I Think I Need Help

Ironflower and Lovebug appeared in their Theater Week play Friday night. They were, of course, wonderful and it was adorable and I am so proud. Of them.

I was not so much proud of myself as I dragged us to the front of the auditorium and whipped out my iPad. This was after freaking out, thinking we were too far back in the line to get good seats (of course there was a line to go in and of course people lined up way early for it). In addition to recording every moment (even though there were many moments where you couldn't see either kid) of the show, I had my dad and Hot Guy taking pictures during the whole thing, too.

Note to self: White kids, stage lighting and iPhone flashes are not, perhaps, the best combination for taking photos that show faces. Lovebug is the taller one in the middle. 

But even more shameful than acting like the paparazzi staking out Lindsay Lohan at a nightclub, I totally waved at my kids while they were on stage. More than once. I held  bounced the iPad with one hand and WAVED at my kids with the other. Hell, at one point, when one of Ironflower's friends was on the floor near us, I waved at her too.

You know, when Ironflower was first teething and I went from "No TV until she's in preschool" to "Look, if the Wiggles make her stop crying for 15 minutes, she can watch the damn Wiggles at 7 months old", I grasped that actual motherhood might not look like I had imagined it. I realized that many of those things I swore I'd never do would turn out to be done on a regular basis.

But realizing your TV standards are unworkable is one thing, it's quite another to turn into a waving idiot. I mean, I realize that my kids haven't quite got a creative process and that Theater Week doesn't foster deep investment into one's stage character, but still. I was waving. While they were trying to perform. In a way I'd never do during a soccer game. In a way that would have made me cringe in horror if my own mother had ever done it to me. Did I mention I also tried gesturing to Lovebug to get him to stop messing with his costume? And that I started to mouth one of Ironflower's lines with her?

I'm pretty sure I'm just a step or two away from wearing t-shirts with their faces on them to all of their sporting events and performances. Or yelling, "Sing out Louise!" like that crazy mother in Gypsy.

Please stop me.

Teaching Tuesday: Beware Strangers Bearing Giftedness

Just writing this post probably makes me an asshole.

Ironflower's repulsed face. Sure, in this photo it's about pumpkin guts. But she'll make the same expression if she ever reads this post. 

But today I don't care, for today I am confused. And this is where I process stuff. Also, where I get advice from smart people who care enough to read my blog, not just my FB status updates.

So anyway, it appears that both Ironflower and Hugmonkey have qualified for the gifted program at school. Before you get too impressed, this is the first time I have heard about us even having a gifted program and it meets every other week for 45 minutes. In other words, this should not be an especially big deal. Especially since the qualifications mainly involve them taking multiple-choice tests well and not being behavior problems.

The question is. . .do I have them tested (at our own personal expense) to find out if they're actually gifted? "Gifted" being a relative term; I can tell you right now that they are not music prodigies or destined for the Olympics. But they would probably qualify for the Gifted Child Society's Saturday morning enrichment classes, according to standard IQ tests (which, seeing as they are white, middle class, suburban children, would probably be fairly accurate). And some camps we couldn't possibly afford anyway.

There's a part of me that wants to know how they'd score on the IQ tests, that wants to push them into the enrichment classes and thinks this would a great excuse to start homeschooling them. I mean, they are bored in school most of the time; Ironflower actually burst into tears a few weeks ago because a math concept was hard for her. For the first time in her life. She clearly needs to be challenged more regularly, so that when she faces the next tough concept, she doesn't fall apart.

But then I think, do they need enrichment or time to build a Lego village in the basement? Did knowing my own IQ ever do me any favors, or did it just make me feel like a failure when I didn't immediately grasp a concept or made a mistake? And how bored are they really? It's not like they do everything perfectly.

I then spent a few hours researching this whole gifted education thing. It wasn't really covered during any education class I ever took. But I wasn't allowed to graduate without knowing about how to teach kids with learning disabilities. And I'm not saying that that's not very important, but really, nothing on teaching the gifted? I subbed for a while in a self-contained gifted classroom when I lived in Seattle. It was so fun, I debated going back and getting certified in gifted education. But the regular classroom teacher said to focus on something else instead, as gifted education was being phased out to save money.

That class no longer exists, by the way.

What was I bitching about? Oh yeah, my research. It was not encouraging. There are lots of opportunities for teenagers, at least in our district, but most schools seem to have dropped the ball when it comes to gifted ed at the elementary level. Which probably means that a lot of gifted kids don't even make it to the high school level, what with never being properly challenged in the classroom and all. I mean, last year, when my kids first started complaining of boredom, they got extra packets of worksheets.

Not exactly inspiring. Though better than the teacher I remember from elementary school who had a friend of mine sit in the hallway every day during reading. Why? Because he could already read and she didn't want him in the room when she was teaching the other kids. She didn't even give him a book to read.

As you can see, wise blog readers, I am all over the place with this. Part outraged at (the lack of) gifted programs, part not even sure my kids need to be labelled as such. . .what are your thoughts? Experiences? Opinions*?

*Unless your opinions involve calling me out for being "that mom" on the internet. The one thing writing this post has helped me sort out is that sharing it definitely makes me an asshole.