Her joy is found in words. She wraps herself in them, holds them tight, and shares their beauty with the world. Alexis spends her every waking moment talking, reading, finding joy in words.
That's my explanation for why she started talking early. It's my excuse for how she managed to teach herself to read so soon. It's why she does things like walk downstairs at midnight to tell me, "Momma, I can't sleep because when I talk my throat hurts."
Words are Alexis' security blanket.
Life has taught us all a lot about how Alexis should use her love of words. An inexperienced kindergarten teacher taught us to go with the flow. Lay low. Don't stand out. We learned that it was perfectly OK if Alexis worked on letter sounds at school while reading Charlotte's Web all by herself at home. Extra work was a burden none of us wanted to deal with ... not even occasionally.
With a new school came a fresh start. Alexis was no longer labeled as "ahead," and we left it that way. The husband and I purposely made a decision that we would let her determine the path she would travel. If she wanted to volunteer that she has known how to spell all of the words on her spelling test literally for years, so be it. If she wanted to ace the tests without any effort, that would be OK as well. No homework is really a very wonderful thing for all parties involved, and that's what we got because the work was and continues to be so simple that Alexis can finish it without giving it a thought.
We have graduated from gathering around the table to struggle through annoying homework that was created specifically to challenger her nightly to ... I don't know that Alexis has had homework yet this year. She sometimes finishes work at her after school care program, but even that is generally limited to one or two minutes.
Is she challenged by school? No.
Do we care? HELL NO.
Alexis spends so much of her spare time wrapping herself in words that it really doesn't matter. She finishes chapter books weekly and continues to read well above her grade level. She creates her own challenges and it's perfect. Absolutely perfect.
But then one night she came bounding over to me, demanding that I check my email. "Momma, there's a permission slip I need to take to school tomorrow!" she reported.
She was correct - there was a permission slip waiting in my inbox. I opened the email and read the details of a voluntary - NOT REQUIRED - not graded - OPTIONAL assignment.
Alexis wanted to do it. She wanted to assign herself a major project to be done outside of school hours so badly she was vibrating from the excitement of it all. "Momma! Please! Pretty please! I want to do a project on electricity!" she nagged and nagged and nagged.
That no nightly homework thing she was fun while it lasted. I guess nerdy kids find their destiny no matter what you do.
