I am using this as a starting point for reflection.
1. My older son has a work experience week next June. So we have been discussing ideas. I approached one local company on his behalf. The answer was no, but I'm glad I asked them. Then my son had a second idea, I approached them with an email, and lo and behold, the answer is yes. I am over the moon. We need to do a careful follow up to confirm things with them and with my son's school, so everyone knows what the position is.
What a change that is, thinking about the world of adults, work and business.
2. My younger son astounded me 2 nights ago by asking to do some maths right there and then. I zipped down stairs to my maths HE shelf, took the appropriate year book plus an exercise book I had free, then whizzed back. We looked at the contents page, saw how clearly it was laid out and my son asked me to just say things when he asked, and asked me to do the writing, so I did.
Come the morning he told me he wants to do Maths O level and A level. So my next project is finding a kind maths tutor and finding out about the Maths sessions at the closest Montessori secondary school to us. The book I have is ideal though and I have the next book up too.
3. My last change has been about the old debate on age ratings. This one just won't go away. However time is on my side, on all our sides, because the children are moving inexorably towards magic 18 anyway. The change was that I used the phrase 'trust the process' with reference to my own growing slackness as a parent.
As they get older I will worry less about obeying the strict rules and will be more of a push over, but pushing me to be like this just makes me jam in my toes! So I am advising my younger son in all seriousness to back off and let me get more relaxed as a parent in my own time. He has, so I think he can recognise a universal truth when he sees one!
Don't we all hope for that moment when a child suddenly wants to do maths (or in my case...maths, English, history, geography..and er anything else.). One day perhaps ds1 will have an urge to write a sentence. How long does one have to wait..? lol
ReplyDeleteIt's that eternally long piece of string again!
ReplyDeleteOr, a real life situation. When our lovely cat died in May 2008 we went to the church at the end of our lane and wrote messages to commemorate him. There were little cards for people to put prayer requests up on a board.
It was real and true, not some made up exercise. If they had wanted me to write out what they wanted to say I would of course have done that. Or just put what I wanted to say if they had wanted to remain silent. The purpose was the message and our wish to express our sadness in a tiny, formal way.
Anyway, that maths moment came and went in our case. Maybe the maths fairy doesn't like to linger! Or be written about...
That very same maths book, a year 7 one for information, has come out this week and is being used for real. How's that for waiting patiently for the right moment? 5 years.
ReplyDeleteWell, he did do GCSE Maths in 2016 :) And is still keen on doing more Maths. So he knew exactly what he wanted back then and, given time, comes around to it when everything is pointing in the right direction.
ReplyDelete