Just found this board and hoping to find some answers/guidence. I have 4 children, DD9, twin DD8, and DS4.
I would discribe DD9 as being "typical" gifted. She has that spark, constant need for more information, recogition by others in her class as being the smart odd child in the group. She's the one who was advanced as a toddler and we recognised that she was advanced beyond her age, but we have not pushed her abilities until now.
The twins were always more average, and being that their sister was advanced I as always worried with them at first, especially when they were speaking some twinish I was worried there was a language difficulty. Even this year I was worried about dyslexia, but they have proved me wrong and are just now starting to come out of their shell and school work is improving greatly.
My concern is this. With DD9 we had her tested in 1st grade for the gifted program. She didn't do as well as she could have because we didn't push math above her grade level even though she could handle it. Now the school system doesn't want to test her until 3 years after that first test, which won't come until next year. So we are having her tested with John's Hopkins CTY next month and are hoping to take this testing scores to the school to have her placed.
There seems to be very little gifted education in the system as a whole, with NONE in her school at all. I am worried that we will have to trudge though what the system offers until Junior High, seems like a waste of time. I wish I had time to homeschool them all but I work 3 jobs right now since dh is out of work.
The twins I want to have tested perhaps next winter and see where their talents are.
What do you all do in a system that doesn't have much to offer? Normally is there an option where you are to bus them to another elementary school? How well does acceleration help?
Sorry this post is so long, thanks if you read this far!
