I've worked at the public library for 13 years now and in that time I have seen a lot of different types of parents. The type that annoys me the most would probably be what everyone has been blogging about lately...the Tiger Mother. I have been asked many times for books on how to study for our state's standardized elementary school test which I find odd but the strangest requests I have had are for books to help study for IQ tests. Seriously, people? I guess that's better than the parents who want to drop their children off at the library for free babysitting while they go to work or shopping...
Well, once we got the letter verifying Kat's date for group IQ testing I started to stew about it. Should we prepare Kat? What if she is put in a room with 2 other children who have been trained to take the test? Of course you can't raise your IQ by studying but could we raise her chances of doing as well as she possibly could by studying?
I went round and round on that crazy train for a while. I grabbed a book on critical thinking skills and took it home vacillating between "Yes, let's help her out a bit" and "You need to get a grip, Momma!" A coworker suggested that we ask Kat if she would like to try some things from the book to prepare. A friend laughed at me about checking the book out and told me to leave the girl alone. Pete said that he would like to go over some of the items in the book with her so that she knows what might be on the test and will feel confident.
So, Pete will spend some cozy one on one time with Kat over the next couple of weeks going through the book. He and I are in agreement that it should be done in a spirit of fun and that nothing should be taught or drilled. He's just going to show her some puzzles and see what happens from there.
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