And, I'm waiting for Mason to get dressed so we can take Ms. Ball to the vet. 

The more I've been watching her, the more hopeful that it will end up being her teeth (an expensive dental surgery, perhaps, but a one time and your fixed kind of deal.)  Thing is, she leaves food and seems to struggle to eat some fairly soft treats. But! We'll find out what's up for sure in a matter of hours, with any luck.

In the meantime, I can tell you about Yule/Winter Solstice.

As I said in earlier posts, Shawn took the day off work and Mason turned down offers for D&D. We had a kind of a crazy start to the day, partly because there were a few last minute errands in need of running--and of course with Christmas approaching, everyone and their dog was out shopping.  Mason and I also had another little bickering session, wherein I found out that he rarely feels that talking resolves arguments. I think we came out of the other side of that one, if for no other reason than that we TALKED about it without incriminations, etc.  I tell you. Having a smart, perfectionist kid can be a surprising challenge at times. 

Even though we got over it, this threw a wrench into the festive mood for the day. We decided to remedy it by opening our presents at noon. Normally, as this is a solar holiday, we wait until the sun goes down (which, here in Minnesota can be, like, 5 pm or even earlier, I swear.) Shawn and I made rosettes, which breaks for ima/son bonding over Smash Bros.

Rosettes are tedious, but worth it.



Eventually, we had our traditional feast in front of the Yule log.  We like to order Swiss Colony sausages and cheeses for Yule, so the no one has to cook.  The cats were surprisingly non-disruptive, which is amazing since we usually lay out our spread, picnic-style, on the floor.  Perhaps my ploy to feed everyone beforehand ACTUALLY paid off this time.

Then we opened presents.

Yule is the time for small, inexpensive, meaningful gifts. I bought Shawn a pair of earrings that she asked for, which are made by an artisan who uses pieces of vintage plates to make jewelry.  She had stumbled across a pair in the design of a set she loves and sent me the link. I got Mason an "ugly sweater" with Karl Marx on it that says, "All I want for Christmas... is the means of production." That's meaningful for us, since it's part of the litany of things I say to him every morning when I drop him off for school.  "Okay, love you, son! Smash the patriarchy, seize the means of production, and punch the Nazis!" (Sometimes I add, "But remember punching is assault, so I will go your bail!")  We also got him a Player's Manual for D&D and another shirt that has a line from a silly song he introduced us to, "Seagulls, Stop it Now" by Bad Lip Readers. It's kind of a visual experience, so you have to watch the You Tube video.  Shawn got me a coffee mug from a tarot artist who is making a crow tarot deck that just says "Witch" on it, but has a lovely crow on it. 

We then took a candle outdoors and lit the "bonfire." The candle blew out on our first attempt, so we tried again.  We kept the fire going for a while, but not as long as some years. We brought the flame in and put it in an overnight safe container to keep it going.  It pooped out sometime after midnight.

It's been gray here, ever since. 

Take that for what you will.

Right. Have to grab the cat and go~

I 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'd been thinking we made the right choice in not sending Mason into the gifted and talented magnet here in Saint Paul. Now, I'm not so sure.

Mason came home a couple of days ago with a book from the school library. It was a book he'd read last year (part of the MAGIC TREE HOUSE series), one, in fact, he already has at home. We asked him why he took that particular book out. He said, oh, this was his "AR" (reading testing book), and he'd picked something else out but his teacher said he should, "take it slow."

RED FLAG.

I told Mason that I'd ask his teacher about it when I went in to do folder volunteering today. For a moment, I thought I was going to miss her (it's her break time, as the students are all off at the I-Zone,) but we ended up having a very short conversation in the hallway. It went something like this...

Me: [retell the bit about the library book] and you said he needed to "start slow." What's that about?
Her: Well, he's only in first grade. Even if he can read at a seventh grade level I don't feel that he should.
Me: Why?
Her: We want kids to be kids. He's only six.
Me: And? We let him read whatever he likes at home.
Her: I'm worried that some of the older book are too emotionally advanced for him.
Me: [Internally sputtering, so only manage to say] I suppose I can see your point.
[We stare at each other for some time as my wheels continue to spin, she might at this point have gone on about emotional maturity, but honestly my brain was just sputtering.]
Me: But that's just fiction. He could test on non-fiction at any level, right?
Her: I suppose. *IF* he understands it.
Me: [Sensing I've lost this argument on some fundamental level, I say that I think he does and we sort of leave it at that.]

Wow, here I am facing the sound of my own music. How many times have I said that we don't want Mason to lose out on "being a kid," only to have that thrown in my face as a reason he should be denied access to books at the library?

Also, it was clear from the way his teacher talked about it, she does NOT believe his test scores. I mean, really, it must be some kind of fake. What six year old can read at a seventh grade level? (I wonder what she'd say if she knew he's actually reading fiction books at an adult level?) Worse, I was unprepared for this particular argument. I've been reading a book called GENUIS DENIED about profoundly gifted students and their problems, yet I wasn't ready for someone to look at his test scores deny the facts staring her in the face.

Worse, to decide that the test scores be damned. He's six, he'll read six year old books because they're good for him.

Are they? My feelings, to be fair, are mixed. But Mason has proven himself very good at deciding for himself what he can and can't handle, emotionally. That's the beauty of a book. Unlike TV, you can put it down with a lot more ease. For instance, he loves the GOOSEBUMPS series, but when he gets scared he puts them down. Or he skips to the end to see how things work out. Some days, I peek in his room and he's dug out the box of board books from under his bed and he's happily reading "Where's Maisey?" by Lucy Cousins. Other days he picks up SPLINTER OF THE MIND'S EYE a grown-up level Star Wars book and reads a chapter or two. Some days he wants CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, others he wants an encylopedia of bugs written for college-level students with Latin species names and scientific discusions.

I could understand his teacher's objections more if she was concerned about, let's say, Mason picking up a book full of explicit sex.* But how likely is that he'd find that in the Crossroad's Media Center?

Also, I'm worried that implying that there are books he SHOULD and SHOULDN'T read (in terms of grade level) is going to make Mason more self-conscious about his choices. Since the "start slowly" comment, Shawn and I have noticed Mason has been preferring his old stand-by GARFIELD to the Star Wars books he'd been devouring. Shame is a powerful and subtle weapon. I would be absolutely livid if I thought Mason was feeling shamed about his ability.

And I can't help but feeling that this wouldn't happen if he was at a gifted magnet.

Though, it has slowly dawned on me, that perhaps one of the reasons Mason's teacher is having trouble accepting that Mason can read and understand what he's reading at such an advanced level is that he's not just gifted... he's profoundly gifted. As the book GENUIS DENIED suggested the difference is that his teacher has probably come across one in hundred students who are mildly to even quite gifted. But a six year old who can read and understand adult level books? She may only meet one student in her lifetime who is like that.

And most public school systems spend exactly $0 dollars on gifted students. They spend millions on students who need basic and rudamentary help. There's a place for the struggling student to go. There's no place for Mason. More than that, it's considered a waste because if he can get "A"s then he's supposedly not suffering.

You know the worst part? I KNEW this was coming. I just didn't think I'd have to have this fight now.

----

*I read things that were sexually explicit far too early, and you know what? I just plain didn't get them. However, I will say that the things that did scar me were the scary things. I still get the chills over certain sceens in AMITYVILLE HORROR because I read them "too soon."