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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Great news and sad news in the same envelopes

Today Matthew and Sarah brought home the results of the gauntlet of testing they went through to see if the school deems them worthy of the Gifted and Talented program. They've been taking tests throughout the past few months, and the results are in.

Matthew IS approved to participate in the program for next year. I thought he had a strong chance of making it, especially since he is a-maz-ing-ly creative at problem-solving. He is so creative that he makes huge projects for himself literally every afternoon when he gets home for school. It makes a huge mess, because he collects things from all over the house to make his ideas become reality. It reminds me of the this commercial released around Christmastime that was put out by the LDS church. This scenario happens at our house every day.

It's a big hassle to clean everything up, and it used to really bother me. I was very tempted to box up all the bins of craft supplies and hide them so they would stop making such colossal messes. Luckily I had an epiphany moment before the crafts were doomed to the garage. I realized that Matthew LOVES self-initiating these projects and he's so good at thinking outside of the box in order to reach his goals. I didn't want to curb his enthusiasm for being creative, so I let the craft supplies stay.

We were very excited for him with this success, even though I don't agree with the standardized testing and 'labeling' of children. I think lots of children are very smart, but don't conform to the one mold created by the public school system. I think standardized testing is flawed, which brings me to the next point.

Sarah's envelope held disappointment. She is a very good student, but not considered eligible for the Gifted program. She has gotten straight A's and has been performing above her grade level in a couple academic areas, so I am not sure why they didn't accept her into the full-time program. We thought she had a great chance at making it into the program, especially since she reads so far beyond her grade level.  She had been participating in the Gifted program all year this year and really loved the enriching activities. She crumpled into tears at the thought of missing the program's activities and was very morose all evening. It was very hard news to bear.  She perused her letter and noticed the small print. She pleaded with me to make an appointment with the school staff so I can discuss the testing results with the administrators. We'll see what happens.

She was very depressed in inconsolable for a long time. I told her that we don't have to let the school be the only thing to provide the 'gifted' activities. I suggested that we could incorporate homeschooling into our family again and we could provide her enriching activities at home. We are planning on homeschooling over the summer anyway, and the 8 week social studies program I'm planning is WAY more intense than the school was anyway. (Massive tangent: It's a history immersion program that takes the children through great civilization of the past each day. They learn several arts and facts of the culture and time period then they present it in a cultural celebration at the end. I have the curriculum for Ancient Rome and the Ancient Americas {Inca, Maya, and Aztec nations'}, but we haven't picked which one to do yet. As a previous homeschooling mom, I think these books are amazing! I can't wait to start the material!) She perked up a bit at this discussion.

Nathan also suggested that he should make German pancakes for dinner if it would cheer Sarah up. She nodded 'yes' and felt much better. I'm glad he thought of making German pancakes; they use up a dozen eggs in one sitting. Our chickens have been producing prodigiously and we literally have buckets overflowing with eggs right now. Some days we collect a dozen eggs in one afternoon! Anyone want some farm-fresh eggs? Seriously. I have like 6 dozen.

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