Early Give 'Em Math Early

Desperate for work once, I applied for a job as an accounts receivable/accounts payable clerk for a small shipping company. I was a math moron (still am) but it was Edmonton, it was February, I was cold and I was broke. I thought maybe if I told some of the truth and was likable in the interview they might pity me and train me.

It worked. The woman was very nice, she assured me the job wouldn't be harder than balancing my cheque book. I didn’t tell her it would be easier for me to balance a knife on my nose.

I was on time every morning, raring to go, fun at break, won a few games of Name That Tune for them at happy hour but it was less than 3 weeks before they begged me to leave before I put them out of business.

That was the first and last time I ever had a job that required math. I have steered my way clear of it ever since.

Sucking at math is on a long list of things I don’t want my kids to inherit from me. They both go to Bright Minds, a Renert program for kids 5 to 12 and in reading this article that decision was once again validated. 

Turns out there is a name for people like me, we are functionally innumerate, a fact I readily boast about when in a crowd of fellow math morons and we are all vying to see who is the most incapable. 

It’s strange the way sucking at math is okay but being unable to read is not something people boast about. Those days are as good as gone. Math will be at the centre of most of the things our kids want to do and being good at it is now sexy - not geeky.

The article cites examples of the things kids should know about math when they are very young and I recognize them as being a big part of the Bright Minds program.

Both of my kids are math capable and could handle that accounts job now - they are 8 & 10.

Read the article, it refers to American stats but the facts are no different up here. Get your kids into math early, do more with them than they get at school -  the same way you do with reading. 

Re: Gifted

This article irked me. It's entitled:  Parenting Gifted Kids: Keep Them Challenged and Humble

That advice applies to ALL kids, not just the gifted ones. 

Aren’t all kids gifted by very virtue of the fact they are here and have potential? 

I don’t mean that in a cumbyaya-huggy-granola way but as a simple truth. If engaged and mentored and nurtured couldn’t the average kid do at least one thing well if they loved it and practiced a lot?

Don't they all qualify as gifted at something. There are some little mathematicians, budding scientists, great writers, voracious readers, excellent joke tellers, superb dancers, angelic voices and talented artists out there.

ALL kids, all people for that matter, should be kept, as the articles says, “challenged and humble”. 

Pretty much all kids are smarter than what is expected of them in school - if not across the board then most certainly at one thing. 

Parents read to their kids in utero, kids watch TV earlier, play educational games on devices before they can speak, are exposed to more sooner and have adults with them on playdates for the first five years of their lives who monitor, interject, correct, explain and explore with them and as a result kids are articulate, tech savvy and keen before they even get to school.

But, the curriculum hasn't changed to reflect the fact kids head into school with busier brains so how could they not appear talented or gifted at something?

Defined like this:

The term gifted and talented student means children and youths who give evidence of higher performance capability in such areas as intellectual, creative, artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the schools in order to develop such capabilities fully.

... every kid fits the bill in some way and gifted is the new normal.

What do you think?

C Stands for Catastrophe

February 14, 2013

Grade 1 to 3 we learn to read, from grade 4 on we read to learn. I have written about this a few times, most recently here.

Moving kids ahead before they have a grip on this year's skills defeats the whole purpose of getting up to go to school in the first place...no?

That doesn't mean holding the kid back to repeat the whole year over again, that never made sense. But it does mean identifying the problem and fixing it in the class, with outside resources, a code, a tutor, whatever is needed but it can't be left unaddressed.

I picture it like an avalanche - a bunch of new snow falls on top of old snow that hasn't had a chance to solidify, the new snow can’t get a grip and begins to break apart, there is nothing under it to support it and the slide begins.

It’s not hard to spot the kids who are caught in the slide - they sit in class praying they are not called on. They feel judged and stupid. And it just keeps getting worse. They feel more inadequate, more confused and frustrated every day. The place they go to everyday that promised learning is making them feel dumb.

This quote comes from Philip Regier, a dean discussing university courses, but it applies to little kids too, kids that get moved ahead sometimes with much less than a 70% grip on what they have been taught: 

“It’s the Swiss cheese effect. You can’t have a big hole in your knowledge. If you get a C, you know 70 percent of the material for one course. 

But the missing 30 is likely to be important to passing the next course.”  (more here)

And for the little ones getting their footing it’s reading and math  ...  “Mathematics, for example, is “ruthlessly cumulative” and so missing a chunk of it early on can cause big problems down the line.”  Annie Murphy Paul

It’s like the Renert brothers (creators of the Bright Minds math enrichment program) say; Moving kids ahead before they master the material is like giving someone a two wheeler after they spent a morning on a tricycle and fell off it half the time. 

But, unlike school, if they never master riding a bike they can park the thing forever and get through life just fine without out. 

Aspergers or Gifted; Take Your Pick

February 11, 2013

This response gets a page of it own so I can Tweet it and FB and more people can read it. This story is mind-blower. Thanks AnonyMom #2

The Coding Kids Conundrum

February 11, 2013

I received a comment mail on a recent blog. I appreciate and welcome all comments. It’s how the conversation starts and more information becomes available. head here for the post and comments

When it comes to our kids and their experiences in school every situation is different. Different schools, different kids, different teachers, different issues. No two will be exactly alike. And, in many cases, what one parent was told will sound incorrect to another based on what they were told.

I don’t claim to be an expert on any of the issues posted here. I relay the information and it is up to readers to do with it what they want.

The topic of Codes and Consequences is a big one. I know a few moms who had wonderful experiences with having their child assessed, coded and helped. I also know some who have had unsatisfactory results with the coding process and were left to manage their irreversible decisions. 

I know a teacher who taught for 20 years without ever having a coded student in her class, she changed schools and now has six. She is trying to figure out what that means and how to make it work for the kids all 28 of them in her class.

IPP’s are a good thing when they work. They are disappointing when they don’t. One thing is for sure; parents need to know as much as they can about the benefits, disadvantages and consequences of the program. The only way to do is to speak to people about it; teachers, administrators, doctors and other parents.

Kids With Guns, AGAIN.

Friday  February 8, 2013

I can't get my head around any of this anymore.

Having being a child ages ago in what now seems like some utopian fairy world, part of me thinks we hover around our kids too much now, worry about their feelings, their grades, their friends, what they are climbing, eating, doing, putting their heads in helmets and teeth in braces as soon as we bring them home from the hospital, that we have filleted them and created a bunch of spineless, indecisive, over-sensitive wafflers who will grow up alarmingly unfit to take care of the themselves let alone the future and the world and our collective needs as their old age citizens. 

But then there is the other part of me that cannot believe the way the world has changed with classes that are over crowded, swacks of kids are coded, families that are decimated, kids that have felt deep, debilitating, core rattling hurt before they get their first paper cut and - where some can't wipe their own butt without help, others are child gangsters and every week there is another story like this one below from last night’s news.

And I, what? in my naive bubble? walk around all day wondering; where did these kids come up with the idea to kill? where did they get guns? how did they make it past breakfast without anyone realizing they were heading to school to murder friends? Am I naive? Sane, while the rest of the world is crazy? A moron for having kids?

These children are in grade 5! What the fuck is going on? 

Student caught carrying a knife, gun and ammunition

KREM.com

Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:40 PM

Updated today at 5:36 AM

COLVILLE, Wash. -- One student was caught with a knife, gun and ammunition in his backpack on Thursday according to Colville School District employees.  District leaders confirmed that the Fort Colville Elementary School student and a friend admitted to wanting to hurt as many as seven students.

Both 5th grade students were expelled and were taken into police custody, said Superintendent Michael Cashion.

He credits another student for warning school staff. The boy spotted a knife in another student’s backpack and notified staff at Fort Colville according to Cashion.  School administrators searched the backpack. Cashion said they found a knife, gun and ammunition. However, Cashion added that the gun was not loaded.

The student admitted that he and friend planned to hurt his girlfriend. Both students were then questioned according to Cashion. Both students then confessed to wanting to hurt other students as well.

District leaders could not confirm how the students obtained the weapons. Police are working to track the gun through registration. 

The Stevens Co. prosectuor says children of this age are usually too young to face charges, but they are still looking into the possibility because of the severity of the allegations.

Sick Kids

February 7, 2013

It’s the season of the plagues in the petrie dish otherwise known as school. 

We managed to get through the Christmas holidays unscathed, but a couple of those nasty viruses followed my kids home this week. They have both spent the last two days on the couch. Clancy had an inflamed enormous terribly sore tonsil - antibiotics, better the next day. Jack however - I don’t know what he’s got.

He never gets sick and I attribute that to his disdain for drugs. Right from the start he refused to buy in - gripe water, baby Tylenol, antibiotics, anything in a dropper he pushed away, leaving him only his own defenses with which to fight. And now the kid has Keith Richard's immune system.

His sister, however, is a Valley of the Dolls* kind gal. Once that pink baby tongue of hers got its first slurp on the eye dropper that was it. She’s been lickin’ them clean and jonesing for more ever since. So, of course, if there is something going around it usually finds her. 

While Clancy was tripping on meds listing to Grace Slick*, her brother has been fighting things off with his ferocious fevers, strong sweats and bodacious barfing. The layers of defences in our immune systems are a marvel of human nature. Nodes and fevers, warriors they are. Hot, mean germ killers. Had Clancy been the second kid her fevers too would be the stuff of lore. 

First time parenting...ah, if only I could have a redo on the first one.

Anyway, Jack-who-is-never-sick has woken up the last two mornings with a huge headache. I can tell it really hurts, he has Headache Face. With the head pain he also has a raging fever. He asked for pills - asked for them! So I chopped Advils into tiny pieces (Holy smokes do those suckers fly if you tweak ‘em just so. Damn near killed the cat with one.) and he managed to swallow them but it was a bit of a gong show, the kid has had no pill practice. 

Within a half hour he was pain-free and fever-free but still not himself and then both nights the fevers and pain came back. I don’t think it’s anything serious, I think it’s Jack’s way of fighting something off. Besides, headaches are a symptom of so many things that without a sore ear, raw throat or runny nose what would a doctor tell us? That said, if it starts all over again in the morning I will take him in and see what's what.

When I was pregnant I worried about a lot of things: How could I possibly help them with math? What if I don’t like them? What if they don’t like me? What if I misplaced them? Near the top of the list was headaches - having been a migraine sufferer all my life I can tell you that I pray that neither of them inherits this misery. 

There are so many ways I can consiously screw them up, it's no fun if I simply pass it on.

Kids Ashamed to Admit They Can't Read

February 3, 2013

Being able to read seems as much a given in today's world as being free of the dangers of polio. But where science can develop a vaccine to guard against disease, children are still moving through the grades without having mastered the ability to read. What happens to them is no less crippling than polio.

As a literate Canadian it would probably shock to you know that 48% of adults in this country over 16 are functionally illiterate. (Source: here)

That means one out of every two little kids might be joining those staggering statistics. Is it your kid or the one beside them? And how it is that either of them are at risk in 2013? 

Why? Because kids don't tell anyone they can't read. In one heartbreaking story a little boy put all his efforts into convincing people he was deaf rather than admit he couldn't read. 

How is possible that a child thinks it is more productive, less ostrasizing, more beneficial to pretend he can't hear rather than admit he can't read? Shame.

No matter how smart a kid may be at math and science, or talented as an artist, or fabulous on the playing field, not being able to read well - or at all - creates a perception amongst his peers that he is dumb.

From kindergarten to grade 3 we learn to read. From grade 4 and on we read to learn. 

There is no more instruction. By the time kids get to grade 4 they are expected to be able to learn new subjects and explore new ideas and concepts while reading - AND - they are introduced to French. 

Can you imagine how hard grade 4 must be if reading is a code you have not cracked? And as if fumbling through one language wasn't bad enough, now you have two? How lonely and dumb you must feel when all the other kids seem to be doing just fine with it? Would your behaviour change? Would you want to go to school? Would you be angry and frustrated?  

Watch this, click here  

If you think your child might be having trouble I have an expert friend who will assess your child for free. She doesn't pay me to mention her, I simply trust her, have seen her help people of all ages. Her name is Lani, her company is Beacon Literacy. Here is the site.

Pills Should Be a Last Resort For Kids

Originally Posted January 25, 2012

A mom I know at school told me this story today.


A warning to parents getting kids assessed and coded.




Sarah has two boys, her older son is now in grade five. The first three years of school were not great for him. He was easily bored, inattentive, fidgety - all the things lots of little boys do when in the-sit-still-and-listen environment. In grade three the teacher told the Sarah that Flynn needed an assessment.

Sarah explained that though her boy may not stare at her as she spoke, keep his desk clean and still perfectly still he was quite normal. After several meetings and more frustration the teacher finally said, just try it, give him one of the ADHD drugs for a month and see what happens. 

Wow.

What is going on? Shouldn’t meds be a LAST resort?

So thankfully Sarah knew better and took the boy to her pediatrician who asked the obvious question: What qualifies this teacher to suggest you medicate your child?

She took Flynn for an assessment, paid the couple of grand for it only to find out he was ahead of his grade in all subjects but that he had dysgraphia, no need for a prescription but it explained a lot. 

Sarah had been advised that she should give the school the file it would mean the boy would be coded and get extra help. He was coded, he did not get any significant extra help.

And now that diagnosis is in his file - forever - and here's what she didn't know: it limits Sarah’s future options as some schools and some programs will not admit kids with a learning disadvantage in one area, no matter how bright they are in others. It's kind of like trying to get an insurance policy with a pre-exisiting condition, no one will cover you.

Had she known what the possible drawbacks were to submitting for an IPP beforehand she would have chosen a different route.

We need ALL the information before we can make advised decisions about our kids.

HOW SCHOOL WORKS
Connecting the Dots for Parents and Kids.
Seminars. Coming soon.

Parents Have So Many Questions

Originally Posted January 23, 2013

I am often asked what made me create this site and it’s only fair to start with the truth, it came quite by accident, I am not living the life I planned. 

The mere fact I have kids let alone am this involved with their education is insane. And people who knew me back then cannot believe it.

When I was in my 20’s the life I imagined was going to end tragically before I was thirty, plane crash with a band (or something like it) and I would forever be remembered as young and funny and gone before my time. No husbands, kids, house or mini vans for me, yuck yuck yuck and yuck.

Here I am, 22 years past my 30th birthday. I held of on marriage until I was 35, (when I found my prince) the mortgage in the ‘burbs until I was 36, the breeding until I was 41 and the Dodge Caravan until I was 43.

We all know what happens when we say never.

Our lives are made up of many versions of ourselves and I have to tell you, if I had met THIS me when I was 25 I would never have been able to imagine what road would take me here...it sure wasn’t on the map I was holding then. But here I am and I can say with certainty I am living the life I am meant to -
I just never dreamed of it, it all came as  a surprise which makes it all the more lovely.

Every now and again I see my kids as strangers. It’s a fraction of a second but there’s a slight shift and it’s as though I am seeing them for the first time and admiring them as if they are not mine but wish they were ... then, bang, everything shifts back and I am awash in such joy that they ARE mine and it makes me well up. But so does being around the too much. Right?

Yummy as they are I still love my time alone. I remember when they were babies I’d think: When the little one gets to grade one I am going to revel in the silence, the clean, the solitude. I am going to have 8:30 - 2:30 to myself everyday. 

I will nap, read, talk to adults without interruption. They will be in the care of professionals all day who will show them how to sing and dance and colour and read and frankly, my work will be done, it’s up to the schools from that point on.

And that’s the way it was in ’67 when I went off to grade one. I took a bus, my mom did not have a car. I was gone all day. She didn’t come in to cut paper plates or sit on council. She came to the school three times a year for P/T interviews and that was it. 

So naturally I assumed it would be the same in 2009. Alas...

The classes are bigger, the teachers are busier, there is less money, less support, fewer art programs, more rules, more rude kids, less discipline and way less physical activity than there was in 1967. I was quite shocked and I wanted to know if it was the same all over, if things would change, what people thought and what it all meant for my kids and their education so I started googlin’.

And that is how this site came to be. I bookmarked so many links and sites I had to store them somewhere.

I have learned a lot over the last eight years and try to use the information to make the best decisions I can for my kids. There is still a lot to learn and things shift daily.

Like my daughter for example, I figured with her imagination and love of writing and drawing she would be a perfect candidate for the arts school the kids go to. She does like it a lot, it’s more interesting than where she was but something came up the other day that was new. She said she hopes to go to a science school one day. I told her that can happen but what about her writing? Wasn’t an arts school the place for that? She said: “I write Mom, it’s what I do, who I am, I don’t have to go to school to learn it or do it. Science though, I really want to learn all about that.”

Now science school and mentoring googling starts. Excellent, I love learning as much as the kids do. But...

Are any of these decisions going to make a difference?

Are they the right decisions?

Are my kids learning enough for this future that awaits them?

Do they know enough math?

Do they have good friends?

Do they have fears?

Do they worry about things I don’t know about?

Are their interests being fed?

Are new interests being awakened?

Do they have particular learning styles that I am not aware of?

Am I making the most of the parent/teacher interviews?

So many questions. 
Answers I want now not when it’s too late.

Every child is born curious and thirsty to learn. Everyone of them can do great things.

What if their potential is squashed or squandered because they got behind in reading and never caught up and felt dumb? Or they didn’t process information like the kids who sat beside them and felt confused and left out? Or they were afraid to go to school because of a bully and they spent six hours a day looking over their shoulder rather than at their teacher, the board, a book? 

How many kids go to school burdened by things they don’t tell us? What kind of future awaits them if they go somewhere everyday that crushes their sprit rather than nourishes it?

And how can we help if we don’t know?

The people I have met in my quest for information are people you should all meet and to that end I am in the midst of putting together a HOW SCHOOL WORKS seminar scheduled for May here in Calgary. Wonderful speakers, a question and answer period, resources for you to take home. I will keep you posted.

Would you go to such a talk? Tell me.

pattimacneil@gmail.com

Thanks, P