Usually I write about how much my kids drive me crazy, the strange things they do or say, how I muddle through my days. C'mon, it's a lot more interesting than "my kids are the best and brightest kids on Earth". Today, is an exception. Today I am going to tell you about my brilliant son. You heard me, keep reading, because you won't see a post like this too often.
My story begins at the beginning of last year, when Andy was entering the 2nd grade. I went to Curriculum Night for the Gifted and Talented (G&T) teacher. One of the things our district offers, which she briefly touched upon, is telescoping. Telescoping is where they allow you to skip a grade, but only in one subject. In this case, it's math. Andy's a smart kid, and he's really good at math. He understands it very quickly and you don't often have to explain a concept more than once. After the meeting I asked the teacher a little more about it. Basically you have to tell your teacher you are interested, and then they have to collect months worth of data on your child to see if they are even eligible. It sounded like a ton of work so I just kind of let it drop. I've told you before how lazy I am, right?
Fast forward about six months to Open House. It just so happened that on the day of Open House the G&T parents group posted on Facebook something like, "Have you thought about telescoping for your child? Ask your child's principal or teacher if they would be a good candidate." If that had been posted any other day I would have completely blown it off and not thought about it again. But since it was fresh in my mind, when I saw the principle in the hallway that night I asked her about it. She didn't know if Andy was a viable candidate and told me to ask the G&T teacher. Since we were on our way to her class I asked her next. The first thing she said was, "Can he do fourth grade math?" Charlie and I just looked at each other. How were we supposed to know? We didn't even know what 4th grade math entailed. Again, it sounded like a lot of work. So we dropped it. A second time.
A week or two later a note came home in Andy's folder stating something like, "You have inquired about telescoping. We are having a telescoping meeting at this day and time, will you be able to come?" It was right after school and I didn't have anybody to leave the kids with. We also had kind of given up on the idea of doing it. So I checked no. Not interested. I sent it back and then discussed it with a friend. We kind of agreed that maybe I should go to the meeting and find out more about it (she was intrigued as well) and she would watch my kids. Bonus. If anything I got an hour away from the kids by myself (you didn't think I would make it though this whole story without at least one shot at the kids, did you?). Of course, I had already selected no on the form. Oh well (so, so lazy).
A couple days later the Assistant Principal called. She wanted to know if I had selected no on the form because we were no longer interested or because I couldn't go to the meeting. That gave me the chance to tell her that I was interested and could now go to the meeting. As it turned out, there were only six parents that showed up. There are over 450 kids in Andy's school and only six were interested in this program. Not that they really advertise it, I think there are lots of smart kids in Andy's grade that could do it, it's just not very well known.
They started going through a list of qualifications that the kids had to meet to even be eligible to take the telescoping test. Meaning they weren't just going to let anybody take it. Test scores, grades, classroom behavior, a little bit of everything. As the G&T teacher went down the list, Andy met every single requirement. Some of the kids were going to have to take extra tests just to see if they were eligible for testing, but for whatever reason Andy had already fulfilled taken them all. Nothing was standing in his way. The district was even willing to pay for the test to be administered, the only thing we had to do was give our permission for him to show up. That completely met my requirement of me needing to do nothing but making sure he was there, and it was during the school day so how hard was that?
We studied a little bit to make sure he was familiar with third grade math concepts, and a few weeks before school ended he took the test. We tried to explain the importance of making sure to use all the time and educated guessing if he wasn't sure of an answer, so I was a little nervous when he finished in about half the time given. When I asked him why he didn't use all the time he said he had already gone over the entire test twice and it was almost time for recess. Um, okay, I see where your priorities lie. In order to pass and get accepted into the program he needed to get a 90% on the exam. As it turned out he got a 74 out of 75. He missed one. We were unbelievably proud of him, but he was a little bit nervous.
Fast forward again to the beginning of the school year and his first day of math. He loved it. He loves his teacher, it's all good. The only problem is that he's missed a few classes. It's up to him to leave at math time and go to the fourth grade class, and sometimes, for various reasons, he doesn't make it. The other day I was lecturing him about how he needs to leave whether his home room teacher tells him to go or not and that it is his responsibility to get to that class and how if he doesn't go he could miss something on a test that it only explained that one day, etc. He just smiled at me and said, "I don't think that's going to be a problem." Okay smart guy, why not? Apparently his math teacher put him in a special group of five kids that's ahead of the rest of the class. That's right, not only is he in an advanced class but he is one of the best kids in that class. Now our pride is overflowing.
I don't know how much this love of math is going to last or if it's going to take him anywhere, but for right now I am so amazed at what he has done, how well he has adjusted, how much he hungers for more, that I could not be any prouder or happier for him. How far my little man has come!
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