Initial Test Of A New-to-me Blogging Platform

 This is a test post, devoid of interesting content. Probably I will delete it later, to test what happens when a post is deleted.

Location: Texas, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Science!

Image
Erlenmeyer flasks behind a wok in a kitchen cabinet I said in my last post that my kid's "understanding of concepts and facts in multiple areas of science is excellent." Already knowing nearly every fact and concept presented in our district's gifted science classes made those classes boring. The lack of intellectual stimulation meant there was no "hook" to make graphing or writing engaging. When people talk about 2e kids having "spiky" profiles or asynchronous skills, this is the disconnect they're talking about. If plotting points on a graph results in a surprising curve that furthers your understanding of a concept, then it feels worthwhile. Someone who already knows that curve and the concepts behind it will find plotting those points tedious. Practice is more effective when it feels worthwhile.  Our family is knowledgeable and science-minded so the kid learned some stuff from casual conversation. The rest, the bulk of it, came from YouTub...
Read more

Facts Versus Skills: Asynchronous Development

Image
  Photo by  Conscious Design  on  Unsplash Grownups who work with 2e (twice exceptional) kids talk a lot about spiky profiles and asynchronous development. Sometimes that means kids learn multiplication long before reading, or learn to analyze literature before getting smooth at arithmetic. But sometimes it shows up within a subject. Learning about a new topic often involves learning facts, concepts, skills, and the ability to notice details. When I started taking yoga classes I was okay at noticing and imitating the teacher’s arm and leg positions, but I didn’t notice whether her torso was straight or bent so initially I did some poses wrong in predictable beginner ways. Repeatedly hearing instructions, doing poses, and occasionally getting specific corrections from the teacher taught me to notice and imitate torso positions.  I quickly learned the facts of where to place hands and feet for downward dog pose (adho mukha svanasana). Then I learned the concept th...
Read more

Supporting Decision Paralysis

Image
My kid has decision paralysis 1 . This became apparent around fifth grade with assignments that started like "Pick a country to do a project on!" and my kid would spend a day and a half analyzing and second-guessing and being unable to move on to step two.  Digression: Part of the challenge to parenting a 2e kid is not knowing how long a school sub-task is supposed to take. Asking teachers was surprisingly unhelpful. I assume teachers are trying to be inclusive when they reply "Some kids take longer and that's okay!" or "She can come ask me if she needs ideas!"  When I'm on top of my game I can figure out that if a 15-step assignment is due in a week students are supposed to do three steps a day. But I was rarely on top of my assignment-analyzing game while my kid is panicking, I'm trying to get school to answer emails about how accommodations are implemented so I can do them the same way at home for homework, and I've just found out my kid...
Read more