Proud Mama Moment

Recently I went to visit with Camden's teacher for a parent-teacher conference. I already knew what we were going to talk about - Camden's constant chatting in class and other inappropriate times (like during a math test!). The child has had great behavior up until around December, which is a pretty good record for him. Not that he's a "bad" child. Not at all! He's a great student, and teachers always love him - but he has the tendency to be the talker in the room. (I was never like this, so I don't get it. I was always the shy, quiet student.)

So we do talk about this. He had a great week the week before and was going to have his best friend stay over on the weekend if that week was the same. Well....he had to turn his card that very day (right after we had said, the night before, "if you turn another card this week, Will can't come over"). The teacher said he even had a tiny tear coming out of his eye when he went to change the card - so she knew something big was not getting to happen as a consequence. (Camden knows we stick to our word in this house.)

Anyway, this isn't what I'm proud about. I will say that since this meeting and the teacher having Camden write checks on a paper whenever he is off task - his chatting has literally almost stopped! Yay! (And this weekend, he does get to have his friend over for a sleepover.)

What I am so proud about was from the second half of the meeting - talking about the CogAT test results. (Cognitive Abilities Test) I have always known Camden is really smart. He learned to read immediately in Kindergarten. He has never once had to study for a spelling test. He was tested at reading (and comprehending) at the 9th grade level in the 1st grade (another super proud mama moment!). School has just always been very easy to him (which is causing a bit of a struggle now that he's finding out he does in fact have to study and put more effort into larger projects...). So I expected good CogAT results - and boy did my expectations get surpassed. The boy scored in the 99th %tile for the verbal and quantitative (math) parts of the test and for the composite score (99th is the highest you can get and is in comparison to the national norms for the test). He slacked a bit (haha!) with the nonverbal and got in the 97th %tile, but from what we're told, that is the hardest part on the test. He missed no problems in the first two sections and only missed three in the nonverbal. My child is amazing!

I'm not trying to just brag on him here. But I am so freaking proud of him!! I have to share how incredible he is in this part of his life. (He's great at lots of other things he does, too, but this is what I am writing about this time.) Of course, I still have to worry about him performing at the level he is able - which is a common problem for smart kids. My mom says that was so frustrating when me and my brother were growing up (esp for her being a teacher!). I can remember things about my brother, who is actually much smarter than me. And I see some of that in Camden. He doesn't want to study. He gets frustrated the second something doesn't come naturally with school. If he can't get it right away, he claims he just can't do it. (Ha!) He's never had to try before, so it's hard for him to have to start now. We remind him that it isn't going to get easier! Ha again! Hopefully seeing me and Ryan focusing on grad school and exams will help out with that. I kind of dislike that any other kids I have won't see that. Camden has seen me go through college and grad school, so school is just a part of life, the way he sees it. Let's hope that continues, too! :)

Anyway, major props to Camden for his awesome test scores. You can't imagine how incredibly proud I am to be his mommy sometimes! This kid is just too cool! :)