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How do you know about my son? Is he over there at your house?

 

 

Yes, I hear you. Yes, it makes me :banghead:. I am hoping/praying he will grow out of it. I hope the 5,000,000 times I have said "Read the directions first, dear" will eventually sink into his head.

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This is my 7yo as well. He's a perfectionist but doesn't want to read directions and then freaks out when he gets a section wrong because he didn't follow instructions. I posted something on the accelerated board yesterday about the disparity between working above grade level in math where he flies through everything with relative ease, but can't catch relatively obvious mistakes yet. 95% of these are careless mistakes. Even with encouraging him to double and triple check, he isn't really great at catching his mistakes yet. I was wondering if that was typical of accelerated children where they know the content but maybe don't have the maturity to catch mistakes.

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This is my 9 year old. I even read the directions to him and he does it wrong. The other day he multplied a whole bunch of problems that he was supposed to add. Didn't read the directions, didn't notice the multiplication signs! He was pretty ticked off when I pointed it out.

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I really wonder what's going to happen on the end of year testing. I KNOW she knows the content-but if she doesn't read the directions and instead marks the first correctly spelled word instead of the misspelled one (which I could EASILY see her doing, based on the way she did one of her Greek assignments today), she'd get the whole section wrong.

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My son is like this too.

 

Here's what I think -

He reads so well and is so good at math, that he's slightly overconfident.

He'll look at something at think he knows how to do it without reading the instructions.

 

When he makes mistakes because he didn't read the instructions, he has to erase and do over.

He hates that, so, slowly, he is learning to pay more attention to instructions.

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I see the same thing in my seven year-old and I did the same thing, too, growing up. Mostly, it was because I was trying to get through my work and thought I had it "all figured out." Like, we've been doing these type of problems forever, surely it's all the same!

Truthfully, for me, it just took time to realize I do not know how to do everything without first reading the directions. And I still have to remind my son to read the directions all the way through, slowly!

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This is my son too. He is in 4th grade and recently tested and 8th grade reading comprehension (12th grade word recognition, so yes I know that there is a difference:001_smile:(oh, and he is not a super kid, he is a year below grade in math))

 

I write read direction everywhere. The top of each weekly plan, on the white board (in a variety of changing colors), posts its on the mirror. We have had long discussions about how he ends up wasting his time by not reading directions.

 

This is one of those times I am glad I homeschool. It would not be picked up on and worked on as hard at ps.

 

I find a good urghhh while slapping myself on the head helps. DS has now got to the point that if I do that he will sheepishly ask for his paper back and re read the directions and correct it on his own.

 

I am giving him that quiz next week!:D

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read so well and so far above grade level, yet reliably NOT read directions???!!??? And then start crying when I tell her she's wrong BECAUSE she didn't read the directions and did the entire page incorrectly???!!???

 

Seriously, child???

because she doesn't NEED directions. She is so smart that the instructions are irrelevant! She did not do them wrong. It's the instructions that are incorrect.

 

Oh, wait, that is my kid not yours.

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As a child, I learned most everything intuitively, and found the teacher's way of doing things cumbersome - it just slowed me done. So I usually went with my intuition instead of following directions. It was USUALLY right but oh so embarrassing when it was wrong...

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I don't think it's a matter of comprehension because DD is the SAME. Very high reading level with just as high comprehension. Except she skips the directions. If she does read it, she doesn't agree with it and does something else.

 

I can't believe I actually have to read it along with her so that she actually reads slowly and understands that she has to do according to the instructions.

 

Just practice with her.

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