This coming Thursday, Aiden has a placement test with the school he'll be attending this fall. It's a kindergarten placement test and from what I've looked up online, he knew how to do everything when he was two years old, but that's not the worry. Aiden is quite smart, but he's also incredibly stubborn (I wonder where he got that from....). It takes an act of God to make him do something that he doesn't want to do. And the horrible people at Early Intervention found that out two years ago. Basically, the questions he will be asked on Thursday are the same questions he was asked when we had the Early Intervention evaluation. When Aiden was told about the placement test, he was not pleased. He said that not only was he not going to go to the test, he refused to attend kindergarten. Keep in mind that Aiden's memory is fantastic and the EI evaluation was a fairly awful experience for all of us - I don't doubt that he's expecting it to be the same. I tried to put into different terms for him: You get to meet your teacher, you get to see the school, you get to check out your new classroom, you get to show your teacher that you can read and know science, etc. He would not budge.
After about a week of trying to get him excited and only angering him, John decided that Aiden needed a little encouragement to take part in the placement test. There are really times where bribery can be a good thing. We sat him down and told him that if he went to the placement test, answered ALL the questions, and did it without complaining or having a fit, he would get a new Star Wars Lego set. This is a big deal. He's REALLY into Star Wars Legos right now and those sets are not cheap (and he knows it). Suddenly, he was ready to take on that placement test and school the teachers on the solar system. He talks about it a couple times a day. We even walked over to the school yesterday (also good for me to know how long it takes us to walk there) and let him look around the school grounds and peek in the windows. He seems to be very excited now and I hope that lasts until Thursday.
Going to a new school can be a scary thing, and we want to make this as exciting for him as possible. If a way to keep him motivated is to have him earn special treats when he completes things with a smile on his face, then I'm fine with that. Although I may have to figure out a treat for myself - I'm pretty nervous about this new school thing too!
So Aiden's test is on Thursday afternoon at 1:30, if you'd like to keep us in prayer. Aiden is smart and I know he can blow those teachers away with his knowledge....as long as he doesn't dig his heels in. This is fairly important in terms of him getting placed where he's going to get the most out of his school year. I would prefer if he didn't get stuck with the kids who don't even know their alphabet.
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