Julie Stauffer

Neatest thing is happening. Zach is 8 and while he is tremendously gifted athletically, has always struggled tremendously at anything academic. He is tremendously active, gregarious and emotionally intense. But things seem to be jelling, something neurological. For the first time, Zach is able to draw pictures, control his coloring, attempting to read things in the environment (he had tried that a couple of years ago, and then stopped).

Then today, he WROTE. For the very first time, Zach CHOSE to voluntarily sit down with pen and paper and sound out WORDS!!!!!! I am so excited. Of course, what he wrote was a "kick me" sign that he put on his little sister's back. It is so reassuring to see him maturing, becoming more comfortable in his own skin. Anyway, just wanted to share with someone who wouldn't say "Well, he's 8 for gosh sakes, don't you think he is behind?"

Julie

"Give government the weapons to fight your enemy and it will use them against you"--Harry Browne

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"--Benjamin Franklin

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable"-- John F. Kennedy


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

groundhoggirl

What a beautiful thing! And, he's only 8 years old?!

Mimi

On Monday, December 3, 2001, at 10:08 PM, Julie Stauffer wrote:

> Neatest thing is happening.  Zach is 8 and while he is tremendously
> gifted athletically, has always struggled tremendously at anything
> academic.  He is tremendously active, gregarious and emotionally
> intense.  But things seem to be jelling, something neurological.  For
> the first time, Zach is able to draw pictures, control his coloring,
> attempting to read things in the environment (he had tried that a
> couple of years ago, and then stopped). 
>
> Then today, he WROTE.  For the very first time, Zach CHOSE to
> voluntarily sit down with pen and paper and sound out WORDS!!!!!!  I am
> so excited.  Of course, what he wrote was a "kick me" sign that he put
> on his little sister's back.  It is so reassuring to see him maturing,
> becoming more comfortable in his own skin.  Anyway, just wanted to
> share with someone who wouldn't say "Well, he's 8 for gosh sakes, don't
> you think he is behind?"
>
> Julie
>
> "Give government the weapons to fight your enemy and it will use them
> against you"--Harry Browne
>
> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"--Benjamin Franklin
>
> "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
> revolution inevitable"-- John F. Kennedy
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [email protected]
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>
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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In a message dated 12/3/01 10:19:34 PM, groundhoggirl@... writes:

<< Anyway, just wanted to

> share with someone who wouldn't say "Well, he's 8 for gosh sakes, don't

> you think he is behind?" >>

Not here, isn't that nice? I'm in the same boat with a really precocious 8 yr
old who's not reading. I can see how he's progressing toward reading, but to
most of the world he's just "NOT READING. "

I take a lot of deep breaths.

Paula

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-=-what he wrote was a "kick me" sign that he put on his little
sister's back. It is so reassuring to see him maturing,...-=-

LOL, LOL!! I am not sure if you meant it to be funny or not but I
enjoyed it. And I know what you mean because as much as I just want
to trust in the internal stuff it is reassuring to see some external
stuff sometimes (at least for newbies like me). It just goes to
prove that kids will do things when they have a good reason!







lwaysLearning@y..., "Julie Stauffer" <jnjstau@g...> wrote:
> Neatest thing is happening. Zach is 8 and while he is tremendously
gifted athletically, has always struggled tremendously at anything
academic. He is tremendously active, gregarious and emotionally
intense. But things seem to be jelling, something neurological. For
the first time, Zach is able to draw pictures, control his coloring,
attempting to read things in the environment (he had tried that a
couple of years ago, and then stopped).
>
> Then today, he WROTE. For the very first time, Zach CHOSE to
voluntarily sit down with pen and paper and sound out WORDS!!!!!! I
am so excited. Of course, what he wrote was a "kick me" sign that he
put on his little sister's back. It is so reassuring to see him
maturing, becoming more comfortable in his own skin. Anyway, just
wanted to share with someone who wouldn't say "Well, he's 8 for gosh
sakes, don't you think he is behind?"
>
> Julie
>
> "Give government the weapons to fight your enemy and it will use
them against you"--Harry Browne
>
> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"--Benjamin
Franklin
>
> "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
revolution inevitable"-- John F. Kennedy
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Karin

Great story Julie, and funny! Just like my 2 boys - always playing pranks on each other. Thanks for sharing that. I have an 8 yo son too and I love spontaneously noticing things that he does (that I'm so proud of) all on his own. It's great that the pressure is finally off him - and me, to read and write at a certain age. I love unschooling.

Karin


----- Original Message -----
From: Julie Stauffer
To: [email protected]
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2001 9:08 PM
Subject: [AlwaysLearning] He is happening


Neatest thing is happening. Zach is 8 and while he is tremendously gifted athletically, has always struggled tremendously at anything academic. He is tremendously active, gregarious and emotionally intense. But things seem to be jelling, something neurological. For the first time, Zach is able to draw pictures, control his coloring, attempting to read things in the environment (he had tried that a couple of years ago, and then stopped).

Then today, he WROTE. For the very first time, Zach CHOSE to voluntarily sit down with pen and paper and sound out WORDS!!!!!! I am so excited. Of course, what he wrote was a "kick me" sign that he put on his little sister's back. It is so reassuring to see him maturing, becoming more comfortable in his own skin. Anyway, just wanted to share with someone who wouldn't say "Well, he's 8 for gosh sakes, don't you think he is behind?"

Julie




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

KT

> Not here, isn't that nice?

Yeah it is nice, and along that vein, I have a concern about my own 8 yo
boy, Will.

He can read and write (all caps only--refuses to use lined
paper----spells phonetically but remembers if you spell for him
once--still sounds out a lot of words). He's bright and talented and
into reptiles and baseball. The homeschool Zoo Academy is coming up in
February, which he is incredibly excited about. The problem is they
sent a "pre-activity" along with the registration confirmation. For
some reason I put him in 2nd grade, not thinking...Anyway, the
pre-activity was to write two sentences using each vocabulary word and
to fill in the blanks on a set of animal descriptions.

If Zoo Academy is going to be like this, it might just ruin everything
for him. He doesn't understand the school paradigm at all. He didn't
know what fill in the blank was. He didn't even register what a
sentence was (but I know he knows it in another context). He picked up
the fill in the blanks thing and answered all the questions correctly.
(big whoop) And as soon as I told him he could type the sentences, he
was eager to do them. It took him a long time to do one set of
sentences. (Of course, he wrote one sentence for each word and plans to
write a second set with each word, which is what a person in school
would know is the "wrong" way.) Some of his sentences do not make sense
(ie., A bat is echolocation.--he learned how to do the "underline the
vocabulary word" part on the computer. lol.)

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out a way to let him know that there is a
chance his sentences will not fit their mold, will be odd to them--you
folks know what I mean...I'm afraid someone will say something to him
about his abilities (I'm afraid it will be another homeschooler, too.
:P). And that the Zoo Academy is going to have more writing than last
year. These are other homeschoolers, but not unschoolers (I guarantee
it). And the zoo staff won't get it either. I won't tell him it's time
for him to learn to write "properly" before he gets to Zoo Academy. My
natural reaction is to volunteer for the class (they only allow two
parents), and he wants me there. I could run interference for him if I
were there. But I didn't get a volunteer form with my registration (I'm
calling tomorrow to volunteer, of course.)

He's a responsive kid and I can see that he could fall either way on
this issue. There has already been some frustration with the writing
and the sentences. Either the week will cause him to get completely
frustrated, or it could be a spark that leads him into his next phase of
literacy.

I need a pep talk.

Karen


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tia Leschke

>
>Then today, he WROTE. For the very first time, Zach CHOSE to voluntarily
>sit down with pen and paper and sound out WORDS!!!!!! I am so
>excited. Of course, what he wrote was a "kick me" sign that he put on his
>little sister's back. It is so reassuring to see him maturing, becoming
>more comfortable in his own skin. Anyway, just wanted to share with
>someone who wouldn't say "Well, he's 8 for gosh sakes, don't you think he
>is behind?"

Don't you think he's a little young to be doing that kind of thing? <BEG>
Tia

Tia Leschke leschke@...
On Vancouver Island
********************************************************************************************
It is the answers which separate us, the questions which unite us. - Janice
Levy

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<< Don't you think he's a little young to be doing that kind of thing? <BEG>
>>

Good one!!!!!

(And judging by my kids, he's a prodigy!)