Hey Trinity. All these options are pretty far apart geographically, so I'm going to focus on job interviews in the next few months and then hopefully we'll be able to concentrate on a few school options. We keep discussing homeschooling as I can see that may be our best option at some point. But we both have careers and it would be quite difficult to manage.
Sorry I dissapeared there, I had a lovely vacation, but missed all of this! OK, If you figure that your kids can learn 6 ours worth of school in about 45 minutes of adult attention, do you think that you can stagger your scheduals or hire a loving caretaker to do daycare, then drive to all the aftershool activities. I do believe that in the long run, you children's "ability to learn" would be stronger let to "play all day" than it would in a class room targeted for MG kids (1 in 50) , if they are PG (1 in 1,000) By analogy, if for some reason the school said that your normal 5th grader could only attend 2nd grade or stay home and play, which would you pick?
((And yes, when I say 'stay home and play', you would have to lock up your TV/video games/internet access until the weekends, or for all time - hey maybe that is the family compromise - you move for DH's job if he agrees to go media free!))
My husband doesn't want to pass on the job opportunity. I feel like no one location works for all of us. I can find a great job and great schools for our kids, but then he's stuck. We could go with great job for him, ok for me, but lousy school choices and I worry that I'd resent that if school options were a repeat of this year.
What would help us most is trying to understand where our kids are in relation to the standard curriculum. It seems to me that how radically we alter their education depends on how radically different they are from their age mates, but how do we assess that? We thought testing would help, but it didn't. There are ceiling issues on current IQ tests that prevent any real understanding of where a kid is. I keep thinking that I would know how to deal with this if I knew where we are, but there's no good way to assess that. If one kid was really 1/100,000, then maybe we really ought to move somewhere for school options for him. But if he's really 1/1000, then maybe we can get by with public schools.
I'll check out the book you mentioned. I think I'm idealizing the all day separate programs since they seem to address pacing, peers, and age issues while avoiding whole grade acceleration. I need some perspective on them so I stop thinking that would solve all our problems.
Jill
Stopping thinking that a single move will solve all your problems is a wonderful idea. Difficult but wonderful. Acceleration won't do it. Homeschooling won't do it. Special school are few and far between for the 1 in 1000 type kids.
BTW, you are totally skewed in your hope that a 1 in 1000 kid will be likely to be well served in a typical public school. A 1 in 50 type kid is likely to suffer emotionally, socially and certianly will be forced to learn to underachieve. Davidson Young Scholar program starts up at that range, I think because of the IQ compression problems. If you haven't applied yet, do so right away. There is no such thing as a typical 1/1000 kid! The more rare one gets the wider the variety. It's been interesting to watch the Davidson Academy in Reno, which started last year. They are committed to serving the needs of the 1/1000 kid and beyond. I don't think that there has been a school for this group before.
Now, a great school will move heaven and earth to hand pick the teachers and scramble the scheduals so that your kids can float around and take classes in different grades as needed, and you can find these great schools in every segment of society, but they are rare. It's even rare to find a group of school professionals who can notice the difference between a 1/50 kid and a 1/1000 kid. I know it seems weird, but run the numbers...it makes sense, a school with and average distribution of kids, and 100 kids per grade level will see one first grader in the 99.9% every ten years.
Take a look at these descriptions of preschool behaviors to get an idea of what I mean. I think you just need to know that there are, normal, but unusual kids out there like yours.
http://www.educationaloptions.com/levels_giftedness.htmhttp://www.educationaloptions.com/raising_gifted_children.htmhttp://www.educationaloptions.com/pg_child.htmThe best way to help you understand where you children are compared to the standard curriculum is to spend some seat time in the local school where their agemates would be. Since it's summer, you can look on the school's website and see what their "scope and sequence" is. Or see if you can drop by and look at their textbooks?
I wish you luck with your move. If you can take some time off to settle in and make your new home a home, I encourage you to do that. Work is so reinforcing, so orderly, so full of chances to be praised, so QuieT! Eitherway, Flylady.org is terrific for help in organizing moves. Every change has it's pluses and minuses. Looking for the silver lining is possible, but requires great flexibility.
Finally, I would strongly suggest you read Losing our Minds by Deb Ruf. It helped me understand the continum of giftedness. Can you imagine if all people with intellectual handicaps were treated the same? It would be cruel! But do you really want a well behaved underachiever? What about their future? What about their faith and trust in adults? I'm not saying that they have to be optimally engaged every second, but they do have to see you try.
Love and More Love,
Trinity
