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lydamorehouseI spent much of yesterday, as you can imagine, running around squeeing. I did manage to get my 2,000 words written, but I also came to the depressing realization that there's a LOT more plot/book to write, regardless of word count. I'm going to have to try to up my daily word count if I'm going to get this done by June 30 (my deadline for beta readers to have adequete time to read and for me to respond. The book itself is due July 15.)
I should probably be writing right now, in fact, but I decided that I also need to catch everyone up on my life, etc. If you're fans of mine from WisCON you may find this article I participated in at Geek Speak called Dead and Doing It interesting. For once, Tate channeled *me* in her reply to the question "Why Vampires?" Why do I say that? Well, for one, I actually said "sexually transgressive" which, like, is _so_ not Tate.
Last Friday, Shawn and I went to talk to the gifted and talented specialist at Mason's school. For the last several weeks, Mason has been very down on school. He even confessed to trying to get out of busy work by choosing certain times to go to the bathroom. He even said science was boring. We also have a lot of trouble motivating Mason to do his homework, like to the point of tears (for all involved, though mostly him).
As I said in my earlier post, I wouldn't worry about this terribly much since I can remember being bored by school a lot, BUT, unlike Mason I was (and am) what they now classify as a "high achiever" which means I WANTED to do well in school just on principle.
The specialist was a great guy, and it was clear that we had a lot of the same values in common. Since he only sees Mason once a week, we spent the first two-thirds of the meeting explaining all the stuff we do with Mason already. When kids are as intense as Mason is, there's a common perception that the parents are pushy/flash card toting types. We explained that Mason learned to read on his own. He has friends in the neighborhood. He loves video games and spending time in the woods just throwing rocks into rivers. We do *not* lock him in his room and demand he learn nuclear physics.
In fact, that's one of the problems. Because we have always encouraged him to persue his own interests, he doesn't really have a lot of coping skills for dealing with school and its regimented learning system. He told me last night that he's been asked to fill out a questionnaire at school about what he likes/doesn't like. So we started talking very open-endedly about what he does like. When we got around to subjects he didn't enjoy, he brought up science again. Remember, we chose Crossroads in part because it's a science magnet. When I asked him why, when he normally devours a zillions books on scientific subjects, he doesn't enjoy science _class_? He said, "Well, it would be great if we could pick our own subjects." He explained that they also spend "so much time" on one topic that he's done with it long before anyone else. He decided he would write that down on the questionnaire. I hope he does. Perhaps it will alert Crossroads that there ought to be advanced course work for "specialists" as well. (Science is taught as an extra outside of the homeroom, as is gym, art, and music.)
Mason is in an accellerated reading program and the gifted and talented specialist had a GREAT suggestion about having Mason being a regular guest reader to the kindergarden/pre-K students as a way for him to "show off" his knowledge/abilities in a way that might reinforce the idea that learning is cool. We also floated the idea of Mason starting his own blog. One of the things Mason lags behind on is expressing himself. Verbally, he's an ace. But, printing/writing is an area he struggles with. Of course, he's only JUST learned to print. So he needs practice. We have some things we plan to do to get him practicing writing at home, but the idea of the blog is the hope that if he can learn to type and get his thoughts down and get some responses, he will GET why learning to write is so critical and feel more inspired to print as well. (I do realize how this could backfire, since typing is SO much faster, but that's why Shawn and I have other things we're doing to get him to do printing practice. Including a simple bribe, ie, copy x many poems from Shel Sliverstein and you get a LEGO voucher to buy a set up to y amount of dollars.)
I think this year is hard for Mason, too, because he's never entirely clicked with his homeroom teacher. Also, she has a student teacher this year with whom he actually has a somewhat hostile relationship. Again, we all had teachers we felt hated us/we hated, but it just adds to Mason's frustration. Crossroads, in addition to being a weird year-round school, also "loops," which means Mason will have the same homeroom teacher again NEXT year.
The gifted and talented specialist also said he'd get us in touch with local on-line groups of other parents of gifted kids.
It's hard for me to know what to do in this situation because, as I said, I was always really into school. I loved buying new school supplies. I couldn't wait to go back to school in the fall, and, if it had been available in LaCrosse, I probably would have BEGGED to go to a year-round school. Of course, back in the 70s school was a very different place. In first grade I really don't remember doing a whole lot other than practicing writing. I feel like I spent entire days just copying the letter a, for instance. I suspect that's not _actually_ how it is, but I am surprised by how little they seem to do that in the classroom these days. We also got letter grades. Being very competitive I was always motivated to get As. Mason's school doesn't give out letter grades. Ever.
Anyway, now I've yack too long about all this. I'll have to save my Manga and comicbook review for another post. Also, I'm going to post pictures of all the projects Shawn and I have been completing. We've been powerhorses!
I should probably be writing right now, in fact, but I decided that I also need to catch everyone up on my life, etc. If you're fans of mine from WisCON you may find this article I participated in at Geek Speak called Dead and Doing It interesting. For once, Tate channeled *me* in her reply to the question "Why Vampires?" Why do I say that? Well, for one, I actually said "sexually transgressive" which, like, is _so_ not Tate.
Last Friday, Shawn and I went to talk to the gifted and talented specialist at Mason's school. For the last several weeks, Mason has been very down on school. He even confessed to trying to get out of busy work by choosing certain times to go to the bathroom. He even said science was boring. We also have a lot of trouble motivating Mason to do his homework, like to the point of tears (for all involved, though mostly him).
As I said in my earlier post, I wouldn't worry about this terribly much since I can remember being bored by school a lot, BUT, unlike Mason I was (and am) what they now classify as a "high achiever" which means I WANTED to do well in school just on principle.
The specialist was a great guy, and it was clear that we had a lot of the same values in common. Since he only sees Mason once a week, we spent the first two-thirds of the meeting explaining all the stuff we do with Mason already. When kids are as intense as Mason is, there's a common perception that the parents are pushy/flash card toting types. We explained that Mason learned to read on his own. He has friends in the neighborhood. He loves video games and spending time in the woods just throwing rocks into rivers. We do *not* lock him in his room and demand he learn nuclear physics.
In fact, that's one of the problems. Because we have always encouraged him to persue his own interests, he doesn't really have a lot of coping skills for dealing with school and its regimented learning system. He told me last night that he's been asked to fill out a questionnaire at school about what he likes/doesn't like. So we started talking very open-endedly about what he does like. When we got around to subjects he didn't enjoy, he brought up science again. Remember, we chose Crossroads in part because it's a science magnet. When I asked him why, when he normally devours a zillions books on scientific subjects, he doesn't enjoy science _class_? He said, "Well, it would be great if we could pick our own subjects." He explained that they also spend "so much time" on one topic that he's done with it long before anyone else. He decided he would write that down on the questionnaire. I hope he does. Perhaps it will alert Crossroads that there ought to be advanced course work for "specialists" as well. (Science is taught as an extra outside of the homeroom, as is gym, art, and music.)
Mason is in an accellerated reading program and the gifted and talented specialist had a GREAT suggestion about having Mason being a regular guest reader to the kindergarden/pre-K students as a way for him to "show off" his knowledge/abilities in a way that might reinforce the idea that learning is cool. We also floated the idea of Mason starting his own blog. One of the things Mason lags behind on is expressing himself. Verbally, he's an ace. But, printing/writing is an area he struggles with. Of course, he's only JUST learned to print. So he needs practice. We have some things we plan to do to get him practicing writing at home, but the idea of the blog is the hope that if he can learn to type and get his thoughts down and get some responses, he will GET why learning to write is so critical and feel more inspired to print as well. (I do realize how this could backfire, since typing is SO much faster, but that's why Shawn and I have other things we're doing to get him to do printing practice. Including a simple bribe, ie, copy x many poems from Shel Sliverstein and you get a LEGO voucher to buy a set up to y amount of dollars.)
I think this year is hard for Mason, too, because he's never entirely clicked with his homeroom teacher. Also, she has a student teacher this year with whom he actually has a somewhat hostile relationship. Again, we all had teachers we felt hated us/we hated, but it just adds to Mason's frustration. Crossroads, in addition to being a weird year-round school, also "loops," which means Mason will have the same homeroom teacher again NEXT year.
The gifted and talented specialist also said he'd get us in touch with local on-line groups of other parents of gifted kids.
It's hard for me to know what to do in this situation because, as I said, I was always really into school. I loved buying new school supplies. I couldn't wait to go back to school in the fall, and, if it had been available in LaCrosse, I probably would have BEGGED to go to a year-round school. Of course, back in the 70s school was a very different place. In first grade I really don't remember doing a whole lot other than practicing writing. I feel like I spent entire days just copying the letter a, for instance. I suspect that's not _actually_ how it is, but I am surprised by how little they seem to do that in the classroom these days. We also got letter grades. Being very competitive I was always motivated to get As. Mason's school doesn't give out letter grades. Ever.
Anyway, now I've yack too long about all this. I'll have to save my Manga and comicbook review for another post. Also, I'm going to post pictures of all the projects Shawn and I have been completing. We've been powerhorses!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-23 10:49 pm (UTC)So I guess I'm just saying, I feel for both Mason and you! I was old enough then to express myself on the topic more, and to know my parents would back me up, and hopefully this is a good learning experience for Mason on how to do the same - because I bet this won't be the last time it happens.
Oh and I wanted to say also that I think you are both fantastic parents. I find myself making mental notes so if I ever manage to have my own little ones someday... :)