It's hard not to...

Wednesday mornings have been devoted to volunteering in my son's first grade class. I really enjoy being in the classroom because I do some things that don't involve the kids, but I do get to interact with the kids from time to time. The teacher even allows me to test some of the kids on what they know in, say, reading, so she knows what level each child is at. The first time I took a few kids out of the class for a "test" I was shocked!

The first kids were advanced, but nothing "shocking". Then when another child came in for his "test" I could barely keep up with the kid because the kid was reading the words SO FAST!! I was...shocked!

"What the crap?!" I was thinking. "How the heck does this kid KNOW all this!?!"

Baffled, I walked back home with this kid's advanced reading skills weighing heavily on my mind. See, I'm the kinda girl who sees a problem, then immediately starts devising a plan to fix it. Nas is a first grader, in the same class as the advanced kid, obviously, but he's probably right where he should be in all subjects. He doesn't read his sister's 5th grade books, he can't spell 3rd grade words, Nas can't multiply, and he doesn't recognize Pi.

I could've gone on and on in my head about what Nas can't do academically, but it seemed far more productive to go over what he can do and how we at home can help him with his weaknesses. Nas is his mother's child in that he is a strong writer - and he loves writing. He catches on to math concepts quickly, first grade math concepts to be sure. Nas also caught on to reading fairly easily and doesn't just love reading, but he's at a good place as a first grader.

It is so hard not to compare your kids to other kids their age. I know I've done it since Jay was born, but soon learned every child is so different that this is not a good way to measure ability of any kind. But I even find that I compare Jay and Nas - Nas more so to Jay at his age, but in a word it's just not FAIR to do this. Jay has always been advanced. She rolled over at two months, got teeth early, walked at nine months, has read a grade level or so higher since she started reading, she's just always done things early and overall, well. Nas has done some things early, but his resume does not read like his sister's does.

So what? As long as Nas is learning, is at least at grade-level, and behaves the way he is expected to at school, it's all good. Even his social issues have generally dissipated, which was a huge concern for me when he was younger. And every time I interact with the super reader in Nas's class I hear my Mom saying to me, "When everyone else learns it, you'll already know it. So what?" Being advanced in academics presents its own problems, I know this first hand where Jay is concerned, but we all have our strong suits which cannot, and should not, be compared.