Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Kindergarten is coming

Add us to the list of families with children on the way to Kindergarten. My DD, who just turned 5 this month, tested at least a third grade level, also in the 99th percentile, reads and writes well, does well in math (fractions, time, money, number sense etc.) but is stronger in language than Math. I have tried to encourage her to like math more the way you may want to encourage reading more, but it seems they like what they like. In general, just reading books would be my strongest recommendation. In some ways I dread this year, but am hoping she will have fun with crafts and singing etc.

Have you tried the sir Cumference books, DS 5 loved them.
Sir Cumference

I found that on the list of books thread there are a couple of good threads on mathy books, with penrose the cat and some others

DeHe

DS had his last day of preK today. He starts K this year and turns 6 in Sept. He is possibly 2e (the school thinks he is autistic I and his doctors and ST, DT & OT think probably pdd-nos or something else) and has been going to developmental preK since Jan which has been wonderful!
I hope K can work well too. He loves school but, of course never learns anything. He is probably about 2nd grade reading level right now and I bet will be at least 3rd by the time he starts K. He is also doing multiplication (which he figured out on his own.) and can add and subtract 'big' numbers. Of course when we had his IEP with the new principal and one of the K teachers I just mentioned he is reading. Don't want to scare them, ha ha.

DS is almost 4 and reads well for his age, but I think he wouldn't read at all if a parent was always available to do it. He gets the most practice on our multitude of daily car trips. There is a real hump with reading from struggling through a basic story, to reading for the enjoyment of the story or to really learn about a favorite subject, he is getting past that now and probably thanks to the car when there is nothing better to do.

Our current car assortment is a couple of the lift-the-flap "See Inside" Usborne books (which actually have short but real text on or under each flap), for example their atlas one, DK books, some picture-type story books. I find DS doesn't like to read long stories in the car as it's a little harder to keep one's place while the car is moving, for the car DS likes books that you can open at any page.

Polly

had a meeting with the principal today.. we have math acceleration for next year! EJ will be in first grade math yipppeeee

Yay, frannieandejsmom! So good to hear that they saw the logic in math acceleration!

What a great topic! My DS just turned 5 and will be starting in August. I fear that his teachers will not realize his potential. Then what do you do? Are we supposed to inform them early in the school year? I feel that my DS tries hard to blend with his peers and keeps his talents a secret. His preschool teacher had no idea that he could read and she told me that he has difficulty with numbers from 1-10...AHHHH!! He can do double digit addition and subtraction! So, do we set up a meeting with the teacher early on or just see if she recognizes his potential?

Jimmysmom-- I would talk to them *now*. It was good that we did, because it turns out they have to rearrange everybody's schedule in order to do single subject acceleration for us for math and reading. Plus they wanted to do testing to see what level he was at in both, which will be easier to do now rather than later. All of that is easier before the school year starts.

We talked back in April. We also had to do testing for reading and math. As it turns out, we may have to move from morning k to afternoon k to get the acceleration we need. They have not completed the schedules for next year yet. It all depends when first grade math occurs. Although, I am thinking by the end of the summer we may need second grade math. Reading doesn't really matter because they are grouped by ability. Although, I noticed with dd the fact they did not allow her to change groups this year hurt her annual growth. Something I will address if need be in the fall.

If identifying gifted children is routine and well-supported at your school, you might have to do nothing; your child might get identified using standard screening tools, the school might decide on their own to do more in-depth assessments, etc. That's less likely to happen if you're not in a good area for GT services, and of course it is less likely if your son is the type that likes to fly under the radar, or would be less likely than normal to stand out in a screening assessment.

In our case, our DS5 has attended K in a school district in NH without any GT program whatsoever. We broached the subject of our smart little boy early in the school year, and seem to have been identified as pushy parents. Which we might be. Our son was assessed under the local procedures for assessing learning disabilities, since the main reason for using assessment tools in place at our school district seems to be for diagnosing disabilities and making sure kids don't slip through the cracks and get "left behind". Though we began discussions at the start of the school year in September, the assessment results did not come back until mid-November, and we only recently got the go-ahead for a grade skip. We would have been further behind if we hadn't spoken up early.

I can't think of many downsides to opening a dialogue with the school early in the school year. I can only think of one biggie: they may peg you as a pushy parent. The extent to which that is a risk depends in part on the extent to which GT services are provided and/or taken seriously at your school. Anything objective you can bring up may help, as may work samples. In any event I think it's generally impossible to avoid any risk during advocacy, and it's better to get the gears turning than to wait and pray.

Would testing be a possibility for you? Numbers are harder to discount than are parental anecdotes about a child's abilities.