With the changes to Trevor's way of doing things, as well as hockey and a few more events, Trevor has kept himself very busy over the past week. This weekend was the last Bloomington hockey tournament. They have a Minnetonka one next weekend, but the parents don't have to be as involved as this past weekend. Trevor also decided to come with me to the Gopher basketball game on Saturday and last but not least, we had a baptism to attend and visit with relatives on Sunday.
Starting off with his school work and changing his homework routine and anything having to do with getting ready for school. It started off rather difficult, but then was really easy. Now we are back to somewhere in between. I know I have to let go to the point of letting him learn from his mistakes, and I know for sure that I'm not oblivious to what is going on, I just need to point him in the right direction, when he asks for help. A big change is talking about his results of tests and such. He has gotten to the point in his class where he has met all the requirements of a 3rd grader and they are doing their expanded curriculum things like analogy word tests and reports on the current unit which happens to be Egypt. So first step is to do the homework that is assigned by the due date (sometimes this might be studying for a test). Then when they get the test or report handed back, we get to look at it and see how he did. For the most part, Trevor looks at the test and says, well, I only got 6 wrong, that's pretty good. Well 6 wrong is relative and since they don't have grades yet and are only evaluated on if they took the test or not, it is up to us to determine if that was a good grade or not. So I need to put it in perspective. If he were in middle school or high school and got a 14 out of 20, what grade would that be? A C-. That is a much easier thing to evaluate based on his own desire to get a good grade which then leads to getting into a good college, and job beyond that.
But that is the key thing that I know Russ is having a hard time with Trevor on. It is finding how to motivate him to get what he wants. For the most part, school comes easy for him. He is taught something and he can repeat it back in test format. But he can't teach it back to someone and when it comes to written tests, explaining what he knows and why, he doesn't do so well at it. But they aren't graded on that part. He does what is expected of him and that's it. If it is something that is interesting to him, he will go at 110%. He researches and wants books on the subject, he wants to talk to adults about what he knows, etc. So if you ask him to take a test on something that he doesn't really care that much about, he'll do it but that's all you'll get from him. If you ask him to do homework on the current math topic, he will do it as fast as he can and not put a lot of time into it. So if he doesn't get an A on a math test, there really isn't anything I can do to motivate him to want to get a good grade. It is something he has to want for himself. With Chess or baseball, there is no need for motivation. He is motivated to do as good as he can, so you will often find him practicing baseball in the backyard in the spring and summer and reading books or playing against anyone who will play him in chess. When it is swimming or hockey, he does it because yes, he does enjoy it, but there isn't that motivation there to do better. He does what is asked of him. I don't doubt that like school, the motivation might come later. But while Russ and I both want him to be motivated to do better, it isn't something we can will onto him.
Anyway...not to get too sidetracked, Trevor did have a great week outside of school. He had his 3rd grade mallet performance. That was a fun show to watch. Every 3rd grader got to play a mallet song and sing if they weren't playing. I know his piano helped him know how to play his piece, but man he really had a doozy of a song! I think next year is the recorder performance. I remember when I was playing a recorder in 4th grade. I don't really know that I'm looking forward to all those 4th graders playing their recorders......
The very next night we had Trevor's First Reconciliation. We had 4 weeks of prep, religion meetings, and then this one service. He of course wanted to be a reader and of course we got the remark that I feel as though we always will: "Wow Trevor, you really have a gift for public speaking! I wonder what you will do with that when you are older". To which Trevor thinks that after he is professional baseball player, he thinks it will fit in perfectly to becoming the President of the United States. Anyway, they had 5 priests to perform the sacrament and invited the adults to take part as well. Now, I had my first reconciliation when I was in 4th grade, and if I remember correctly, that was the first and only time that I had done the non-communal form. So that night I had my second. Trevor didn't seem to be nervous and I think got out of it what he needed to but it was another momentous night of our week.
The weekend was primarily about hockey with a few other events sprinkled in. Trevor had a really good tournament, as seems to be the case very often. The last game of the weekend he scored a goal, but they said it didn't count. The team and the coaches "counted" his goal anyway and he got the "lunch bucket" award for his play during that game. I can't tell you how many times the parents were saying that we were all glad that hockey was coming to an end this year. It is a long season and it would be nice if we got a break between hockey and baseball, but that just isn't in the cards. We will have a week long break to sunny FL so maybe when we get back most of the snow will be gone. With this latest dumping and snow day it is hard to believe that there is enough time for it to melt when baseball is supposed to start the beginning of April!
On to the last few weeks of school in March! This week the kids already didn't have school Thursday and Friday, and Gwen was even off on Wednesday, but add in this snow day today and I think we'll be ready for school to come back again next week sooner than Monday!
