School Time

School starts on Wednesday! I know that some parents get all excited about school starting because finally! Those damn termite-like cocoa puff eatin' midgets will finally get out of their house!

Well, perhaps I over exaggerate.

I've never felt burdened by my kids during summer but this fall is special because my youngest will be starting high school.

My daughter is going to be a sophmore this year and as far as personalities are concerned, hers demands a lot of attention. I don't mean that in a bad way, she just has an enormous presence in any room that she enters. She's smart and funny and creative and she casts an awfully big shadow.

It's funny how one family can have two kids that are such opposites. Many of my daughter's activities draw my son in but when she's not around, he's happy to entertain himself by writing computer game programs or reading large books on how the brain works. He does not move with her ease in social situations but he is meditative, kind, and incredibly intelligent.

Ahh yes, the intelligence stuff...many years ago a teacher told us to have him tested to see if he was gifted, not because she liked standardized tests but as she so rightly informed us, noone will believe you unless you can waive a piece of paper under their nose.

And she was right.
We began kindergarten by telling his teacher that he needed more challenges.
We began first grade by telling his teacher that he needed more challenges.
We began second grade by telling his teacher that he needed more challenges.

Third grade was started at a new school and we held back with telling them anything right off the bat. A few weeks into school, his teacher called me up and told me he needed more challenges. I think I wept for joy that day.

Since I tell my kids to always do extra credit, he would often end up a school year with over 100% in his math class and close to that in science and English. By the time eighth grade was over, he was so ready for a real challenge.

That's why I'm excited for school this year. We've met with his advisor and they are totally committed to letting him go as far as he possibly can. What they can't provide, a local college can.

He'll also have access to tech teachers that are excited to teach computer programming and get the kids inspired.

When you have an artistically creative kid, it's easy to find programs out there to take their creativity to the next level but when you have an academically creative kid, many teachers are simply pleased to have their warm body increasing the standardized test scores in their classroom. I hope this isn't the case at his high school.