The Mozart Experiment Update

Early in this blog I believe I addressed our participation in the Mozart Experiment. You know the old yarn about playing Mozart for small kids all the time and they do better at math and science and music when they are older. Partly I did it because I am a firm believer in background noise. I need it to sleep. Without it, EVERY noise in the world around me wakes me up, no matter how inconsequential that noise might be. Plus, I figured it would also cover up more consequential noises, like us coming up and down the stairs or whatever else might be going on in the house while the kids are trying to sleep. And, so, the choice was either to play a variety of popular music or something with a bit more cultural staying power. And going with Mozart MIGHT have added benefits, so why not?

Well, now we're finally getting to the age where we might be seeing some payoff, if such is forthcoming.

And, actually, I'm not entirely sure what to think. Gabe is actually pretty good at math. He can add and subtract numbers as long as the total isn't more than 20 with pretty fair regularity. Which, to my way of thinking, seems pretty impressive for a kindergartener. I can't even remember when I learned to add and subtract, but I can't imagine we started learning it before 1st grade. Maybe 2nd. Things were MUCH easier in school when I was a kid. Frankly, I think their expectations on these young kids are a bit unrealistic and might be breeding a generation of kids who fear and hate school.

I'm kind of afraid this is what's happening with Gabe, and might be one of the reasons why he's wanting to stay home from school now.

They put a pretty heavy emphasis on kids being able to pretty much read by the time they get out of kindergarten. They have a list of a few dozen sight words that they have to know, but they've also got to be sounding words out and, well, pretty much reading by the time they are done.

Again, that wasn't even really an option when I was five years old. We didn't even begin to tackle that kind of thing until 1st grade, and I think it was at least 2nd grade before any of us were really reading reliably well.

Anyway, Gabe hasn't made a ton of progress on his sight words yet. His writing isn't really progressing very quickly either. I just don't think his brain is where it needs to be developmentally yet to process the information and get his hands to work the way they need to for him to be fully successful with this stuff, and I think it might be frustrating him enough that he wants to stay home from school.

And, really, it is a bit unfair. I mean, I always sort of figured he was going to have some attention problems throughout his school career. He's high energy and has never been known as a ponderer of things. PLUS, he's one of the youngest kids in his class. There are kids almost a full year older in there, and of course those kids don't have any problems reading or writing.

Nonetheless, we've been spending time with a stack of sight word flashcards trying to get him to commit them to memory. And I have to admit that it is one of the most frustrating exercises I've ever experienced. We will sit with only five cards. Show him each card, have him sound them out, and then repeat the cards a half dozen times. Same five cards. And last week we did the same five cards for the entire school week. And he's yet to memorize four of the five cards. And the fifth one he's kind of unreliable on. He's fidgety and uncomfortable and visibly miserable the entire time that we're working on these cards, and we can't seem to find a good way to get him to remember what he's doing.

I blame Mozart. He made Gabe good at math but compensated by making him suck at reading.

Except, Norah has also been listening to the same music and . . . well . . . I won't be the least bit surprised if Norah gets these sight words knocked out before Gabe does. Unlike Gabe, who's all over the place and barely paying attention while we're working on these words, Norah's attention has been pretty well locked in, and I'm pretty sure she has stopped saying what the words are when we show them just because she doesn't want to get in trouble for giving them up to Gabe. She might be a prodigy or something. At the very least, I suspect she will have FAR fewer troubles adapting to the academic aspects of school life than Gabe is having.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of this school year plays out.