Another Day at Summer School

Cade talked some more last night about his “yelling” teacher. Really I don’t think she yells, she’s just gruff. Jay and I had a hard time keeping a straight face at the dinner table. Cade is so serious when he talks about her. This morning as I was driving to work and reflecting on this situation I thought maybe having her as a teacher isn’t so bad. Maybe the fact that Cade doesn’t want to be on the receiving end of her “yelling” will make him more attentive to the things going on around him. Goodness knows our years of yelling haven’t gotten him to speed up his morning dressing routine. I think he long ago gave up actually listening to us. Our voices are like an annoying gnat flying around in the background. Maybe he’ll take notice of someone else yelling? If her yelling gets him out of La La Land, we may be willing to try it for a year.

Also, yesterday we got a letter from the gifted teacher saying that Cade would be tested sometime Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. We had met with her and Mrs L at the end of April to talk about Cade and the gifted program. They think he’s a candidate for the program, but unsure if he’ll be able to test into it. He’s got some major test anxiety. He took a state standardized test at the end of April and we got the results back last week. He tested in the 94 percentile on his reading which was way above average. His math skills were way below average, so his total test ended up being average, which is just fine to us. They could’ve photocopied my old test scores and used them, because they were the same. Good at reading, terrible at math. So I don’t know how this gifted thing will turn out. I want him in the program just because he is displaying some classic signs of a gifted kid with the perfectionism syndrome. As a person who’s lived with perfectionism and anxiety her whole life, I really think it would be a good thing for him. If he doesn’t get in that’s why I’ll be disappointed. It’s not that I want my child to be the smartest, I just want him to know that he’s not different and the way he feels is not weird. We’ll find out in August how he scored.

So last night Jay and I were trying to approach the subject about a man (who supposedly looks like a big friendly grandpa) who will come and talk to him without causing any anxiety. I think I hit the jackpot with how I handled it. Jay wasn’t so sure…..

Jay: Cade, there’s a man who’s going to come and ask you questions sometime this week. You need to go with him and answer them.

Me: Yeah, he’s supposed to look like a grandpa, I’m sure it will be fun

(Cade was still staring at the TV, ignoring the annoying background noise)

Me: Do you want to get out of Mrs S class for awhile

Cade: YES

Me: Well go with the man and answer his questions really good. The longer you stay with him the more time you’ll be out of Mrs S class.

Cade: (with a huge grin on his face) OK

Jay told me my ways are somewhat unorthodox most of the time. I just shrugged it off and told him it seemed to work ok. Jay said it worked this time, but what about 15 years from now. Cade will have his own blog and he’ll write about how his mother tried to scare him away from a teacher. Oh well, I guess I’ll cross that bridge if/when we get there.