Physics It Is!
Dylan is taking Algebra I again.
After a month of pre-algebra, he told me about his 8th grade math quiz:
. -7 x 5 =
“Are you serious?” I asked him. “Was that really one of the questions?”
“Yup,” he said, being his usual enthusiastic teenage self.
I went home and asked Shane, who just started 5th grade. “Hey Shane, what’s -7 x 5?”
“We haven’t done negatives yet,” he told me. Shane is very concerned with sequential order and rule following.
“I know you haven’t done negatives yet, but what do you think would be the answer?”
“Negative 35?” he guessed.
“That’s right!” I said, thrilled for my 5th grader and mortified for my 8th grader.
So after a lengthy meeting and a lot of juggling, we managed to do two things:
- put Dylan back into Algebra I, where he belongs; and
- save Dylan’s guitar class, which he wanted to keep above all else.
Dylan lost two periods of art, one period of P.E. and a period of drama – but he will be learning Algebra I in only four classes per week. On Tuesdays, he will play guitar instead.
Now that is something the public schools wouldn’t do! But wow, he lost art, P.E. and drama.
To make up for all the losses, he “gets to” take Physics. There is simply no other option in the entire school available for him, unless he wants to take Algebra I and pre-algebra simultaneously.
“That would be death,” Dylan said about the option of back-to-back math classes.
So, Physics it is!
If he does well in Physics, and passes Algebra I, he will have two high school credits. If he doesn’t do well in Physics, he can “audit” the course – so it wouldn’t count against him on his transcript. (I think he’s going to do just fine.)
Meanwhile, and completely unsurprisingly, Dylan loses focus at the end of the day. His last two periods – English and Spanish – are suffering considerably. Or, I should say, his English and Spanish teachers are suffering. They have emailed me to let me know that Dylan is unfocused and disruptive in class.
Hah! I thought. Dylan? Disruptive? He hasn’t been disruptive since preschool!
But yes, indeed, Dylan is being disruptive. Now that he’s in private school, where they are not so strict about staying in a seat, Dylan is up and around and probably singing and dancing. He is not staying focused.
He is also not on medication. And he is tired at the end of a long school day.
So, our only attempt at changing this behavior – besides a long talk with Dylan – is that Dylan goes to school with a big bottle of iced tea to drink before English class. It’s caffeinated, so we figure it’s the junior version of what my husband does to stay focused. My husband lives on coffee – so maybe iced tea will work for Dylan.
And maybe it won’t.
Mountain Dew is a *great* suggestion. I don’t think the tea is helping, and Dylan keeps asking for Monster which, I’m convinced, will kill him. I drank Dew for years before it started eating the lining of my stomach and causing great angst – so maybe that’s the thing! Sugar does tend to calm him, too. Also thx for the guitar advice – his private school teacher is very, very open to his way of learning (which is ‘don’t play for a week, then play for six hours’). Thx for the tips!
Kir,
Caffeinated tea should help for the last two classes; but if that doesn’t do it; try mountain dew – has loads more caffeine.
And I hate to say it; but he also may need a bit of a sugar hit…As always – just sharing what worked with Xan. And BTW, happy to hear he is playing guitar. If he gets bored because the teacher is too much by the book guitar 101; look up guitar player magazine online; go to the personals section and find a guitarist that wants to make extra money. (More than likely won’t be much more than $25/hour)in your area. THAT is who Dylan will really learn from. Or bring him here and Xan can teach him!