Last Wednesday Nolan’s teacher sent home information on an incentive program for students to learn various math facts. There are five different karage belts the children are earning. It is self paced with the students practicing each set of facts until they are ready to “test” for their belt. The children can earn these belts as slow or fast as they are capable. Nolan’s description of what they actually earn is a colored stripe on a pencil for the belt they achieve. I picture at the end their pencil having five colored stripes all the way down. He is unsure if they earn any additional recognition at the end of all five belts, but it does not seem to matter to Nolan. He wants to achieve all five and not waste any more time than necessary. Motivation is a not a problem obviously. From an early age we also knew Nolan was competitive…at everything.
Nolan was telling us about this program before we were even sent home the information. He was excited and ready to start achieving. I briefly read over each of the belt sections on Wednesday night. On Friday afternoon I told Nolan we would start to practice for his white belt over the weekend. To my shock Nolan announced he had already earned his white and yellow belt. Although I was surprised, I was not really surprised. Nolan is competitive (and good at math from what we have gathered so far). He comes by the competitiveness honestly….me! I love that he took the initiative, but at the same time would have liked have been informed of his plan.
White Belt: Write numbers from 1to 150
Yellow Belt: +1 and +2 addition facts
Green Belt: Doubles and Near (whatever that means)
Blue Belt: (+) facts 1-12
Red Belt: +/-Facts 1-12
Over the weekend we studied for his green belt. He was really close to knowing all 24 facts, but I told him not to test on Monday. He was still missing a few and I did not want him to waste Ms. Morgan’s time if he was not ready. (You must get all the facts correct on the first try.) As soon as I picked him up from school on Monday he told me he had tested for his belt. Once again, not surprised. He is also stubborn…..like his daddy. 
He missed one. Three plus four.
This morning at 6:45 AM while eating breakfast Nolan asked me to run through all the facts. He was determined to test today. He excitedly was telling me what belts fellow classmates have achieved. He knew where everyone stood. I found myself asking how many students had already achieved past the green belt. I had to stop myself when I noticed my competitive side seeping out. We are double trouble when it comes to being competitive and it was not the right time or place this morning to get riled up. Right before he left for school, he missed two. I told him to wait one more day to test. He agreed and this time, he actually listened.
We went over the facts several times tonight. We think he is ready. He plans to test tomorrow. He will be disappointed if he misses one, but such is life. Learning about success and failure and not always achieving pefection are important lessons too.
The last two belts will probably take a little more time to master, but with Nolan, maybe not. After all, he is a lot like me.