Hi Trinity,
Thanks for asking!
My DS got unofficial services this year - gifted testing just started a couple weeks ago. He's in a classroom with a gifted trained teacher who has been really good for him. The start of the year was pretty rough because he developed some pretty bad habits last year. (Typical smart kid stuff - no need to pay attention, so he didn't.) The new teacher makes a point of asking "thought questions" as a part of regular instruction and providing lots of opportunity to expand on the topic. My DS didn't like the fact that she expected him to pay attention.
The teacher does a more open ended math program than the standard 2nd grade program and he is eating it up. I've been explaining at home how to represent his word problems in algebraic notation and teaching him how to program formulas in Excel. The teacher gives very open-ended math projects each week & he's been delighted to use his new tools to solve the problems.
DS's teacher also does an open ended reading program & there are other kids in the room who read well. He picks books with a reading partner. They decide together how much of the book to read as homework each night and then write a reponse for the next day's discussion. My DS is not that fond of writing but he loves the fact that he has some control of what he has to read. She's also very supportive of his desire to read his own books when he is done with his work. For a while he brought Harry Potter and the 1/2 Blood Prince to class, and was really pleased that no one teased him about reading it. (Teasing about his books was an issue last year.)
I just hope this continues to work because I am sooo relieved that he is a bit happier with life these days.
My DD is driving me nuts, but in a good way. (It's the energy it takes to keep her stimulated that makes me crazy.) We are homeschooling kindergarten right now because she is not old enough for school and preschool was so not working. I also signed her up for Spanish lessons. That's been pretty cool, because I've always thought that the lack of integrated foreign language lessons from an early age is a major problem in the American education system. It's fun to hear her talking and suddenly say something like "when I was riding my new bicicleta roja (red bike)...".
My DS has never displayed the uber-geek personality that her big brother has, so I have to admit that I was really suprised to discover that she has a real talent and love for math and science. I feel like a bad Mom - I'm SUPPOSED to notice stuff like that! I got a Saxon homeschool K math program & she's almost done with March. The K program is really too easy in many ways, but it gives me ideas for cool projects (like doing all of the shape and color lessons in Spanish), and parts of the program address new topics. Saxon uses lots of hands on activites, which are great for a preschooler. The program is adaptable enough that I will probably buy the 1st grade program to start after Christmas.
She's also been writing her own books for our science program. The first one was "DS Grows" - reproduction and the first year of life. (Egg and Sperm. In the uterus. ... DS is born. ... DS talks. ...) Now she is creating a book called "Plants Grow". She is growing lettuce and writing and drawing pictures about the project.
Friends keep asking what about next year because DS will start K already reading, doing math, and so on. I jokingly reply that that's the school's problem, but I do worry. Most of my friends don't realize that DS is already reading, writing, and doing math at more of a 1st grade level than a K level. This time around, my husband and I plan to ask for TAG screening immediately. We hope to head off some of the problems that DS encountered.
Jill
