Cam wanted spiky hair one day before school.

I tried to get Cam to work on his typing skills… because I seriously think he could enjoy contributing to this blog on his own this summer.

Today Cameron went to work with me for a little bit before he interviewed at a local independent school. We decided to look into it… even though at this point, we haven’t found the right funding opportunity. I’m going to keep my fingers crossed. I really think he’d be a perfect fit for the school.

He had fun meeting the third grade teacher. She gave him an assessment test, had me read a book (one he’d read before – the Spiderwick Chronicles Field Guide) and he got quizzed on his Harry Potter knowledge (he’s scary with all the little details he knows). They talked about other things… but I didn’t get all of the details about the experience. Cameron thought the place was cool. I guess we’ll see.

He is wrapping up his school year – and he seems to be a bit more relaxed lately. His class work is going pretty well. He still has his days, but I feel like he’s headed in the right direction.

He and I have come up with a number of projects we’ve planned for the summer:

1) Read Fantastic Mr. Fox and then see the movie (we haven’t seen it yet but I hear it’s awesome)
2) Compose a song on the piano
3) Finish the last two books of Harry Potter

I’m sure we’ll add to the list, but I think these are doable. I have a little side goal of getting Cameron to write more with a keyboard. His three sentences at the top of this blog post had a more fictional and fun group of sentences… but it didn’t make a lot of sense. And he didn’t know how to clarify it. So he started over with a few sentences about our sleepover trip to the Field Museum later in June. I hope we’ll see more and more Cameron writings here soon.

Cam played the "Old Worm" in his class play

Cameron has a short attention span in a classroom full of 25 kids. So most of the school year we’ve struggled with keeping him on task without his teacher needing to remind him every second. When it felt like we reached the last straw, I asked Cam’s teacher for a way so I can find out how Cam did each day.

She came up with a grid idea where there’s a list of what they do each day (it’s doesn’t vary much through the week) and Cameron has to put an X or a check mark for things he completes or doesn’t complete. At the end of the day, Cam has to get his teacher to look through the list to see if he told the truth and then she signs it. (And she leaves a message if needed) Then Cam has to bring it home so I or his Dad can sign it. Since we’ve put him in charge of self-regulating his work, he’s made really big improvements in his academic work.

It’s a relief to have found a key to reaching the boy.

Another awesome development, Cameron’s really gotten interested in reading “boy” books. That’s books like Harry Potter (we’re on book 5), Stink, Magic Treehouse and Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I think he’s read so many books with enjoyable dialogue, he’s transitioned that reading into the way he writes in school. He has an incredibly conversational writing style. He doesn’t always write simple descriptive sentences to set the scene. He still needs to remember capital letters and punctuation. But seriously, I’m so thrilled with his writing.

Here’s an example of his take on running in the St. Louis Kids Fun Run:

The Run
By Cameron
4-15-10

“Ready set GO!” Wait. That’s the middle. Ok. Here’s how it started.

“Yawn! Buh boggly bop?” AHH? Yeah horrible but funny start.

1 hour later we were at Forest Park. 1 hour later my sister Jordan was running a 50 yard dash. It only took 30 seconds. 2 more minutes later that guy who says “ready set go” he said the 3 words.

I started a little too fast because in the middle I took a break. Then about 1 minute later I finished. My mom was SO happy.

That was my amazing run.

Fast forward a week after he saw the movie and we were at a craft store. He got to play with Crayola’s Model Magic clay at school and he was dying to get some of his own. It had to be white because he knew you can draw on it with marker. So when we brought it home, he decided to create characters from the movie. I don’t remember all of the names, but you can obviously tell which one is Max if you’ve ever read the book.

Along with creative moments, Cameron is REALLY digging math. He has the task of taking numbers each day at school and creating interesting math equations to come up with that number. So 59 could be 10×10-60+10+9. While Cameron has played with numbers he’s really starting to understand multiplication. We’re not talking multiplication tables that you memorize. I’m talking multiplication that makes sense to him. His understanding of numbers just amazes me. Another amazing thing: piano. He asked to start taking piano lessons and he has yet to complain about it. He even memorized his first song: Ode To Joy. I’m so proud. I even caught a little moment in one of his piano lessons where he got to play a little and see how a piano works.

I didn’t even get into how Cam is playing soccer and starting to really get focused on how he kicks and throws the ball. It’s like he’s just discovering a little bit more of his inner focus… It makes me quite proud.

But you know what? He still loves a good cuddle. Cameron loves to hang out and listen to me read. He loves to write short notes to me that says how much he loves me. (He also leaves me online messages on his kid-friends web browser) He can’t wait to take a stuffed animal to school tomorrow. He sleeps with five stuffed animals each night and they all have names.

He talks like he’s 12 years old. He loves to analyze numbers and equations (even though he doesn’t know he’s talking about equations). He loves that his sister is interested in letters and numbers so he has a chance to help teach her everything he knows. He’s not afraid to tell someone he cried when he bumped his head at this past weekend’s tailgate (and we’re talking bump – he had a huge lump there for a while).

I know people talk about the awkward time when kids are a tween age… Cameron isn’t in an awkward phase. He’s coming into his own. I’m so glad he’s finding his way. I am so proud of him for finding his self focus at times (when he had no idea where to find it not long ago). I am so thrilled to see him excited about many things in his life: soccer, piano, math, science and even gardening club in his afterschool program.

One quick story: Last week I was helping Cam clean up all of the Legos on his floor at school. At some point, I started helping him build droids and suddenly, we were just playing with Star Wars Legos. We were both in the zone. That boy zone that Cam falls into regularly.

I suddenly snapped out of our Lego zone and realized it was late! It was a school night! I looked at Cam and told him he had to go to bed… And he smiled and announced that we had just played with Legos instead of reading a book. He thought that was the coolest thing in the whole world.

It was pretty cool.

At school, I’ve spent a lot of time with Cam and his teacher to find the best way to help him learn to focus. He can do it. He’s proved to us in tiny moments how he can do great work. He just hasn’t been consistent. So I’m working very closely with his teacher to try and find solutions. I won’t go on and on about how his actions confuse me. But I don’t understand how he can’t be worried about what others think of him — the emotional outbursts, the constant reminders to listen from his teacher… I don’t get it. But I am ready to try as hard as I can to help him. I’m starting to consider removing an item in his diet each month to see if it helps him focus while he works.

One thing I’ve committed myself is to try and help him learn how to express himself and exert energy in a healthy way. He’s starting to ride his bike around the neighborhood, he’s enjoying football (tackle starts next season – and he says he can’t wait) and I am trying to teach him how to run long distances. This weekend was a step closer to showing hum how fun it is to run in a race. He and his sister took part in a kid fun run right before I ran in a 5K. I think he’s going to enjoy running once he stops worrying about how “tired” he is. I’m pretty sure I was the same way for a while when I started running in January of this year.

There was no whining during this race… although the run didn’t last that long. I figure he’ll jump into this once he realizes that crying and whining slows him down in so many levels of his life!!

Along with finding the fun in running, Cam is really starting to LOVE math. He’s a pro at reading… although his ability to show his comprehension needs to improve. He’s starting to catch on when it comes down to addition, substraction and even some basic times tables! So cool. Hope is not lost for our boy… He’s just going to grow up and mature in a way that I may have never seen before. There’s nothing wrong with that – other than those extra gray hairs that are growing on my head!!

In other Cam news… He’s on a flag football team and starting to figure out how the game works. It looks like he’s going to play in the tackle position. He has practice twice a week and games on the weekend. Exciting stuff. Cam has also started talking about taking piano lessons… So I’m going to start looking into that.

Those are pretty cool and active things… But really if Cameron could have his way, it would be to play Star Wars Legos on his Wii. If I could let him, he’d spend days playing. The kid who loved watching TV all the time is now much more interested in games. So what do I do? I spend a lot of time convincing him that playing outside is also a great option. He’s going to get a chance to have a camp out sleepover with a neighborhood friend one of these weekend… I know he’s looking forward to that. (I am too – I think I dreamed of getting a chance to camp out in my backyard many times as a kid) I kind of feel that as long as I focus on finding chances for Cam to stay active, the video games won’t gobble up his entire brain. I also think his return to school will help a bunch. It’s an exciting time.

Cameron and I were talking after the prayers and the lullaby (yeah. I still sing him a lullaby. I will sing him a lullaby until he’s 25 if he’ll still let me sing it to him.) Anyway. He says:
“Mom, Kayla starting singing this song: Cameron and Austin sitting in a tree… K-I-S-S-I dont’ know… First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes a baby in a baby carriage. I don’t even know what that means. It’s so strange.”

HA!

I told him the full song and I told him people sang that when I was in first grade. It’s REALLY REALLY OLD. I told him to tell Kayla that the next time she pulls out the kissing in the tree chant. It’s SUPER old and SO not cool.

He thought that was SO funny.

By the way, we went to Cam’s school’s 50th anniversary today. The first principal was lucky to be there AND his granddaughter is a Kindergartener this year. How cool is that? Anyway. It was a big deal and I don’t know how we survived the ceremony with it starting at Jordan’s bed time and lasted 50 minutes! We also found out the school is hoping to raise enough money to build a walking track around the school field to make it easier to get exercise. I’m pretty excited about that. We live really close to school and I’d love a track to enjoy a beautiful day and get exercise near home. I donated a little bit just to feel like we could help out. We got an old brick from the school in return. I think we’re going to put it in our tree house somewhere.

I’m also seeing funny things happen as Cam grows up. Case in point: I bought Cam a pair of Buzz Lightyear khaki pants. I thought they were really cool. Um. Apparently they aren’t cool. They’re for babies… Even though I still have to roll the bottom of the pants so they fit him. And there’s no way he’s going to wear them again. Wah.

What is Cam into? Star Wars, soccer, football, baseball, Batman, High School Musical (HSM3 is out on the 24th… OMG we’re so excited. No really. We are.), Spongebob Squarepants, Danny Phantom. He still tolerates Little Einsteins for the sake of his sister. He’s interested in being his sister’s third parent (no matter what his two parents say). He tells me little snippets of what life is like at school. Did you know there are first grade bullies (there are two)? Did you know some of the girls don’t like to play with boys anymore? He likes math and social studies. Someday Cam wants to travel the world to research. What will he research? He just says he’s going to research the places he travels because he plans to be a scientist. I love it.

I took Cam to his spot in the gym where the kids wait for their teacher, gave him a big smooch and went back home to wake the girl for her day. I’m thinking positively about the school year. I think this is the year for the boy to relax, have fun and learn. If he lets himself learn how to relax, his enjoyment of everything will jump.

The best part of the day was when I was working late and I called to check on how Cameron’s big day went. The very first thing he said was it was “AWESOME!” He met new friends, saw old friends and he has a new desk mate who doesn’t really speak English. He thinks she’s from Korea but doesn’t remember. I challenged him to help her speak English and see if she can help him learn Korean. His first task: Learn how to say hello in Korean. I think that’s cool.