Hello! I haven't posted much in a long while. When school ended in May I believed everything would be fine this year; I was wrong. I was definitely in another form of GT denial.
I have a DD6 who we fought to get into the GT program last spring based on her WPPSI scores. It turns out that her "self-contained GT" class only has 2 GT identified kids in it and otherwise is very diverse in levels. It's a new school that just opened and they still don't have the proper leveled readers for her. I could write a separate post about how last year she loved school but this year she's complaining about how easy it is, how she's bored, and how the only thing she likes at school is science lab (which is pretty cool, btw). But that's not why I'm posting now.
I need help with how to deal with her perfectionism that is rearing its ugly head. Of course I believe that it's directly related to the fact that she's not challenged in any respect at school, and we do plan on asking for some changes, but I need help dealing with it at home. For instance, the other night she was doing her homework of writing her easy spelling words 3 times and then using them in sentences. As she was writing them she made the comment to me that 1st grade work is really like kindergarten work. Then, a little later, she forgot to capitalize the first word in a sentence. When she realized it she got very upset and started saying things like "I should be punished for that" and "I'm awful at writing" and "I can't do anything right." She expresses this attitude over and over again when something takes her more than a second to do. She's lost her desire to figure things out and is increasingly becoming a little (do I dare say it?) lazy.
Lastly, she's losing her confidence in math. She's saying that the math is "really hard" even though I know she was subtracting these same numbers in her head years ago. She's even started using her fingers to add and subtract, when before she used to just think of the answers. I think part of it is because she has to think about it a little longer than she has to think about anything else she's doing, and she's also a little scared of being wrong.
I know what we need to try to do at school (get her more challenging work) but I don't know how to handle this as a parent when she's unnecessarily hard on herself. I can't tell if she says these things for effect or because she really feels it. What do I say?
I remember everyone's advice last year about how 1st grade is sometimes when the wheels start to come off; I feel the nuts and bolts are loosening quickly. I want my happy girl back. Any advice is so very much appreciated!
