KB woke up a few times last night (March 20) and somehow managed to fall back to sleep. He woke up earlier than usual this morning (March 21) and said to me, "Mamma, you know why I woke up last night, because I am so excited about today. It is March 21! It is a very special day". He had already told me a little about why he thought it was special so I said "Yeah yeah" and I tried to get a few more minutes of sleep. A little later he got out of bed and had a bath and was getting dressed when he told his dad about why he was so excited. He listed a three or four reasons to which B just nodded and came to the kitchen. Suddenly in typical KB style we heard him sounding frustrated in the verge of tears. B went in to ask him what and KB said loudly and sadly, "Daddy, I don't remember all the reasons why I said today was so special, can you tell me what I told you?". B was in a spot. Obviously he had not paid full attention while KB was talking. He said one of the reasons to KB. But KB was very upset. He said, "No Daddy, can you please tell them in the order I told you?". B came to me in the kitchen and said, "God, I don't remember anything of what he said". Of course for the sake of KB, I rescued him. Thankfully KB had told me the reasons the night before and I remembered. 1) It is the first day of spring 2)It is early release day at school 3)It is his roll no at school 4)It is Tim Duncan's jersey number 5) We were meeting our close friends for dinner. B heard these from me and went and reported back to KB. KB felt relieved that all the reasons were mentioned.
When I was driving him back from school, he told me, "Mamma, one thousand six hundred and eighty divided by eighty is twenty one". And then he said, "Mamma, these numbers all have fun patterns". I asked him what and he said, "for example, for twenty one, the units place of the top number and the denominator are the same. Like forty two divided by two or eighty four divided by four or one hundred and sixty eight divided by eight". I hadn't really noticed it until he pointed it out to me. Even the other day he said something like this about some other set of numbers. Children and their minds. It is a clean slate. They are able to see things differently more easily. Even with KG, her innocent queries sometimes makes me wish my mind was as clear.
I had gone to KB's school yesterday because he got one of those semester awards they give out to a bunch of students within the class. KB and another student in his class got a writing excellence award. I was happy for him but I realized I just don't enjoy all these award ceremonies. I feel some tension in my system when they are giving those out and I find it hard to get rid of it the whole day. Even if my children were getting a prize. I don't like how it makes the other kids feel and I don't like how it makes the other moms whose children did not get any awards feel. Children do deserve recognition but I just don't enjoy it. I told B that in the future, if either of our children won awards, I don't want to go to these award ceremonies and he should somehow find a way to take time off from work and attend them.
Well, spring is here. Joyous time of the year. Birds chirping, flowers blooming, grass looking fresh and green, kids playing outside till late evening. I just love it. Happy spring every one!
22 comments:
He's a really smart kid! Ads also gets worked up if he can't remember things - and more so if he realizes we haven't been listening to him!! I was smiling when I read your post.
I can't get over how alike we are noon, although I suspect I am older than you for sure:-) But...exact same thing with me. I cannot even attend V's performances leave alone any award ceremonies. For e.g. recently at his vocal music(western) program he skipped 3 years worth of work in 6 months of joining and was asked to join a group that is made up of teenagers. V is 7 years old. There was a ceremony to initiate the new members into this premier group but for the life of me I couldn't find it in myself to attend. It was a huge accomplishment on his part for sure and since I had no idea he was progressing so quickly until we were called in I can't even say I wanted this for him etc. So V's dad went proudly and enjoyed the whole thing while all I did is bite my nails at home wondering if this was all a bit too fast!!! I don't even attend his league games. I guess I'm one of those chicken moms. None around where I live though,everyone around me is a super hyper this or that mom.
D
BTW, does KB go to a public school? If yes the setup seems really good. The public schools in my area have no such programs to encourage kids that young with awards or anything so KB is definitely in a good program.
D
Aparna - kind of sweet how they get worked up in a second because they can't remember what they said just then! Smart - I feel that way about most children I come across in these blogs. In their own ways...the clever things they say/do...
D - don't be too sure! :)
Am glad you too feel the same way...that tension etc. Man your son is a genius/prodigy! Skipping 3 years of work in 6 months! He must be super talented! You are clearly worse than me. I don't think despite my nervousness I could have resisted going to something like that... But who knows - I was pretty close to not going to KB's first piano recital which was a big to do but really speaking only couple of minutes long in terms of playing time for one song. But yes, you could say I am definitely in the chicken mom category in these things.
Yes, he goes to public school. It is good and bad. His teacher is very good. But there are really bad teachers in some of the sections in the upper grades I hear. Bad in the sense of how not nurturing they are. Putting kids down etc etc. Like how it was in India when we were growing up. Some of the kids are afraid to ask questions to the teachers. And these teachers have been here so long, they cannot be fired even if you complain. Those sorts of things I don't like about public school.
Smart..super smart !!
Ditto Ramanujam ..seriously! One of his favorite pastimes was finding patterns among numbers. There are some interesting anecdotes esp between him and another great British mathematician Hardy! So proud of him!
Incidentally is there a way to track back comments to ur posts ..I no longer get them in my e-mail like I used to earlier. Actually I don't even see a box to check to notify of further comments by e-mail.
KB is a genius ... you already know that right Noonie :)
I am sure you are doing a great job in stimulating his brains in the right sense.
Adlom - bright yes like most kids I see in these blog circles.
Neera - No, please don't use the great genius Ramanujam in the same line as KB. KB is bright but no where near a genius. I think people like Ramanujam are just born that way...B and I were talking about him just the other day...one of KB's classmates mom came and told me how her son and told her that KB is a math genius. I was telling her that it is so not the case. And later at night I was discussing it with B and how Ramanujam's story really brings tears...to think of such raw genius. We were talking about this and every time I think of this anecdote I feel goose bumps...
About Hardy's conversation with Ramanujam...
"I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen. "No," he replied, "it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways." ”
Neera - I should just email you - I am not sure what you are talking about wrt comments...
CA - no yaar, not at all. Am sorry if this number pattern thing gave such an impression. Am serious. I just sometimes feel confused about how his mind works. There are times when he tells me patterns he sees in numbers...and times when he is not able to do some simple multiplication on paper...either he gets it instantly or he is lost in space. I have to write a separate post on the issues I have had to deal with at school. I just don't know what to make of it. I don't know if he will handle those gifted and talented exams etc. I don't even want to deal with all that. But I will have to in a year or two for sure. I know he is bright and capable but I worry sometimes if he will cope well through upper grades etc...I have had to have meetings with his KG and 1st grade teachers already regarding some issues they worry about with him. There were instances when I felt like I should just homeschool him. It gets to be frustrating sometimes figuring out what is right, how much is right etc.
He will be fine Noonie ... we all have our challenges and fears with our kids.
I am having my own share of challenges with my kids. I have had few discussions with the teachers as well. While they assure me she will do fine in the "Star" tests (this will her first ... and mine too. ... I have never studied in US to know its importance) ... they also lay out few things which need to be sorted with her. Few points I have realized with her is that, if she is interested and focuses well, she will grasp the concepts easily ... but her focus span is too short. (per my expectation). Her teacher says she is always cheerful has something or the other to share with others in the class ... this she says when she wants to be nice, at other times, she bluntly puts it as "She is very talkative". I have advised my daughter several times to limit her talk to "Recess / Play time" .. but I don't want to change her bubbly personality as well and feel helpless and frustrated.
May be we all should do posts on the challenges we are facing ... it will help to share notes in addressing some of our fears.
I think it is so special when children can find beauty in math. I love the way his mind works.
-NW
CA - welcome to my world sistah! Just this aftn I spoke to his teacher after I saw his second trimester progress report. The complaint is that he laughs too much. He says his two buddies try to distract him. She says his acads are outstanding but that his behavior needs to be better. The other issue - that he tunes out - is the one I was going to write about in my post - if ever get to it. Well, thankfully it is just first grade. Will mail you about star testing etc. Good luck with it all. I hate testing for kids.
NW - looks like you love math yourself. I am happy that he seems to like math. I just don't want him or KG to be afraid of math. Thanks to him at least as of now KG is also fond of math. She asks me to give her math problems to do mentally - simple ones like six plus six etc. But as long as they don't think of math as some scary thing I will be happy.
KB's really smart, so good work Noon. I'm sure you have a lot to do with it. What public school system in the US offers prizes for academics? DD's in a semi private school and we still have participation awards for everyone. I am not in agreement with handing out awards to every kid, doesn't foster healthy competition IMO.
And if you find a cure for short attention span, please let me know. Every report card, DD's teacher says "She's such a lovely child but lacks focus." Ugh!!
MG - only credit I can get is reading to him every day. Which every one does..Having kids who are different in so many ways - I have really learned that I can neither blame myself nor take credit too much for their bad or good aspects resp.
BTW MG - am so annoyed with this new thing - am not able to make comments on wordpress sites like yours and someone else - who had written about Prada/Chomsky - it says that gravatar profile already exists or some such thing. I never had that problem before!
Hey Noon,
I have a problem if I try to post a comment with my WP id on a few blogspot blogs. So I use my Gmail id instead. I wish WP and Blogspot would just get over their respective issues and let people comment freely.
I tried with my gmail id. It wants me to register on wordpress. No way to get around it to post comments on wordpress? I did not see a contact email also for you - so I could not email the comment either! I will post comments on my own blog for you! :)
chandrasekaran dot meera at gmail dot com. That's the address. Feel free to email or I will make sure to stop by and read your comments on your blog.
:D
Ditto Ramanujam ..seriously! One of his favorite pastimes was finding patterns among numbers. There are some interesting anecdotes esp between him and another great British mathematician Hardy! So proud of him!
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