She’s Bored with School
Can you believe that? Barely a month into second grade and the Little Princess is already bored with school. Why? Because she’s too smart (she obviously got that from me ;->). According to my daughter, when they have assignments in class, the Little Princess finishes first and then she has to sit there and wait for everyone else to finish (when I was her age, I made funny faces when the teacher wasn’t looking). If it was my son, I would assume he finished first because he got everything wrong (all of his answers would involve a super hero). With my daughter, I know that isn’t the case.
As some of you know, my daughter was given a reading test last year. My daughter was clocked at 110 words per minute (the goal was 40 words per minute). I know what you’re thinking, there must have been a lot of a’s, an’s, and the’s in the test. That’s what I thought. I’m an adult and I can’t read 110 words per minute. Maybe in my head, but not out loud.
My daughter is bright, but I’m still not convinced she’s really, really smart. Remember when I bragged about how I graduated from high school with almost straight A’s? I have a confession. I didn’t get all those A’s because I was smart. I cheated. Just kidding. I got them because I have a really good memory. I crammed for tests the night before and did really well. Worked great in high school, but not so well in college. I have a good memory, but not a photographic memory. There was just too much material to cram in college and trying to memorize everything was not exactly the best way to learn. In college, I had to learn how to learn.
Guess what I passed along to my daughter (besides her sense of humor and smart mouth)? That’s right, my good memory. Right now, her memory might even be better than my own (my memory isn’t as good as it use to be — three kids will do that to you). Here’s an example of my daughter’s good memory. Last month, the Little Princess and I were playing Go Fish. The Little Princess takes a look at her cards, memorizes them, and places the cards face down on the table. When I ask her if she had a card, she would answer without even looking at her cards. She also remembered which cards I was looking for without even thinking about it. Did I mention she was watching TV while she was playing? I turned on the news, thinking I could watch while we played. But I couldn’t really do both because I had to check my cards constantly while we played. But not my daughter. She looked at the cards once and committed them to her memory while watching TV. I hate her memory ;-).
The school year is only a month old, but my daughter seems to be doing well in school. I hope she’s doing well because she’s smart and not because she has a good memory. Otherwise, down the road, the Little Princess might have to learn how learn too.
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Well, my kid can do arm farts while pretending to shoot you.
Sadly, my kids do not have that skill. I tried teaching them, but they have failed me.
I had the same problem when I went to college. I could cram the night before in high school and get A’s. Luckily, I had a roommate that was brilliant and helped me learn to learn, like you said.
Your daughter is smart. Chances are, when she hits a point where it doesn’t come easy, she’ll have grown so accustomed to success, she’ll work her butt off to achieve it.
I wasn’t so lucky in college. I stayed in a coop instead of a dorm. The coop was like a poor man’s frat. Party, party, party.
Oy vey – the age old problem of what to do with a bright kid.
One hopes that she will learn good study habits because at some point in time, good memorization, as you pointed out, will not serve her as well as it does now in the early years.
My suggestion would be supplement her public education with some true learning experiences. If there is a gifted program available at your school, be sure to have her tested for it. If not, then look into something like Kumon to see if they can help this bright one stay bright and not burn out.
My wife is looking into a gifted program at school.
I can relate so well to the memory thing and never having to work for an A. I purposely didn’t cram or study before my SAT test just because I wanted to know what I REALLY knew! LOL I wish I could have passed that on to my daughter who struggles so much!
Hugs,
Holly
I can’t believe you picked the SAT for your experiment.
You’re alive! I thought butthead had finally read your blog and got even. Welcome back, don’t ever leave us hanging like that again. She’s a genius…you can tell by the color coordination.
I’ve been busy. You’re right, if the Butthead ever finds my blog, I would be in a lot of trouble.
What a smart girl. I think the gifted program would really benefit her. It gives her more of a cha;challenge so she won’t feel so bored.
Peep is that way. He has never had to study for a test in his life before. He memorizes everything. That is good and bad, like you said. Good for now while the work is relatively easy, bad for when he gets in high school or college when the work is hard.
Good luck to your little smart Princess.
I was in the gifted program, but I don’t remember learning anything. So much for my good memory.
That’s CHALLENGE. So much for not proof reading! :)
Man I can barely remember where I put my keys on a daily basis. That is an impressive little Princess. Love the brain protector, she wears it well!
You sound just like my wife. She couldn’t find her glasses once and it was on her head.
You have just described my son exactly. He gets his memory from me. He is still getting straight A’s, but has learned the hard way (some late assignments) that it is not infallible. 4th grade has been quite a transition for us.
My daughter has good memory when it comes to school, but she can be real dingy when it comes to putting her homework in her backpack.
Lucky girl, lucky Dad. We have two very very bright sons (17 and 20 now) who while being very academic are totally stooooopid when it comes to common sense…luckily this is a MALE AFFLICTION…. lol ! Your wee girl will be fine! She has the best of both worlds, brains and womanhood. *ducking for cover now*
Hey! Yeah, you better run after that comment. Hopefully experience will help your kids become wiser in the common sense department.
Haaaa ha ha….. only joking of course mate! Only the youngest “birth” child is still stoooopid…Mike, he’s 17. Just so ya know, I have 6 kids (3 girls, 3 boys) aged 28 – 17, and 2 grandchildren we are raising as well (aged almost 6 and just 7). So when it comes to knowing a bit about kids… well I do!
It isn’t so much that she’ll have to learn how to learn…she’ll have to learn how to STUDY. Study skills are very hard to pick up later when you are used to everything coming so easy.
I think you are sufficiently smart enough to try to boost the challenge level at school and at home to make her have to work a little more. Then she’ll learn time management, organization, and task balancing techniques before she has a kid of her own (that’s how I’m learning them).
Everything came so easy for me until I got to college, too. I went to a less academically-oriented HS and went to a college with very competitive admissions. Which is not to say anyone at the college was competitive–just that 90% of the students were VERY, VERY smart and I found myself actually having to do some of the work instead of just faking it for the first time.
WOW, that’s amazing that she reads so fast! I’m a fast reader, I hope that it rubs off on Anna. Love the picture :D
I hear you about the memory. Sometimes I hope my kids will develop some kind of memory, or to be realistic, I hope it becomes less selective!