Am I actually going to start bloggin about my surrogate kids?? I guess I am, just so I can bore the cyber ether and tie up valuable bytes of transfer.
I just had a loooooooooooooooooong conversation with Ben about why taking short cuts in Math using his computer and php coding to solve algebra is not a good thing as it is extremely unlikely that he will have a pc and a web account in his math exams to help solve the equations.. Of course this made no sense to him whatsoever. Thus we segue into a discussion on the methodology of taking exams.. which goes a little something like this :
Chris : Do you know how to take exams?
Ben : Yes, You read all the questions and then answer the easy ones and go back for the hard ones.
Chris : Do you calculate how much time you have to answer each question?
Ben : No.
Chris : Well don’t you think it would be useful to know how long you have to work on each question?
Ben : I already do that.
Chris : What do you mean?
Ben : Well I don’t calculate it I just know.
Chris : How do you just know?
Ben : Well I work it out without thinking about it.
Chris : So you do know how much time you have..
Ben : No…
(You getting the picture yet dear reader?)
Chris : Ok.. Ben you have not sat down with a calculator and worked out that you have 2.6789 seconds per question.. However you have subconciously worked out that you roughly have 3 seconds per question..
Ben : Yes
(Whew finally getting somewhere)
I swear this is like a comedy script of whos on first..
I am trying to work out what it is that drives Ben to be so very exact in his thinking.. because I want to be able to lead him to think in slightly more general terms, a little more lateral.
Telling him to clean the kitchen is not a single sentence.. its a list.
Open the dishwasher, put the dishes away, fill with dirty dishes, put soap in, switch it on.
Clean the sink
Clean the floor
Clean the stove
Clean the table
Putting garbage into an already full garbage container actually requires emptying it first..
Was I like this? I have to remember to ask my mom. I can’t have been that perfect.. surely not
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Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 8:14 am
Sounds like a typical man to me! Most men I know won’t do anything unless they’re either asked or told specifically what to do.
Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 9:55 am
ooo fight fight fight
Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 6:24 pm
As odd as it sounds, I’ve found that the more intelligent the child is the more you have to give them exact details of seemingly mundane tasks.
Friday, October 1, 2004 - 2:32 pm
I have a cousin like that. Then, once the list is listed, she forgets and does her preferred activities. Frustratingly literal yet somehow reaches the correct answer before the question is complete.
Friday, October 1, 2004 - 2:40 pm
See now Ben reaches the correct answer if he is interesting.. if not then your likely to hear a mumble
Saturday, October 2, 2004 - 6:23 am
Actually, this sounds like most of the people I work with.
Sunday, October 3, 2004 - 9:41 pm
Thats a good point Stacy, I could probably name a bunch of people I work with who do the same.