Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Rock the boat?

Yeah-- when I went to information night for kindergarten, I (luckily) had brought my DD (then newly turned 5) with me.

They went over all the 'stuff' that parents should be "working on" at home with their kids, and I was kind of taken aback because it was stuff that DD knew at 18-22 months old. Colors, numbers, etc.

Well, the teacher that I collared at the meet-and-greet at the end kind of blew me off, too-- until she SAW my dd, happily reading what was obviously a novel-- might have been a Boxcar Children book or one of the SoUE, something by Dahl. I don't really remember. But it was VERY clear that she was happily, silently, independently really reading, and reading material that most children don't tackle until somewhere around 3rd-5th grade.

THAT was what convinced her that I was, if anything, cautiously understating my DD a bit.

Of course, that is also what led that same teacher to tell me that it would be completely toxic to enroll her in kindergarten, and that we should homeschool if it was in any way possible.

Okay-- so that's my long way of saying that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Let your child provide it, THEN have the conversation. That way you don't wind up wasting a lot of time and energy convincing them that you aren't just a helicopter parent with a special snowflake. Odds are good that most educators will have encountered HUNDREDS of those parents for every one of us.