Thank you so much for your responses - they've been very reassuring to me, new as I am to this whole thing about having a gifted child. I was a very high achieving student and adult (without necessarily being gifted), and I have to say it has been difficult for me to see why someone with high IQ would not be as motivated as I was.
Gabalyn: Your comment " I do agree that gifted kids need to learn to deal with challenge. But I don't think that is necessarily their main task at six. At six, most kids actually still learn best by playing. Even gifted kids." is a great reminder. Thanks for that. I am kind of unschooling her, not by choice, haha, simply because she has made me that way with the kind of person that she is! I'm really going to take that affirmation and cut myself some slack for just letting her be. She does get lots of time to do her own thing, but even in her areas of interest (which can change frequently), she will not really show any kind of academic intensity - she usually explores as much as she wants to (sometimes very little) and then drops it. I do suspect she is a little bit lazy - she has sometimes said so herself and comes to me every now and then to whine that she is bored.
Cammom- This made me laugh "We actually considered that he might have an auditory processing problem, it was so bad. His IQ test and recent achievement tests do not in any way support an auditory problem. We discovered that he is often so far in his own head, that routine information/requests don't rise to surface. "Put on your shoes" just doesn't scratch the surface of other, more interesting thoughts.". Can you believe it, we actually had her hearing tested because at one point, she was SO NOT listening to us we thought she might have a hearing problem? Didn't help that she was also telling us her ears were blocked (I doubt that is true now). Of course the test showed that she was completely fine. I live daily with the frustration of having to repeat myself over and over to get her through the routine everyday stuff, sometimes I feel myself going crazy doing it. I've made lists, and made her make lists, stick post it reminders, etc They've just ended up being ugly wallpaper. She doesn't seem to respond so well to either punishment or bribes or even good ole consequences. She learns a lesson when SHE wants to, not when I want to. She's not a bad child, not necessarily rebellious but just very obstinate in character and learning style/inclination. I've realised that unless she is self-motivated there really is no use getting her to do anything.
Why I asked whether her scores warranted a retesting. I really can't describe fully the enigma and challenge that she is, but suffice to say that I vacillate between thinking that she must either be (i) such a genius that a non-genius like me cannot recognise her brilliance or (ii) grossly overestimated in terms of IQ on the Wppsi.
Do you ever feel like your child is an ongoing mystery? Like sometimes you GET her, only to lose that again?
