carrying the one

As we inch closer and closer to the next school year, I'm starting to get a touch nervous for the little Ubergoober. He is, after all, going to the "special school" next year. And we say it like that, sotto voce with elegant air quotes hovering about our heads.

My main concern is that he won't be up to the challenges that his classmates have already mastered, having a year in the program under their belts already. Heck, last year they learned French in the second-grade gifted class. French. I can speak German a little, mostly profanities, and I can read some Latin. Please note these are all skills I learned post-elementary school. I have a vague memory of my mother signing my sister and I up for a German class when I was in second or third grade and I could speak well enough to talk to my Irish great-grandmother (don't ask... it's really quite a long and convoluted story), but it was extra-curricular and now I'm thinking my mother had it right and why haven't I been shuttling my Goober off to learn French already?

I suppose I should be comforted that he was well beyond grade level in all subject matters, except cleanliness and organization. That he remained stubbornly average at. But... well, you just don't know. I don't know where he should be, despite repeated assurances by his teacher for next year that he will be just fine. Just fine. He'll do well, she promises.

So Nature Boy and I decided to do some homeschooling this summer. Just some extras to help Goober get ahead. He's been reading voraciously and has returned to his non-fiction roots, sucking down books on space and math theory like most children suck down milkshakes.

Today I brought him to the archery shop with me, so to entertain him I printed off a bunch of math worksheets, mostly adding two-digit numbers together.

"Come on, Goober. You need to know this. Do you know how to carry the one?" I asked, shoving the sheets at him.

He just shrugged. "I'd rather play on Carrot Sticks." So he sat down at his computer (an old laptop we let him play on) and started playing. It's a website his first-grade teacher recommended for him, so we let him play on that site almost whenever he asks. I monitor it slightly, but it's just math games where you get carrots for correct answers. I don't think there's much I can object to. So I'm cooking my books and he's playing on his game and it's a while before I think to check what he's doing.

Adding three sets of four- and five-digit numbers together.

And getting the answers right.

Sometimes he uses a piece of scrap paper to work the problem out, but mostly he's doing it in his head. And I realize, I'm freaking out over nothing. He will be fine.

And from now on, I'm giving him the checkbook to balance. If he can get those problems right, I'm guessing my personal finances should be no problem.