Big Decisions

Over Christmas vacation, Ethan heard a story about his cousin skipping a grade. He sort of lit up. He acted like "Wow, that's an option? I'm in!" Suddenly he talked about it all the time. Finally I told the school principal we were thinking about it. Ethan spend much of the month of February undergoing tests. I wasn't there, but I gather he was tested by at least 3 different people to determine at least 5 different factors. IQ, reading skills, writing skills, social readiness, and something called 'cycles of learning'. Then in the beginning of March I went down to the school for a meeting. Present were Ethan's teacher, the principal and assistant principal, and a few people from the 'gifted children' program at the district.
(side note: why have i never been informed that there even was a gifted program at the district? Seems that Ethan's teachers all know he's gifted, yet I've never been referred anywhere. Maybe I as the parent need to do my research a bit better)
At this meeting they gave me the results of the testing and told me that Ethan is an excellent candidate for skipping a grade. I asked a bunch of questions about the impact it might have on him. They showed me all these studies over the past 50 years showing that as long as the child meets certain requirements on those tests, skipping a grade is actually beneficial socially. I guess really smart kids stick out LESS when they are with older children. Who knew?
For the past 2 months I've been going over the pros and cons. Here's my problem: right now, most of Ethan's best friends are a grade ahead of him, so I'd be putting him with his friends instead of taking him away from them. That's a good thing right now. Also, it sort of cancels out some of the cons. When I list on the con side "his friends will all drive/date before he can" I have to qualify it by admitting that that will be the case regardless of which grade he's in. So then my con side pretty much disappears. But what if he and those friends grow apart? It happens to a lot of kids in Jr. High and High School. And there's absolutely no way of knowing if it will happen to these particular kids. Ack! I need a crystal ball.
Ethan still wants to do it, the powers that be recommend it, and James says "why not?" so on Monday I called the school and told them that Ethan will be skipping 5th grade and going straight into 6th. I feel good about this decision. Now he's doing some more testing to determine what he needs to catch up on over the summer. It's mostly math, I think. (Good thing I have a math ed major coming to live with me for the month of August.)
I guess when I had kids I thought that most of the traumatic parts for me would come when the kids did things wrong. I didn't realize I'd lose so much sleep because of things they were doing well. That's the thing about parenting: it's one surprise after another.

Why Adult Supervision is a Good Thing

Today Brenna and I (and Blake) went to the store and Brenna talked me into buying Easy Mac. It's kind of like Cup O Noodles, but instead of Ramen it's Kraft Mac N Cheese. When we got home, I made her one helping. Then I made myself a sandwich and I went upstairs to eat it. Not my best move, but sometimes I just need 10 minutes alone. If I'd known what was in store, I'd have just eaten my sandwich with Blake crawling all over me. Cuz here's what happened:
Brenna wanted more easy mac, so she made it all by herself. She just stuck one of the cups in the microwave and started it. I don't know how long it had been in there when I smelled the burning styrofoam and ran down. At the time I pushed 'stop' on the microwave, there were 77 minutes left. So it could have been a lot worse. But wow, it was bad enough.

My whole house still smells. I might have to replace my microwave if it doesn't get any better. And I'm guessing this fiasco is not covered by warranty. I've had all of the windows open all day, so it is very cold in here. I've also sprayed about 2 gallons of Febreeze. Still, it doesn't seem to be getting much better. I hope it's better by the time I have to cook again. At least if I burn dinner, nobody will be able to tell.

Right Place at the Right Time

Last week, my kids decided they really needed another pet. I said no way to hamster, lizard, turtle, rabbit, and parrot. Finally we found one we could agree on: fish. I can handle fish. In fact, our last goldfish (Nemo) lived for a full 2 years. So on Thursday afternoon we loaded in the car and took off for the pet store in Payson. We drove back and forth about 5 times, but couldn't see it. So I decided to run into my vet (which is located right next to where I thought the pet store was) to ask what I was doing wrong. They basically told me "right location, wrong year". The pet store is now a Mexican restaurant. So I was asking where the next best place is to buy goldfish. They don't have fish at the wal-mart in Payson either. I was going to have to drive all the way to Provo. For a fish. But it just so happens that there was a nice couple in there to pick up their dog, and they said " We have a huge fish tank and they breed, so we have lots of fish. We'll just give you some fish." I took my four kids and followed some complete strangers to their house. Good idea, right? I figured if they were crazy murderers, at least we'd die together. And James could spend the rest of his life trying to avenge us. So we went to their house, and sure enough their fish tank was about the size of the island in my kitchen, and it was filled with fish. They scooped out three, put them in a large ziploc bag, and said "call us when you need more". So not only did I get free fish once, if I want I can have a lifetime supply.

In case you're wondering, fish don't breed in fish bowls. They have to have a large space. So I shouldn't have any little fish babies on my hands. How lucky is that, that those crazy fish breeders just happened to be in the vet at the same time as me? I have so much bad luck, that I have to really celebrate the good luck that comes my way. Yay for free fish!