The Trouble With...(Pt. 4)

Kids get bored in school. All kids get bored in school. Smart kids get down-right fed up with school. If you know this is happening with your child, should you work with the teacher to challenge the student? We thought we needed to do that with Justin. Otherwise, he would waste his time in school. As parents of a child prodigy (because all parents feel that way about their children, right?), we tried to keep him interested in his schoolwork.

He loved to read – anything and everything. He read cereal boxes, newspapers, magazine covers in the checkout line, all of the road signs, all of the buildings/restaurants names as we passed them, every flyer, every scrap of paper, and so on. You don't realize how much is out there until you have someone in the backseat of your car reading everything out loud. Argh!

We talked to his second-grade teacher. She approved of him doing book reports as a side project. This was merely to keep him occupied because he was just too bored in the classroom. His ‘assignment’ was to read a book, then write a book report, and then turn it in to his teacher. She agreed that he needed stimulation and that she was unable to provide that in the classroom for him. The classroom atmosphere was, in fact, holding him back. In this way, we (the parents) were doing the extra work and she was seeing the end result. She could evaluate his reports and give him feedback to keep his interest piqued. But she didn’t have to worry about assigning him things or actually grading him. For a teacher, this was a win-win situation.

We developed our own system for Spud. Spud was a nickname he had earned while spending a few weeks with his grandparents on the farm in Illinois. It just kind of stuck. But I'm off the subject!

Things a second-grade student needs to know about writing a book report: First - the introduction. Your first paragraph should tell the audience what you read, who wrote it and why you chose to read it. You can include some fun details if you want.

Second – the body. You should have two or three paragraphs in which you tell some things that happened in the story you read. These can be things you liked, things you didn’t like, funny or sad things, or you can talk about characters. Talking about characters is a lot like gossip, if you like that sort of thing. It can be very fun.

Third – the closing. Your closing paragraph should summarize your feelings about the book. You should tell why you did or did not like it. You can recommend it to others if you think it’s that good. That's that! It is a super simple explanation for a second grade student.

This is the structure that Justin used to write his book reports. The first book he chose to read and do a report on was Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne. Maybe you have heard of it, and maybe you haven’t, but it has been around for a long time. And I’m not even making that amount of time up!

It’s amazing that books can be timeless. When you read a book for the first time, it is new! When you are 8 years old, you have no concept of time, history, past, present or when a book may actually have been written, or if anyone else has read it. This is especially true if no one your age has ever read it! His first book report was wonderful. And he strongly recommended the book, saying, ”I think this will be a best seller.” You know what? I think he was right.