Tortoise, you are going to find a lot of company here!
His teacher said he wouldn't do the worksheets, would play with his pencil, talk, or sit and goof off. She said he knew the material and was very smart. But he would always be the last one done with any assignment.
This was my son in first grade as well. I had his teacher tell me on several occasions that she was concerned that he was falling behind.
I wanted to ask her how in the world he could be falling behind when he had been capable of completing this work when he was three or four? She always wanted DS to complete the easy material before he could move on to more challenging assignments. He always refused to do the easy material, preferring to chat with the other kids and play. Life did not improve for us until DS had a wonderful 2nd grade teacher who promptly realized that DS should not have been in 2nd grade. She gave him the end of the year tests at the beginning of the year, and he sailed through all of them. DS was able to have a mid-year grade acceleration to 3rd. This improved his attitude and behavior at school immensely, including social skills and maturity levels! But even with one grade acceleration, his backpack was filled with doodles and drawings of space battles. He was obviously still not being challenged enough.
I told the doc he could read at two, that ADD (he seemed like he had the innatention kind) and giftedness mimic each other sometimes. He was only interested in ADD, and gave me forms to fill out.
He can concentrate just fine, as long as something is interesting
Yes, this sounds familiar as well. The school psychologist did an in-class observation of DS last year (he was seven at the end of 3rd), and counted the number of times that he kicked his chair or chewed on his fingernails. She calculated the percentage of time that he appeared to be "off-task". However, he could always answer any question that the teacher asked, even if he had been doodling away on his paper. She also noted that he always completed his assignments in half of the time that it took the rest of the class. He simply was not being challenged. Did the school understand this? No. The principle suggested to us that we ask our pediatrician about ADD medication as well. <sigh> It is a long, hard battle that you face.
But, as is frequently pointed out on this board, these HG+ kids are few and far between. It is unlikely that a teacher or even a school has ever had experience with the issues surrounding a highly gifted kid, such as asynchronous development, or the necessary grade acceleration to keep them challenged. It really depends on if your child's teacher and the school really ever "get" just how different your child is from the average kid.
You will find many different views or "solutions" to the educational dilemma here. Some have schools that are unable to provide an appropriate educational setting and are home-schooling. Some are in private schools. Some are in gifted schools. My DS has been fortunate enough to have a public school that is willing to accommodate his educational needs. So I wouldn't rule out that possibility. It really depends on the individual school. And with us it also depended on the individual teachers which varied from year to year. However, once the school understood how rare it was to have a kid like DS in their midst, and hence began to appreciate DS's unique intellectual gifts, then things improved dramatically. It just took us nearly three years to get to that point, if we have indeed reached it completely.
And as for additional information... There are many, many books out there on gifted kids. I know that in the last six months I have grabbed every book that I can from the library (interlibrary loans are wonderful!!). I can name a few books (and I'm sure others can chime in), but after a while they all start to swim together. So here is a list of titles that I can remember.:
1) Re-Forming Gifted Education: How Parents and Teachers Can Match the Program to the Child (Paperback) by Karen Rogers
2) Exceptionally gifted children by Gross, Miraca U. M.
3) Misdiagnosis And Dual Diagnoses Of Gifted Children And Adults: ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, Asperger's, Depression, And Other Disorders by James T. Webb
4) Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind by Deborah L. Ruf
5) Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education: What the Research Says by National Assoc for Gifted Children
6) Raising Gifted Kids: Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Exceptional Child Thrive by Barbara KleinSo I agree with the advice previously to "buckle your seatbelt". It is indeed a bumpy ride. But at least you will have company along the way!
