Really, what is the point of having children? From a biological standpoint, it would appear to be an opportunity to further certain traits (genes, if you will) that ostensibly will be beneficial to the species. So the male contributes his random selection to the female's handful of possibilities and get something new. (As Jeremy would say, "Super powers-- unite!") But what do you do when they don't necessarily combine for the better?
We had our parent teacher conference today and finally got our answer about math lab, among other things. The good news is that Sebastian has improved quite a bit in his social skills and is having fewer outbursts and resolving conflicts more effectively. He also is following in Uncle Jamie's footsteps and will probably be entered in the spelling club as a second grader even though it usually starts at 3rd grade. The regular old, neither good nor bad news concerning his math skills is that he is "average". At this point in the conversation, I got a little feisty (what else is new?) and said that he is able to answer math questions at home that have led me to believe that he is advanced. Then I was accused (correctly) of being an overachiever and (incorrectly) of trying to push Sebastian by doing math at home. I had to explain myself, that these were just real world scenarios where math has come up, because, frankly, I have less important things (RockBand) to do than math drills. So, where it stands is that he is highly skilled in computation, but his organizational skills leave a lot to be desired. And the reason he was so "far ahead" of the other math lab students is that he was going with a remedial group for the social skills experience. (I swear this is not how it was presented to me at the beginning of the year, but what can you do?)
Here's where the bad gene combo strikes. Add one stubborn, know-it-all mother who never liked to show her work (except for her weird obsession with geometry proofs) to one doodling father and you get Sebastian.
A sample of his math work goes like this: "Rosa and Max are picking apples. Rosa picks 3 apples and Max picks 4 apples. How many apples did they pick in all? Show your work." In the large blank square below, Sebastian would draw an entire orchard of apple trees, Rosa in a full outfit with woven basket full of 3 apples with stems and leaves, Max in a full outfit with his own woven basket with 4 detailed apples (worms and all), and then somewhere hidden is the number 7. This is what would generously be described as creative, but disorganized. Was this the fastest, most efficient way to come to the conclusion? Certainly not. Because of this, he needs to continue with the first grade math to strengthen his organizational skills, and that is fine.
Mystery solved.
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2 comments:
you are lucky. i did the same thing in second grade, and had to go to the school counselor. my teacher wanted to have me tested to see if i was crazy. i think i came back add--and bored. go figure. and now look at me. still hate math, and always drawing little pictures. but i turned out ok.
sounds like a perfectly acceptable way to solve the problem. seriously.
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