We may have a breakthrough!

The kids had their annual testing last month. The results aren't all that interesting, except for Jon's. He's tough to figure out sometimes... what IS going on in that brain of his??

His results showed that his vocabulary is extraordinary, and he has a very good grasp on social studies and science, but his language skills and math skills could only be worse if he didn't answer ANY of the questions. So basically, the best way for him to learn is to hand him a book and let him read about a topic, rather than using workbooks like we so often do for grammar and math.

Guess what? I found the Barron's Painless Series on Amazon, and I think we're on to something! I handed him the Painless Junior Math book and said, "Here, read your book." No conflict, no frustration. Within five minutes, he was excited to tell me he understands a concept he's struggled with for the five years I've tried to teach it to him. He keeps nodding his head as he's reading, saying, "Ok, I get it now." And the beauty of it is, it's a book he can read again later if he needs to. He just told me, "That's a pretty good chapter (on telling time). Now I don't even have to count the numbers by 5's anymore."

HALLELUJAH!!!

"I can tell today's gonna be awesome. It's warm out, and a good day to be outside. And also, I just learned how to tell time, so that helps my feeling that it's gonna be awesome."