise. (Will still try to get him out and about and moving as much as possible this summer!) DS has been taking mind storms and scratch classes at an enrichment academy for gifted kids offered for third and fourth graders (open for all kids with teachers recommendations, and as it's in a fairly rural area, it does appear to reach the kids who are really interested, no tiger kids around) and loves it. Yesterday, after his third scratch session, the instructor took me aside and asked whether DS was enrolled in the scratch workshop scheduled to start in a month when the introductory classes were over. "Because he should be moving ahead at about twice the pace I am going, and I can't go any faster because I'd lose the other kids, but in the workshop, everyone can move at the pace they need." Considering they other kids are mostly fourth graders, presumably gifted ones, I was really proud, and yes, he will be enrolled in the workshop and hopefully busy and happy!
That is great! How cool that the instructor recognized his need to move at a faster pace and he will have the opportunity to do so! My dd might like something like that but I am completely clueless.
So 2 brags in a week about dd14 but I haven't bragged on her for awhile...she was accepted to a summer intensive Shakespeare program. So proud of her for being brave and auditioning--she is on the youngest side of age range. I asked if she was happy and she said "overjoyed"!
But I'm excited because DS16's math teacher (pre-calc) wrote a very nice email (out of the blue) to me yesterday telling me how proud she is to have him in her class and how well he is doing. I have no idea what brought this one but I'm not complaining. So nice to hear from a teacher when things are going well instead of poorly.
DS5's alternative/eclectic preschool has an immersion mandarin class (one of the reasons we thought it was cool and chose it in the first place!) We know that DS can say a ton of numbers in mandarin (to at least 999) and can write...at least to a hundred, maybe higher, I don't know. But he won't really show us anything else that he has learned...so we honestly have had no idea if he's been learning anything else in that class. But yesterday, DS's mandarin teacher came up to us out of the blue, wanting to give us IPad apps to download for home for DS to do more advanced work, and told us that he is at the top of the class - he came in knowing nothing this year, and only goes 3 days a week - and she said that he is now at the level of (and beyond) the top students (who have been there for 3 years). She said he can say sentences, knows a lot of vocab, songs and more. Not only were we proud (naturally), but it felt really nice to know that even when we aren't doing anything supplementary at home (because DH and I know literally nothing about mandarin), he can thrive and excel at a subject. Also, this might be feel extra nice coming off the heels of a relative who is 'convinced' that our PG son is only the way he is because he has decided that we push and drill him. SIGH... some people, right?
Also, congrats deacongirl, on your DD's acceptance - is it theatre program or literature? I have always loved reading Shakespeare, but performing his works is even more incredible, IMO (but maybe I say that because I'm a performer lol)...so much depth, humor and richness in his beautiful words
DD participated in the big student Shakespeare festival today. She went on a stage and performed a monologue quite well, we thought.
Meanwhile I was going around trying to make the aquaintence of the parents of other young girls performing. I was like, these are your people! Other 7-9 year olds who love Shakespeare!
Bluemagic that is great, and a good reminder to this future teacher to take the time to share positives with parents. Marnie that is really cool about the mandarin. They are doing Macbeth, which dd is already calling the Scottish play because she doesn't want to mess up in the theatre, lol. It is acting--every day for month from 9-4--staging the play and lots of classes, then 3 performances. It should be a great experience.
St. Margaret, how wonderful! Glad she could find her people! That is awesome. My dd hasn't really found other kids who love Shakespeare yet, so I think it will be cool for her to spend a month with peers who do.
DD beat all the odds and was accepted to a private school that was her first choice. We were hoping for some type of financial aid based on needs but apparently, we are not quite poor enough. Instead, they offered us a partial scholarship based on her potential. They had many kind things to say about her and I thought they were talking about another child.
We need to come up with the remainder of the tuition but I think we don't really have much of a choice here. We are relieved that DD gets to go to the school she wanted to go to and even more relieved that the school seems to recognize her unique learning abilities.
Congrats Mana! That must be a great relief. I know it is hard to come up with the tuition. It was a big sacrifice for us for our dd's elementary years but it was worth it.
Two brags in one for May 1st (college choice deadline in the US)
DD was accepted to several universities including one out of state "DREAM SCHOOL" (think west coast ivy equivalent) and is choosing the solid, mid-tier, east coast state school that offered her a full out of state tuition merit scholarship. Super proud of her for earning a merit scholarship, even prouder of her for being mature enough to see that taking on over $200K in student loan debt would have a long term impact on her future choices.
So glad to have this forum where I can just say that she got a merit scholarship and got into DREAMY U without doing my "humble brag" routine.
Congrats Mana! That must be a great relief. I know it is hard to come up with the tuition. It was a big sacrifice for us for our dd's elementary years but it was worth it.
Thank you! I hope we'd feel the same way at the end. I still have a lot of reservations about the school DD4 has chosen but trying to convince her that another school is a better choice would be a HUGE uphill battle at this point. It's a "country club" school and we are not country club people so it'd be interesting to see how it goes.
Congrats Mana! That must be a great relief. I know it is hard to come up with the tuition. It was a big sacrifice for us for our dd's elementary years but it was worth it.
Thank you! I hope we'd feel the same way at the end. I still have a lot of reservations about the school DD4 has chosen but trying to convince her that another school is a better choice would be a HUGE uphill battle at this point. It's a "country club" school and we are not country club people so it'd be interesting to see how it goes.
I know what you mean--but I have found that even in places (schools/neighborhoods) that have that reputation there are always plenty of exceptions to the stereotype. I bet you will be able to find some like-minded friends.
I know what you mean--but I have found that even in places (schools/neighborhoods) that have that reputation there are always plenty of exceptions to the stereotype. I bet you will be able to find some like-minded friends.
That is what I am hoping for; the school does have a reputation for snooty parents and spoiled children but a number of my friends' children went there and my friends aren't snooty and their children are not spoiled. So, hopefully, all will turn out okay.
Congrats to brilliantcp! That is wonderful. We are laying the groundwork for our dd to make a similar decision. Madeinuk, yes, lots of kids from my daughter's high school get merit scholarships. And my cousin's daughter just got a full ride at Johns Hopkins. (60k/yr)
OK so trying not to have disappeared for a year and then monopolize brag thread with tales of my dd but this one is great. Her high school orchestra is extremely competitive--last year the highest level was one of only 5 schools to win a national award. It was quite an achievement for her to make the 2nd highest of 7 levels as a freshman. She was determined to make the highest level this year and did practice- very hard (although truthfully, perhaps not as hard as she should have) but then had strep the week of auditions, missed her private lesson, was trying to practice with a 102 fever, and was still feeling yucky the day of the audition. But I think she thought she did ok and was very disappointed to find out she hadn't made it. But instead of being discouraged she decided to work harder and commit to practicing 100 days in a row again, and to add at least 15 minutes to practice time. So 30 days into this the director calls her in and tells her he decided he is moving her up to the highest level, that the audition clearly didn't reflect what she is capable of and he wants her in the highest group. I was so proud of how she handled the setback even before this good news--but what a wonderful affirmation that her hard work was recognized! She really loves the orchestra program and this will be such a positive experience and stretch her in a way she wouldn't have been in the lower level. Thanks for listening!
DD8 (golly! I have to get used to her being 8!) finished reading Romeo and Juliet this morning, with me. She wanted to do activities with it (from my teaching files I let her peruse a couple weeks ago). So she did a creative writing assignment and then she took the unit exam, for fun, and aced it (The test was one I used for 9 Honors). I know her teacher is uninterested in this type of enrichment we do on homeschool days, so I had to tell you all!
DD8 (golly! I have to get used to her being 8!) finished reading Romeo and Juliet this morning, with me. She wanted to do activities with it (from my teaching files I let her peruse a couple weeks ago). So she did a creative writing assignment and then she took the unit exam, for fun, and aced it (The test was one I used for 9 Honors). I know her teacher is uninterested in this type of enrichment we do on homeschool days, so I had to tell you all!
That is great! My 14 yr old would love to hang out and talk Shakepeare with her!
Congrats to everyone! At DS8s elementary, they made every kid participate in a maths competition where they have to solve maths problems in teams of three (put together by the teacher, so it was very interesting what teams she'd come up with) and present their solutions to a jury. DS was very stressed by this, particularly as the teacher made no bones about expecting him and his team to compete at the district level - not exactly unbiased, was she? - but since she wasn't on the school jury, I guess who cares.... Even though there was some friction in his team (both of the other kids are his friends but can't stand each other, and one was even more reluctant to compete than he was, while the third was all gung-ho) they managed to work together (I told DS it was his job to integrate the team!) and win at the school level. Now they will compete at district level - during the week they are at sleepaway camp! Apparently the school where the district competition will be held is only 3 miles away so one mom has agreed to drive the half hour to camp, take the to the competition and back while the camp activities will be put on hold. My usually anxiety ridden DS, so far, is taking it all in stride. And he's started serving as an altar boy! I am so very proud of how he is dealing with all these expectations, all the while being the youngest everywhere.
My 2nd son, 9yo and in 4th grade, earned SCAT scores that qualified him for High Honors. He did especially well in math, scoring in the 99th percentile for 6th graders. We went twice to the CTY regional awards ceremony for his elder brother, and he also wanted to be recognized in the ceremony -- and feast on the chocolate chip cookies they provide . In two years, on to the SAT!
Two brags in one for May 1st (college choice deadline in the US)
DD was accepted to several universities including one out of state "DREAM SCHOOL" (think west coast ivy equivalent) and is choosing the solid, mid-tier, east coast state school that offered her a full out of state tuition merit scholarship. Super proud of her for earning a merit scholarship, even prouder of her for being mature enough to see that taking on over $200K in student loan debt would have a long term impact on her future choices.
So glad to have this forum where I can just say that she got a merit scholarship and got into DREAMY U without doing my "humble brag" routine.
Only hope she knows what she plans on doing in the future and is aware that even though her choice seems the most sensible that in some instances it actually isn't... but that all depends on what she plans on doing in the future. I recall a classmate in graduate school was interviewing for positions with a big management consulting firm and was told flat out that while her grades were great and her experience was good, that her undergrad was from Rutgers and that was the reason that they wouldn't be offering her a job... And that was even though she was coming out of a top 3 MBA program.
So remember that in some fields they are actually so shallow that they will look at where you went to school.
So excited today! DS was elected school president!
While we are thrilled that his fellow classmates look up to him, we are still not sure how he became so popular--he doesn't play sports, or participate in any school activities, has no social media accounts, and barely sees his classmates outside of school. The first inkling we had that could win was when elections were announced a month ago and a few kids spontaneously started running in the halls yelling "Vote for DS".
DS earned the Cub Scout Super Nova award as a Bear. He said he thinks he wants to earn it again next year (he has about 18 months to do so) it again as a Webelos.
We also found out when the paperwork was turned in, that his mentor doesn't have to be from our pack. At council they will match the boy up with an adult who is in the STEM field that interests the boy. I sure hope there is a math professor out there to mentor DS!
DS7 was voted camper of the week by his counselors last week. It's an outdoorsy type day camp that has a lot of campers. The letters written to him by his counselors and camp director were really thoughtful. He was recognized for having a positive attitude, being inclusive, respectful and kind. The director told him he was "one of the most thoughtful and caring individuals" she was ever met.
He has always had this special quality to him that's hard to explain. It's like super empathy.
I totally know what you mean about the super empathy, as my DS is like that. Kids, parents, young, old, NT or neuroatypical, he seems to get along with nearly everyone.
This is great! Such affirmation is hard to come by... be sure to keep the letters in a file or scrapbook or other safe place so he can enjoy them throughout life.
Occasionally I sneak DD8 out of school to do something more interesting. Yesterday I took her to a half-day chemistry/physics homeschool workshop aimed at 13-14 year olds (big thanks to the tutor for only being slightly dubious that DD could handle it). Although she hates being the smallest in the room, DD loved it. I was hovering and trying to over explain, but she shooed me away and enthusiastically got on with the business of calculating the densities of various materials all by herself So cute There was a later class aimed at 16 year olds she was disappointed we weren't going to but I thought perhaps we'd save that one for next time
I'm not sure if this is really a brag, but I started relistening to my audio CDs of the book A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It can be pretty complicated to listen to, but my DS10 actually followed it, and every time we get in the car he wants me to put it on now…
DD was in student council and awarded PE student of the month (1st grade). Towards the end of the year, I got the call from the principal stating that they wanted to do testing on her and then sit down and discuss next year with the principal, gifted teacher and her current teacher. She did great on testing (COGAT 144, 143, and 132). In MAPs testing she scored 217 for reading and 207 for math. Her math did not grow as much as it did in previous years, but it was because she was pursuing other passions like history (civil war, revolutionary war) and just reading anything she could get her hands on (she read the Little House series twice)
The teachers were amazed by her scores and she will get the opportunity to spend some quality time with the gifted teacher on math next year, she will likely be nominated for the special gifted classroom (top 1% of district) and they are likely to put her 2 best friends in her class next year because they are the closest to peers that she has.
I'm not sure if this is really a brag, but I started relistening to my audio CDs of the book A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It can be pretty complicated to listen to, but my DS10 actually followed it, and every time we get in the car he wants me to put it on now…
I just listened to this for the first time and our boys were enthralled! My younger son asked for it the other day and was sad to hear that it went back to the library. On the other hand, I was glad he wasn't in the car for the parts about asteroids possibly hitting earth, etc.
DD got a perfect score on some kind of standardized test and was the only student in her grade in the school to do so. Go, DD! Win us some scholarship money in a few years.
Fourth grade mania - this is when tracking decisions will be made in spring, grades really really count, and parents FREAK. Much ado about the latest LA test and questions a number of kids misunderstood. And a maths test. And...I realize that while these tests must be announced and other parents are making the kids study hard, anxiously keeping tally of grade point averages, I have no grasp of when they are taking place or when DS9 gets results back or even what those are and it appears, neither has DS9. I ask about the LA test. What LA test? Umm, the ones you must have gotten the results for earlier this week. Um, this week,a test? Oh yea, there was a test I guess. Well, what was your grade. Oh, an A. I get so many As, can't keep them straight. Well. There are benefits.
My DS6 recently got interested in the longest word in the English dictionary. He knows how it pronounces and how it's spelled. Just yesterday he started to write words starting with each letter of this word (Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis) to make up 45 new words. Crazy kid!
Our 8.5 year old DS got 660 at SAT math just this month. That's beating +/- 88% high school students. We are thrilled... but he was scoring above 700 at home so we were hoping for SET at JHU and will not get it. Still super proud of him for being able to take such a long and mature and rapid test. We asked him to sit through the English parts, which he did, and just focus on math. He came out of the testing room happy, relaxed, content, as if he had just had a time of his life. Now, we just need to make sure that his math teacher in 4th grade is content, as he is not following her instructions and provides answers without explanations of how he got there (4th grade level).
Our 8.5 year old DS got 660 at SAT math just this month. That's beating +/- 88% high school students. We are thrilled... but he was scoring above 700 at home so we were hoping for SET at JHU and will not get it. Still super proud of him for being able to take such a long and mature and rapid test. We asked him to sit through the English parts, which he did, and just focus on math. He came out of the testing room happy, relaxed, content, as if he had just had a time of his life. Now, we just need to make sure that his math teacher in 4th grade is content, as he is not following her instructions and provides answers without explanations of how he got there (4th grade level).
DD11 just received test scores from the JH CTY SCAT test. Based on their published results from last year, her math score would have been 2nd highest of the 1800+ girls tested, and top 50 of all 4000-ish of both sexes. She had been around 80th percentile in previous gifted tests, but has accelerated in math over the last 2 years, just now ready to start Geometry in 6th grade. (not to be overlooked - 75+%-ile on Verbal)
I need to let it sink in and see what the Davidson/JH SET programs are all about. I'm a bit concerned about her taking SATs and outscoring her 11th grade sister (also gifted, but not to the extreme).
So not an academic/gifted related award but figured no one would mind....DS8 received the Responsibility award from our local YMCA. He attended camp there this summer and out of over 2000 kids he was recognized (along with about 100 others) for best modeling the core values of camp - responsibility, honesty, caring and respect. It was a really nice ceremony too.
So not an academic/gifted related award but figured no one would mind....DS8 received the Responsibility award from our local YMCA. He attended camp there this summer and out of over 2000 kids he was recognized (along with about 100 others) for best modeling the core values of camp - responsibility, honesty, caring and respect. It was a really nice ceremony too.
DD11 just received test scores from the JH CTY SCAT test. Based on their published results from last year, her math score would have been 2nd highest of the 1800+ girls tested, and top 50 of all 4000-ish of both sexes. She had been around 80th percentile in previous gifted tests, but has accelerated in math over the last 2 years, just now ready to start Geometry in 6th grade. (not to be overlooked - 75+%-ile on Verbal)
I need to let it sink in and see what the Davidson/JH SET programs are all about. I'm a bit concerned about her taking SATs and outscoring her 11th grade sister (also gifted, but not to the extreme).
Wow! Seems giving her the chance to accelerate in math is working well!
A little reassurance that I'm raising a decent person...
DS8's friend is being treated for leukemia. His friend's mom asked if DS could go with them to the children's hospital tomorrow. His friend is having a difficult procedure and the mom thought having DS there might make it easier for her son.
I can't imagine how stressful tomorrow will be for the mom. I am very proud that she thinks having my son along will make the day better.
A His friend is having a difficult procedure and the mom thought having DS there might make it easier for her son.I am very proud that she thinks having my son along will make the day better.
I'm incredibly impressed that your son, at age 8, would be considered mature enough to handle a situation like that and be a help, not a hindrance. Wow, that says a lot about the kind of person you are raising! Kudos to both of you, and good luck to your son tomorrow, as well as his friend and friend's family.
Thanks momtofour, the mom is one of DS's former teachers so she knows him really well. He must have talked to her last week at school about what to expect today because this morning he seemed to have a good idea of what would be going on. I think for the most part his role today is to hang out in a really fun rec room with his friend before and after the procedure and be nice. From the pics the mom has sent me so far, the boys seem to be doing well : )
An aside on these kids - in K, DS was really into the immune system and would talk to his friends about various white blood cells all the time. When his friend was diagnosed, his mom said it was really comforting for her son to already know some of terminology he picked up from DS.
KJP, that is a wonderful story. Fingers crossed for his friend. Just be aware that your own kid may all of a sudden fall apart being afraid for his friend...a little (or too much, in this case) knowledge can be a dangerous thing for a very aware and sensitive kid. Not to say he should not help out in this way, just be aware that signs of stress may show up.
In the spirit of the last few posts: DD5 is a kindergartner in a developmental preschool and will go to grade school in fall. Today we had the big "ready or not" conference, and I got a glowing report that my little stubborn screamer was an absolute sunshine in class, always motivated and the first to volunteer for whatever activity was proposed. Also they told me that she was amazingly pro-social, always aware of a younger kid needing help and being right there to do it even before the teachers notice. We agreed that having a disabled baby brother was part of the reason and that we have to make sure that she doesnt feel overly pushed into a "helper" role. But I am still so very proud of he and told her so!
Funniest brag ever for our family: DS9 got his latest report card and this most unathletic child of them all got an A in PE! He told me that their current PE teacher places a lot of emphasis on playing by the rules, which is how he ended up with his first PE A ever, and kids like a friend of his, who actually is athletic, but messes around in class, ended up with a C. While I am philosophically completely opposed to this teachers attitude, it has given him a lot of confidence for the upcoming transition to middle school, so I won't complain. He wasn't especially proud of the glowing comments on his performance in maths and language arts, nor bothered by his Bs in the science/social hybrid or arts and crafts (they don't discuss high school physics or chemistry in class, or demand high school level technical drawings, and he keeps losing his worksheets, and has difficulties finishing his projects), he was just so pleased with his A in PE. I, however, was very proud that the teacher wrote he is an asset to the class because he manages conflicts so well, and supplies enriching knowledge and vocabulary to the subjects covered (as opposed to, he never shuts up about what he's interested in). I am really all around pleased with his elementary school experience, his personal and social growth, he's always felt included, had friends, and and wasn't too badly stunted and frustrated in his academics. I don't think one can ask for more for an HG+ kid in a regular school!
Funniest brag ever for our family: DS9 got his latest report card and this most unathletic child of them all got an A in PE! He told me that their current PE teacher places a lot of emphasis on playing by the rules, which is how he ended up with his first PE A ever, and kids like a friend of his, who actually is athletic, but messes around in class, ended up with a C. While I am philosophically completely opposed to this teachers attitude, it has given him a lot of confidence for the upcoming transition to middle school, so I won't complain. He wasn't especially proud of the glowing comments on his performance in maths and language arts, nor bothered by his Bs in the science/social hybrid or arts and crafts (they don't discuss high school physics or chemistry in class, or demand high school level technical drawings, and he keeps losing his worksheets, and has difficulties finishing his projects), he was just so pleased with his A in PE. I, however, was very proud that the teacher wrote he is an asset to the class because he manages conflicts so well, and supplies enriching knowledge and vocabulary to the subjects covered (as opposed to, he never shuts up about what he's interested in). I am really all around pleased with his elementary school experience, his personal and social growth, he's always felt included, had friends, and and wasn't too badly stunted and frustrated in his academics. I don't think one can ask for more for an HG+ kid in a regular school!
Maybe I'm too influenced by social media, but there should be a "like" button for posts like this one.
DS8: I want to learn how to do origami. Me (being a terrible parent and remembering teaching other children, including DD, origami): This website looks pretty good, but stick to these really easy ones because it can be hard to do if you don't know how. Also, please no freaking out if it's frustrating. I can help you at another time, but I'm busy right now.
DS8, several days later, having produced pile of advanced origami (cranes, multi-piece 3-dimensional stars, etc) with virtually no assistance: You said origami was hard, but it's not really very hard.
Doing so forces them to either tackle a challenge independently, with a little push from parent that communicates to them that they are capable of doing it without help, or it gives them an out for why they didn't try or succeed at that hard task--because "you didn't help me". Either way, it works for kids. If they try and are successful, great. If they try and fail, or don't try, it's not as devastating.
Of course, because I posted that, yesterday he got super annoyed with some 62-step reindeer that he couldn't complete. (He was randomly Googling origami, which is not a good idea. Some instructions are great and some are terrible.) But he actually really didn't want my help. I suspect he thinks I won't be that helpful. (He's wrong--I actually went through a lengthy origami phase as a child--but he can go on thinking that if he likes!)
I'm going into the gifted program at my school next year! I'm so happy about this. I don't know how good/fun/interesting the program is, but it's something, anyway.
The English unit was on the Scottish play. The assignment was a soliloquy, un-rhymed blank verse, from the point of view of one of the characters (not the king). This is generally considered the hardest assignment of the year; my older child, who writes, had found it very challenging. Younger DS, who does not turn in any writing, wrote a sonnet. Enjoyed doing it. And turned it in. A true sonnet (well, one variation in one of the lines) It was excellent. It brought tears to my eyes. It was shared around his team, and all agreed it sounds exactly like DS, with depth and honesty and insight. 100% and skyrocketed his grade from an "F--"to a solid "D".
(Maybe that last part belongs in "quirky anecdotes", or perhaps "general support/headbang".)
NorthernBen. That's wonderful. Yep our kids can do wonderful things when they are interesting in the subject.
I have something on that lines my DS17 did last week while I was out of town. My husband reports to me that DS needed to bring in a food/drink for his Spanish class. He decided to make a Peruvian drink that we get at a local restaurant. He found a recipe online, figured out he couldn't buy one of the ingredients at the local stores. Found a store in a neighboring area, drove himself to the store and found the missing unusual ingredient. My husband came home to find him boiling up the drink on the stove. It came out well for a first attempt. Although he did turn a lot of pots purple. And he got a 100% on the project. This type of thing make me feel my kid is going to be successful at life even if he doesn't get the best of grades.
During a family game of Yahtzee last night, my 7 year old/1st grader and I had a brief conversation about addition/multiplication being commutative vs. not commutative (a concept she knew about), which led to telling her that negative numbers are a thing that exist, and I drew out a little number line from -10 to 10 and showed her 2 - 5 = -3. I thought nothing more of it.
This morning, in the middle of her pretend play, she starts reciting "2 - 5 = -3" on repeat so I ask her what 5 - 10 equals. Without hesitation, "-5!" "What's 10 - 11?" "-1!" "3 - 5?" "-2!" I completely wasn't expecting her to actually get it when I explained it over Yahtzee, I just wanted her to know it was a *thing*.
DS6 who is also in grade 1 did the same with division of odd numbers. "What's 3 divided by 2? 5 divided by 2? 7 divided by 2? 9 divided by 2? 101 divided by 2?" He understood that you can divide the even number by two and then divide the extra number in half. And then he said that doing math relaxes him.
Also, last week while we were on vacation (and he was allowed an hour of Minecraft a day) he somehow he worked out the following: "If I am too silly two times, I will lose 10 minutes of Minecraft. So if I'm silly 4 times, I'll lose 20 minutes. He made it all the way up to 12 times he would lose his whole 60 minutes." I think he kept adding 10 for every 2 rather than actually multiplying 12x5, but still.
We're still not sure he's gifted (and have to wait until July to get the results!), but that's not usual for a typical 6 year old, is it? Anyone who has noticed all of my posts will notice that I'm not good with waiting. It must be the ADD.
I just asked my daughter what she would do if she had 3 cookies and needed to share them between two people, and she came up with giving each 1 1/2, but I might have set her up for success posing it that way, LOL. And now I want cookies.
I love this spontaneous numbers stuff though. I went from thinking she was barely chugging along at grade level to realizing she was capable of so much more after her evaluation!
I am so old that we had corner sweet shops and ha'pennies. Some of the sweets were n a penny, like Flying Saucers, Fruit Salads and Blackjacks. Fractions were concrete in those days and even five year olds had an solid understanding born from frequent visits to the school tuck shop or sweet shops to and from school.
ds, slogging through his first year back in school, 9th grade has gotten sick more times than I can count -- the school has actually been pretty cool about it even though they are having to move sol tests and things like that around for him to sit after he has missed them. still possibly going to pull straight As this year (thank you iep and understanding school teachers/admins (FOR ONCE!!))
it is a bit torturous, but he basically had some very severe illness last few weeks and went to school for the first time in 10 days, did an sol, did another test, did some bio work, came home passed out for 13 hours, got up, went to take another couple SOLs --which typically I don't worry too much about but he gets stressed on them.
anyway, just the get up and go at this point is pretty impressive.
edited to add: just found out he did awesome on his geometry test that he had to drag himself out of bed to get to. yay!
I was so proud of DS9 this weekend. After watching him in a little skit for the Easter service in third grade over a year ago (the disciple meeting Jesus on the way to Emmaus), and hearing his earnest explanation on how he thought to act in order to convey shock and surprise as opposed to just reciting his lines the way the others did, I thought he really needed to be in the musical theatre club again In third grade, the club had been oversubscribed and as usual, he'd forgotten to hand in the application slip in time so he was not even allowed to enter the lottery. So when the club was oversubscribed for fourth grade again and he lost in the lottery I had to beg and grovel for him to be allowed in anyway. I guilted his teacher into advocating for him, moaning about how we'd all agreed he shouldn't be accelerated into fifth grade in middle school because he needed time to further develop his social skills and learn how to be part of a group and now he had lost his chance to be in theatre again, and wasn't this communal project the perfect chance.... They somehow made room for him. I bet they were glad they did! He landed the role of Talking Hat (sort of like a parody of the HP sorting hat, spouting constant nonsense). He was dressed all in black, with the hat coming down over his face to his shoulders. I was told the other kids called him "the Man in Black" and thought he looked cool. My kid has never been cool! I was not surprised that he was one of the few kids who always knew his lines and never needed prompting. But since I knew nothing of his role (he'd never asked for my help learning his stuff and obviously needed none) I was very surprised that he had three solo songs. All of them were rhythmically complicated but he managed them with very few stumbles and sang in tune, which actually was a standout too. (I thought all those times I'd made him stand up with a violin for piano-accompanied solo recitals must have paid off). But one of them was a very fast and complicated rap, nonsense sentences meant to mimic a politician spouting sound bites, and he belted it into the microphone like a pro, not a single mistake or insecurity. That one was all him. DH said afterwards it was very impressive watching your kid doing something you knew you could not do yourself and that even next to his talented classmate who played the lead and was great, DS9 looked like a middle schooler acting amongst elementary kids. Until the final applause when he started capering around like the little boy he is. Yes, we were proud.
I guess this is the place to put this. We so rarely have any brags.
Received an email from one of DS's teachers today. It brought happy tears to my eyes. It was only a few sentences but it was about how much DS has matured since freshman year. It was the teacher who DS went on a trip with at the beginning of summer. He had him for a class freshman year & this past year. Teacher assured me that he was planning on writing a college letter for DS. (I wasn't asking.) Still not sure if he will need one.. (list looks mostly to be state schools) but we will have to find an excuse. It feels so good to have a teacher in his corner.
Plus seems that despite the screw up with his accommodations on administering the PSAT he will make commended for National Merit (won't find out till fall officially), although will miss our states anticipated cutoff for semi-finalist. (He'd never make finalist.) He got a great score on the main part of SAT. Essay grade nothing to write home about but I have no idea what the score means anyway. SAT scores are good enough there is no point in having him take them again. (Better than his PSAT predicted.) And he barely studied but did get extra time.
bluemagic, so happy to see this good news! It's impossible to describe, isn't it, that unbelievable feeling when your child finally finds that teacher who truly gets them, who enjoys the unusual ways they think instead of being frustrated by them, and who is able to bring out the best in the kid. So glad to see your DS is ending high school's rather rough ride with that positive experience in hand.
I hope your son is feeling very proud of those 5s. Kudos to both of you, and hugs to you for holding in there so well, so long, and making it possible for him to get there.
Bluemagic, that's such great news about your son's accomplishments and feedback from the teacher. It must be so rewarding to see him hitting his stride, and having external validation of all his good qualities.
And thanks for the prompt to check my own DS' scores. 3 5s, a 5 sub score, and 4 on the test for the course he didn't take (Physics 2). Oh, and one of those 5s? He was failing the course so miserably we finally dropped it for credit and he audited it instead for the last 3 months. Like you, we have few things to brag about. So this was worth a couple fist-bumps.
Bluemagic, where did you find the Class of '17 index scores for PSAT? I see estimates and judging from them, DS isn't getting anything in our state. But maybe there is still hope?
(Since we have the same son, I'm waiting for the teacher who went with him on the trip this summer to offer to write a letter, too lol! Not holding my beach, though.)
I got my information from several people on College Confidential. Semi-finalist dates vary by state and aren't officially released. Was told 209 is the cut-off nationally for commended. I can as/look around to find where that number is published.
The answer is home schooled kids have been sent their commended reports. And a few schools have already told their students. Basically parents sharing the info online. Most schools doesn't announce this till the fall but commended is a national cut-off.
SAT subject scores are out. 800 on Physics and Math 2. Meanwhile, failing the two online classes he's taking this summer to fulfill state graduation requirements. These are basic, low-level and if he doesn't pass he has to drop a course in the fall and spring and take them at school. Well, he could take it online again, but it would be an additional hour of work very day on top of a grueling school schedule, and besides, the school surely wouldn't approve it. Sigh. Insert fist bump and head-bang emojis here.
Has DS take the Math 2 last year and he did a 780. He took it last year because he finished pre-calc. Didn't have him take anymore this year because I don't think he need any. Looks like none of his schools he is applying to will even look at them.
Since DS hasn't even picked out any schools, we figured we'd hedge our bets and get all the good stuff to put on an app that we can, just in case he considers schools that consider them.
I love reading about teenagers and how they're doing! It gives us parents of little ones so much confidence and hope that they'll somehow make their way.
Filling your wine glass on both counts, NotherBen.
Thought you could appreciate this: DS is doing on on-line math course. First unit, all review, DS's long-form written assignment was riddled with basic errors. Next two assignments, 100%. DS looks at marks and notes, "yeah, that first assignment was way too easy."
Well I don't usually have much to brag about (at least I didn't think I did) but two things happened recently that were things I can't really tell my friends with NT kids… 1) we went to an exhibit of pterosaurs, and he knew all the names and was stumping not only the docents but also the employees at the museum who knew something about pterosaurs…they just didn't know what to do with him. He was using all the latin names, and pretty much talking about that subject like a college student 2) he's not a math kid, he's a science kid, but I've told him that he needs to really know his math to do well in science. His grades in math have been pretty good, he tested advanced but wasn't getting 100% on his tests for his grade. His school offered a class for kids who wanted to do advanced math in 5th grade, but it was an hour before school started and DS would rather sleep in than do extra school so he didn't do it. I knew he was a little bit advanced in math because he'd completed his grade (5th) and bits and pieces of 6th, 7th and 8th grade on Khan Academy, but he didn't finish any of the other grades, he just jumped around. So he has to take a math placement test for middle school. You either end up in standard math track, accelerated math track or highly accelerated math track (5 years of math in 3 years). I thought he would end up in regular accelerated. Color me surprised when he qualified for the highly accelerated math track… BTW I explained to him that the highly accelerated track goes pretty fast, and that it was more important to really know the math, so if he felt like they were going too fast it was better for the big picture for him to really know the math than to stay in the HA math track. But we would see how it went, and cross that bridge if we came to it.
SAT subject scores are out. 800 on Physics and Math 2. Meanwhile, failing the two online classes he's taking this summer to fulfill state graduation requirements. These are basic, low-level and if he doesn't pass he has to drop a course in the fall and spring and take them at school. Well, he could take it online again, but it would be an additional hour of work very day on top of a grueling school schedule, and besides, the school surely wouldn't approve it. Sigh. Insert fist bump and head-bang emojis here.
very nicely done on the sat scores!
not nearly as frustrating, but similar: our ds ended his first year of hs with great grades despite many many days of being sick off and on; however, between the two of us not understanding that the schedule for finals was all over the board, he missed his spanish final completely!!
yikes - that made for a few stressful hours before we found someone who could tell us he could make it up.
ps, my husband never did get a h.s. diploma, due to a lingering summer class never 100% completed, but the college that he went to ended up never really worrying about it...so has a b.a. but no h.s.diploma.
Missing the Spanish final reminds me of when I was taking classes in junior college (I got out of high school at 16 and went to community college.) I had to take a typing class. The class only ran half a semester, and in my case the first half was full, so I had to take the second half. When I got my report card I had an F in typing. I had completely forgotten I had the typing class. Luckily they let me retake it.
ps, my husband never did get a h.s. diploma, due to a lingering summer class never 100% completed, but the college that he went to ended up never really worrying about it...so has a b.a. but no h.s.diploma.
Chris, don't tell my DS that. I really, really want him to finish the online course. Only partly because we are already out the $$$ for the one we dropped, and we are about to drop $$ for an extension on the required course.
I almost didn't get my MA diploma because of an overdue library book. You bet I returned it and paid the fine!
ps, my husband never did get a h.s. diploma, due to a lingering summer class never 100% completed, but the college that he went to ended up never really worrying about it...so has a b.a. but no h.s.diploma.
Chris, don't tell my DS that. I really, really want him to finish the online course. Only partly because we are already out the $$$ for the one we dropped, and we are about to drop $$ for an extension on the required course.
I almost didn't get my MA diploma because of an overdue library book. You bet I returned it and paid the fine!
Off-topic, but...I suspect this forum is enriched for adults who have a post-secondary degree (or two, or more), but did not complete a high school diploma.
Off-topic, but...I suspect this forum is enriched for adults who have a post-secondary degree (or two, or more), but did not complete a high school diploma.
...yeah, I think that came up before and there were quite a few, lol. might have to start a 'brag thread for folks with b.a. or higher but no diploma'...;)
we will not be mentioning it again to our ds16 until he is well through with his diploma (fingers crossed), NotherBen!
DS5 has a classmate with (I believe) cerebral palsy, who requires support from an educational assistant. The EA and I were chatting at drop-off this week, and she said she is impressed at how sensitive DS is to the boy's inclusion in the class. She said he often reads to the boy, checks in on him to see if he is content, and asks questions about his care. Apparently DS also seeks out this boy and other children on the playground who look lonely and tries to engage with them.
I was so proud to hear this! At first, DS seemed a bit uncertain about making friends with his classmates because he found it difficult to find common ground in play activities, and he found some of their behaviours chaotic and unpredictable. Realistically, he will not have all his friendship needs met with his current class, and I see him longing for a deeper connection with someone his age. I'm trying to find some like-minded friends outside school, and think that he will need his own academic challenges to allow him to be the mentee in class, too. But that doesn't sour the fact that he is being a genuine sweetheart at school.
Two weeks before the CTY Grand Ceremony, DD12 took the October SAT as a benchmark/prep to try to qualify for SET/DYS in January, just before turning 13. She went in with no prep other than 1 sample test, and we requested the scoring service so we could see what she needed to focus on/study over the next 3 months.
No need - 650/730, qualifying for both. Woot woot!
Wow, no ones bragged in a while here. Time to revive this thread!
DS10, as part of a team of four, took part in the fifth grade section of an international math competition. The website just shows they have done well enough to win a prize, but their teacher told them that they placed first in our tri state region (apparently the nation has been split up in five regions) and ahead of at least another two state region. So, probably fourth in the nation. Sadly, only the very first team in the nation gets to go to Budapest for the finals.
(Unfair, she rails in secret, considering we live in Europe's second most populous country and our tri state region alone is actually more populous than 35 existing European countries. I could wish for the schools of the teams that are ahead to be hit by funding crises and his team being invited at the last minute, but I happen to know the community the public school of which is fielding the finalist team, and even if the school couldn't afford the airfare, one of the parents could probably donate it from petty cash.)
I did ask DS who he thought was the best mathematician of the team (yes, these days, after having been told all my life I am not that smart, and several times in DS's life that he as not that smart, I am that petty. I own it). DS said he couldn't say, since they had split up into pairs and worked on one half of the problems each. However, he then recalled that when they swapped problems to go over the other pair's solutions, the other pair hadn't been able to solve three out of seven, which he had to solve for them.
DS4 was born with a severe disability which has involved two spine surgeries, four brain surgeries and countless hours of full anaesthesia for MRIs during the first three years of his life, lower limb paralysis, severe speech delay and bladder and bowel dysfunction. He learned to speak at 3.5 and to walk at 3.75 years respectively.
His special needs preschool did their routine yearly assessment with a view to having him mainstreamed this fall.
His motor skills came in at the first percentile - no surprises there. He can walk, but is slow, and needs a wheelchair for long distances. His socio-emotional development came in at the 50th percentile. That is HUGE and is the one most important thing for making mainstreaming successful, in what I have seen. His speech came in at the 40th percentile, which still worries me but the teacher said was HUGE considering he was barely speaking 20 words a year ago, and is now basically caught up; also, it's mostly articulation for which we will go back to speech therapy soon anyway. His fine motor skills came in at the 73rd percentile. So, ready for mainstream school in this, too. His cognition, however, came in at the 95th percentile. And considering his speech delay, is probably a low estimate, too. We will have loads of fun with providing him the education he needs, considering how easy he is to underestimate!
Tigerle - you've always been able to see the amazing kid and the ability hidden under all those external challenges. Now, they all see it too. So awesome! And so much hard work, I can only imagine, on your son's part, to get here. He is going to be unstoppable.
I find it incredibly difficult to brag, and I might delete, so please don't quote me. But I feel like I need some support, or something! DD9 this year scored in the 99th percentile on her state assessment (most of it), MAP, and the CogAT (all three batteries), but more than that, her CogAT batteries were so high, her composite SAS was at the top! The school concurs on a grade skip. So much has changed!
Good news for my kiddos. We decided to switch to public school and they've both been approved for gifted services. DS6 will be accelerated 1 year and get in class differentiation and enrichment. DS9 will be in an all gifted classroom with age mates and get a mix of accelerated material and enrichment. They're both super excited.
Not sure if this is brag-worthy, but it made me giggle. DD4 is into knock knock jokes at the moment. The other day she was trying to convince me to play with her (princesses - urgh) so she put on her most charming smile and came up with this one:
Knock knock. Who's there? Salmon. (pronounced like sammen) Salmon who? Salmon want to play with me? (geddit, as in 'someone want to play with me?')
Sometimes I wish this board had the "like" function, so could easily note "way cool!" on on other brags. 😂 I love reading about the accomplishments and triumphs over struggles here. You are all such dedicated people looking out for these kids!
LazyMum, you really can't resist with a charmer like that!
DD3.5 was playing in the playground when she fell down. I went up to her and asked "What happened, how did you fall down?". She replied "Because I lost my Centre of Gravity"
Last week, it was raining, and DW told her "It's raining". DD replied "It's precipitation"
DD's latest question to us, as of yesterday evening - "What is Life?"
We took our kids to an astronomy lecture with kids and adults present. When the professor asked questions during the program, ds9 answered all of them correctly. No one else even knew the answers. After the program, a random adult came up and asked if we were astronomers and ds' age. We told the man our ds is self taught. He said our son was just amazing! Definitely a moment where ds was proud of himself, esp. since he is 2e and gets a lot of negativity for his adhd behaviors.
My 11 year old 7th grader got her ACT scores back and qualifies for Duke's Grand recognition ceremony. Really proud of her but not sure how to communicate results to her school...
When DS took the ACT through NUMATS, his school knew he had taken the test but they did not indicate they had received his score. I know that they would not do anything with the score if they had it, so I didn't push it. He and a classmate did receive a certificate at the year-end school awards ceremony for having taken the test. And FWIW, he didn't qualify for the NUMATS ceremony that year, but he did qualify two years later when he took the SAT.
I took my DS12 and DD10 to a plant nursery to pick out something and my DS began talking to the nurseryman about various types of club mosses and plants that existed in the prehistoric era and the nurseryman shared some interesting information with him about lichen (it is actually a symbiotic organism, both a fungus and an algae). When he asked my kids what they wanted to be when they grew up my DS said biologist (a given) and my DD said an oncologist...
He looked at me and said you have your hands full don't you...
Our school district offers a single-subject acceleration option for 5th grade honors math students to skip 6th grade honors and go straight into Intro to Algebra. DD11 wasn't sure if she wanted skip a year in math but decided to take the placement test just to see. Just informed she qualified to be subject accelerated. So proud of her. Plus we think the math challenge will be good for her since she seemed a little bored even with the compacted curriculum of the 5th grade honors math program here.
Then, DD8 was selected by the school district to exhibit a special project she did. All 10,000 kids in the district were to complete a project of their choosing at home in an effort to promote project-based learning. A true animal-lover, DD8 invented an imaginary animal, drew a picture of it on a poster board and listed male versus female characteristics. Then went on to describe its habitat, diet, babies, fun facts, etc in great detail. She was one of only 50 kids selected to show her project so we were super stoked!
DS got 5s on Music Theory and AP Bio (the course he was failing, but pulled it up at the last minute). And in checking, I noticed that LAST year, after scores were released, he was named an AP Scholar with Distinction (got 3s or higher on all 4 tests he took. He got 3 5s, and a 4 on the Physics 2, a class that isn't offered)
So if your student took 3 or more tests, or you live in the Bahamas, or...there are a few other awards...check their record again in a few weeks. There might be a certificate suitable for framing!
DS6 had his first official foray into real multiplication and division yesterday. He’s played around with the concept on his own, and done some simple single digit by single digit multiplication with me, but nothing much outside his own thought experiments (e.g. mental math time conversions from hours to seconds in the car when he wants to figure out how much longer until X, baking unit conversions or recipe doubling, making loot bags for parties and dividing prizes, etc)
Yesterday, he tried his hand at what he felt was an appropriate novice problem and solved it correctly: 4,232,436 x 23. He also attempted some division: 7,063,248/ 2. It seems Beast Academy has fueled a love of what DS calls “challenges” (often said with a wry smile).
Hilariously, he thought these weren’t real solutions, because he’d used Montessori materials to help him reach his answer. Apparently, to him, he’ll have shown mastery only when he can do these calculations quickly in his head. I expressed that some of the most challenging math problems in existence require brilliant mathematicians to struggle for years—on paper and with algorithmic support on computers—to solve. He seemed to buy that conceptually, but insisted he will do the multiplication and division in his head.
Another little math brag: DS has been having fun issuing me verbal code-breaking equations to give me single-word answers to questions I ask. He’ll give me a little algebraic equation to solve, and the answer is a number-to-letter substitution cipher. But he does this all verbally, without pen or paper, which amazes me, and the spelling is mostly correct. I never thought this was how I’d take pizza orders from him!
Ds12, 6th grade, presented a project to Northwestern University's FUSE program. He designed, set the parameters and built a bridge made from spaghetti and marshmallows that had a span of 15 inches and can hold the weight of several large marshmallows. . It is a level 3 challenge. I'm not sure when a decision will be made whether his project will be added to their middle school curriculum.
I have pretty high expectations of my DD14/8th grader, sometimes excessively so. But I was stunned with the 770/790 SAT score that came back yesterday. M800 actually wouldn't have surprised me - she made a silly mistake flipping a numerator/denominator - but a 100+ point increase in Reading/Writing over last year was a shock. State Top 15 in Mathcounts and You Be the Chemist, and a 4th place trophy at Academic Games Nationals are rounding off quite a year.
DD7, young for grade AND skipped, took part in the kangaroo math competition with her third grade class and got the highest score in the class. I was actually a bit shocked, most of her classmates are 9 years old. She also scored at the highest proficiency level for maths and language arts/grammar and spelling, but only at the second highest for LA/reading. Kind of tallies with that i know does and doesn’t come easily to grade skipped kids. Because DD7 also scores as high or higher than the 4th graders in reading comprehension and speed I was curious and looked up the requirements for the highest level for LA/reading and it said something like “at this level, children can make inferences about themes and plot, develop their own thoughts about the narrative and can write them down coherently.” I thought it is a writing issue but DH thinks it’s maturity she is lacking.
DD12's SAT score is 200 points higher than the average for high school seniors in our district. She qualifies for SET; we just need to get a paper copy of the scores to send in.
DS8 has recently started reading chapter books at the 6th grade level in a day or two. This is actually somewhat more impressive to me because he's HG/PG but also dyslexic.
My eldest son, who was in 10th grade this year, one year accelerated, scored a 5 on two AP exams, Calculus BC and Computer Science, without taking either AP class at school (although he did take calculus at RSM).
My eldest son, who was in 10th grade this year, one year accelerated, scored a 5 on two AP exams, Calculus BC and Computer Science, without taking either AP class at school (although he did take calculus at RSM).
Excellent result - congratulations to your eldest son,
DS12 took the SAT exam at 6th grade and got 720(verbal)+710(Math)/1430. Any parents have experience for CTY's SET program? What's the benefit be a SET member? Thank you!
For my own curiosity I gave DD10 the reading portion of the practice ACT found online and she not only enjoyed it and asked for more, she scored a 30 under pretty close to exam-like conditions!
I am not surprised. She reads around 100 novels a year. I kept track for a couple months and she averaged just over 100 pages a day! Her passion is books.
In the fall, DD12 raised her SAT score by 70 points, and so impressed her middle school teachers that in the 2nd semester she moved to the high school for 2 periods per day. She's now taking 10th grade English and the second semester of first-year Chinese (she caughtup with the class by completing an intensive continuing ed class at a community college for 3 weeks in January). She's been excited to go to school for the first time in yeeears.
Although on small scale brag, I want to say I am proud of my kids (DD6 and DS8) playing as a team against DH and I (playing as separate teams so we had 3 trains) for Ticket to Ride. Usually DD would refuse to play a game unless she is on my team if there are more than 2 people in any game (even for UNO - she abhors losing and always attempts to team up with whoever she thinks will win), so this was a big step for her.
Even more amazing, they did not even fight or yell at each other the whole game when making decisions on their next move - and it resulted in them soundly crushing both DH and me. I did not see that coming since we only learned the rules the day before.
(and I am still a little sore about coming in last... just needed one more turn and although the kids had a stranglehold on first, at least I would have been not too far behind them in second place... so it goes )
nnn, I love your brag! These are the moments that show that you and your DH are growing loving, whole humans. Also that world domination by your kiddos is clearly imminent!
I’m super proud of my kids right now. DS11 is managing multiple long range protects at school and in an extracurricular. He’s managing his time, getting things done in advance and is proud of his final product. DS8 apparently has homework every night. I didn’t know this because he finishes it, puts it in his backpack and turns it in - without me being involved!
Lovely to hear your updates on her! Are you planning to have her take the SAT or ACT through one of the talent searches?
Thanks, aeh! You’re such a star on these boards. I’m just now looking into it and finding it overwhelming. DD already scored really well on the SCAT a few years ago and qualified for CTY (yet to use.) I think I would like her to take the ACT or SAT in 6th grade.
I gave her the reading portion of the SAT practice test and she missed the exact same number of questions. 8/40 missed on ACT and 8/52 SAT. So maybe a little better on SAT. But I did notice she was quicker on the ACT. She had to think more on the SAT. I’m a little shocked! The reading passages seem so boring and the questions tricky! I feel like I wouldn’t do much better. It is making me feel less worried about her getting nothing at her level. Doesn’t seem to matter.
I haven’t really looked at the other sections of the tests yet. I should see how she does on those. I don’t want it to be a negative experience so I’m still apprehensive.
DS5 has been struggling a bit for the past few months with social anxiety, especially around entering groups of children he doesn't know. We've been working on it with him, and he overcame it last weekend to participate in his first-ever chess tournament! It was a friendly tournament run by our local chess club for about 20 kids, so not too intimidating, but we were very proud of him.
He also did well in terms of chess. The other participants ranged from 7-13 years old, but DS5 still managed to come in 4th overall and 2nd in the under 9 category. This is despite spending a good deal of his time looking around the room, observing other kids, and basically paying attention to everything but the chess board (after all, he is 5!).
I just got word that DD14 has been accepted as a co-presenter at her first professional conference! Along with her AT specialist they will be presenting "Assistive Technology Tools for the 2e Learner" to an audience of teachers and administrators.
More and more her passion is helping to pave the way for other kids and helping teachers gain a better understanding of 2e kids. As she says all the struggles will be worth it if it means another kid won't have to live through what she experienced. Proud mama moment...
Good for DS, Emigee! I have one who was very, very reluctant to engage with new children at that age, so I know it took courage to step out of his comfort zone.
9th grade daughter took the AMC10 math exam and qualified for the American Invitational Math Exam (AIME) - meeting her goal for the year (and by a pretty decent margin). Based on previous years' results, she's probably one of about 70 9th grade girls to qualify across the US.
She competed at the Princeton Univ. Math Competition (PUMaC) last fall, and her application is now in for the Math Prize for Girls competition at MIT later this year.
DD8 took a second prize in the mathematical kangaroo competition, and took the school prize for greatest kangaroo leap (meaning greatest number of correctly solved problems in a row). Which doesn’t sound that impressive unless you know that she competed as a fourth grader. However, as an August born and grade-skipped kid she is not only the youngest in her grade in school, but would also be one of the youngest in the year below. There are second graders older than her. It is not only a grade based but also a criterion referenced competition, so second prize means she is in the lower half of the first percentile of fourth graders in the nation and would be in the top half of the first percentile for her actual age group of third graders, and since no one took a first neither in fourth or third grade, she had the best results in the school. She also looked very cute walking up to the principal in impeccable traditional dress, but with her cardie slung around her hips. Great mama bursting with pride moment!
He had a leftover half of a hamburger from a treat dinner out last evening. When asked if he wanted to take it to school for lunch, he replied, "Well, the restaurant makes its fries in peanut oil, and [Friend] has a severe nut allergy. There's enough risk of contamination that I shouldn't."
We compromised by him having it for breakfast at home (among other things) and washing his hands thoroughly.
Was so happy to see that level of sensitivity to his friend - and grateful that he shared the info about the peanut oil!
2 - Book report choices
DS' class is presenting its book reports in an expo format. The teacher met with each student to consult on book selection. DS proposed "39 Steps", an espionage thriller he'd read at home. The teacher nixed the choice on the basis that it's too violent because it has two murders in it, albeit fairly indirectly narrated.
As an alternative, DS proposes Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, also read at home. Teacher agrees to it. DS' comment, "But it has violent murder and a suicide. It's much more disturbing. Have you even read these books?"
He then--as he related it to me--lists the old Grimm plots to his teacher to demonstrate that stories classified as "children's literature" are often as sinister, if not more so, than the books he's proposed.
- Hansel and Gretel: Two nice children are in the woods, and lured and eaten by an evil witch in her candy house.
- Little Red Riding Hood: Little girl does a favour for her granny. Walks through the woods and is killed by a wolf who pretends to be granny.
- Jack and the Beanstalk: Little boy finds magic beans and grows them into a beanstalk. He finds a giant who chases him and tries to eat him.
DS - "HOW are these less disturbing than actual novels?!"
I would have loved to see the teacher's expression then!
My 7 year old was finally tested to determine acceleration in math. He scored 160 (99.9 percentile) on the math problem solving and numerical operations subtests on the Wiat-iii. He will be subject accelerated 2 years. We are so excited for him to get a little more of a challenge next year!!
He has always loved any math we have exposed him to. He is very creative with math, and has always naturally understood how to break numbers apart and recompose them. It is like a fun game for him. We are hoping that having him with the high level group of fifth graders will keep him engaged and a little challenged by his peers. We haven’t pushed any math on him, but we’ve made sure he had things available (beast academy) whenever he was interested. He absolutely lights up when he learns something new.
When I look around here, my story is not that bragworthy, but where we live kids aren't supposed to do anything but play before they're 6. We are 'those parents' just for letting DS5 read. All around us, people are bragging about their 5-year-old learning to ride a bike (our DD2 rides a bike). So...
DS5 started reading just before turning 4. He only practiced in the weekends (like 10 mins a week) and started in his second language. Now, a year later, we find him reading any picture book to his younger sister in both languages. His favourite book at the moment is David Walliam's Fing and he likes reading ask magazine and national geographic kids, which is great to help him with other interests. I'm so proud, because we both love reading and always wanted our kids to share that love.
I love this thread! So I'll try to revive it since it's been a little quiet here.
So here are my brags: My 9yr old 5th grader got moved up to 6th grade math and, for the first time ever, he loves his math class!!!! (all these years he always found it boring)
My 7yr old DD skipped 2nd G and is thriving in 3rd, both academically and socially!
ds13, 8th grade, is a finalist for his school's google science fair project. His project was determining how fidgets impacted a student's and this around him. He tested in an IC classroom.
What a great thread. I don’t know why I’ve never seen it.
My brag for this week is DS12 entered a new gifted middle school with a long carpool of (other) gifted kids. Watching them marvel about needing to study things for the first time and sharing tips was awesome. He still has As but they are lower and require work. I love it.
He took a proctored practice SAT and got just under a 1400. This week the new school uses an interim assessment for the annual state test. He has had perfect score for three years put the interim provides the full score which was almost 10% above perfect.
But finally, and my proudest moment, a kid was so jealous of his arrival in the program that he sent around A VERY sexually explicit story to 28 kids in their class with a lot of gay themes etc. about my son and the friend he thought he was losing because my nerd son is so cool. 5 kids told their parents, 5 parents told the school, and he was kicked out of the program within 48 hours and before I even knew. And DS (after I explained what was written) was laughing about the grammar and metaphors in the story within an hour. No damage.
My eldest just let me know he's entering an MBA program after the first of the year. In and of itself, that's not a huge thing among this group, however, he already has completed an undergrand degree in both a BS in Electrical Engineering this last spring and a BS in Physics previously. He's already doing wonderfully in a very large engineering consulting company, with the addition of the MBA to his already strong knowledge base I see a very bright future. The company he works for will pay for the MBA so long as he stays at the company for at least 2 years after he attains it. As they have branches all over the country, that should be doable.
While all of that is wonderful, what I'm proud of isn't the knowledge he's gained but rather a few other achievements.
1. He's come to understand that sometimes, you just have to do whatever it takes to get the job done. If that means pulling an all nighter, so be it. 2. He no longer has any delusions of the world being fair and it bothers him little when it's not toward him, he still pushes for it for others. He understands that his success ultimately is dependent upon himself, not the world around him. 3. He's found an intellectual equal who is also an extremely hard worker, accomplished academically, athletically, and quickly becoming so professionally, in her mind failure is never an option Probably part of her upbringing in Russia....and he married her. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with an undergrad in Accountancy and earned her Masters in the same in one additional year.
These two are dangerous together....in a good way.
Our city runs a community youth choir that has a national reputation, or rather the middle school and high school sections do, both of which recruit strictly by audition only. DD9 is in the free for all pre-choir for 6 to 10 yo, and doesn’t like to sing at home, so since she hasn’t had to audition for anything yet, I had no idea whether she was any good or not, but she likes going, and her best friend goes, so.
The other day I came in a bit early to pick her up. The director is fine with the parents sitting in on any part of the rehearsal in the back of the auditorium as long as they move quietly, so I simply walked in, with my eyes on my phone. I look up, and there is my shy little DD9, who has a hard time speaking up for something like ordering ice cream, up on the stage by herself, singing 6 or 7 verses of her absolutely favourite song ever, “Far over the Misty Mountains cold” from the hobbit movie, for something like 30 kids and as many parents, clear as a bell and pitch perfect. You could have heard a pin drop. (Did you even know there are something like 10 verses? They are not in the movie, but apparently they’re on YouTube).
I was melting into a puddle. I wish I could have taken a video for DH, but I couldn’t get it together in time.
I never write in here because our stuff seems so mundane in this online environment (one of the things I like about it) but I really liked this one.
At DS(now)6's school, parents come in and read on their child's birthday. It's normal selection of kid's stories. DS6 asked his mom to come in and read the 2020 National Geographic Almanac entry on the Big Bang and the Milky Way. He kept interrupting the reading to try and teach his classmates stuff. Then since there was time left in the session, he decided he would read to his class instead of having his mom do it.
For something more "brag" worthy, last year he beat my wife in chess. He knows the game better than her so he kept giving her advice that let him take her pieces. She caught on but by then she had dropped enough material that he could win on his own.
The winning isn't special, she's new to the game. I just love that he worked on tricking her and was subtle enough that he wasn't caught immediately.
DD was invited to attend the Technovation Challenge world summit. It was suppose to be all week at MIT but now virtual Thurs and Fri. She was a semifinalist in Canada.
Congrats to her! That sounds like a very cool opportunity! I hope she enjoys it. What a bummer it ended up virtual, but happy they were able to offer a flexible solution. Our kids are going to be masters of flexibility and re-imagining things!
My son has just uploaded two videos to his YouTube channel - performing his arrangements of ‘Hallelujah’ & ‘Drivers License’. There’s also an original piece which he composed as a 13 y.o. I think they’re pretty good for a self taught musician (edited: I’ve since checked out a lot of other popular arrangements & IMO his are pretty awesome for a self taught musician) and illustrates how digital technology is a game changer & kids can learn so much on their own by exploring the internet.
Edited: Music is one of the co-curricular activities he will be listing for his Uni application. He plans to study R & D engineering. His other co-curriculars are Olympiad Maths & athletics (unfortunately, very little happening due to COVID lockdown, so he’s lately been directing his efforts toward music).
I totally agree that relatively inexpensive, accessible technology has really created so much more access to musical development for motivated, interested young persons. Nice little pieces! Is he planning to continue with music in some form during college?
Aeh, thank you very much for taking the time to view his video & post a comment.
I hope he does continue to explore music but who knows..
A few relevant points I’ve pondered:
There’re limited productive hours in a day - it can be hard to decide whether to pursue many interests well or a few interests very well.
The law of diminishing returns can make it seem more personally rewarding to pursue many interests, but to access resources & support for the elite, one probably has to focus on one path to be competitive and that would likely entail sacrifice of other interests.
Whilst digital technology is a fantastic enabler, it also highlights that mass popularity, a common measure of ‘success’, is about what appeals to the average who aren’t particularly interested in technical quality and the effort that goes into it - my youngest created a one minute Tik tok video of herself sketching an anime character and it went viral, with a flood of gushing, superlative comments. My son is happy for his little sister, but I suspect he has contemplated the different efforts vs impacts of their respective endeavours.
For now, I am pleased that DS is working on a couple of fully original major compositions which he will likely submit as his HSC works. I suspect whether he pursues music later may depend on the formal assessment & critique of these works by examiners (whose opinion he will value most highly) and/or reception to these pieces when he eventually uploads his performances to his YouTube channel.
The main aim of these short cover arrangements is to provide evidence of co-curricular activities for his Uni application, so in that respect, hopefully his efforts won’t be wasted.
Totally sympathetic with covid and ECs. DD had to improvise, but it turned out she found something online that turned into a very impressive EC in tech. Great leadership, initiative. Though her diving/research (which was her big thing in 2019) was cancelled in both 2020/21.
I don't know how it is in UK, but I would think that musical composition, instead of music would be very high on the EC for someone going into engineering. And it would show a great analytical brain.
Some of DD's classmates are applying to UK and I saw they have to get their applications done by Oct 15th. Best of luck. DD has until Nov 1st.
Best wishes to your DD for her Uni/College applications.
Here, ‘Down Under’, we are about six months behind in the school year, so DS still has plenty of time to put together his application(s). I think the Uni he is applying to is the only one which has ECs as a compulsory part of applications. Other universities encourage ECs by offering bonus admission points for selected ECs, however, for his application, if he doesn’t include and show evidence of them, the application will not be accepted. I don’t think the ECs actually have to be relevant to the course. Our universities are slowly becoming more like those in the US but not quite there yet.
These are fun to watch! Kudos to your son. Thanks for sharing.
But oh my, the YouTube ads... I was served two ads prior to each video... did others have a similar experience...?
I am wondering whether it might be worth the time exploring alternative video sharing platforms, to offer Uni admissions officials a choice of where to watch the videos. With their time at a premium and the ads running longer than the videos themselves, people may prefer an option to click on an alternative video sharing platform and watch without ads...?
Not to worry, Indigo. At least in the US schools, the submission of various “supplemental materials” is not new, and they have developed secure portals, as well as strict guidelines in many cases, on what, how, how long, etc extra materials can be submitted.
... strict guidelines in many cases, on what, how, how long, etc extra materials can be submitted...
Indeed! The submitted music video on YouTube may be well within the length allowed... but when preceded by the served ads, may discourage or disallow the viewing of the intended video.
Or, are you intending to convey that an admissions department's secure portal is a type which would preclude ad serving?
Or, are you intending to convey that an admissions department's secure portal is a type which would preclude ad serving? [/quote]
This- the platforms and portals are very specific to this purpose (college admissions) and supplements need to fit the specified formatting, etc- most if not all the places my kids submitted used the same portal, or something similar enough to be easily used in the same way. There are specific formats for everything, from music to visual arts, etc. Though I imagine that social media might be viewed in certain circumstances, it’s not traditionally how arts supplements are submitted. But that’s the extent of my knowledge, and it’s already a few years out of date.
@Indigo & @cricket3, my apologies for not providing a warning about the YouTube ads. Usually, I have found that I can select the option to ‘Skip ads’ after six seconds of the first ad (for which I still should have provided an alert) but I wonder if the length of audience capture might be region specific.
It is so very in keeping with Indigo’s thoughtfulness & generosity to suggest ways to improve the overall college submission process for students. I’m glad of cricket3’s assurance that US colleges have already addressed this issue since I understand that it is very competitive to get into your top Colleges and selection panel members are likely to thoroughly review every application.
Here in Oz, the system isn’t as evolved (except perhaps for medicine which is the most sought after course for study). For other courses including DS’s first preference, applicants simply fill out a form (and for this particular Uni, they also have to attach a CV). I doubt they’ll actually bother to watch DS’s video. He has to have ECs (minimum of 60 hours per year for each) and therefore must have proof should the administrators decide to check on the validity of his claims, but we are reasonably confident that he will be accepted on the strength of his HSC academic and maths Olympiad results.
cricket3, I think I am following you now... basically the secure portal you mentioned is the Uni admissions means of receiving student applications' supplemental materials... not a secure portal to view additional items of interest on the web (such as videos on YouTube, without ads served).
EagleMum, Yes, I see it could be very handy to have the music posted on the internet to substantiate the ECs, in case Uni admissions department wants to verify claims made on the CV. Since the time of the Operation Varsity Blues college scandal, which included fabricating fake sports credentials, it is wise for parents to coach their college-bound children to create documentation.
Coming back in to add that a random listener did request sheet music for DS’s arrangement and it was amazingly quick to produce. I’d bought him a cheap small MIDI device and he has free Flat software. He just performed the piece, checked and modified the notation and uploaded within a couple of hours (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_9pLaRZy9SwXNkCHRY_Veupn-ymvWreJ/view). I’m just imagining how many sheets of manuscript paper the great composers went through and the labour and time they devoted with feather and ink, in contrast to the incredible convenience of digital technology.
Interestingly, I’d been trying to persuade DS to buy Sibelius music notation software (because I just have that itch to spend money to support him) but whilst he was considering whether to use duplets or dotted quavers for annotation (they are equivalent and actually best used interchangeably depending on the other notes that are to be played simultaneously), I read on a forum that users have to use workarounds to get Sibelius to annotate duplets correctly, so I’m impressed with the free software (trying to persuade him to buy the extended product now 😆).
Oh, that's a nice bit of external validation! No personal bias from a random listener, so they have to have really liked it to ask for a score. And I think I'll pass along your suggestion for free notation software to some others who have been asking that question. I looked at their site, and it looks like Flat might be handy for many. Our kids use the notation function in Logic, or (free) MuseScore, but those may not be practical for everyone.
EagleMum, Yes, I see it could be very handy to have the music posted on the internet to substantiate the ECs, in case Uni admissions department wants to verify claims made on the CV. Since the time of the Operation Varsity Blues college scandal, which included fabricating fake sports credentials, it is wise for parents to coach their college-bound children to create documentation.
Well, DS has just finished his Uni applications.😅 I’m not sure what is expected for applications in the US, but here, it was disappointing that DS was only allowed to submit a maximum of five EC categories. He selected academic competitions (national Olympiads), creative arts (music), sports (able to list all his achievements), employment (he’s a proofreader for an education company and his employer provided him with a fantastic reference letter). To show that he is an all rounder, he also selected volunteering (as a peer mentor at school), but that meant that he had to leave out a lot of activities such as the national mathematics summer school (he was also invited back to make up the experienced group) which was in a separate category of academic extension. Seems a shame that the system doesn’t allow applicants to provide their full range of activities and achievements for consideration.
As part of the music aspect of this ‘brag thread’, he recently came second at an eisteddfod and the brilliant young pianist who came in first place asked DS where he got the arrangement of the popular song DS played and was very impressed when DS told him it was his own arrangement. DS has also just uploaded a new performance to his YouTube channel to demonstrate ongoing involvement in music (). He’s only performing a piece by Jarrod Radnich ‘I saw three ships’. DS has three more of his own arrangements that are nearly ready but he also needs to spend time preparing for his upcoming final school (HSC) exams. These extracurriculars really do take up a lot of time for genuine participation, so I can understand the anger against those who are successful with applications containing false claims about ECs.
EagleMum - As someone who plays the piano myself, it was interesting to watch your son play. I used to follow Jarrod Radnich, so I have known about this arrangement of I Saw Three Ships ever since it came out. I can very much relate to your son, as I started out self-taught and used to garner appreciation for my covers of songs back in the day. Very often pianists who play "by the book" show respect for those who create arrangements and compose -- it almost felt like cheating to me sometimes lol, because I thought that they would be able to do the same with practice, but surprisingly enough it doesn't always seem to be the case. There is discipline and technical rigor, and there is musical insight, and they don't always go hand in hand, and I'd say most often you tend to see either one or the other.
It's interesting to note similarities: there will be disciplined, dedicated professional piano aspirants who are better technically, who have often been practicing several hours a day since early childhood. But still, somehow, those who have a natural musical ear seem to shine through somehow, despite a relative lack of (equivalent) formal training. People pick up on this surprisingly often, and you somehow gain appreciation even from those who are technically better than you. I have seen others play the same arrangement on YouTube before, but it pretty much always lacked something. I think your son has managed to capture the essence of the original arrangement well, which is something I do not see often. Kudos to him. I also watched his other arrangements, and it takes technique and skill (perhaps compositional talent and an understanding of music is the best way I can explain it) to be able to bring across passion in a piano arrangement of a song -- you need to know when and how to swell and to draw back, at what precise moment to ramp up the intensity, and basically understand musical points of interest and accentuate them.
Thank you Aeh & giftedamateur, for your kind & thoughtful comments.
DS has said he is more interested in composition than performance. Fortunately, the digital age enables individuals with such a preference and YouTube is a good way to document/showcase both. When reading your posts in other threads, giftedamateur, I have often wondered how far you have delved into composition.
DS just received news that he has been nominated for Encore which is an annual showcase of the best HSC performances at the Sydney Opera House. A nomination does not equate to being selected but is an invitation to send an audition video which can be of one of the pieces played for the viva exam or any other piece. The nomination does give reassurance that he did well in the practical component of his HSC exams so it’s good news in itself and because his viva performance was only for the mandatory core component of the music course and his elective component is composition (which hasn’t been marked yet), he intends to submit a performance of one of his own arrangements or compositions. It would be an amazing opportunity if a completely self taught musician could perform his own piece at the SOP.🤞
Definitely affirming! She's worked hard, consistently, for a long time at the rehearsals, so finally 'getting there' feels great for her. She's very proud of herself. Plus, she's excited that her friends can come see what she's been working on for the better part of a year.
Definitely affirming! She's worked hard, consistently, for a long time at the rehearsals, so finally 'getting there' feels great for her. She's very proud of herself. Plus, she's excited that her friends can come see what she's been working on for the better part of a year.
Wishing her great success and fun (& bigger role offers if that is something that she would want)!
DS later learned that he had to restrict his Encore audition submissions to the pieces he performed in his HSC practical exam 😕, which he has done, but it held him back from going full speed ahead now that he has finished school.
Now that that’s done, his first recent upload, in response to one of his subscriber’s requests, is his own arrangement of ‘All too well’, the original song by Taylor Swift:
This is awesome, Eagle Mum! What fun to watch, and enjoy seeing him being enveloped in his music. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you again for your kind comments. I am so pleased that he is free to explore whatever he wants for the next three months. I’ve always carried burdens of other people’s expectations and I’m so happy that the kids have opportunities to explore the things that interest them. My eldest enjoyed a gap year and she benefitted in so many ways from having that time. We’re fortunate that we are able to also offer one to DS and he’s contemplating our offer.
Lovely! It's particularly fun to see how much his music has grown just since the first upload to his channel.
Thank you very much for your kind feedback. He started relatively late with music at around age 10, so his journey so far has only been seven years (hence channel name will change next year). He performed his first ever original composition ‘Scenes on a dirt bike ride’ in an eisteddfod at age 13 and the judge gave him a score of 93 (he was the only entrant in his division), but he is determined to transition from ‘cute amateur’ to ‘serious & mature’ in his composition, so we repeatedly offer him professional lessons but he is firmly independent. He is having a great time which is heartwarming to see.
DS has had a great year at uni as an enrolled R & D Engineering student, achieving straight HDs, including a second year maths function course he chose as an elective subject. He threw himself into college life as the choir pianist and member of the first grade running team, so, unfortunately, had little time for music composition (he also tutors to reduce his financial dependence on us even though I am keen to support him to free up his time). He is now back home between academic years with a bit more time on his hands (when not chauffeuring his younger sister around) and has just uploaded his performance of his arrangement of Ed Sheeran’s ‘Castle on the Hill’ on YouTube:
Thank you very much Indigo & 13umm for your kind, positive feedback. His finger dexterity is a legacy from a decade of speedcubing. He is also fortunate with his paternally inherited height and proportionately long digits and maternally inherited joint hypermobility.
PS: He has modified his arrangement, so has taken down the original video and uploaded a new video:
Delightful! Love dropping by to hear his progress.
I realize he has progressed from essentially piano reductions to true piano arrangements, so this might be perceived as a step backward in some ways, but I wonder if he might enjoy experimenting with fresh arrangements of songs (or originals) for multiple instruments. GarageBand has a surprisingly high level of functionality for this, and upgrades very smoothly to Logic, which is a professional-level tool for writing and recording. I notice that he is making very nice use of voicing to pull out distinct lines, and at some point he may find himself with an inclination/need to express more timbres and textures than can be physically managed with ten fingers and one keyboard!
Delightful! Love dropping by to hear his progress.
I realize he has progressed from essentially piano reductions to true piano arrangements, so this might be perceived as a step backward in some ways, but I wonder if he might enjoy experimenting with fresh arrangements of songs (or originals) for multiple instruments. GarageBand has a surprisingly high level of functionality for this, and upgrades very smoothly to Logic, which is a professional-level tool for writing and recording. I notice that he is making very nice use of voicing to pull out distinct lines, and at some point he may find himself with an inclination/need to express more timbres and textures than can be physically managed with ten fingers and one keyboard!
Thank you for your kind feedback and suggestions Aeh. He really wants for more hours in a day.
In 2022, his final year at school, he chose music as one of his HSC subjects and composition as his major. He retrospectively learned that he was unintentionally misinformed by his high school teacher that he had to compose a piece for a small instrument group as his major work (when in fact a piano solo would have been just as acceptable), so he dedicated many potential study hours to self learn to play the guitar, in order to produce the best composition he could. He achieved an overall mark of 96 for music, but as STEM subjects are given greater weight, his marks for music were not even included in his Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) despite a disproportionately large number of hours dedicated to achieve that mark, but like speedcubing, no skill is ever a waste. He did declare that he intends to focus on the keyboard until he feels a need to stretch himself further, but I suspect with all his other commitments, that is unlikely to happen.
He would, however, benefit from being less stubborn about his use of free and subscription apps. We are financially well resourced, but he only ever uses free versions of apps and always declines my offers to pay subscriptions to upgrade his apps. He used the free version of Flat for a long time and often had to spend a lot of time to work around its limitations, but again, the effort he put into creating workarounds are honing his problem solving abilities, so as many gifted folk, especially polymaths know, no effort is ever really wasted.
DS just uploaded a short, energetic arrangement of the Game Theory Intro theme, before he had to head back for a busy year of college. He wanted to try out some free falling note visualisation software:
He proposed doing this semester’s research project on mathematical functions of music composition, which did pique the interest of the professor who taught a second year maths function course which DS aced as a first year elective, but regrettably this professor is already over his quota of research students (DS should have contacted him at the end of last semester), so DS may have to pick a project from options in the fields of AI or alloys. The topic of math functions of music composition piqued my interest and I found the following paper to be an interesting read, not least for the URL links, at the end of the article, to some astounding palindromic classical compositions: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2020-10-13_Hart-MusicalComp-T.pdf
The arrangement is really cool; I love how it sounds. I hope that he still does an interesting project; I hope that he can work on the mathematical functions of music composition next year.
The arrangement is really cool; I love how it sounds. I hope that he still does an interesting project; I hope that he can work on the mathematical functions of music composition next year.
Thank you 13umm, for both the kind feedback on the arrangement & well wishes to DS. Do you play an instrument?
The arrangement is really cool; I love how it sounds. I hope that he still does an interesting project; I hope that he can work on the mathematical functions of music composition next year.
Thank you 13umm, for both the kind feedback on the arrangement & well wishes to DS. Do you play an instrument?
I don't play an instrument but I used to play the ukulele.
I don't play an instrument but I used to play the ukulele.
The ukulele is a fun, portable, inexpensive instrument for enjoying music. My youngest bought herself one a couple of months ago and taught herself to play. Currently in her final year of high school, she spends many of her study breaks singing and playing her ukulele and I can tell that she is in overall good spirits despite taking on a demanding study load.
Your posts, in another thread which you originated, suggest that you have broad interests and great ambitions, but I do hope that, at your age, you are enjoying your various pursuits in the present, rather than mainly focusing on future outcomes.
I don't play an instrument but I used to play the ukulele.
The ukulele is a fun, portable, inexpensive instrument for enjoying music. My youngest bought herself one a couple of months ago and taught herself to play. Currently in her final year of high school, she spends many of her study breaks singing and playing her ukulele and I can tell that she is in overall good spirits despite taking on a demanding study load.
Your posts, in another thread which you originated, suggest that you have broad interests and great ambitions, but I do hope that, at your age, you are enjoying your various pursuits in the present, rather than mainly focusing on future outcomes.
I'm studying interesting courses and watching Elizabeth Filips on youtube for study topics. I'm having a lot of fun; I just find music harder than other things and want to study Aops more intensely now. For art, I plan on doing drawing and art history this semester.
I missed this earlier (somehow I was having trouble loading the forum for a while)...and will have to check on the YouTube link in a bit when it decides to work!
But I love the way your DS is combining two of his passions! Some time ago, our DC1 randomly bumped into a post-doc on the bus who combines STEM research with serious classical composition. So others have found paths forward.
And 13,
Just keep prioritizing the joy of learning and growing for its own sake! I'm glad you're enjoying your current interests and explorations.
I missed this earlier (somehow I was having trouble loading the forum for a while)...and will have to check on the YouTube link in a bit when it decides to work!
But I love the way your DS is combining two of his passions! Some time ago, our DC1 randomly bumped into a post-doc on the bus who combines STEM research with serious classical composition. So others have found paths forward.
And 13,
Just keep prioritizing the joy of learning and growing for its own sake! I'm glad you're enjoying your current interests and explorations.
Thank you aeh. Do you know any psychologists who administer the WISC online? That or psychologists who are interested in studying the personality traits of adolescents online?
As it happens, since the pandemic, the number of professionals who do online assessment has increased dramatically, mostly through a few vendors who contract to school districts who are having difficulty hiring enough local staff, but they are very unlikely to do private assessments, as the instruments are still best administered in-person, for standardization reasons.
I think you might consider contacting the psychology department at whatever research university (preferably) is nearest you and asking if there is a faculty member who would be willing to answer some of these questions. You come across as a poised and confident young person in your communications here, and I suspect there is someone on a nearby faculty who would enjoy at least a little conversation with you. In particular, if there is anyone doing research on giftedness at such an institution, they might appreciate your inititiative and curiousity. (I know I do!) As you know, there is a great deal one can learn in correspondence on the internet, but nothing really replaces a nuanced, free-flowing conversation with an interested and thoughtful conversational partner. A local professional might know about resources of the kind you are seeking that are accessible in-person.
As it happens, since the pandemic, the number of professionals who do online assessment has increased dramatically, mostly through a few vendors who contract to school districts who are having difficulty hiring enough local staff, but they are very unlikely to do private assessments, as the instruments are still best administered in-person, for standardization reasons.
I think you might consider contacting the psychology department at whatever research university (preferably) is nearest you and asking if there is a faculty member who would be willing to answer some of these questions. You come across as a poised and confident young person in your communications here, and I suspect there is someone on a nearby faculty who would enjoy at least a little conversation with you. In particular, if there is anyone doing research on giftedness at such an institution, they might appreciate your inititiative and curiousity. (I know I do!) As you know, there is a great deal one can learn in correspondence on the internet, but nothing really replaces a nuanced, free-flowing conversation with an interested and thoughtful conversational partner. A local professional might know about resources of the kind you are seeking that are accessible in-person.
I will get in touch with a nearby psychology department.
And he asked to try it again, so he likes the challenge--double yay!)
!
There was one particular one which I did though. It was when DS was in KA (4+). His room teacher proudly shared with me what DS had drawn when he asked the class to draw something to show the word "enormous". DS drew himself as small as an ant. Beside him, he drew the Eiffel Tower.
. 
No wonder he's happier at school this year -- he's actually learning while he's there. Fancy that, learning at school!![[Linked Image from img.photobucket.com]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/franniesmomma/IMG_1387.jpg)
![[Linked Image from img.photobucket.com]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/franniesmomma/IMG_1386.jpg)
![[Linked Image from img.photobucket.com]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v700/franniesmomma/IMG_1385.jpg)
![[Linked Image from i945.photobucket.com]](http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/13e41cb1.jpg)
![[Linked Image from i945.photobucket.com]](http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/e4b6c38e.jpg)
![[Linked Image from i945.photobucket.com]](http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/88c3e4b4.jpg)
She also mentioned that he's argued with her on many occasions about being right. I'm proud of him for being strong enough to stick up for himself, and proud/heartsick that he never mentioned this sort of thing to us. With his brand of perfectionism, every unjustified red mark must be like a slap in the face.
![[Linked Image from i945.photobucket.com]](http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/755ae376.jpg)
![[Linked Image from i945.photobucket.com]](http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/ad296/Hablame_today/becb9c8e.jpg)
My kid. Yup... don't know where she gets this stuff from.
![[Linked Image from img5.imageshack.us]](http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3238/epgymath35equationsappl.jpg)
![[Linked Image from s15.postimg.org]](http://s15.postimg.org/hj0ds2p97/amelia_sept21_2013_small.jpg)
![[Linked Image from s23.postimg.org]](http://s23.postimg.org/lih2ifbiz/suezcanal_oct10_2013.jpg)