What I will tell you, I say almost anyone:
My eldest has excellent grades for minimal effort and my second has jumped its first year. Well, it said.
Sounds pretentious? I know.
Having a child or children performers, like happiness. Above all, do not show or talk about it. There are so many children - and parents - must hide the difficulty of academic success. Out of respect. I say "academic" because the sporting success can generally be reported without scruple.
However, gifted children (which are not geniuses, needless to say) live some issues of concern to their parents. For example, teachers encourage children to cooperate, that is to say, to match a child with a very small child. Theoretically, the idea makes sense. Eventually, by cons, the child is very demotivating oddly. He finished his work before the others and would like to take this forward for further work in this area or on an exciting project. However, he spends most of his time repeating the same exercise to a child who does not understand.
You only see the fire in this type of cooperation? Imagine you are an employee performance (which you probably are) and when you finish a record, you are asked to provide concepts of word processing to Ginette who does not understand computers. What happens there? The first time you'll be very excited to help your friend. Then you may be a little upset, then you will understand that you have no interest to complete your work before others, because you end up with Ginette who does probably never computers anyway.
Other issues, gifted children learn not cope with failure. They do not learn to fall and especially not to recover. Once they fear a second place, they abdicate and are seldom in danger. For a parent, it's quite worrying.
Thus, during its third year, my major could obtain 100% ballot in mathematics and French. Since I did not cause a genius, I shared my concern about the ease of the curriculum with their teacher. "Is it right to invest 15 minutes a week in his school to get perfect scores? This is not that life! What will it later when it will make an effort? The demands of school are they too low? "
teacher's response was simple. Half the group was failing. She could not see what I was complaining. Indeed, my life and my daughter were easy. What was my problem? A freak, I tell you.
My second daughter has a temperament very different from my eldest. The first is fast, conformist and carbide for-dollar school. The other is much slower, original and carbide ... carbide does not.
She has done more slowly than its predecessor. Pre-writing, colors, words or loops were not acquired at an early age. It is curious, but whimsical. She is interested in everything in its way, at their own pace.
But she was four years old when his sister was his first year. She was immediately very interested in learning to read. She listened and watched her sister's words labels on the kitchen table. She was amused to recognize words in books, want always "practicing his letters" and "doing homework, too." She even asked already require it to do its homework, then to quibble when I say no.
Did I learn to read? Not officially. She lives in an intellectually stimulating environment. When she learned her sister was doing his homework, when she played at school in the basement with her friends, she always older.
She became interested in simple syllables like "ba", "mo", through its games with the big ones. The good parent would he had him banned? Should he have to answer him wait to be a freshman at each of his questions?
Yes, with me every exit became an arena for learning. Yes, I said "look baby bananas" when we went to the supermarket. And yes, later I said "Do you recognize the word banana when we were following a recipe." It was stronger than me. A freak. True.
I still did I know that all my little comments over here and hence would allow him to read before entering school. I had the same thing with my eldest and she never was interested in the alphabet before his first year!
How is my child, so slow in everything she had done to learn how to read syllables such as "ouch," "oi" or "eille? "Easy, Mom. The syllable eille looks like the end of the word ear. A word I know! "It was interesting.
The saddest part of this story is that my daughter thought it was forbidden to read in kindergarten. So she hid his knowledge to his teacher, but read Sometimes words and books to his friends in secret. She was ashamed to read in school!
His mother also elsewhere. Not easy being the freak of the neighborhood. Especially a child who can read reinforces the image of mother and successful careerist
few weeks before the end of the school year, I still took my courage in both hands to betray our terrible secret. "My daughter reads a novel a week before falling asleep. I know it's my fault. What do we do now? "
Very surprised, the teacher has apologized for not having noticed his ability to read earlier. "I have three children who will redouble their tongue. Imagine, kindergarten! "
I imagined.
Only a few weeks since my daughter no longer wanted to "to keep" at school. "Would it be possible for her to go for rides in a freshman class? All her friends are there! "Especially since the weekend, the girls played together at school and were organized scavenger hunts in the yard games where the writing was still very central.
What was the response of the teacher? "If you want, we can make him blow his first year. I will find out, she could spend her final exams in first year next week. "
What was the idea? We wanted to prove to myself that my daughter did not have the necessary knowledge? Since when have teachers they recommend parents to skip the years to children? "But I do not want my daughter skipped her year! She lacks the maturity, has not learned to write properly and knows nothing of mathematics! I just want her to learn and stay motivated in class! "
We were Friday. The examination was scheduled for Tuesday.
I explained the situation to my little reader, and we bought an exercise book "just to see." His math skills were effectively zero. By cons, she was very motivated to go and join her friends to another level. She spent two hours a day in her math book and that, during the three days before the exams.
The following Tuesday, she passed her tests during the games of first-graders. He was not given any chance. The noise level was at its peak and her friends playing around her came to greet her regularly.
Results? She passed with flying colors all his exams, but could not write in the corridors, which we already knew.
In kindergarten, my daughter was now among the strongest students in the early years! All she knew math was only a couple of days! A genius? Well Of course not. Just a girl motivated to join his gang!
Before enrolling my daughter in second grade, the principal of the school required that she be evaluated by a psychologist. A private psychologist. The resources of the School Board used only serious cases. Normal.
Today my daughter is in her second year. I fail to sit for more than ten minutes per week to make him do his homework. It is not the first in his class, but doing pretty well. She is happy. Much more than last year!
