This picture really has little to do with what is on my mind tonight, but I had to share! The pile of books in the foreground came from a local book selling fund raiser. All of those for $15! The handle on my bag broke twice while I was shopping. The mess in the background is the material I am planning to use in addition to the as of yet unseen Calvert. So far, I have sorted them into piles according to subject. The next 7 days I plan to REALLY get to it!
Now...How I wish....my son could have access to a school that is something like what he is experiencing this week at Kids' College. A local university puts together a day camp every summer geared towards gifted kids. They don't advertise it that way, but that is really what it is. He attends 4 different classes every day. In the morning the sessions are titled, "Think Like Leonardo", "Westward Ho!" and "CANS of Creativity". Afternoon he is in "Bug it Up!". He absolutely LOVES it. They dissected frogs, they ATE bugs, they are thinking outside the box from the minute they walk through the doors. After the first day, he was so excited he could barely tell me about what they had done. Tuesday afternoon he was already worried that the week was going to end too soon. Tomorrow is the last day and I'm a bit concerned that the let down will be a bit too much for him. I am trying to come up with something fun for our evening to try to bring him down slowly. On our ride home Tuesday, he said, "Mom, wouldn't it be great if I could go to a school like this every day?"
Obviously, the educators involved in these programs have the ability to pull out all the stops for one week worth of activities. Teachers in traditional settings couldn't possibly put the time and energy into a learning environment like this one for a full school year. But I am not an educator in a traditional setting! I am trying to look at the excitement this week has generated and translate that into my need to push myself to allow learning in non-traditional ways. Yes, we need to do the worksheets and testing the school needs to show what we have learned. However, this week has cemented my goal to do as little of that as possible in our next school year. It's time to think like Leonardo!
1 comment:
Good luck in your endeavor! I am in the same place as you: always trying to come up with that incredible experience or deeper explanation. I think that is what makes our job fun and frustrating all at the same time. I will say that opportunities seem to abound. You just need to be looking for them. And not let the pesky paperwork get in the way too much!
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