Show Off Your Kids!

[Assyriankey]

+1 for sharing your fears, and your relief.

Lovely effort by your daughter, she's certainly got the knack.  Kindy age is what, 5 years old?

[Jezzebelle]

Yeah shes 5

[urs]

Jess, honestly - I wouldn't worry. I know, I know, everyone says that and of course you will because you're the mom....but artists are always a little weird and they rarely make great "traditional" students (even my art school recognized this, and accordingly made the general ed classes super easy and less time consuming so that we could all focus on being productive artists in our other classes). Public schools don't really have the means to accommodate this, though, so you are going to probably going to have to do a little extra work to get her unique abilities recognized and to help them flourish (although it looks as though she's well on her way already!). The teacher she has now sounds wonderful, and like she really understands her, so I would absolutely utilize her as a resource for ideas.

My little brother was always a "C" student, but later testing revealed his IQ was 134. He was just different. When we were kids, I used to think he just didn't get it, but now, I think he just didn't care about stuff that he wasn't interested in, and it showed in his performance. Same with my husband. It took me about three years before I figured out that he wasn't average intelligence - he is WAY over it. But it's hard to tell because we are so used to looking for brains within math or reading ability, that we can't identify gifts in other areas very well. I think this is the case with a lot of "creatives" - they don't waste time on crap that doesn't mean anything to them. They are often very driven to do what they feel inspired by, and to hell with everything else! So they can be highly productive, just not always in the ways that are prescribed by school and culture. I struggle a bit with this myself, despite having been highly gifted in most standard educational areas - the pull of art, and my desire to attend to it more than my other skills was not very well supported by my family, most of my teachers, or this culture, in general. Creative skills, despite being crucial to any culture and society, are not terribly valued in ours, despite their extreme real-world value and applications. I don't just mean being able to paint a picture or write a song, either; the types of brains that produce art are unique thinkers, and as her teacher said - outside the box solutions tend to come as a result of that. We've got to help these kids channel and focus that!

However, she IS still young. Reading, in particular, can take till age 7 or 8 to really come together for some kids. It's totally developmental, so while she may "just" be at level in reading in math, she sounds like her critical thinking and problem solving - both heavily influenced by creativity - are actually probably pretty far ahead (and will be more useful life skills in the long run, anyway). As her mom, I think the best thing you can do is continue to be understanding and supportive, advocate for her with teachers and other adults who aren't (there will no doubt be at least a couple), and help her understand that what she brings to the table is just as valuable and useful as someone who is an amazing reader or mathematician, despite the messages that she gets from people who don't appreciate it. She's lucky to have a mom like you who truly does recognize and appreciate who she is.

And btw, I've taught art to kids since I was 14....she's pretty damn far ahead of her age group. Shoot, most 9 year olds I know couldn't compose and execute a painting that well. So....keep her practicing, as she probably has a very bright future in the creative arts.

[Jezzebelle]

All I can say is thank you Urs, +1 it really means a lot coming from you.  This stuff gets me so emotional!  She doesn't do well under pressure (AT ALL), so we make fun games of flash cards and stuff to help study.  But I try really hard to take a back seat and let her lead the way.  I am going to keep her practicing.  She lights up and becomes this amazing thing to watch when she gets to paint and plan crafts (although she hardly has a problem of grandiose ideas that get half way completed, lol).  When cheerleading is over, we're going to do an art class this spring and she if she really likes it.  She really only likes sports for the comradery of it all.  So hopefully she can get some professional help and grow in something she loves :)

[urs]

All I can say is thank you Urs, +1 it really means a lot coming from you.  This stuff gets me so emotional!  She doesn't do well under pressure (AT ALL), so we make fun games of flash cards and stuff to help study.  But I try really hard to take a back seat and let her lead the way.  I am going to keep her practicing.  She lights up and becomes this amazing thing to watch when she gets to paint and plan crafts (although she hardly has a problem of grandiose ideas that get half way completed, lol).  When cheerleading is over, we're going to do an art class this spring and she if she really likes it.  She really only likes sports for the comradery of it all.  So hopefully she can get some professional help and grow in something she loves :)

Yeah, just keep lots of crafty stuff around for her, and she will probably find things to do. My son is a spatial kid himself, so I have a gazillion Pinterest boards (follow me!) with tactile and spatial activities to make reading, in particular, more interesting to him. But both of my kids are creative, so we usually keep around a big block of clay, lots and lots of hot glue, fabric and sewing machine, sparkly things and buttons ("make an "S" with these buttons!"), foamy sticky letters that get stuck on everything ("What letter does 'candle' start with? Ok, stick it on there!"), the standard markers/pens/paint/paper/canvases, sand, cornstarch, and shaving cream for tracing letters and words in cake pans (check out cornstarch's non-newtonian fluid status on youtube if you haven't already!), chalks (various surfaces in and around the house have chalkboard paint on them), and lots of magazines and newspapers for 1. mess reduction, and 2. cutting out stuff, 3. identifying letters, numbers, and sounds with the big letters, and 4. random collage material. Having an artist in the house usually means you might have to be a little more flexible about messes and having letter stickers on everything, but honestly, I think it's worth it. It makes the house seem a lot more fun, too, even to other adults. I am always surprised at all the positive feedback I get about having dry erase letter flash cards taped down the entire hallway, or the grocery list written on the door in the kitchen in chalk, or the silly messages and height measurements that are written all over the edges of a doorway into the living room. Artists make things interesting for everybody, so just let her have at it.

[Krisikins]

Urs you're ahead of the crowd, in Ireland they've reciently changed the curriculum for jr and snr infants (that's 4 to 6 years) and they must now learn through play as it's the most effective method particularly for that age group.

A friend of mine teaches snr infants and her favourite part of the day is maths, where they're doing basic arithmatic,

"Find five things, does everyone now have 5 things, find 2 more things, yey, now how many things do we have yey! who can find the number 7 in the room!"

It teaches kids how to learn rather than forces them to memorize things

Also that is one bad ass unicorn Jess... you've got talent on your hands :)

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On another note, I dunno if my pic worked before or not, so here's Dorian Se?n whom will reach the ripe age of 2 months tomorrow

[Jezzebelle]

he's adorbs Kris!!!  so glad to see you back :)  +1

[Airyaman]

Daughter and grandson, about to be 5 months!

[Jezzebelle]

what a smiley boy!!  your daughter looks great too :)

[Tom]

Daughter and grandson, about to be 5 months!

Seems like your daughter is maturing rather quickly if she is about to be 5 months.

[Krisikins]

Good to be back jess, Maternity leave gives me an awful lot more free time than i though :)

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Your daughter and grandson have the exact same nose!!! Also he's handsome!

[Jezzebelle]

Hey!  I just got an email... Little Z's Unicorn won second place in her school and moves on to county next week!  We get to go to a little art show and everything at a local college.  She's so super proud and excited :)

[kevin]

this picture implies a dinosaur is in the process of barfing up your boy.

was it voluntary?

[Garja]

Yeah it kinda does!

Well, we will actually kinda miss his cleft, but for future speach issues (and social ones) we certainly want to get it fixed. Palete surgery is in June.

[Emily]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I'm going to have to scan in baby Tricia as a little kitten for her first Halloween. 

[urs]

Dang, Garja - that kid is just a little bit too cute. He may be asked to redistribute some of the cuteness, just to keep it fair for the other kids.

We had a ninja (sans mask) and The Universe.

[Jezzebelle]

I don't think I've ever seen him not in camo!

And her outfit turned out wonderful!! 

[Garja]

Hehe. Thanks Urs. I actually saw a friend of mine from HS a few days ago, she said "I know you are supposed to think your own kids are the cutest... But I don't know, Luke is awful cute."  That made me feel pretty damn good!

That universe costume is pretty great.

[Jezzebelle]

Big Art Show was tonight!  Little Z won second place in the whole county and is moving on to State!  I didn't realize how big this competition was, there were hundreds of people at this show tonight!!  Two kids (first and second place) from each age and category (visual arts, music, writing, photog) got to move on.  She was soooo excited!

[Emily]

Yay for Little Z and good luck to her!

(She's got the most adorable smile.)

[FGOH]

Good job Little Z!

[Emily]

When I had Tricia more than 6 months ago I uploaded a crappy picture of her here.

Here's a better one I found on my friends camera, taken shortly after she was born. I'm working on uploading more recent photos but I'm having trouble with SD slot on my computer and my camera doesn't work well with Linux.

She's probably going to be my only child, but damnit they grow up too fast!

[kevin]

what a lovely child.

yoo think kids grow up quick.

as of yesterday i now have three teenagers in the house.

i'm growing up quicker than i ever thought possible.

[Meat]

<------<<<<<<  You've got no chance boys! Lol! 

[Jezzebelle]

you're in trrrrrrouble!  +1

[Meat]

you're in trrrrrrouble!  +1

Thanks doll! :)

[Garja]

.

[FGOH]

^ Too cute!

[Garja]

Well, my son's palate surgery is tomorrow.  Kinda scary since the last one was a little "difficult".

[Garja]

.