What oh what will kids do in the summer when left to their own devices? I decided to check out the garage to see what my son was up to and found a very pleasant surprise indeed. His love of cars has motivated him to start building his own. He used plaster of Paris to make this car mold and then it looks like he hot glued the wheels into the wheel wells. He painted it black and decorated with stickers.
This boy just amazes me with how smart and talented he is and yet this is a child who struggles in school. His strengths are very much mechanical and architectural and schools just don’t put much emphasis on these interests and strengths. Public school fails him and many other students so it is my job as the parent to counteract damage, be his advocate (on his side always), and use off-school time to help him grow and flourish. And he doesn’t even need much help in that regard anymore… this kid is taking flight on his own.
How wonderful and inspiring. Children can be so inventive and creative I love it!
My son also did poorly in school yet I was amazed at the things he came up with and the rate of speed that he absorbed information. I had him tested when he was 12. His IQ is 147. I took him out of school a few months later and literally left him to his own devices. He now speaks 2 other languages besides English. His grammar and spelling used to be horrible and now its better than mine. He designs video games and is an excellent hacker. All in three years doing things on his own.
That is awesome!
Hugs,
Kristen
My husband was/is just like your son. Public school failed him miserably and he had no advocates, but here he is, a grown adult, pretty sucessful in the repairman world, and would never go back to schol. Ever! what are we going to do about school? BTW, I am a teacher, and I would love to see things change.
So creative! What a neat kid you have!
That is so cool. As a teacher I would want to know about this at the beginning of the year. Not the teacher/parent conference 6 weeks into the year, at the beginning. I would want parents to send me an e-mail with a links showing me these projects
I’m advocating for practical hands on assessments for Science in 4th grade this year. We have to have a written portion of the assessment – and I’m making an audio version for those with difficultly reading.
Evidence of projects like your son’s would give me more ammo to fight for these things.
Those of you with problems with the organization of public schools and the focus on tests forced on us by the feds, please tell me you are participating in our democracy and advocating for change. Write letters make calls pressure your elected officials to change things to serve all children. You can bet the companies like Pearson who write the TAKS tests, sell software that raise TAKS scores, and math programs/text books that raise TAKS scores are pouring $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ into lobbying to keeping the TAKS and other tests.
wow!
perhaps you should think about homeschooling your creative little person!
he could spend hours building, designing what he wants and needs to do to learn on his own.
kindly read John Holt’s books for support on why schools don’t really work and trusting your child.
it is not all about tests, to quote Holt, “learning is not the porduct of the teacher (think school here), learning is the PRODUCT OF THE LEARNER”
thanks for the entry!
peace and do no harm
that is amazing!!!
side note – he sounds like the type of child who would excell in a montessori school setting.