1) Cutting my own hair.  Here are some pictures.  I didn’t do such a bad job, if I may say so.  I’ve actually cut my own hair about half a dozen times now, and it’s never made me cry yet, so I keep on doing it.  It’s my own special way of giving the world the finger, which is important to me for some reason.

2) Giving the world the finger (see previous).

3) Compiling the world’s longest to-do list of things I have to get done before we go to Greece next Friday.

4) Crossing things off the list.  Byron and I did well enough at it today that we treated ourselves to gelato at Cafe Zucchero.

5) Breaking in my new sandals so I don’t get blisters in Greece.

6) Playing Scott’s video games, especially Dragon Age, which has really got my number.  I’m a dwarf princess, heavily embroiled in dwarf politics!  Now I have a pet war hound, who steals random weird things for me and pees in public places!  This is the best game ever!

7) Realizing that while 4) and 6) seem contradictory, they’re not.  I have to bribe myself to get stuff done.  It has always been thus.

8)  Enjoying the absurdly nice weather.  It’s been sunny, and not very hot.  It will be very hot in Greece.  I’m not looking forward to that part of the trip.

9) Looking forward to other parts of the trip – the parts that are going to be AWESOME.

* Byron is loving his new Wallace and Gromit DVD.  It’s the three original adventures.  We had Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which he’s always loved, but this is his first time seeing the classics.

* He’s especially liking all the “making of” featurettes, and is amazed at the shear amount of work required in stop-motion animation.  I smell another project on the wind.

* Of course, his last project – the knitting – has been eclipsed by his birthday presents: the fabric markers, the Wallace and Gromit DVD, and a special magnetism experiment kit featuring “Magnetic Putty”.

* The putty “contains millions of micron-sized mini-magnets embedded into black silicon based putty”.   Er.  The box swears it’s safe and non-toxic, but I’m still making him wash his hands after using it.  The “experiment” involves putting a very strong magnet hear it and watching the putty creep toward the magnet as if alive.

* The implications of this for stop-motion animation are readily apparent to Byron, and even I can see he has a point.  The figures move themselves so you don’t have to!

* What I utterly failed to anticipate: the putty can also be turned into magnetic yarn and, with the help of a couple nails, used for knitting magnetic clothing.

* Thus, with perserverence and determination, all hobbies can be turned into one hobby.

Byron woke up this morning wanting to understand nuclear chain reactions. Doesn’t that happen to all of us, every now and then? Well, Scott found him this video demonstration, with mousetraps and ping-pong balls. It’s pretty awesome.

Byron received some fabric markers and a couple plain t-shirts for his birthday (thank you, perceptive Arwen!).  The minute he got home from school today, that’s what he wanted to do: draw on a shirt.  He drew a guy falling off a cliff into lava on one side; a little gruesome, perhaps, but at least it wasn’t a mushroom cloud.  On the other side, he declared a military theme, then asked, “What are the colours of the German flag?”

He’s very, VERY into WWII at the moment.  I had sudden images of this going wrong.  “Er.  The modern German flag?  That would be okay.”

He looked at me shrewdly.  “What WOULDN’T be okay?”

“Don’t put any Nazi symbols on your shirt.  I would not let you wear a shirt with Nazi symbols on it.”

“What if I put a swastika…”

“NO, YOU ARE NOT PUTTING SWASTIKAS ON YOUR SHIRT!”

“Mom!  You didn’t let me finish!  What if I put a swastika in a circle, with a line through it?”  He flourished a marker, crossing out the symbolism in midair.  “That would mean ‘No Nazis allowed!’  That would be okay, wouldn’t it?”

“Buddy,” I said, “your heart is in the right place.  But that is such an inflammatory symbol that I would not be comfortable if it were anywhere on your shirt, even crossed out.”

“What does ‘inflammatory’ mean?”  And then we were distracted and it was all right.

And in the end he decided he’d like some Canadian Forces insignia on his shirt.  We looked it up on the internet, and he was quite taken with all the stars and crosses and crowns.  He even made up a few new ones of his own, and added an inukshuk, just because.

So if you see me walking around with a twenty-six-star general, don’t be alarmed.  He’s protecting me from Nazis.

The weather is behaving as if it were… I dunno, JUNE or something.  I keep going outside and wanting to stay there.  It’s weird and creepy!

June is always a big month around here, what with our anniversary (15th this year!), Father’s Day, and Byron’s birthday (7!) all packed into a tiny space.  To say nothing of school ending, summer starting, oh and we’re going to Greece in a week and a half…

Hahahahaha.  In fact, Scott leaves Thursday, to attend Neutrino 2010 before we even get there.  His meetings are the whole reason we’re going – remember how he was in Japan for our 10th anniversary, and I insisted on going along?  Well, see, he can’t weasel out of our 15th either, only this time we’re bringing Byron AND my in-laws.

It’ll be fun, assuming the entire country isn’t on fire – which it could be.

* Thanks to Laura G for pointing out (in last post’s comments) that Amy Unbounded would be on Kurt Busiek’s Newsstand of Dreams.  He was always so encouraging and nice to me at comics conventions, and I do kind of wish I could just pull more Amy out of my ear and hand it to everyone.

* Byron is old enough now that he can read it, and does, although I think my uneven lettering stumps him sometimes.  He asked Scott to read it to him last night at bedtime, and I’ve had multiple requests from him to make more.  MORE!

* Again: my ear is inexplicably empty.  I wish it weren’t so.

* I’d like to do more comics sometime, but I’m really not in an Amy place anymore.  Maybe I could age her by about eight years.  It’s worth thinking about, but I don’t know when I’d get to it.  I dream of having more time, but I’m not sure there IS more time.

* But then, I just got the following e-mail from Scott:  “I have reduced the entire universe to a single equation, and I know how to solve it.”  So in principle, he may know the answer to where all the rest of the time is.

* A week from today will be the last Comic Book Club at school.  I’ve enjoyed leading it, although by “leading” I really mean “sitting around watching kids draw”.  That’s fun.  In recent weeks, I get as many as 10 kids from Byron’s class attending.  They all seem to love it, and it’s given Byron a tiny social account with a small amount of coolness in it, which he may be able to cash in later if it occurs to him.

* Which, knowing him, it probably won’t.

Shifting gears for a day, because my brain is TIRED.  I saw a post over at Mandajuice asking about favourite poems (Manda herself seems not to like poetry, interestingly enough), and it got me thinking.

I love poetry, lots and lots.  I would say in general, I prefer short poems; I like each word to have weight, and I find that gets diluted the longer a poem goes on.  I like rhythm, and the feel of the words in my mouth, and lots of meaning packed into a small space.

Choosing just one is hard.  I mentioned about five in the comments over there.  Here’s one I didn’t even mention, but I liked it enough that I asked one of my sisters to read it at our wedding.  It’s by e e cummings, and the title is the first line:

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for eachother: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

(That sounds like it ought to be a mash-up of “Sweet Emotion” and “Big Generator”.  I’m going to go out on a limb here, without having heard the result, and proclaim it the worst song ever.  Preemptively, yes)

We had Byron’s IEP meeting today.  It lasted almost two hours, and I’m too exhausted to really give you a blow-by-blow, but here are the highlights, as they occur  to me right now:

* Everybody there pretty much knows Byron is gifted.  Which was nice, on the one hand, because we didn’t have to persuade anyone, and not so nice on the other hand, because there’s no money or resources for gifted ed, so it was treated like a bit of a moot point.

* When I suggested self-directed learning opportunities, everyone pretty much piled on that his “self-regulation skills” aren’t up to it.  So part of his Plan for next year is going to be working on ways to keep his cool, not get distracted, not overreact to things, not be so fiercely self-critical, transition more smoothly, etc.  He needs that; I’m not complaining.  I’m glad we’ve got a plan.

* They will recommend him for “challenge programs”, where he gets to go to another school for a few days and do a special program in an area of interest to him.  That will be nice.  But there is really nothing at our school – no pull-out, no enrichment, nothing.  That’s kind of disappointing.

* In fact, our school’s VP was pretty down on the whole thing.  Not down on HIM, I mean, but pretty grim about resources and possibilities for him.  She thinks we shouldn’t even get him assessed right away (privately assessed; the waiting list for school assessments is YEARS long), would rather call him “exceptional” than “gifted”, would rather focus on helping him fit in than on anything that would further single him out as different.  But I was really pleased with his teachers’ – BOTH his teachers’ – response to helping us plan for next year, trying to think of what class would be best for him, what students would be good in class with him (and which students don’t mix well with him).  They both seem to appreciate him, more than I had appreciated.

* We spoke to the school counselor at the very end – once everyone but his Monday teacher had gone – and SHE thought we should go get him assessed privately right away, if we could afford it.  She saw no drawbacks (the VP had thought he might have to be retested in a couple years; the counselor said, “Not if he reads as well as you say he does!”).  Maybe there aren’t programs for him right away, or in the neighborhood school, but as he gets older there will be more options for him, and knowing what his strengths are NOW will be invaluable in helping us plan for the future.

* And yes, I got weepy.  It was nice to have Scott there, on my team.  He didn’t have to play bad cop, much, but he was ready in case he did.

* And what does this really mean for next year?  I don’t think we can know until we meet next year’s teacher, and figure out strategies for working with her (or him).  We’re going to get the assessment, and we’re going to get B a little therapy, probably, to help with the self-regulation and the (alas) self-criticism.  Still planning on karate, and of course, there is always enrichment going on at home.

* I’m feeling optimistic.

* Those of you who follow me on Facebook already know: Byron is learning to knit.

* Here’s how it happened: he was reading a library book on World War II (don’t all knitting stories start this way?).  It was one of those DK Eyewitness books he loves, and when he got to the endpages, he looked at all the other DK titles and decided he really, really wanted the book about Film.  He wanted it so badly he was willing to spend his own allowance money, so badly he asked nicely whether we could please go to Kidsbooks RIGHT NOW and buy it.  I warned him that Kidsbooks might not have it in, but I was sure they could order it for us, and off we went to the bookstore.

* Kidsbooks did not have the book he wanted.  He looked at a few other books, then noticed the craft kits.  He’s been wanting to learn to sew, and some of the craft kits would have been perfect except… they were all so GIRLY.  Only girls want to sew?  Really?  I helped him look, growing more and more disgusted by all the pink.  “Y’know what?” I said.  “There’s a craft shop right across the street.  Let’s go over there.”

* Off we trotted to the craft shop.  The clerk said there was, indeed, a kit that would suit him perfectly, except they didn’t have it in at the moment and she didn’t know when they were getting it in.  Meanwhile, Byron had found the yarn section.  “Mom!” he cried.  “Knitting is a way of making fabric!  I really want to knit some fabric!”

* The Learn to Knit Kit was – you guessed it – GIRLY PINK.  The clerk apologetically suggested that B could choose his own yarn; she pointed out some blues and greens.  B, unwilling to be corralled by gender, chose the Very Bright Happy Rainbow yarn.

* And now, he’s learning to knit.  This, alas, requires me to haul my very rusty knitting skillz out of the bottom of my brain.  I couldn’t make head or tail of the directions in the kit – not least because the pictures were badly drawn – so I resorted to knitting videos on the internets.  I was taught to knit by my mother, who warned me at the time that her style was weird, so it did take me a while to find a video that matched my muscle memory of how to do this.  Turns out my mother is a left-handed, or Continental style, knitter.

* So far, B and I are knitting together.  I give him one motion to do – stick the needle through, or wrap the yarn, or push off the stitch – and I do the rest.  He totally understands, spatially, what’s going on with the yarn.  I think it’s going to take a while before he can do it all himself, but he seems completely fascinated, so maybe he’ll have the patience to keep at it until he can.  I wonder whether it would be possible to find a little vise to hold the left needle upright so he doesn’t have to worry about that part.

* The best part is the way he jumps around after every new row, crying, “We’re making FABRIC!”

* I’m going down to Seattle this weekend to visit my cousin Trinity, who just had a baby on Tuesday, two months early.  I’d been planning to visit her this weekend anyway; I’m going to go as planned and see what I can do to help.  Byron, upon hearing his new second cousin was already in the world, insisted that we need to have an entire scarf knit by tomorrow, “As a reward to Trinity for having a baby!”  When I told him I really didn’t think this was possible, he was disappointed but philosophical: “We’ll give it to her another time!  She’ll still deserve a prize!”

* I smiled at him, realizing again what a prize I have in him.

So here’s what I’m reading today: the BC Ministry of Education Special Education Services Manual.  Yee-Haw!  Noticing that, contrary to what I understood from our school, third grade is not the age they necessarily start identifying kids as gifted.  Quoth the Manual:

Early identification of students who are gifted is an important element in planning
and delivering appropriate educational programs for these students. Some gifted
students whose abilities are not identified and addressed early may exhibit
secondary emotional and behavioural difficulties. District screening and identification
procedures should be in place to ensure consistency of access to programs designed
to support gifted students.

Well, hot diggity dawg!  It’s still early!  Let’s screen this boy!

And once he’s screened, what then?  Why, the Ministry of Education thinks we need to make a PLAN, an Individual Education Plan, as it were.  Why… we already HAVE an IEP!  Huzzah!  Let’s add to it!  The Manual recommends the following possibilities:

Supplemental services for a gifted student should contain some of the following
elements, but are not limited to these:
• independent guided education;
• specialist teachers in resource centres or resource rooms;
• district and community classes;
• special groupings which provide opportunities for learning with intellectual
peers;
• mentorships;
• consultative services to assist teachers in expanding experiences in the
regular classroom;
• accelerating/telescoping/compacting some or all of the student’s program;
• opportunities to challenge courses when appropriate; and
• opportunities to take enriched courses and to participate in Advanced
Placement, International Baccalaureate, or honours courses.

So much to choose from!

I am going to propose acceleration, and I’m going to propose it nicely.  If we can get a teacher next year who is flexible and willing to work with me on this (because I am willing to work), it sounds straightforward enough: let Byron demonstrate each week that he understands the lessons the other kids are being taught (that sounds like an afternoon’s worksheet-filling-out to me), then – assuming he’s been a good sport about doing the required gesturing – let him spend the rest of the week delving deeper into whatever the general theme of the week is.  By which I do not mean extra more-of-the-same.  I mean independent projects.

I am happy to help – books, resources, time, whatever is needed.  But I want him challenged, and school as-is isn’t doing that.