My son was not a snuggler.... didnt want anything to do with a cuddle. Not for lack of trying on my part.... but he was a hot box... MY goodness just a few minutes of holding him as an infant and he would be red in the face. Breast feeding was something we were very unsuccessful with... come to find out after going to a Lactation nurse his jaw was kind of crooked so latching on was difficult for him. He was a Franks breach And we tried to turn him too with no success. But the nurse said sometimes Franks breaches have issues.... So we worked on techniques and i was able to breast feed him about two months...
But for the most part Every portion of his life I have loved.... Except those first few scary months. He is Kind and logical and very scientific... Even when he was a toddler I would watch him do experiments with his food or toys. I allowed him to watch anything he wanted on TV because what he wanted to watch were shows like Cosmos, and Discovery channel and the history channel... I am a voracious reader and of course he is too... By the time he hit the second grade he was reading at College level.
He would come home disgusted with grade school because He had wanted to learn something the teacher was going to teach only to have it all interrupted when the teacher had to discipline a few that were causing trouble. On several occasions he would correct a teacher when they got a fact wrong.... Needless to say this made him kind of stand out to the bullys..... Sigh He didnt tell me any of this till after he started highschool and started having panic attacks. I tried to get him into some classes where he would have a male teacher and small classroom... Like small machine repair.... He liked the class but still panicked.
We found a solution because home schooling wasnt an option and i couldnt afford to get him into a private school. Here in San Diego we have a program called Phoenix High. It runs through the school system but is an off campus class room. Primarily designed for students that have to work to help support their home. Dean was the first freshman ever allowed to enroll. Primarily due to his panic attacks and the bullying in his past. Phoneix is run wayy different than Highschool. Same classes but each class is taught one at a time. It takes 40 hours of class time to cover a subject. So he would go in Take a test get a lecture then reicive his class work for the next week. So essentially he went to school one day a week.
He would get his homework done in about three days.... then he was off reading or researching stuff that really interested him. He passed his California High School Proficiency Exam with flying colors. Yet he will claim he did horribly because he didnt get straight As. You Know I never required that of him. I always told him to do his best. Even when he had trouble in math. I know that math skills can come later..... they did for me. I explained that it will take a teacher you connect with or something you have to deal with and you will have an "Aha" moment and all the math will fall in place.
His Aha moment came after he got his Associate of Science degree. And he decided to switch from Marine Biology to Astronomy. Astronomy is all about math and physics. So he took a Pre Calculus class. Yep he was at that level and still thought he was bad in math. He had gaps.... and he felt since he was a good test taker he was "faking it". I felt he really knew the subject deep down but didn't recognize it. He made the connection in Pre Calculus because there are alot of word problems in there.... (same thing happened to me... go figure) We are both deeply into words and meanings.... He more so. Plus he had a good teacher.
Now hes finally transfered over to San Diego State into the Astronomy program. His next semester he will be taking Astrophysics. He is working on analyzing the data from the Kepler satellite. Looking for XO planets.... for Doctor Aros. He just got trained on how to operate the ancient planetarium at SDSU and now hes going to be operating it tomorrow for a group of visitors to the College. Hes never done this before.... and for a kid that was afraid of groups of people he has come a very long way.
When people in our family and even freinds admonisah me for allowing him to waste money on a degree program he could never use.... I simply say... "its his life and his choices he needs to do what will make him happy, because if you do what makes you happy the money will come.... " Then I point out the things he will learn, computers, Databases, Engineering, Physics, Optics, Programming. He will be able to choose any field he would ever want.... Though he hopes to get involved with the commercial space effort starting up in New Mexico.
Besides hes gotten every grant he ever applied for.... and so far his classes have been paid by them. Hes only had to pay for books.
He turns 25 in October.
deb
