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| | Merridian: My first son's last name is my maiden name, so I went back to that one so that each of my kids would have a parent to share a name with.  The little one still has idiotboy's last name, we're pondering fixing that sometime in the future, but don't know if we'll be able to. Poor Nate, though only shared a last name with an uncle and a grandpa he rarely sees, so I'm really glad to be back to that name. Andrew has a lot of his father's family close, so he shares his name with several people he sees often.
Special Ed
Since before school even started up this year, in fact before school let out last yer, I've been getting nagged by my mother and aunt to get Nate tested for the gifted program. My brother and I (and I think Nate's father) were in the program at different times in our school careers, and I, for one, found it to be a lot of fun. It's probably the thing that kept me at all interested in school. Other than 4th grade, I had teachers who taught to the lowest common denominator and had difficulty varying lesson plans to meet different students' needs. I realize that in grade school it's pretty hard to do that, because in some cases you're nothing more than a glorified babysitter (NOT an insult to teachers, but an observation of how they're treated and how their pupils act) and if you go too far outside "normal" you'll be looked at strangely by your colleagues and possibly attacked by the parents of the very pupils you were trying to help. ...
ANYWAY, I think that leaving the normal classroom a couple times a week and going to a place where I got a little more individual attention, more interesting (and challenging) work, and a few more options really helped me out. I already see the boredom in Nate. He likes his reading and is OK about his math, but the regular classroom is boring to him. It's too simple for his mind. He doesn't care that he doesn't write very well yet, he wants to -learn- something and explore all the time. Too bad the reading and math options only go up to a certain level. He's already in a SEVENTH grade reading level!! Yowza, he's in FIRST grade! (I was shocked to hear THAT.) The teacher who tested him suggested that he might be higher than that, but her test only goes to 7.2, and he was still going strong when they finished it off. Sheesh.
Today I went in to sign the papers to get him tested. Gifted kids are a division of Special Education. I got a fat little packet of "Parents Rights" and my own little inventory to fill in about him. I got an explanation of what the testing will be like and what sorts of things he'll be exposed to in the program. I also was told that if he tests poorly (lower than they expect from having watched him so far) they'll either pause the test and let him finish it later or they'll still do "intervention" and retest him at a later date, like next year.
Intervention would consist of one-on-one time, helping him learn organization skills, emotion control, attention span, etc. And would have him pretty much in the program, because he would be working with the same people and possibly be in classes with the gifted kids, just not officially be IN the program until he tests at the proper level. (I think it's 95th percentile. She told me, but I didn't write it down or anything.) Portions of this conversation were the same thing we went through when we were having Andrew tested for problems last year. The packet of parents rights is the exact same thing. The parent inventory is similar, except aimed at a 6-year old instead of a 3-4-year old.
I already have talked about it a little with him. We talked about how he likes school, how he likes the classroom work, and how much he feels like he's learning. I told him that there's a possibility he could go to a few different classes during the week, where he'd do activities others in his class don't get to do, and learn harder things. I told him that he'd probably have to take a few tests, but they're fun tests, usually. He sounded all for it. I thought that I'd give him at least a little choice in the matter. He would have had to be against it for me to decide not to test him, though. If he'd been uninterested or neutral I'd have still had him tested, and then pulled him back out of the program if he didn't like it. (I really think he will.)
One of the funny things said in there this morning, though, was: "I know L is gifted (her oldest granddaughter) but I really think Nate's smarter than her!" I thought that was pretty funny coming from a doting grandma, that there just might be someone smarter than her own perfect sweetie.
A lost shoe
Last night Andrew was running around in only one shoe. I told him he needed to put that shoe away and find the other one to put away so we'd be able to find them in the morning. Gee, he didn't find the other shoe. This morning he was being Mister Slowpoke. Wouldn't get his clothes on, wouldn't stop playing with toys, wouldn't come eat breakfast, wouldn't put on his shoes ... wait, there's only one here. Waaaaah, I've lost a shoe. He also was throwing fits that Nate finished off the Fruit Loops. Andrew, that box of fruit loops was at least a month old. You haven't wanted Fruit Loops all week, why do you want them now that Nate finished them?? ARGH. I finally told him that Nate had to put on his shoes before he ate, so Andrew did too. "But I don't know where my shoe is!" Then look for it. You were the last one to wear it! He looked in a 2' radius around his body and then sat down to cry. It was time to leave, of course. "Nate, will you please go look in your room for your brother's shoe?" "OK, now go look in the bathroom?" Nate very helpfully looked everywhere he could think of while I got on my own shoes and then grabbed Andrew (still crying), took hold of his head, and -showed him- how to look. "Let's look under here!" *moving head under table* "Let's look over here" *moving whole kid into breakfast nook and looking under computer desk* "Hey, Nate, you have shoes in here, will you put them away?" "Let's look under here!" *moving head under dining room table* "Whoops and there are some Mommy shoes, I'll pick those up when we're done looking for yours." By the time we got to the piano and the living room, he was moving his own head, but I still had to say where to look. I was pretty furious, because Nate had done such a good job this morning of being ready on time, and here Andrew was slowing us down. Finally  and Nate came up from the basement with the shoe. It was on the floor down there where Andrew had been lying down (WHY?) last night. Sheesh.
Andrew didn't get to eat -anything- for breakfast, which upset him very much. When we got to Nate's school, I gave him a hug and told him thanks for helping find the shoe and I really was glad he was ready on time. He'd gotten a bit of yelling in the process, of course. I told him to go to Daycare after school and Grandma will pick him up.
When we got to daycare, Andrew was being mister slowpoke again. I had already told him during the shoe fiasco that the more he dawdled, the less time he had for breakfast, and here was his second chance ... They serve breakfast at daycare at 8. It was 8:03. "Andrew, if you don't hurry up, you won't get breakfast here, either!! Let's moooove." Finally I got him in and at a table in his room and remembered something. "Andrew, Aunt D will pick you up tonight, and guess what..." "What?" "You get to spend the night with your cousin tonight!" *bright smiles* All is well again in both boys' worlds. Whew. | | | Posted 10/4/2002 10:01 AM - 1 view - 2 comments
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