I'm asking advice on whether to make an appt to talk to my DD6's principal now about plans for next year.
Quick ( or not so quick) background:
DD6 (late May birthday) has not been tested though I suspect she is gifted. Her verbal skills have been the most obvious. At 2.5 months of age if I set her down and walked away she would clearly yell "mom". It was a bit disconcerting and I shrugged it away. She said it all the time to me by 5 months of age and dada shortly after. Talked in phrases by 12 months and fluent long sentences by 2. At 2.5 months of age she would focus clearly on each illustration in the original Olivia book and then laughed everytime she saw the picture of the dog. At 8 months she sat amidst piles of books turning each page as she studied each one carefully and ignored all her other toys around her. She was trying hard to read at 26 months then seemed to stop until she picked up a book just after turning 3 and read entire books fluently. She was reading long novels (4th to 6th grade level) before kindergarten. She picks up math easily and know addition, subtraction, some multiplication, fractions but has never really gotten into it so we don't spend much time on it.
We moved 1.5 year ago so that we could live in a better, family friendly type neighborhood with a good school district. The biggest concern is that the GATE program does not start until 5th grade. But the plus side is that the principal of her school has a background in gifted education and it seems like a special interest. She is a representative for the Calif Assoc of Gifted group.
My DD just finished kindergarten. I would say she learned next to nothing the entire year. Just a few random facts such as when the "Bat Lady" came and taught them about bats. She did improve on her writing skills but truly that is it. They did an awful lot of art there and she loves art so she was not completely miserable. She had a suprisingly difficult time connecting with the other kids and took a long time making good friends. The teacher kept telling us she was just a very quiet, introverted, serious girl which is really not her personality at all which bothered me greatly though it did improve some. My DH felt strongly that we should not try to push for differentiation as she was already having trouble fitting in and thought socializing was more important this year. I agreed though I also think DH is also just wanting to keep a low profile and figures that public school is never going to be able to give her the individual attention she needs anyway.
So, the question is.....do you think it is worth talking to the principal now to get her ideas for next year or is it better to just wait and get her settled in first grade before we start asking for teacher/principal meetings. I thought about meeting with the principal all last year but in the end I didn't really know what to ask for so I didn't. I am sort ok with her not learning anything in kindergarten as we did get her more comfortable and she made friends but I am not ok with her wasting another year academically.
