Before I get to the real post I need to say goodbye to a dear friend. My furnace took it’s last breath this morning. It has been good to me lasting a year longer than the home inspector said it would. Yes, it has caused me some trouble but that is because I took it for granted. I’m sorry to see it go and really, really wish it could have hung on for another month or so.
As you might have noticed I have added advertising to all my blogs, it’s pretty nice I think. Now would be a really good time to advertise with me since I could really use the funds to pay for a new furnace. Okay I’m finished begging.
Thank you, now back to the scheduled program.
I received an official letter from my daughter’s school today. I usually ignore official letters. My daughter is in kindergarten how much official business can there be in the middle of the school year? If anything important were happening I would get a note in her backpack. I don’t read these either but at least I know where they are if I want to find out what is happening in her school.
A few weeks ago I got a note about some dirty little child who had lice. Last week I learned that some child had the audacity to show up to school when he or she had strep throat. I also learned that there was a Girl Scout meeting this past weekend which we missed because I didn’t look in her backpack until this morning.
When my daughter started kindergarten she was told she had to have a backpack, a regular size backpack, and she needed to bring it to school everyday. The only thing that goes in this backpack are homework assignments. Homework assignments for me not her. She is of course still too young for homework. I am not apparently.
The problem with this arrangement is that I am finished with homework. I graduated from homework a long long time ago and I have no intention of starting again. I figured that as long as I have to pay taxes I do not have to do homework. My daughter’s teacher does not agree with me but she is at least beginning to understand this and now calls when she really really needs to let me know about something. Is this fair to all the other parents who willingly do the homework that the teacher has assigned? Of course it is, if they can’t stand up for their right to have ten minutes to themselves free that is their problem not mine.
I wasn’t sure what to do with this official letter at first. It couldn’t be that important since the teacher didn’t call me or send a note (I don’t think she sent a note but I can’t be sure). The official letter must have something to do with the school and not specifically related to my daughter so I figured it was safe to open.
It turns out my daughter took a test last month. I apparently signed a permission slip allowing her to be tested but I don’t remember doing so. Seems my daughter scored outside the norm on this test and they wanted to take a closer look. They sent me a copy of her scores with the explanation. The explanation was in five different languages so it took me a while to make any sense out of the official letter but after reading it several times I gathered that they think my child is smarter than the average bear. That she might be gifted.
I laughed. And then told my son who had just walked in the house. He laughed too. My daughter was still safe at school well out of our laughter reach.
My son asked if I read the letter correctly.
“Are you sure it isn’t a letter to get her on the short bus?”
“No, it says here it’s for the gifted program.”
We both checked the letter again to make sure they had the right name on the letter. That they hadn’t mixed up letters of the special kids with the gifted kids.
Nope. They think my kid has potential.
I still find this incredibly funny. My daughter can’t tie her shoes yet, she can’t even zip up her coat, mostly because it takes a little effort and she would rather not expel any if she doesn’t have to. My daughter can not open the back door to let the dog in, even if it is unlocked. My daughter can not follow simple commands such as “clean up your room and stop twirling the cat by her tail”. She has no concept of time at all even though she constantly tells me “five more minutes” for everything.
I do think my daughter is smart. She has an incredible grasp of the English language and can add and subtract better than I can but that isn’t saying much. She likes to make movies on the video camera. And they are surprisingly good even if they are all about Hannah Montana and Zac Efron who is sooooo dreamy.
In this official letter I was asked to fill out a form and turn it in by Wednesday. As I am filling out this form the phone rings. It’s the official person in charge of the gifted students and she is calling to remind me to fill out the form and get it in by Wednesday. It hasn’t been an hour since the mailman delivered the official letter, I am on top of the matter and yet they still hound me to get my homework done. Obviously they know me now.
My daughter might be gifted but if they have to rely on me to get her to gifted class (it better not be after school or on a weekend) they better just accept that she will have to hang around all the regular kids for the rest of her academic career or at least until she gets her driver’s license.
Another Mom who refuses to do her homework! I love it!
I’ve done every grade up to 7th FOUR TIMES! I’m sick of it. I absolutely REFUSE to read all those little notes that come home from the school.
Congrats on that gifted thing. It’s not a big deal now, but as she gets to high school, it matters.
And, if you live in their service area, check out the Duke University Talent Identification program. They have a website.
I have a “gifted” kid – and that means that I have to get up early twice a week and bring her to school an hour early so she can be “enriched”. 😛
Mother, 4 times? wow. Hats off to you. My parents weren’t the least bit involved except for writing checks and even then my father wrote Mickey Mouse in the memo section.
Carole, I was afraid of that. If she were special I could get money for her stupidity, this way I have to wait for her to do something productive with that big brain of hers.
I always messed up on this part of school – big time. Mystery papers were my life. Now in our district they have a phone system. 2 or 3 times a week during dinner all our cell phones and home phone ring within 1 minute of each other. We imitate the principal’s accent coming in over the answering machine as a bonding exercise.
My children are in the gifted program here. I think it’s a great thing.Of course they don’t have to go early or stay late.They are taught during the normal school hours.
What I’ve learned through the years of dealing with the gifted program is that they need it because they learn differently and if not given the opportunity they are likely to become bored and not excel much at all.
Being in the gifted program does benefit them further down the road too.My oldest daughter is a senior in high school this year and just got accepted into UF with a full ride!
Margo, they call here too but only when their lunch account is low or they have missed school and I forgot to call. My kids haven’t figured out that they could easily skip school as the school doesn’t call for a while and since I can’t remember what happened yesterday they might have been home sick.
Thinkingofyou, Congratulations on your daughter’s free ride, you must be very proud. I do agree that my daughter needs some sort of help as she is already bored to tears in kindergarten. I’m not sure she is gifted but she just watches too much tv.
The publicist’s nieces and nephews are gifted too.Ironically so was the publicist and look at her now; she is a goatherd. See what gifted can get you?
Pricilla, I think being a goatherd would be a lot of fun. It is something I would love to do along with raising ducks. As long as she is happy I don’t care what she does as long as she isn’t leaching off me after she turns 18 or 21 if she goes to college.
pathetic.
Congrats on having a gifted daughter. My 13 year old dog keeps getting letters asking for her opinion as the “shopper” in our household. They have even called to speak to “Ethel Mae Casey” to take political surveys, so I have decided for now on I will hand Mrs C the phone.
Maybe I have gifted dogs?!
That’s great!
Hahahah that’s too funny. I absolutely HATE the school systems and their massive amounts of homework for me. Last year I went on strike and refused to do my homework and I swear they initiated 2183727 meetings to find out why I wouldn’t do my kids homework. Low and behold , they gave up after I declared myself M.I.A.
Oh and congratz on your daughter, but you realize this just means that the homework gets harder ?
🙂
Chris, I think I might enjoy having a gifted dog more than a gifted child.
Gdad, thanks
Dani, I guess I don’t really care if the homework gets harder since I won’t be doing it.
Don’t discount this so quickly. In first grade the same scenario happened with our daughter, who used Velcro, and at almost 13 now, still can’t follow simple instructions like clean your room, but she grasps the concept of quantum mechanics.
However, gifted she is, so much so that we had to pull her out of school and homeschool her (I see you trembling already!).
But look at it this way, if that’s the route you would end up on, you wouldn’t have to worry about all those notes in the knapsack!
Tammy, I am trembling because I do not think I could further her education in the least. I could teach her all about shoe shopping. Actually that is one thing I have managed to teach her already. I do like the idea that I wouldn’t have homework in the back pack however.
Congratulations. I was also a gifted child, but only on Christmas and my birthday.
I think that it is a great opportunity for you both! Especially since the homework would be hers more than yours 🙂
We skipped the optional homework last year (pre school) but usually do it now. I agree that the amount of notes that come home is ridiculous and I usually lose the important stuff anyway,lol.
Congrats on the gifted student! Hope they have an in-school program that will not cause more homework for you!
Oh, mama! You think you hate the homework now? Wait until the ‘Gifted’ program…
That was funny that you and your son had the same response.
God Zac Effron really drives me batty. I don’t get the attraction. He looks like a wax figure.
goatherding is lots of fun except for the poop and the smell of the bucks during the rut. THAT I can live without….
Congrats on the brilliance that clearly must run in the family!
I was tested for that program! They said I was a genius and needed to be in “gifted” classes. That would mean my mom would have to drive me across town to a different elementary school instead of me walking myself right down the street to my current school. That was enough for my mom to say no! I was pretty bitter about it for several years…turns out it didn’t matter- I’m still a doctor now despite being in the retard classes at the regular school!
Keep on refusing and maybe it will catch on. I don’t understand why schools produce homework assignments for children so young when they know the kids take it home and fork it over to tired parents who’ve been working all day long.
The gifted program is nice, it’s the first step in a lifetime of feeling academically superior to the rest of the kids in school!
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