Maximizing Learning Potential: Easter

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter

The girls and I had a great time with my college friend, Krista and her family. She has girls nearly the same ages as Maddie and Haley. We enjoyed watching an hour-long Easter Egg hunt! Cailin even found the "camouflaged" eggs in the trees :) The girls all get along amazingly well. All four girls enjoyed their first ever sleepover complete with pancakes covered in whipped cream and strawberries.

I got a phone call on our way back to Iowa. It was the director of MEGSSS with some great news for Haley. She has been accepted into the program and will start this summer. The director was quite shocked when I told her Haley was only 7 years old!! Haley is very excited to do some "challenging math."

Somehow Hunter has managed to keep his pullup dry the entire weekend. It's a record! Last Thursday, I had had enough of the very frequent accidents and wet clothing, so I told him he had to now wear a pullup all the time. He says that he's four now and a big boy. It would be so nice to get through the potty issues.

We had another Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's house on Saturday. The kids enjoyed a visit from four of their cousins. I really appreciated Aunt Sherri for putting money in the eggs instead of more candy :)

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Is it a Cheetah?

When we think of cheetahs we are likely to think first of their speed. It's flashy. It is impressive. It's unique. If a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars in restless frustration, it won't run 70 mph.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won't run 70 mph while hunting.

A school system that defines giftedness (or talent) as behavior, achievement and performance is as compromised in its ability to recognize its highly gifted students and to give them what they need as a zoo would be to recognize and provide for its cheetahs if it looked only for speed.

However, schools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can't exercise it, pace the bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do themselves damage.
In some schools brilliant children are asked to do what they were never designed to do while the attributes that are a natural aspect of unusual mental capacity -- intensity, passion, high energy, independence, moral reasoning, curiosity, humor, unusual interests and insistence on truth and accuracy -- are considered problems that need fixing.

Exerpts from Stephanie S. Tolan ©1996

Work Samples

Manatees (unedited)
By Haley
05/14/09

Manatees are very different than other animals. Manatees are aquatic mammals. They are also endangered. Manatees live in warm waters. They are very slow. Manatees are related to elephants. Manatees never hurt any other animal.

Manatees are funny looking creatures. Manatees are a grey- brown color. They are known as sea cows. A baby manatee weighs about 60 pounds. A grown manatee weighs about 1000 pounds. Sharp propellers from motor boats scar the manatees back.

Manatees have to lots of things after they have a baby. A mother manatee always stays near her calf. Manatees always teach there calf which plants are safe to eat. Manatees usally have one baby at a time every three years. The first thing a baby manatee does after it gets born it rises to the surface to breath. Last, a female manatee becomes an adult when it is five.

Manatees were used in lots of different ways. Its skin was burned as fuel. Also its bones where used as medican and jewelry. Its skin was made into shoes. Manatees fed many people.

Manatees are endangered animals. People need to protect them and not hurt them so they don’t dye out!