we have a mr. smarty pants

I found an envelop in Big M's school bag containing a test result that the school had done. Big M was tested for school readiness using BSRA test. I had no idea what this test is, so I Googled it. Apparently, some schools in the U.S. (particularly NY) use this test as a measure of who gets into a Gifted program.

My little man scored in the 97th percentile. This prompted Daddy and I to look into the school districts Gifted program and what it takes to get into it for Kindergarten. I found out that there is a testing for it in the fall, and those who are accepted starts in the Gifted program in January. For Kindergarten, this means the student is pulled away from his class for 30 minutes a week. By 1st grade, the student is pulled away from his class for a total of 2 hours a week.

Our very own Mr. Smarty Pants has always been bright and we've always been told about it. But to someone who doesn't quite know how to take a compliment, I have always thought that surely he's just like other kids his age. This test is the first to make me think that, hmmm, maybe he is very smart. Daddy and I are not the kind of parents that would plan out out where the children would attend college and what kind of professionals they're going to be, but this does alert us of what kind of things we need to provide for them in order to facilitate their learning and help them become what they may want to be as adults.

We have already seen that Big M is not the kind of child who would sit in class and do the same thing over and over again. He's the kind of child who needs to be taught how to think so that he may apply what he has learned into something outside what he was just taught. He thinks outside the box. He gets from A to C by skipping B. He needs to be told "why" and not just "what". In other words, he drives us crazy most of the time. :)

The other day I explained to him what "liquid" is. And being spur of the moment, I will admit that I gave a very poor definition. I told him that liquid is something that can change shape, and in order to help him, I said that the opposite is "solid" - something that can't change shape. So then I listed things and I asked him to tell me whether they're solid or liquid. I asked him to identify a house (again, a poor choice) and he said it is a liquid because it changes shape when you wreck it. He went on to say that his poo (I swear I didn't bring this up) is also liquid because it can change shape. Yeah, let's just chuck this up to him being a smarty pants shall we?