Last week I had the opportunity to observe my ds6 in two educational settings. What a marked difference!
The first was a school trip to the children's museum to learn about architecture. He has a big class-- 29 gt kids. To me, they all appeared to be listening politely to the instructor, except my ds, who was sort of rolling around slightly, staring off into space, and compulsively picking at his teeth. Not really disruptive, but it was heartbreaking to watch. He only snapped to attention at the very end when she did an interesting experiment.
The second was at the Intrepid air craft carrier museum, where I took him over the weekend. (For the umpteenth time.) He noticed there was a small group going on a guided tour, so he joined that group. It was about 20 grown-ups-- he was the only kid-- doing a free guided tour of the exhibits. I expected him to listen for awhile and then drift away, but he followed the tour for its entirety (over an hour), right up at the front, answering and asking questions, while I trailed a bit behind with the squirmy baby.
Afterward, and for the rest of the day, he seemed unusually grounded, calm and contented.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that... Seems like a very powerful argument for creating the right learning environment for the kid who reasons and thinks like an adult but won't add, subtract or write!
