A guest post by the kid himself.

I'm not gonna lie. My kid makes me laugh. Sometimes cry, but mostly laugh.

They are ending the school year with an animal research project. If there's one thing you should know about my kid? Animals have been his "thing" since birth.

At the age of 5 he declared that he would be a marine biologist. Around the same time we had taken a spring break trip to the St. Louis area. Naturally, having a kid so into animals, the zoo was high on the list of places to go.

The day we went to the zoo, it was if we had our our tour guide. Our own 5 year old tour guide. It was really the first time I thought "Um. huh. This kid knows a lot about animals."

At one point we were walking past this sculpture and I commented "That's an odd looking bug"

My son then said matter of factly "Oh, that's a giant stag beetle also known as an elephant beetle.."

He then may have said a few other facts about this bug but I didn't hear him because I was too busy picking up my jaw.

It doesn't surprise me that this research project is perfect for him. It's what he does naturally on his own anyways. Unfortunately, all this natural knowledge has led him to this situation:

( I asked him to write his story-below)

Okay, so I have to do this research thing in school, and uh, well basically EVERY single thing I searched for on countless sites on the computer said something like this: No matches were found for your search, double check your spelling. Another example is “Animal unknown, search something else”, just to name a few.

B’s logical list of animals he tried to search up on the sites he used
1. My 1st try was the highfin lizardfish.
2. Next was the lizardfish
3. I did the dumbo octopus too.
4. Then I did the bonefish (cool name, so I thought I would attempt it)
5. I also tried the squat lobster
6. The vent crab was next
7. The tubeworm
8. And last, the giant ostr(I don’t know whether the next letter is a u,o,a, or I, so I’ll take a guess) ocod.

As I searched up these fish, I raised my hand. A teacher came over and said, “What do you need?”

I said, “How do you spell this?”

The teacher replied, “What the heck are you trying to spell there”, pointing to the giant ostr (The a,I,o, or u dilemma came up again)ocod.

I said, THAT’S why I’m asking you!!!!!”

She said, “why don’t search up something more common?”

“Everything COMMON I know about!!!!”

She said, “why don’t you search up something less exotic then??”

“Everything LESS EXOTIC I know too much about so there’s no point of researching it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Well, you’re going to have to think of something.” And she walked away.

In line, I talked about how I searched on 7,000,000,000 sites, and 0 animal-related links came up. The teacher then sent me to the school library (Okay, before you continue reading, start singing the movie JAWS theme song, and when you get to the final note, read the next part) to pick up an animal book of my interest. So I searched, and I found a manatee book. Hopefully I’ll find a better subject. Hopefully.
____________________________

I have to admit. My favorite part about his story is him sticking up for himself and not giving into just researching any old thing.

I volunteered to go into the class to help kids research on Thursday. I have a feeling I know who I'll be helping.

Time to Test

This week my son will have standardized testing that will put him on a path for the rest of his elementary years.

I've known about this testing since he was 5.

In the fall he had his first standardized test ever. This test was called the Cogat. Our district uses this test in the fall to (mostly) determine those kids who would benefit from honors math in the 3rd grade.

Honestly? I sort of laughed at it. I know that my son tends to test well. I also know he doesn't have any real issues picking up math concepts. I was concerned about the work that he had been bringing home. It certainly did not indicate honors math for his future.

He's not the type of smart kid who gets 100% on everything. He is not a perfectionist. He is not grade motivated. Actually, it's not uncommon for him to say "You know it doesn't matter if I get an F on this right?"

Huh. That attitude is fun to parent.

It's not that he doesn't totally care. He picks and chooses beforehand if it is important to him or not. If it's not? Forget it.

But he did test well. He then passed the next two levels of testing to get into honors math. It's been a good fit for him. That is not to say it's been easy. It has not. Dudes, 3rd grade honors math? Hard.

"Are you smarter than your 3rd grade honors math student?"

Barely.

So that brings us to this weeks standardized testing. Two different tests including the Cogat (again) and the ITBS. I have no idea what the 2nd test is all about.

Since he's already in honors math, this round of testing will determine honors English that starts in 4th grade.
(It also determines if he gets into the districts “official” gifted program but I’m not even thinking about that because I think his odds are slim.)

This should be a no brainer for him. Even more so than the math, but here's the deal. For whatever reason he tends to test worse for English related testing than math. And it's maddening.

Here, a kid who taught himself to read by the age of 3 tests lower in English.

Makes no sense, I tell you.

I'm not trying to be like "Oh, my kid is so smart and should test well in everything” I’m not. But if you were to know my kid, you would know that his communication skills and vocabulary are years beyond his age.

I'm saying that he should test higher in English than Math. But he doesn't.

I think with math, he actually is forced to slow down and think. With the English stuff, he just plows right through it as quick as he can and doesn't really absorb the content. I'm just guessing. I know he likes to brag to me how quick he finishes testing. So there's that.

I guess we'll see what happens. I don't place any pressure on him. I do let him know that the testing will determine if he gets into other programs like honors math but that they don't matter as far as anything else. Which is mostly true.

In the meantime, I'll be over here eating Easter Kit Kats.

Seeing the Light

To say that my sons first 3 years of school were painful for us is a bit of an understatement. If he had wanted to be homeschooled, I would have pulled him out faster than rice crispies out of the pot after the marshmallows have melted. But he didn’t. He enjoyed gym so much that he powered on being “tortured” with the daily curriculum.

You may ask, “Well why didn’t you do something about it if it was so bad for your kid.”

Two words: We tried. Every year. Every parent conference. Every meeting we requested.

If there’s one thing school personnel does not like to be told it’s that your child dislikes school. Of course he used the word “hates” when describing it with a few others:

Waste of my time
Boring
Same stuff over and over

And the question that got me every time:
“When am I going to learn?”
Ouch.

I’m not talking about a 10 year old either. He started saying these things at the age of 4 in preschool.

These same sentiments continued until this year. He’s 8.

It had been clear to me from the beginning that the curriculum track that my district was on was not going to work for him.

During one of the meetings we had with a handful of people last year, I always ask the same sort of question.

“How can we better utilize the curriculum for him? How can it be stretched and how far? How much is the school willing to do for bright kids?”

Surely, I am NOT the only parent with a child in this position. I am not in belief that my child is some sort of prodigy. He is bright. Really bright. He’s not the brightest they have dealt with, I’m sure.

So there must be something. Right?

At one meeting we were basically told that their hands were tied with the curriculum and they were trying to sell us on it being sufficient.

You know what? I don’t do well with trying to be blinded with sheep skin.
I responded with

“Listen, this district’s curriculum is NOT the best in the area, or this state, or the country, so stop trying to tell me that it is”

Their response?

“It’s what we have to work with”

And that is true.

Let’s fast forward to this year shall we?

Keep in mind, that meeting above happened in May of last year.

Not even six months later it comes on my radar about the new national Common Core Curriculum standards.

If you’re not familiar with it, and you child attends public schools, get informed.
What does that mean for our district?

It means that our Superintendent has said publically that OUR OWN curriculum is estimated to be about A YEAR behind the new standards.

A year people.

Think of that really bright student sitting in class who may be 2 years ahead in curriculum trying to learn with a curriculum that is one year behind. Any enrichment he was receiving was only bringing him up to the new standards.

And this is where I start to get really pissed off people. I’m not going to lie.

I was told by my own principal that I shouldn’t really be concerned that my kid hates school and I should take those thoughts with “a grain of salt”

You know what she should have said?

“I’m sorry. I know that these past few years have probably been rough for your child. The good news is that our curriculum is getting an overhaul and that should help. You are right to be concerned with your child’s feelings toward school. Those feelings need to be dealt with because your son has many years of education ahead of him. “

Why didn’t they just fess up and know that they were dealing with something substandard?

The new curriculum is set to be in place in year 14-15.

I’ll be waiting.