SoCal Sandra
06-28-2009, 11:55 AM
Thanks so much for the input, everyone. You've helped me focus my thinking on this. For ease of discussion, I'll be using the secret nicknames that dh and I have for our sons. They are 9 year old twin boys. We call one Edison and the other Tesla.
Four possible reasons for testing that I hadn't considered are curiosity, learning disabilities, personality challenges and programs for talented youth. Thanks for mentioning them.
Curiosity: I'm not inclined to test out of curiosity, but this may explain why others have urged me to test dss even though they know we homeschool. The comments on curiosity made me remember Tesla's speech therapist saying she was really curious to know how many standards of deviation he was. A good reminder that not all suggestions from professionals are based on a perceived need in the child.
Learning disabilities: You've got me thinking on this one, so I visited some of the links I've found here and will be trying to access each dss' needs.
Edison is a perfectionist, innovative and artistic, and sequential in his approach to things. He has good people skills and knows how to both spend and save his money. He is competitive and success oriented. He is above average in his generosity, but believes that money and labor should yield a profit.
Tesla is more distractible, seemingly random in approach, more emotional, often hasty, generous to a fault and a bit of a spendthrift. Once, when I was reading the book, "Upside Down Brilliance" he read the book and told me it was talking about him.
Edison usually scores in the 99th percentile in reading comprehension, but he's not a fast reader. Tesla usually scores in mid 90s and is a very fast reader. When reading aloud, Tesla sometimes replaces words with synonyms, so I'm going to look into the issue of "stealth dyslexia" as mentioned in one of the links. (I welcome any comments on this.) When Edison reads aloud, its nearly perfect so I've always attributed his slow speed to his perfectionism, but I think I'm going to look into other explanations. (Again, your comments are welcome).
Personality challenges: I'll be thinking about this one and may ask more questions later. The challenges have always been there. Right now Tesla is more challenging, but there was a time when Edison was. When all is going smoothly the boys do amazing things together, each one's strengths complimenting the other one's weaknesses. I tell them that if they could just stop fighting they would be an unstoppable team. Whether or not testing will aid in this is something I'll have to think about.
Programs for Talented Youth: I followed some of the links to learn about these. What do you consider the benefits? Do they really provide things that are so unique they can't be experienced elsewhere? What if a child has not yet singled out an area of interest?
Edison and Tesla recently took a Lego Engineering class as well as a film making class, but neither could decide which was more interesting to him. Right now they both want to be film makers, but they've always expressed a desire to build and design and love scientific experiments. Edison often talks about starting a business. Once it was a chain of superstores, once a theme park. Tesla loves to sing and dance (tap and hip hop) and can imitate almost any accent. He sometimes tells me he's shy but when I ask him how that can be when he loves to perform, he says, "Mom, there's a difference between shyness and stage fright." So, despite his claim of shyness, a career in the performing arts is a possibility.
These kids seem to be all over the board in their interests. Would a program for talented youth be worth the time and expense if a child changes his minds and ends up going in a completely different direction?
I really appreciate any input you all have. Thanks for indulging me.
Four possible reasons for testing that I hadn't considered are curiosity, learning disabilities, personality challenges and programs for talented youth. Thanks for mentioning them.
Curiosity: I'm not inclined to test out of curiosity, but this may explain why others have urged me to test dss even though they know we homeschool. The comments on curiosity made me remember Tesla's speech therapist saying she was really curious to know how many standards of deviation he was. A good reminder that not all suggestions from professionals are based on a perceived need in the child.
Learning disabilities: You've got me thinking on this one, so I visited some of the links I've found here and will be trying to access each dss' needs.
Edison is a perfectionist, innovative and artistic, and sequential in his approach to things. He has good people skills and knows how to both spend and save his money. He is competitive and success oriented. He is above average in his generosity, but believes that money and labor should yield a profit.
Tesla is more distractible, seemingly random in approach, more emotional, often hasty, generous to a fault and a bit of a spendthrift. Once, when I was reading the book, "Upside Down Brilliance" he read the book and told me it was talking about him.
Edison usually scores in the 99th percentile in reading comprehension, but he's not a fast reader. Tesla usually scores in mid 90s and is a very fast reader. When reading aloud, Tesla sometimes replaces words with synonyms, so I'm going to look into the issue of "stealth dyslexia" as mentioned in one of the links. (I welcome any comments on this.) When Edison reads aloud, its nearly perfect so I've always attributed his slow speed to his perfectionism, but I think I'm going to look into other explanations. (Again, your comments are welcome).
Personality challenges: I'll be thinking about this one and may ask more questions later. The challenges have always been there. Right now Tesla is more challenging, but there was a time when Edison was. When all is going smoothly the boys do amazing things together, each one's strengths complimenting the other one's weaknesses. I tell them that if they could just stop fighting they would be an unstoppable team. Whether or not testing will aid in this is something I'll have to think about.
Programs for Talented Youth: I followed some of the links to learn about these. What do you consider the benefits? Do they really provide things that are so unique they can't be experienced elsewhere? What if a child has not yet singled out an area of interest?
Edison and Tesla recently took a Lego Engineering class as well as a film making class, but neither could decide which was more interesting to him. Right now they both want to be film makers, but they've always expressed a desire to build and design and love scientific experiments. Edison often talks about starting a business. Once it was a chain of superstores, once a theme park. Tesla loves to sing and dance (tap and hip hop) and can imitate almost any accent. He sometimes tells me he's shy but when I ask him how that can be when he loves to perform, he says, "Mom, there's a difference between shyness and stage fright." So, despite his claim of shyness, a career in the performing arts is a possibility.
These kids seem to be all over the board in their interests. Would a program for talented youth be worth the time and expense if a child changes his minds and ends up going in a completely different direction?
I really appreciate any input you all have. Thanks for indulging me.