After all the testing, we discovered that my suspicions of dyslexia were true. But we also discovered that his IQ is really high, but only because it was skewed by one score in particular. All the other areas he was tested in, he scored in the average range, but in an area called perceptual reasoning he scored off the charts (literally).
I asked what "perceptual reasoning" meant and I was told it probably meant he was good at LEGOs and would probably do well in engineering in the future.Flashback
When I was in high school all the kids had to take an assessment that was going to let us know what career would suit us. I was a good student and I learned easily, so I did well on the test on all parts. It was decided I'd be good in the engineering field.
No one really explained what that meant to me and I decided it must have something to do with math and I despise math. So, I got a degree in Literature and work in graphic arts. I decided being creative appealed to me a lot more than math.
If someone had taken the time to explain exactly what engineering really meant, especially the part where you get to be incredibly creative AND you get paid more, then my life would have taken a drastically different turn.
I do appreciate my education in art and literature, but maybe the grass is greener on the other side? Oh well, c'est la vie.
In the here and now
So, back to the situation at hand. I still don't know exactly what the high score in "perceptual reasoning" means to my son.
I started thinking: How do I use this information to his advantage? How do I turn him into the best engineer he could be? How do I find out what he would be really good at AND enjoy? Most importantly, how do I go about teaching him?
He was already fascinated by architecture and I had already gotten him a book on famous buildings in the world. He really does love his Legos. He loves building, and has shown an incredible interest in video games that have build levels.
Well, I think I just answered many of my questions. The thing I really needed to do was just let him discover on his own what he'd like to do. However, while letting him explore on his own, I watched and shared in his fascinations. That helped me steer him along his path.
No schedule for us
I couldn't have done that though with a regular school schedule. (Yes, this is another shameless plug for unschooling.)
In public school they spend the first month or so of every new school year reteaching the things they feel certain the children must have forgotten over the summer. Then instead of going on to new areas of study, they just "enhance" upon the same old information taught the year before.
In the two years I had put my son back in public school (after having him out for a few years), they taught him all the same math skills, all the same literary skills, all the same history information, etc. In his second year of math it was addition again for the first six weeks. They increased the number of digits he had to add, but really once you teach a kid to carry over the excess really good, it doesn't matter how many digits you have.
I put him back in public school thinking I could get help with his dyslexia. Boy was I wrong. I knew we were going to be better off going back to home schooling.
Off on tangents
When I first started homeschooling, I created a curriculum and tried my best to stick to it. But as I was working with my son, we would go off on tangents. He really likes to talk about what he's learning and really likes to express himself and his ideas. I'm NOT about to put a stop to that. NO WAY! So I started letting him explore.
I didn't realize I was unschooling at the time (I didn't know the term for it). But I know it's right for us now.
I would suggest unschooling to anyone who doesn't like to squeeze into a schedule. First of all, you don't feel any pressure to get a certain worksheet done or get a certain writing project out of the way.
Secondly, when your children do want to explore something, you can let them. Why in the world would you put a limit on a child's desire to learn something? That's why I love unschooling. I love, love, love to learn new things, but I only learned to love learning when I got into college and got to choose what I wanted to learn.
So I decided to let my son learn the college lifestyle now and learn what he wants to learn. He's still gets a healthy dose of math, writing, literature, history, science, art and more. It's all included; it's just a part of everyday life. And the whole goal of an education is to gets kids ready for living life, right?
I don't know if it was the LEGOs that made my son smarter, or if it was because he was smart that he was so good with them. Every year for birthdays and Christmas, he begs for more LEGOs. I figure if they are helping him learn more about being an engineer, then why not! One of the co-founders of Google made a printer out of LEGOs when he was in college. Must be great toys!
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