October: What are they doing now?

[St. Margaret]

LittleBattleAxe's post pointed out we need a new thread!

DD told me yesterday she was going to make up a rhyme. "Seven, minus eleven, is... four!" Pretty close! She knows about negative numbers so I just pointed out it'd be neg 4. She's been making up songs about nature and seasons and animals, actually rhyming, with amazing imagery and action verbs and cool repetition... stuff I'd be happy with if my 9th graders wrote it for our poetry unit, all off the top of her head. I love having our days full of songs like this!

We've started officially homeschooling (since she kept saying she was bored and was acting out by the end of the day-- that's gotten a lot better in a week, although she's still showing us she's a total 3yo at times!), and she's always begging for more. It's good because it helps us expand what we do-- more crafts and experiments, which I've lagged on lately, being pregnant and hurt and tired. It's a bit tricky figuring out what we should do, as she pulls towards advanced academic stuff (I'd guess mostly K and 1st grade stuff?) but I still want to do the traditional play-based fun preschool stuff. We're figuring it out, though! She always takes stuff, like a drawing or the book we made together or whatever, and insists I put it in her portfolio. Oh, and her drawings are so cool, she drew a whole family of bats for the book we made, and gave them all pointy ears and all these details (I am showing her how she can hold her markers for better control). My mom, who's in early childhood dev, keeps saying kids average one feature per year of age, so three would be normal, but she's way beyond that, and it's delightful to see how she makes one little bat she draws be daddy, with straight hair and a big nose and others be me and her. And then does it for a family of apples, etc etc.

[ollyoxenfree]

DS 17 was saying yesterday how busy he was now. Not with schoolwork though. I haven't seen him crack a book yet, and I confess I'm a little concerned because university applications are coming up fast. He is at least thinking about his culminating English work. He has to take 2 books written in the past 100 years and compare/contrast, relating them to some social movement/philosophical or political thought eg. Marxism, existentialism, etc. He's trying to decide what books to use. Any suggestions gratefully considered!!

He has a new job at an art gallery/creative workshop. His band has a few gigs planned and they are recording an album soon (self-produced), so they are busy with rehearsing and producing merchandise. Community band has started up, so he's prepping for their fall and winter season of concerts. His classical guitar teacher tells me he isn't practicing enough, sigh!

He spent a day last week at an audio recording session at a television studio/production house for a syndicated children's show. A friend of ours produces the series and she invited him to observe. It's spurred his interest in sound engineering, so I think it may influence his university choices.

DD was excited and happy starting high school in the performing arts - drama program. She loves the creativity she experiences every day just walking down the halls. As she explained, at the end of a geography lesson there were a few free minutes and a few students spontaneously started singing in beautiful harmony. She says that sort of thing happens all the time.

She's less excited about the academic work. She's become the go-to girl in math - never one of her strongest subjects, so she's a little bemused by this development. She's a little frustrated because she studies and prepares for classes and tests, but isn't finding the same diligence in her classmates. The teachers have bumped tests a couple of times now because students have simply shown up and said they weren't ready, so could it be moved to the next week? Since she has studied, she wants to write it that day.

I figure there's some settling down happening in the first month or 6 weeks of school, especially with a 9th grade class, so I'm taking a watchful waiting approach to this issue right now. I have talked to her (again!) about adjusting to a regular class after a gifted program and reminded her that she has options (the gifted high school, homeschooling). We'll see.

[St. Margaret]

Your daughter's school creative atmosphere sounds awesome! That kind of delaying due dates drove me INSANE in 9th grade, too, though. As a teacher, I only ever did that (VERY rarely) if I, say, lost my voice and could not arbitrate a debate that was scheduled or something. I hope things settle down better.

As for college essays (that sounds a lot like how the Lit AP test can be), I'd say a book he really understands is best, but also not one that every other kid will be writing about. Frankenstein, Crime and Punishment, Hamlet, Heart of Darkness, and Mrs. Dalloway all come to mind, but really it depends on what he's studied.

[no5no5]

We're doing well. DD is enjoying her dance class that started this month, though she still insists that I sit right outside the door. It's pretty cool to see that despite being unschooled (and having a rebellious temperament) she is paying attention and following the instructions, much more so than the majority of her peers who have been in school for years. I'm not sure she's learning anything, but she loves her teacher and enjoys the lessons.

Academically, I'm not sure there's anything too new. She's running around with the neighbor kids, reading like crazy, playing math games, doing experiments, learning all kinds of things in books and on the computer, creating lovely works of art, and occasionally even helping me clean the house.

[MJB]

Luka (4.75) is thriving in kindergarten. I'm 100% certain we made the right choice by starting him early. Academically it is too easy but he has made friends, enjoys all the specials (science, spanish, art, music, computer, library, and PE), likes his teachers and the daily schedule. The academics are really only a tiny part of the day. His teacher is aware of his abilities and has made some accommodations but we will probably ask for more at our conference. He's pretty happy to go with the flow but we do want him to learn some this year.
He's also playing soccer this fall and is really good at it. He scores 3-5 goals a game. I love watching him play!

My oldest son (who's not gifted) is also doing awesome on his soccer team-- he scored 5 goals this past weekend and 3 the game before. He just switched from homeschooling to a public Montessori program and likes it.
My baby is 2.5 mos. old. She can roll over now.

[Tigerle]

DS will suddenly come up with observations like "we are making a p when we turn the car to park in front of our house" (it's a p in reverse, but still) or showing how a ball might bounce and say "look it's making an h" and on my confusion, patiently explain " a lower-case h!". Today I've seen him try sounding out a word for the first time - the name of his favorite game, Labyrinth. How about a three-letter-word, darling? He also wanted to know what the word originally meant. Did you know it isn't ancient Greek? -probably borrowed from the Minoic language - and that no one actually knows? According to wikipedia at least...

He also appears to be enjoying his enrichment classes so much I've been trying to line up more - the local Montessori elementary offers a weekly program for prospective students, but the parents at the info evening were evenly split between wanting a morning or an afternoon class, so there weren't enough kids for either (they wanted 7 for every class to justify having two instructors). I know his preschool would frown on us taking him out for the morning once a week, so I tried for the afternoon class, but there were only four of us interested. When I phoned them to find out what they'd decided on they explained they'd come up with the idea of splitting the class and just having one instructor for four, but hadn't heard back from every parent, hadn't taken phone numbers and they'd phone me if they had enough for the class.... I haven't heard back yet. Hoping for more interest at their open house later this month. I just want to know whether this school is an option.

On a happier note, DS appears to be enjoying so much having a little sister I'm really beginning to wish I'd provided one sooner! He's been musing about when we are going to make the next baby ("right now?") but has currently decided it won't be "before DD is crawling." I can tell that he enjoys having me around, too, without me saying "I can't/won't am too exhausted" all the time. I am thinking of extending parental leave, but not making that call yet...

I am STILL wondering whether he's colorblind - he will still hold up a red and a black crayon and say one is light black and one's dark black, hold up a mint green clothes peg and call it pink...he'll show me modeling wax his granny gave him and say "look, a red one....and a yellow one...and a green one" and I am thinking "stop worrying already, he's obviously fine" and then he'll go on "and a pink one" and hold up a light blue one...when I corrected he he said " well it's hard to tell them apart." We had him tested when he was 2.5 and the result was negative... . Any one else had kids going on four years and they still made such pervasive mistakes?


And he is very excited about his birthday coming up! legos and a real bike!

[eepster]

DS's for me to do math with him has stopped completely now. It seems to have been a summer thing. I guess he gets enough of that type of stimulation at school.

He is still obsessed with origami. Now he will do the whole thing from start to finish himself much of the time. He will get upset sometimes about the folds not being perfectly straight, but he's getting better about it.

I'm feeling so so confused about what we are going to do for kindergarten next year. I know it's a bit of an odd time of year to be thinking about it, but A bunch of stuff has pushed it to the forefront. First, they cut the public schools budget here very significantly. They no longer have aids in the kindergarten classes, so it is one teacher alone with 18 5yo. The charter school has had a change in administration since last year. DS's current Montessori school is going to be adding a 1st-3rd grade class next year, which I would love to keep DS at except we aren't even sure we can afford K next year. Of course there is the vague notion still in my head that maybe we should skip K and head straight to 1st, but I've had more doubts about this since he has not really matured much in social/behavioral ways since last year.

[kittykat2481]

DS continues to play with words. He still loves rhyming and will often make up words to rhyme with stuff. "Dog rhymes with mog! Strawberry rhymes with mahmerry!" He thinks of all kinds of things to do with words. Like tonight, he told me "Mommy, the ringbell is doornging!" He thought that one was funny. Sometimes I think he's making up his own language. He also has an imaginary friend - Colin the caterpillar. Apparently Colin the caterpillar keeps him entertained during nap time at school. He likes to point to words and try to read them, but isn't really decoding them yet. Having said that, he still surprises me when he seems to understand when I spell stuff. For example, "DH, did he p-o-t-t-y?" (From DS) "I don't need to go potty!" This has played out enough lately that DH has begged me to stop spelling stuff as it just creates more trouble than if I had just said it out loud to begin with lol. He also walks around a lot saying stuff like, "/h/ /h/ hot. Mommy, is it /h/ /h/ hot outside?"

As far as math goes, he can count objects to 20 with no problem, but has a little trouble making that leap from 20 to 21 on his own. I only know this from watching him line his hotwheels cars up on the edge of the bathtub and count them over, and over, and over, and over again. He's so particular. They all have to point the same direction, be in a perfect line, etc every time.

Other than that, he continues to crack us up on a daily basis. He is very concerned with whether or nto he's funny, and keeps us in stitches most of the time. He's also very sensitive when he's in trouble and has started telling me, "Mommy, I don't want you to say ugly things to me because it hurts my feelings!" at the slightest repremand. Today he thought it would be funny to try to cut his hair. When I stopped him and gently said, "Maybe we didn't talk about the rules about scissors. Let's talk about what's ok to cut" he got very upset. He knew he was wrong and was embarrassed. I'm going to have to be very careful how I redirect him...

[LittleBattleAxe]

I posted in Sept but here's the recap

Ds1 (almost 11) really likes his class this year -- there are 6 kids in GT in 5th grade and three of them are in one class, his. He's thrilled about that. He ran for student council and didn't get elected -- but he has some social anxieties and I was really excited that he ran. He didn't try out for orchestra AND decided not to try out for choir, which upsets me -- he doesn't want to do any activities other than hanging with his buddies. Ah well. He is keenly interested in going to the school where I teach -- I was concerned because there aren't as many electives in my school as in the school where my kids go, but heck, if he isn't going to do any electives anyway, fine MATH is an issue this year -- he has a 99-100% avg. Rather than differentiate, the teacher is giving him more work. Not work that requires a higher level of thinking, but just... more. I asked her why, if he makes 100s on his weekly tests, he needs more practice with the skills. She wasn't sure how to respond. I don't tell teachers how to teach my kids, but she is either going to have to craft a new curriculum for him or start spiraling him. He's already tuning out and reading during instructional time -- I'm torn because on the one hand, I know he should be listening -- on the other hand, if he is reading, at least he is engaged in something -- it's sure not math right now.

DD is great -- loves school, etc. Her little friends are all boy-attentive this year, and she isn't - she is bubbly and so much fun, but said that since all the girls want to do is chase boys at recess, she's rather just have one or two school friends this year. She's one of the most social creatures I know so we'll see how long that lasts. On a side note, another girl in our neighborhood, who is also a giftie, seems to be waging a campaign to exclude dd from gatherings. Dd is well-liked and truthfully doesn't have a mean bone in her, but it saddens me to see that at 8, she is having to deal Mean Girls. Ds1 sagely suggested that perhaps the other girl feels insecure around dd, because she makes friends easily, whereas the other girls sometimes has to try hard to fit in.

Ahhh -- we are having some sort of sibling Renaissance here -- it's been so lovely to see all the kids playing together, encouraging each other, helping, etc. I'm sure it won't last, but I love to be the fly on the wall these days. Seeing them encourage and support one another, despite their age differences (youngest is much younger than his siblings) is absolutely amazing.

LO is joyful as ever -- some afternoons he goes to work with me (my last class ends at 2:10 but I have to be at school until 4 -- the dean gave me permission to get him after my teaching duties end). My office-mates are smitten with him; the Chinese teacher is teaching him Chinese and tells me "I have to be friends with him, he has joy in his eyes. He's a little good-luck happy dragon!"

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by St. Margaret

Your daughter's school creative atmosphere sounds awesome! That kind of delaying due dates drove me INSANE in 9th grade, too, though. As a teacher, I only ever did that (VERY rarely) if I, say, lost my voice and could not arbitrate a debate that was scheduled or something. I hope things settle down better.

As for college essays (that sounds a lot like how the Lit AP test can be), I'd say a book he really understands is best, but also not one that every other kid will be writing about. Frankenstein, Crime and Punishment, Hamlet, Heart of Darkness, and Mrs. Dalloway all come to mind, but really it depends on what he's studied.

It is an awesome school and actually ranks as the top academic school in the city. I think in part it's because the students are happy and thus motivated to do well and there's a fair number of academically gifted students. Honestly, though, I also think it's because they don't offer more challenging AP courses, so the grades generated in the university-stream courses by the academically-inclined students tend to be higher than in schools where the students are working hard in AP or IB classes.

Thanks for the advice about the essay, that's good to keep in mind. He is considering a couple of his favourite books as candidates. Originally he proposed IT by Stephen King and The Lord of the Flies - two groups of kids, one battling evil and one consumed by it. His teacher wasn't too enthusiastic though. And actually, he was studying Hamlet all day yesterday for a test today. He can't use it for the paper, because they have to choose works that haven't been on their class syllabus.

I am enjoying reading about everyone else. The lovely stories about the little ones take me back to those days .

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by LittleBattleAxe

DD is great -- loves school, etc. Her little friends are all boy-attentive this year, and she isn't - she is bubbly and so much fun, but said that since all the girls want to do is chase boys at recess, she's rather just have one or two school friends this year. She's one of the most social creatures I know so we'll see how long that lasts.

The boy-crazy thing happened in my DD's class when she was 9 y.o. It was generated by one or two girls who were particularly interested in boys. One had much older step-siblings so I think there was some role-modeling of romantic relationships that had an impact on her.

It all seemed a little bizarre to me, but I was as neutral as possible with DD about it. I didn't want to create a tween-aged Romeo and Juliet scenario in her head. We talked a lot about appropriate friendships though (what is a boyfriend? what does "going out" mean?) and appropriate behaviour in school. The teachers were really great. When it started interfering in class, they took the girls aside and had a few talks with them too. It took a couple of months but the kids all settled down eventually. If your DD is resisting the boy-craze, then good for her! How wonderful that she's thinking for herself. I bet there are a few other girls who feel the same way, but are just following the crowd.

[St. Margaret]

Oh, that's cool that they limit it to non-course books. That means he can get so much more creative with his choices I haven't read IT but LOTF is ripe for that kind of philosophical discussion.

[LynnS6]

Originally Posted by St. Margaret

As for college essays (that sounds a lot like how the Lit AP test can be), I'd say a book he really understands is best, but also not one that every other kid will be writing about. Frankenstein, Crime and Punishment, Hamlet, Heart of Darkness, and Mrs. Dalloway all come to mind, but really it depends on what he's studied.

Unfortunately, the assignment was to take a book written in the last 100 years! Frankenstein was published 1818, Crime and Punishment 1866, Hamlet, well, 15xx, Heart of Darkness 1899 (almost close enough!) So the only one that fits is Mrs. Dalloway.

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by LynnS6

Unfortunately, the assignment was to take a book written in the last 100 years! Frankenstein was published 1818, Crime and Punishment 1866, Hamlet, well, 15xx, Heart of Darkness 1899 (almost close enough!) So the only one that fits is Mrs. Dalloway.

I suspect that the 100 year limitation is to make things easier on the students. The connections to social movements, political thoughts and philosophical trends are going to be that much more obvious, I think. Especially since most of the students haven't done any in-depth study of sociology, politics or philosophy, and what they have studied is going to be in the context of basic history or English courses.

If a student came up with a great proposal and was willing to do the slogging on some out-dated language, s/he could probably persuade the teacher to accept it. At least, I hope so.

Thanks to you both for responding, I really appreciate it!

[loraxc]

Just heard from DD's school that she did indeed test as gifted (testing was about 3 weeks ago). It's nice to have it on paper. I don't have the results or the scores or even know what test was used, but we will get them soon. As for what she's doing--she is really into Bananagrams, and is showing some neat progress in drawing now that she's taking an art class. School is not what it could be, but there is at least some acceleration happening. We're continuing to keep an eye on it.

Little DS is obsessed with rhyming and does it all the livelong day. He surprised me the other day by saying "Look, I wrote my name"--he'd produced the first two letters pretty well. (We have never worked on writing.) His productive language is pretty awesome, but what amazes me more is what he can understand and respond to. I think he may be better on that end than his sister was at his age.

[cyncyn]

DD is enjoying being in the 3-4-5 blend class and so far we are glad she skipped 2nd grade. She is the smallest and a young 7, but is handling the social aspects fine. She is still quite emotionally sensitive at home, but it hasn't been an issue at school so far. Her two BFF from last year are in her class and she has made some new friends as well. She went on a 3-day camp out with 90 of the 3-4-5 kids, without dh or I. Ack! I was a bit worried as she had only stayed at G'ma's house without us. She really wanted to go, and seemed to have a great time. Came home filthy but all smiles.

In class, she is also more than keeping up with the work and loves having more advanced materials and concepts than would have been available if she stayed in 2nd grade. Her teacher said dd started working out math averages for some data the class had collected, on her own. Still reading a lot, not quite as much at home as during the summer, since she gets at least an hour a day of free reading at school. We got some blank books and game boards from Bare Books and she has really been enjoying those. She likes video games after school (ugh, I don't) and amazes me with how she can figure them out so quickly. She alternates between wanting to be a marine biologist and a video game designer.

[Rlin]

DS (27 months) is trying to learn how to read. Last week he figured out that we read from left to right and sounds out the different letters. With simple words (bos (=forest in Dutch)) he manages to combine and really read. He's looking for words and letters everywhere, especially letters that are in his name.

He's also trying to be more independent, going potty with closed doors etc. Two steps forward and one step running back to mommy. He has started helping his friend (also 27 months) take her coat and shoes off in the morning when she arrives to play with him and our nanny. He is still trying to convince her to ditch the diapers and use the potty like him, but so far he hasn't succeeded. He really likes her, but also has the typical 2-year-old tantrums and hits her on the head. We're working on this....

[physmom]

DD (21 months) has had a big language explosion lately. She's now speaking up to 6 word sentences and seems to be working on plurals, the -ing form, and referring to time "now..." or "wait..". Everything seems to revolve around dinosaurs right now so we've had to figure out how to incorporate them in our everyday lives. She's even learned a few of their names.

Lately she's been trying to spell more with her magnetic letters on the fridge. If I put a word up there she'll try and add to the word to see what it sounds like. Today she spelled MCAT (I had cat there and she added the m-). Sometimes she'll do tricky ones that are hard for me to pronounce like "rf" together! Counting has also been a big interest (especially from 10-20) so we'll now hear 9,14,16,16,18... Sometimes 10,11,12 get to join in too depending on her mood. She's also having a blast with this shape sorter: http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-W.../dp/B000GKATU0 and will even make her dolls do it too. That's led to her becoming interested in clocks, although I don't think she really gets the entire concept of time yet.

On the other hand, she's been more explosive lately. Sometimes I can just tell she's a ticking time bomb about to destroy something. Today she was sitting on her potty and started to put in a bunch of puzzle pieces inside of it AFTER she'd already peed . I went to clean up the mess and literally 5 seconds later she had grabbed DH's guitar and threw it on the floor (don't ask me why he left it there!) and it broke in two. I knew she was in a seriously nervous mood but I didn't expect something to happen so FAST!

[ellemenope]

Last week, in explaining why I was putting her summer clothes away, DD learned about the four seasons and has now put all of that together saying:

It's fall right now. It is called fall because the leaves are falling. The leaves turn red and brown and yellow and fall down. The flowers are dying, too. It is getting chilly. In the Winter time is Christmas and I have to where my winter hat and winter coat. In the Spring time I can where my sandals again. The flowers will come back in the Spring. Easter is in the Spring. Then it is Summer time. My birthday is in the Summer. I am going to get a bike, maybe, when I turn three.

She adds to it every time. It is never the same. She loves learning things so she can talk about them in long drawn out soliloquies. She has even started retelling long fairy tales to me. She just wants to learn things orally from me and out of non-fiction books, talk, and listen to me read super long picture books. We strictly follow her lead, and she has no interest in letters, numbers, or puzzles so we just don't go there.

However, the other day I was literaly shocked to see her sit down with her dad and go through every single montessori letter flashcard happily giving the letter sound first, then the name of the letter, then a random word starting with that letter with about 90% accuracy. Now, she would never do that for me. But, she will do anything for daddy, I suppose. We do play word games in the car that include some phonics, but she does not even want to look at letters anymore with me and hasn't for about 6 or 7 months now. I would not have been surprised if she had forgoten them. Also, she has no letter toys besides the sandpaper cards and alphabet blocks. Sometimes I wonder if that is a disservice to her. The only letters she sees regularly are the ones in her dear books, and if If I try to draw attention to them, she turns her head away in disgust. So, yeah, I was shocked to see she still knew her letters and now her phonics by sight.

Another wow moment occured last week when she brought me her ladybug nightlight and asked if she could change the batteries. I told her they did not need changing, and she finished: "because Uncle [name] put the new batteries in at Grandpa's kitchen." Seriously? That was almost a year ago, when she was 15 months old. We have never talked about this at all. She routinely has memories from much longer ago, but I have always attributed it to a picture, or a video, or a retelling, or some event that was just really memorable. But, putting batteries in a nightlight. That was pretty mundane. I did not even know she knew what batteries were back then. At 15 months she was barely talking.

She is also really into music. She has been able to visually identify almost every single instrument in an orchestra for a couple of months now, but now she tries to pick them out of music aurally. She also always asks what kind of music we are listening to. One time I told her it was African music, and she asked if there were giraffes and elephants playing the instruments. And, best of all, when she is listening to music she likes, she closes her eyes and just slightly nods her head and moves her little fingers like a maestro would, like she is really feeling the music.

Oh, my gosh, I just realized how aural she is!

[lonegirl]

Let's see...not necessarily a lot new...continuing along.
He is starting to work on level 1 readers. Although I chuckle when he is put on the spot to read he gives this huge exasperated sigh!
Yesterday he cracked himself up. We were in a restaurant washroom and he overheard a girl's name being Gracey. Well he started giggling and said "her name is Gracey and my hands are Greasy!!" lol
His colouring has suddenly jumped right up from crazy scribbling to meticulously colouring within the lines.
He is very logica, and has to have a say in everythingl. Yesterday we were out with my mom and she commented on the lovely colours and that many trees were bare now. Well he says to her "well, gramma that's because it is fall!" Or I showed him a beautiful sunset with pink clouds...he says "well, mommy, night is coming and the the sun is setting that's why it is pink" lol ok smarty pants