Stunning amazing news

[slsh]

thank you's ACT scores arrived in the mail sometime - who knows when since mail all goes in a pile to be sorted through whenever. Anyway, the temptation was simply too great not to open the envelope.

My son, who has been in Special Education since 2nd grade, who doesn't even show up for school these days, got a *29* out of 36 on the English section. There's a notation below that if he got an 18 or higher, he's ready for college level classes. 29!!!!! He's in the top 92% for English, with subsets of top 85% and top 98% in usage/mechanics and rhetorical skills respectively. 98%!!! He could only have gone 1% higher in that area.

Math, which he walked out of after putting in zero effort - he got a score of 15, top 14%. Okay, that inhales forcefully but still - 14% for not trying at all????

Because he walked out he didn't complete the other sections so no scores and no composite.

I just had to call him and tell him he's full of fertilizer. He's wasting a gift. I know that he'd do phenomenally on both the reading and english/writing sections, and he'd probably do pretty doggone good on science too because of his interests. I told him that even if he just did a minimal job on math, more than likely his scores in the other areas would pull his composite score up to college expectations. I told him I was ready to strangle him.

Happily, I think I made his day. He sounded really shocked that he'd done so well. He said, "So this means I really could go to college?". I said, "No, so-and-so, because to go to college you ACTUALLY HAVE TO GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL!!!" He laughed and said, "I know I know, Mom", kinda laughing.

Sigh.... this kid is going to be the death of me. So much potential that he's just blowing off. At least there is independent confirmation that his brain has not completely atrophied!!

 

[Andy]

Exactly where I am with easy child - She has so much potential but she refuses to look at college even though she needs to be a student to be on our insurance.

There is free pizza at a local pizza parlor for students looking for info on the local college. She said, "No, it would be a waste of her time." I said, "You need to eat Wednesday night. You need to get on finding classes."

 

[witzend]

M was the same way. L had to work harder, but could have done better than she did, which was drop out. They have to want it themselves, and somehow see the connection between applying themselves in school so that they can live comfortably for the next 50 - 60 years...

 

[klmno]

Congratulations! Witz is right, but I really hope that thank you feels a little more motivation now and makes himself try to do more.

 

[busywend]

Way To Go thank you!!!!

Wow, Slsh - this is really exciting! I hope it helps his self-esteem and he really tries next time.

difficult child just got hers today - not nearly as good as thank you, but I am still happy she took the test! LOL!

 

[janebrain]

That's amazing, Slsh! Good for thank you. I'm so glad you opened the envelope and called thank you with the news.

My difficult child 1 hated school and basically just quit going in 9th grade. For some reason she decided she wanted to work on her GED at her last rehab (she was 17 by then) and she did really well. She kept getting "student of the week" awards and passed the GED with no problem. She began a college class while in that rehab and did very well with it too. She seems to have an interest in college now and I hope she will pursue it.

You just never know, do you?!

Hugs,
Jane

 

[BestICan]

Such great news! Such a great conversation to have with your son! Maybe this will give him the momentum to do more with his studies!

 

[Steely]

Gosh...........I totally understand.
Because difficult child has NonVerbal Learning Disorder (NVLD) his verbal IQ is really high. He can talk or write his way out of a paper bag.
But then he gets to performance stuff like math, and he hoovers to high heaven.

Unfortunately the society and system we have in place values intelligence, as performance, and requires that kids "graduate" or "pass" based not on their specific assets but on their written test skills. It makes me sad.

I am so worried about how and where my difficult child will end up because of this........as I know you are about thank you. These kids are so inherently smart, and yet there does not seem to be a channel or outlet to capitalize on their strengths.

 

[katya02]

Great news! Look at it this way - he has the ability and now he knows it. Maybe he'll ruminate on that until he decides to just go for it and do what he needs to do to get to college. Even if he waits a few years, the rules for mature students are different and he might just find his niche. At the very least, this has to increase his confidence.

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

I do hope that the news is a positive motivator for him. He most certainly does have a gift.

 

[JJJ]

What are the chances this motivates him to finish high school???

 

[Wiped Out]

Sue,
I have a huge smile as I read this! How awesome for thank you!! I couldn't be happier for both of you!

 

[OpenWindow]

Wow, way to go thank you! A little self-confidence boost can be a great motivator.

 

[Marguerite]

Maybe this news will motivate him to actually try, at least a little bit? Sometimes our kids give up if they feel it's all become too hard.

Another problem is getting started, especially if it's always been so easy for him. When you get to where it's more challenging and you have never had to study, it can suddenly get too daunting.

Would he be interested in learning a bit more on how to actually study effectively? especially if it could be pointed out to him that studying effectively means studying in a way to get maximum learning in, with minimum time spent doing it.

Once you learn how, it makes it all so much easier that studying stops being a chore and becomes something you seek out to do, because you've discovered the fun in it.

Marg

 

[gcvmom]

That's fabulous news! It's always great when an unexpected rainbow pops up in our life!

 

[butterflydreams]

This is wonderful! Way to go thank you! I hope this maybe shows him that he can do it and who knows, maybe college of some sort will be in his future.



Christy

 

[slsh]

I realized this morning that he's had absolutely zero positive feedback educationally since... ever, really. Montessori, he did well academically but behaviorally he was a mess. Then from K on, it's been power struggles and behaviors and negative negative negative. This is the *first* time he's ever gotten a payoff in terms of positive feedback in regards to his education (Mom and Dad bragging about him reading at 3, writing at 4, and being wicked smart in general apparently doesn't count in thank you's book).

We'll have to see what happens. His moods are so labile I can't keep track of if he's up or down anymore and I'm not sure he can either. Fingers crossed he does something with this positive - we'll certainly encourage as we can but that's always a tightrope because any praise or cheerleading from us usually backfires.

I did tell him that if he shows for home visit this weekend, we can go pick up an ACT prep book. He also wants help with geometry (any takers out there????) - my alltime most horrible subject ever. I don't think husband did too much better than I did, but we'll give it a try.

He is full of talk about what he's going to do.... but at this point, sorry to be negative, I have to see it to believe it anymore. Hopefully staff will also encourage - his case manager was quite frankly shocked at the score, LOL.

 

[Nancy]

That's a wonderful score Sue. Is there any way you can get him to take some of the practice tests and retest for a complete score? Maybe this will give him the incentive?

My difficult child did not do that well on her ACT but I didn't expect her too. She hates reading and therefore her english and reading scores are low. Heck she hates science and social studies so they were low too. She clearly is not ready for college work and seems completely unmotivated to figure out what she is going to do with her life.

Nancy

P.S. I just read your reply. I hope he finds the motivation to go on. But if he is like my difficult child I worry. Makes me so upset to see these kids with all this potential waste it.

 

[bran155]

Congrats to the proud mommy and the soon to be college student!!! (keeping my finger's crossed) That is absolutely wonderful. I had the goose bumps and teary eyes as I read your post. It is so nice when we get to share good news.

Wishig you and him the best and lots of luck. God bless.

 

[Marguerite]

Sue, you said, "I did tell him that if he shows for home visit this weekend, we can go pick up an ACT prep book. He also wants help with geometry (any takers out there????) - my alltime most horrible subject ever. I don't think husband did too much better than I did, but we'll give it a try."

We found a computer software package (really cheap) which we bought for difficult child 3, at about the time we were pulling him out of mainstream (and the correspondence package hadn't yet arrived). He used it in the meantime. The package was little more than concentrated revision notes set up like a web page. I can't find the name of it right now because husband had it installed on our OLD computer and somehow it hasn't made it across to the new one. Or if it has, I can't find it.

And for only a little more (the disk was A$60; this website is A$99) you can register him for a year with Mathletics, an Aussie-based curriculum which should be fairly capable of supporting a US curriculum also. The big thing would be, because it's Aussie based all measurements would be in metric. This would probably be easier for him to get the principles, anyway.
Mathletics follows the Aussie school system from K-12. You can specify which grade the kid is in, and if they find it too easy you email them and ask to be put up to a higher grade (or go back the other way). And the Aussie high school system goes beyond the US one, I think. Our kids graduate high school at a level of work which I believe US kids are doing in college. I remember when I went to uni - a lot of the 1st year uni work was repetition of what we'd done in school in our last two years. Our high school kids don't graduate until they're 17 or 18, and I believe the work is age-equivalent, between Aust & the US.
Another option - you could contact Mathletics and ask their advice on what is available that could be more suited to a US curriculum.

difficult child 3 uses Mathletics - his high school got him onto it, but unfortunately by the time we were able to properly access it, they had gone in a different direction and so it now boils down to whatever difficult child 3 will do in his own time, which currently isn't much - he spends all his school hours time just getting his main curriculum work done, with no time left over for Mathletics. But he does enjoy it, when he gets to it. And we know they have kids enrolled all over the world. Sometimes they have special days or weeks when the kids can log on and challenge other kids at the same grade level to a pop quiz, to see who wins! The more the kids do, the more rewards they get.

It's A$99 per year, you don't buy software or anything. We did find, though, that we needed to have our computer up to date and have good broadband (which is why difficult child 3 didn't get to use it much when we first were put onto it at school). Because it's a website, it doesn't matter if you're Mac or easy child. Also, the website access is 24/7.

Have a look at the website, there are levels which I think you can access to help work out his grade level.

And look around, ask around. There must be others more directed to a US curriculum. But if not, or if they are all ridiculously expensive - this one is well worth it.

It would also be cheaper than tutoring. If you can find a US one for a similar price, you could also get the associated service of tutor available over the phone during business hours - we've got that but we've never had to use it, apart from sorting out the problems we had with access.

There is another system around which costs thousands. We checked tat one out as well. I won't name it here so they won't sue me, but I think you may know the one I mean. They come out and do a demo in your home (which must cost them a lot, which would need to be recovered). We looked at it for easy child and then later for difficult child 3 and found it hadn't evolved enough. We also would have had to buy a new computer (easy child) because it is not Mac compatible. They install it on your computer and if you ever need to get a new computer, they uninstall it from the old one before they will install it on the new one. We found Mathletics to be even better (for us) for a fifth to a tenth the cost.

Anyway, that's just our experience. It's a thought. You could find similar stuff even better suited.

Marg