78 vs 95: or Why Two and Numbers Make No Sense

We receive the results of the boys "gifted and talented" applications last week from our school district. One made it into "g/t" by the skin of his teeth (I can speculate why, but won't right now), but Two? Two bombed. Stank. Crashed and burned. Not only did he refuse to do ALL 140 problems on the Stanford reading test, he blew off the Naglieri test to the point of generating a score of 78. Yes, 78. Since the Naglieri score is supposed to equate to one's IQ, that would mean that Two has an IQ of 78. Or, as one book puts it, a score that leaves him unqualified to dig ditches.

Do I think these tests are generally accurate? Sure. Do I think Two has an IQ of 78, or anything closely related to that number? Hell no. When questioned by Husband and me, Two confessed to finding all the testing uninteresting and to daydreaming through the entire process.

Which leaves me with this: a six year old who is so bored by an IQ test he blows it off.

Can you say "rip your hair out in frustration moment?" I can.

He likes school. He likes to learn. He gets good grades: he has a 95% average. I read with him every night, and he reads Magic Treehouse books well out loud. He's not reading at the level that One was at this age, but he's better at guessing and sounding words out correctly than One ever was. Both boys do supplemental math at home (more on that in another post) and he's breezing through the Grade 1 Singapore Math workbook without any help from me. He's also the creative child: his after-school art teacher finds him easy to teach and good at everything he tries. He designs and builds elaborate objects out of what he digs out of the recycling bin and copious amounts of duct tape. He sings well. He's good at sports: his taekwondo master says, that while Two is prone to not being fully present when he doesn't want to be, when he does give things 100%, he rocks. Backed up by the fact that he's kept up belt-wise with his three-year-older brother for almost 18 months now, I believe it. He's also the mechanically minded child; he undertstands how things work without explanation, and when he doesn't understand, he's delighted to take something apart just to see how it works.

So what's his deal? Did he mess up on one test, or does he have an intelligence that is hard to measure - one that his father and I can see quite clearly, but doesn't show up on standardized tests? I'm at a complete loss. Totally puzzled by the whole thing.

Anyone have a clue what to do with this crazy child? Input much appreciated.

For now, I'll just continue to tickle him, read with him, answer his innumerable questions, snuggle him, and enjoy the joy that is my irrepressible six year old. Because when it comes down to it, who can resist this?