Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy AAAAA.......Feel like I am losing it!

Yes, I think sinus problems tend to be easier to manage than cluster headaches, don't they? (I'm clearly no expert...)

If it helps, I wish our good K teacher had leveled with us and told us that the school couldn't (or, to be more accurate, wouldn't) give DS7 what he needed. It's hard to hear that, and I know your work situation makes homeschooling less than ideal (!), but assuming it's the truth, I suspect you might end up grateful for her honesty. I know I would have been when we were trying to figure out what to do.

All the best to you! Hang in there!

Actually, I have heard that from everyone of his teachers....lol

and some of the support staff as well.

We live in a small but depressed city and the kids he goes to school with have less then ideal conditions at home. (supposing they have one)

So many are not prepared for school, and school is not a priority in their lives. By fourth or fifth grade, some of them have already joined gangs and are up to nefarious acts! Of course not all the kids are like that, some of them are from single parents that are struggling to keep food on the table. But many of the kids live in crisis. In his school there are a lot of kids who are failing. I heard that more then half his class will get a 1 or a 2 out of 4 on the state test. Because of no child left behind, they get less money to deal with the issue, which doesn't make any sense. And DS7 gets the fuzzy end of the lollipop so to speak.

Hi Jenny,

Could you see if there is a network of homeschoolers in your area and work out a "timeshare" type of deal with the other parents? You could check the monitoring conditions and soundness of the group. Is your son miserable where he is? Is he getting picked on? (ours was) Is there one school in the district that's better than the others and maybe you should fight to get him there? We took our dist. to court for a priv. placement but it took thousands of dollars and we lost although the state nailed them for a false IEP. It's been 15 yrs. but I remember the despair very well. My heart goes out to you. Have you thought of moving? (researching a better dis. that provides better service?) Also, see if your county has specialty high schools so you can plan for then. A marine tech one helped our son greatly; they meet true peers in these schools and class sizes are smaller. I'll be thinking of you and praying for this tough time.

I'm sorry if this info doesn't apply where you live, but I know in our area (Berks, PA) you can participate in a cyber-charter school and be reimbursed fully for cost of computer, etc. in your home for cyber-charter use... I've never looked at cyber-charter options but this may be one for you?

Hey... my sister in law lives in berks!

no I live in New York, they don't have it.... the department of ed never heard of a GIEP

.............land of the lost..................

But you can pay for it, it's pricey

Ugh, I feel like I am loosing it too. I just met with an admissions director at my daughters school. We are considering starting her in Kindergarten a year early -we are not sure about this, but are just considering it.. when I mentioned this to the admissions director she was just horrible. She basically implied that I was a terrible, pushy, abusive parent and she was just not sure why anyone would ever want to do that to their child. She even said - "let me talk to you parent to parent" "my daughter is very bright too, and I would never do that to her". This is a woman who has never even met my child and has absolutely no idea what her skills and abilities are. God. She was so horrible, it was all I could do not to cry... this decision is hard enough without her "help".

Mom123,
I am sorry that person was so rude. I wish it was the last time, but if she truly represents the administration at the school, you are lucky to know upfront that to them 'people like you just don't exist, and if they do, they should have the decency to pretend to be like everyone else.' Can you imagine sending your daughter there.

If she doesn't nescessarily represent the admins, then it's a great chance to practice a skill that you will need to become good at anyway.

Set out pretend helpers to detect closeminded people. Imagine that when these little helpers hear this kind of talk, they lovingly put magic cotton in your ears.

Since you can't hear a word this lady said, you then calmly smiles and just repeat yourself over and over until the interaction is completed.

You say something like:
"My little Pandora is quite unusual. Who would I talk to about having her evaluated for a place in you kindy program?"

Of course you might choose NOT to put her into kindy now, but the sooner they evaluate, the more you will know - both about your daugher and about the decision makers. It might open the door to skipping 1st, and keeping the fun year of kindy.

Or you say:
"My little Pandora is quite unusual. Kindly tell me how a can sign up to observe your current Kindy class so I can evaluate if she belongs there."

If I hadn't learned about the magic ear cotton, I would have cryed even more than I actually did. You can win this, it just will take longer than you hope.

Grinity

Mom123 - we got the same speech at the required kindergarten screening for 3-5 yos. "My kids were both reading before kindergarten, and they're doing just fine." I am thinking that perhaps these folks have either, 1) heard this many, many times from parents whose kids maybe fit in fine with regular programming, or 2) are defensive about their own decision to not seek acceleration about their own kids, or 3) most likely, have no experience with highly gifted kids. But there is always hope, I think. Since we got that speech, we have started contacting others in the school (gifted coordinator) who have information we like better anyway. No telling what will actually happen next fall, but I like to have hope.


So that's the secret! Love it Grinity - I knew there had to be a trick.

Mom 123,

I'm so sorry for those mean comments. Everyone's kids have different needs and she had no right to say that to you. Grinity's advice is excellent. I think I'll use it too. Just so you know - you are not alone. During our conference with the 1st grade teacher, principal, gt coordinator, and counselor I was explaining all of the different things my dd enjoys doing. Like reading about reptiles and doing workbooks and differing activities and the 1st grade teacher responded, "Maybe she comes to school to relax and that's why she doesn't want to perform" I could have use the magic earplugs....

Hang in there it will get better. It is only one comment. Maybe she was just having a bad day. Try to stay positive. Getting upset won't help...unfortunately.

I just wanted to kiss the counselor who met DS7 and decided that we should slow down because we didn't want him to get to far ahead.....