A Viscous Liquid....

This term N has been starting to move through the journey groups in the junior stages at school in readiness for moving on to mid stage next year. N is extremely bright and the only reason that this move hasn't been attempted before is due to the fact that the autistic side of him is resistant to the challenges that this provides...the change in teachers, classrooms, desks etc. We spent quite a bit of last term preparing for this change and it has paid off. He is now in a literacy class with all year 3 children that he will move on with next year.

Now as I have said N is extremely bright...way off the scale for any normal 8 year old. This is a child who can discuss the effects of microwaves in space, the lunar eclipse and knows more about the solar system that I ever will. He could very easily cope with upper mid stage literacy now but he doesn't have the emotional skills to cope with it.

This week in literacy we have been discussing adjectives, those wonderful words that make reading so much more exciting! The kids were asked to choose their favourite food and to write a list of adjectives to describe that food.

Now most eight year olds will write things like yummy, sweet, sour, delicious, etc. N chose caramel ( you got to like a person whose favourite food is caramel) and he started writing his list. Predictably he started off with sweet, sticky, brown...then he stopped...turns to me and says....how do you spell viscous liquid?

Tell me, how many eight year olds know that caramel is a viscous liquid? Hell how many eight year olds even know what a viscous liquid is?

It's moments like these that make my days at school so much fun.