Alan is enrolled in a German kindergarten program and since actual academic instruction doesn't begin until first grade in Germany, he breezes through the program. He enjoys it, though. Part of this is because it's very special – the program materials came in a big box and included everything from the curriculum, the special binder, markers and pens, eraser and pencil sharpener, construction and coloring papers, right down to the corks for cork printing and beads for sorting. What fun.
It wasn't much fun for me, though. He's got ADHD and is wiggly and squirrely, and I've inherited a strong impatient streak from a close family member. We used to sit at the kitchen table, until I couldn't take his wiggling anymore and we stopped. After, like, five minutes.
Last week, genius struck. I changed the arrangement of our study, threw one big table out, bolted shelves to the walls, and put Alan's little desk right next to mine, at 90 degrees. Today, we did another lesson – this after six hours of school in the afternoon. And you know what? It was really nice. We sat companionably next to each other; I surfed the internet a bit while he solved his little "test" and presented me with the results. Then, he decided he wanted to draw a robot, and that he did.
So, maybe we're on to something here.
I'm still thinking of taking him out of school and homeschooling him, for reasons that merit their own post one day. However. Remember that impatient streak? I really don't want to be impatient with him and these afternoon lessons are also a bit of a trial balloon to see whether or not we can work together. We're on lesson 13 now, and so far, so good.
Let's see how this works until Christmas, then we can revisit this topic.
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