In Part 3, I covered what's been going on with Hazel the last few years in school. Lilie, is a different story.
Hazel has so much going on in her busy brain that it's hard for her to nail down one thing to focus on, Lilie has hyper-focus. Hazel is the child of never-ending curiosity and questions, Lilie is the intuitive observer. I never taught Lilie to read, she just listened to all of Hazel's questions (so many questions!) :) and just figured it out for herself.
We skipped preschool with Lilie. She doesn't crave the same kind of social time that Hazel does and I was afraid she'd be bored with Kindergarten if I did. Turns out, maybe we should have skipped Kindergarten, too. :) Two months in, Lilie came home and told me she didn't want to go to school anymore. I was surprised. "Why?? You love learning. Why don't you want to go to school?" Her answer: "Well, I already know all of that stuff so I'd rather stay home and play with you and Elsie. Then I could do whatever I want."
Huh. I still sent her to school, but let her teacher know that she was bored. She told me that she'd do her best, but she still had a lot of kids that didn't know their ABC's or numbers and Lilie was already reading and counting to 1,000. (that was my favorite Parent Teacher Conference, when her teacher told me that while doing evaluations she'd had to stop Lilie at 200 because she was just going to keep on going. haha!)
First grade, Lilie had an incredibly energetic and artistic teacher. They adored one another. Even then, her teacher basically told me the same thing. She's bored. She catches on super fast, so she was trying to keep her busy with creativity while the rest of the class caught up.
Second grade, halfway through the year her teacher tells me that he'd actually been really frustrated with Lilie for not paying attention until just recently when he figured out what was going on. He had thought that she wasn't listening, but really, she was just bored. As he'd explain a concept, she understood it the very first time and then checked out while he re-explained it for the next 20 minutes.
By third grade (last year), Lilie finally figured out how to not frustrate or offend her teachers, so instead of obviously tuning out, she draws. Every. Single. Paper. Lilie brought home last year - the front would have quickly scribbled (and perfectly correct) answers and the back would have large, elaborate sketches, drawings, MURALS. Her teacher put such a positive spin on it with, "I think that's just her way of processing new information. As she's drawing, she's listening and learning."
While I agree . . . clearly, she's got a LOT of extra time on her hands. And the conversation at home stays much the same, "What did you learn today?" Lilie: "I don't know."
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