Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Wait, we didn't study!

My recurring nightmare is that it's April and college finals are approaching when all of a sudden I realize I've forgotten to attend one of my classes for the ENTIRE semester. I panic for the rest of the dream and somehow try to learn an entire textbook in a week. (Yes, I'm fairly sure this also happened on "Felicity.")

So when we went to the doctor yesterday for Rye's 3-year-old checkup and they suddenly began to do everything differently than we've ever done before, I panicked. Just a little.

First, they had him take off his clothes and put on a flannel Looney Tunes hospital gown. He did not like this. I don't blame him.

Then they began quizzing him.

This was worse than undressing. For Mommy at least. I hadn't prepared him!

The nurse held a card and began asking Rye to find the square, then the triangle, the circle and so on. I was feeling pretty good, as I knew he knew those. But, oh no, I silently gasped as I scanned the quiz sheet, I don't know if he'll recognize a capital E -- and I know he won't recognize a cross.

But somehow he did. He got all those right. Process of elimination, I'm thinking, on the cross.

Phew. Give us an A please.

But then she had Rye put on giant glasses and gave him a card on which the images were hidden by a bunch of blue and red dots.

My anxiety rose as she asked him again to find the square, the triangle, the circle, and his little pointer finger moved cautiously over the card, pausing on one blue and red square before settling on another.

He passed this as well but needed a little nudging from the nurse on at least one.

And later, more tests of academic mastery that I hadn't expected. The doctor asked him to draw a circle.

Rye did.

Again, hooray.

But what's with all this testing of a little boy who's been 3 for a mere 48 hours? And that's what I realize: Passing those tests, any tests, at this point in his life, doesn't really matter.

My goal: Keep him anxiety free for as long as possible.

Still, if the overachiever on my left shoulder wins, we might start studying for the 4-year-old exam this summer.

7 comments:

Kirsetin Morello said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kirsetin Morello said...

Oh, I hate the overachiever on the left shoulder. Mine got louder when my kids started trying out for soccer and taking standardized tests. Good for you for trying to knock him off and keep perspective. And good for Ryan—straight “A”s, no doubt! -Kirsetin (Sorry about the deleted comment...typo...)

Unknown said...

Trust me, as the husband of a school psychologist, those tests matter, and matter a lot... if your little guy hadn't performed at a certain level life would have changed quickly... all under the pretty solid theory of catch anything early and provide assistance there versus waiting for it to become a harm to the child's future success.

And yet, without any studying, he passed. Sometimes tests aren't about studying, but about what you can do naturally, and your little Rye is well on the way to 'normal' or maybe even 'above-normal' for your overachiever gene. Congrats on another A+! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I get that same recurring dream (more like nightmare) from time to time, too. I get several other recurring nightmares, too. One is that I'm in one of Daddy's plays and it's a couple hours before opening night but I don't know any of my lines or staging and I've never even been to a rehearsal.

That sounds like a pretty intense doctor's visit for a 3-year-old.

Chris said...

Whoa! The 3 year-old test is way harder than Jack's recent 9 month old test. :)

Veronica said...

Sara, I have the play dream, too! It's the same thing: it's time to go on and for some reason, I don't know any of the lines. Clearly, we have some anxiety about things!

Anne Wolfe Postic said...

Love this post, have that dream and totally relate!

Best,
Annie