I was reading the posts for the DYS application and I would like to ask for types of anecdoctal evidence. I am not applying to DYS, as DD is only 3 but Hunter said the application is heavily considered. I know many parents just answers the questions, but it is parental observation and anecdotes are big.
I told DH we have to start keeping a log, something we have not done. But I would appreciate any ideas so that we can try and remember some of the things early on, since we knew she was smart and more verbal but we were not thinking to use this info in applications for kindergarten.
Thanks, have a good holiday weekend everyone.
Ren
Some things I have written down - don't know if they are good or not but it's things that made me go "hhhmmmm" lol. Knew sounds of all letters by 20months, spontaneously started doing simple addition at 2yrs (0+1, 1+2, 5-2, 3+2), read first book at 2yrs4mths, at 2.5 made a hexagon out of parallelogram, trapezoid and triangle and made a trapezoid as well and said (look it's a trapezoid!). At preK, teachers remarked how he was the only one to befriend a little boy on the autism spectrum and really brought him out of his shell. At 4.5 he said "if 60min are in 1hr, then 30min are in a half hour b/c 30 is half of 60). Recently at 5 he asked "if you need people to have babies, and you need babies to have people, how did people get here?", also he has now begun arguing semantics with me and twice he has been right lol.
For my older, at 4yrs old he made some really neat 3D structures out of M&D blocks that several people thought were striking. I took pictures and dated. The one that was really exceptional, i can't find a photo of.
I don't know if these things are what they are looking for but it's what I have written down.
One thing that makes me believe that DD is 'EG' rather than 'MG' (as her scores and academic achievement point now) is the fact the she started to separate fiction from reality at 2yr 2m. She told me 'you konw, real cats don't wear cloths or talk and sing'.
She as well started at the time to make remarks about 'Sint Nicolas' (Dutch version of Santa). She said that 'Sint is the time when Papa and Mama have hidden presents in the cabinet under the stairs'...
Thanks. I hope DH has better recall, as I was so sleep deprived for so long, the things that struck us are somewhat hazy. So it is good to get reminders that trigger ideas.
Ren
One that I included:
One of KG's daily routines is to keep track of what time we�re supposed to be home, and exactly how late or early we are. For example, he�ll expect his step-father home at 5:00. When he walks through the door at 4:47, KG will glance at our digital clock and say, without missing a beat, �You�re 13 minutes early!� Conversely, to a parent who is meant to be home at 5:30 but arrives at 5:56, KG will accusatorily point out, �Mama, you�re 26 minutes late.�
Here is one from my DS5 application:
One day, a few months ago, DS informed me that he knew what 6 minus 8 equaled. I quickly corrected him and told him he needed to subtract the smaller number from the larger number. He quickly corrected me and told me that he could subtract 6 from 8. He told me the answer was negative 2. I asked him how he learned negative numbers and he replied �No one taught me, I just know it.� I quizzed all of our family members and his preschool teachers�No one has admitted to telling him that negative numbers even existed.
Over the next few weeks, DS made up and solved many problems that resulted in negative numbers. He even created his own number line on paper and taught himself how to add and subtract negative numbers. Problems such as -2 - (-8) = 6 are easily solved by DS. He even began to question me on how to multiply and divide negative numbers. He was able to learn the rules with one sitting. DS also concluded that since infinity is the largest number than negative infinity must be the smallest number.
I have to add another one of my favorites from our application:
One night last spring, after DS was sent to bed for the night, he emerged from his room and proudly announced that he was no longer mad that we didn�t allow him to stay up and watch the Boston Red Sox game on TV. He had learned that he could switch his clock radio to AM tuner and listen to the radio broadcast of the game. Since that night he always finds sports on his radio at bedtime to fall asleep to.
Crisc - both my sons did the same thing. For my oldest, about 4yrs old, I think he figured it out from looking at a thermometer and talking about temps below zero. For my youngest son also at 4yrs old, I'm not sure how he picked it up - perhaps listening to older brother and I talk or something. Amazing isn't it?
I think my son learned about negative numbers right before he turned 5 from older kids in his acting class. The older kids would sometimes bring their homework to work on during breaks.
He could do double digit subtraction with negative numbers in his head at five and this was one of the things I included in our application to DYS. We had to submit a portfolio with WIAT scores because that was all we had and they asked us to send a writing sample in his own handwriting so we gave up on trying for a while. As a 2E child with motor dyspraxia he would have trouble with this so we decided to wait until he can take the Explore or ACT to see if he scores high enough to qualify, but that requires the ability to "color in the lines" quickly since you have to fill in the bubbles and that is something else that a lot of kids with motor dyspraxia are not so good at. I wish they had online versions of the Explore and ACT tests for 2E kids like mine.
I forget, Lori: is your DS already a DYS or not?
If not, you might consider video instead of the handwritten math to show his work. Film yourself rolling a die to create the problems to show that he didn't just memorize the list or something, and then film him figuring the answers.
I'd bet that seeing him doing the math is probably even better than having the math done in his handwriting (which always seemed a bit odd to me, since he could just as easily have copied your answers...).
Just a thought...
Great idea. I've thought about audio or videotaping-- but why do you tell your child you are doing it?
How do you explain the DYS application? Or don't you?
Well, our camera doesn't have a red light, so I just turned it on, set it on the table, and ignored it while we worked on math. He didn't even know if it was on or not. Tricky, eh? (I didn't end up having to send this video, since we didn't go the portfolio route. But I think the technique worked pretty well, FWIW.)
I don't think seeing the kid mugging for the camera is a great idea, so anything you can do to avoid that is probably good. (Though I'm sure other kids have mugged, so it's also not the end of the world.)
Pehaps just filming A LOT would help. If s/he gets used to the idea that for a week, mom just always has the camera on, the mugging will end pretty quickly. And with digital, this is not a big deal to do anymore.
I don't think I kept the DYS application a secret from my DS, but I don't remember having a big talk about it either. I think we talked about it a little when we were going for testing. He was kind of sick of testing, and so I explained that if he did well, there was a chance that we could be in a group with other kids he might like. That was enough to get him back on board and made it so that I didn't have to explain what I was doing or why much. I just reminded him about the kids, and he was cooperative.
I don't know if that helps...
At the suggestion of someone from DYS I videotaped DS doing a crossword puzzle. I would never have thought of doing this as spelling/writing is not DS's strong point, but one of our recommenders noted that DS6 loves to do them. I think they want to see the "how" of what they do because they already have much of the "what" from the testing scores, KWIM?
Jool, I think the crossword is a good example of something that would distinguish a 6yo HG+ child from an MG- child. That's exactly the kind of stuff you want to capture to show DYS what your child is capable of.
BTW, it's good to know that DYS is recommending video. Thanks for that. It made good sense to me and it's on their list of acceptable submissions, but it was really just out of my own common sense that I have been recommending it to people who are having trouble showing what their kids can do because of writing issues and the like. It's good to get DYS confirmation!
Keep Bloom's taxonomy in mind-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy
Probably not the best source, but it's short and I think pretty clear.
I love the idea of the dice to generate the Math Problems - I'm always looking for an excuse to use those multisided dice. Did you know that for about 10$ you can get them that go all the way to 100?
Speaking about anecdotical evidence:
We came from the supermarket the other day, DD, DS (22 months) and me. While I am putting the TV to DD, DS disappears into the kitchen and is looking for something. He comes back with three 'actimels' (taken from a package of 4), and gives me one, another to DD and another one for himself.
It was not random, he went deliberately looking for them and came with a triumph face carrying the three of them.