It seems that we have gotten into a groove and Colin is in a super-routine. A large part of this routine entails my chauffeur services. I feel a bit like an Uber driver.
No complaints here. It just makes it harder to post meaningful updates to my blog.
All Good Things Must Come To An End
Swim season has accounted for a large part of our uber-routine. I have had the privilege of driving Colin to early morning practices thrice weekly and weekday after-practice pickup. I pack a box full of a variety of snacks, pick up my hungry and tired swimmer and then on to the doggie daycare to fetch "Colin's dog".
Depending on Colin's mood, I might get some conversation where I learn snippets of useful information about his life. The trick is to have a quiet car, good treats and let him initiate the conversation. I also keep my responses as short as possible.
Swim season and practices are ending soon. Thus so will this uber-routine!
Car-ride Intel
School seems to be going well. Colin has informed me about an economics project where he has a stock portfolio to manage. We were able to have a nice discussion about stocks and he looked up the performance history of a few of my stocks.
He also mentioned the PSAT test that high school sophomores take for practice. Colin mentioned that the scoring was a bit messed up and he did not do so well. I asked if he did not have enough time to finish or if he did not know some of the material. He replied in the negative to both.
Solving the Mystery
While Colin was not concerned about his testing results, I was perplexed. We had yet to see the results but after the scores should have been released, our mailbox has been filling up with mailers from colleges all over the US. Some of these have been from prestigious institutes of learning. It made no sense to me why top-notch schools would be reaching out to someone who had less-than-stellar scores.
I put a call into the high school guidance counselor and my suspicion was validated. Colin's results were not terrible, nor was there a mistake in scoring; just confusion in our son's interpretation.
In "Reading" he received a 650 / 760 and "Math" a 740 / 760. I was told that if Colin can work on the reading, he could be in the running next year for National Merit Scholar.
Not only did I feel vindicated for my gut-feeling that something was off, I felt a great deal of pride. I was especially grateful that Colin was not given extra time for this test. This can work against him for tests like the ACT and SAT.
I am hopeful the future can be bright if we can help our son keep his sound issues under control.
Sleep Schedule
The one part of of uber-routine that I am concerned about is Colin's crazy sleep pattern. During the week he will fall asleep in my car and it has been challenging to get him into the house. We then have a crabby and groggy boy who immediately finds a place to collapse and will nap for hours. It is not unusual for his dinnertime to be during the 11:00 news (or later). He then spends the wee hours of the morning either playing video games or doing homework in his room.
Sounds from our son's room can travel up the heating vent into the upstairs loft. We can usually tell when Colin is gaming due to yelling and swearing, which we are told is part of the gaming culture. Most parents would try to enforce a curfew or crack down more than we are. If the swearing is clearly audible, we will go down and request our son to "cool-it" and "quiet down".
My husband and I discussed at length what to do about this and we decided as long as our son continues his 4.0 Honor Roll status and his behavior is non-disruptive, we need to let him self-monitor.
I have noticed an increase of "shushes", "shut-ups" and even a rare "Die!" when our son is extremely tired and needs his rest and a quiet house. We continue to accommodate as much as possible.
As always, we are a work-in-progress!
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