Summertime and the Livin' ain't easy

Well, I just bit the bullet and signed AJ up for testing at N0rthw3stern's C3nt3r for T@l3nt D3v3lopm3nt. I am very ambivalent, and I'm not sure I can exactly explain why. It's one of the top programs for gifted kids in the country. I think it's partly that I don't want to quantify AJ. As long as there are numbers, there is no reason to think that he can't do anything at all. It's not that I think that the numbers will be low or even lower than expected, although it's certainly a possibility, depending on whether AJ feels like doing the test. It's just that it seems to put a defining box around him that I'm not so anxious to do. I'm hoping that I'll feel differently when I see the testing process in action. I remember doing this kind of testing over and over again as a child, each of the many times I changed schools. My IQ is exceptionally well documented, although my mother would never tell me what it was, for, I think, the same reason I'm averse to testing in the first place.

The reason I finally caved is that the CTD has some fantastic sounding programs, particularly in math and science, and I just haven't been able to find anything else like it. And although I'm not entirely sure we can swing the programs financially or logistically (the place is more than an hour away), I feel like I owe it to AJ to try. I keep reminding myself that expensive enrichment programs are still significantly less than private school tuition. Still, I'd like to avoid cannibalizing AJ's paltry college fund.

Summer sends me into a panic every year. I feel so much pressure to give him the best I can and we are not able to do as much as we would like. It's ten weeks of poverty and nerves. Even AJ's not looking forward to it. Every morning, he mournfully asks me what day it is, because in his head he can keep a countdown to the last day of school on June 2 but he can never remember what day it is (he gets that latter part from me). To AJ, it's 10 weeks without worksheets and daily visits with all his friends.

But the battle plans are being drawn. The folders full of colorful brochures are littering the kitchen counter. The calendar I printed out is covered with pencil marks and post it notes. Hopefully we will achieve some kind of balance of necessary child care, intellectual challenge, fun and games and financial stability. But it will be an immense challenge.