My DS (HG+) was disappointed with preschool when I enrolled him at age 2:9 in a class with 3 year olds. He had been asking to go to school and I think he imagined it would be like Kindergarten (his older sister was in K.)
He was already reading simple words but his class was doing letters of the week and gluing macaroni to them. Several times he said things like, "I'm tired of preschool. I would rather go to medical school." And, "I want to get to Z!" (in reference to the letters of the week.) He didn't seem to connect with any of the kids in his class, some of whom were barely talking in sentences.
The next year I enrolled him in the preK class with "math" and reading pullouts. The reading pullout was good but the math consisted of identifying shapes, ABAB patterns and counting. DS could already add and subtract. His teacher observed that he was not making friends.
After the winter break, he was switched to the K class at age 4:2. At first, he was thrilled but when the K teacher started excluding him and saying that he wasn't really part of the class and was "just visiting" K he became very unhappy. He refused to do any work and he developed phobias. The teacher's handling of these behaviors just exacerbated them. The teacher's attitude was picked up by the other kids in the class and none of them would play with him. Nevertheless, he finished out the year there.
Due to his age, he was enrolled in K again at the public school the following year at age 4:9. At first, he was happy to sing the songs and do art projects but even these began to pall when they sang the same songs every day and did coloring and cut-and-paste every day. He didn't really play with the other kids, but he did interact with some of the older girls (age 6). The kindergarteners have recess separately from the older kids. He began to ask me if he could go to second grade so he could go to science and music classes.
In the spring, we made the arrangements for him to attend first grade in the afternoons and it was so successful that he was accelerated to first grade full time at age 5:4. This is a much better placement for him although he is starting to tune out during the more repetitious parts of the day. For example, his teacher does a calendar lesson every morning where the kids recite the days of the week and months of the year. DS has known these since he was 3 and I'm afraid he doesn't participate much during this exercise. He is not disruptive, however. He is very happy to be able to go to the "specials" which are science, music and PE. These were not available to kindergarteners. He is enjoying recess more because he runs over to play with the third graders.
Last edited by Cathy A; 05/10/08 10:14 AM.
