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That story about your poor mother - that's so funny.

So funny how you sound like you know my children!

I guess I have always known that there was something very special about her...and others have told me time and time again..."there's just something special about that one." I refused to believe that she was going to go down the same road at dd9...Maybe she played along...like with Santa.

She has done things that have been really quite amazing. Like memorized the whole first chapter and more of the Jr. version of The Secret Garden...like 12 pages of so...long Chapter book - when she turned 5.

She is great at Legos and does 6-12 year old lego kits...but I have to check in with her and make sure she isn't making a big mistake that will make her have to start over.

Her vocabulary is sooo funny and she doesn't seem to be dumbing it down for anyone...like my older daughter did.

She has been making up words since she was...2? maybe...Wouldn't eat the chicken skin cause it was blobbery....and something else she described as russely.

Do you know the book "The Little Island?" By Mararet Wise Brown, I think. She cried at 2 or 3 when I read it to her. The island has all these seasons and adventures and at the end, it is just an island in the middle of the sea. She was so upset that the island was just left by itself.

She often talks about how things go over and over. like seasons..and mirrors and whatever...she is, and has always noticed the cycles in life.

She cries often at movies.

I think her gift is to fully understand literature. She makes these connections to literature that I find amazing. She is able to explain her thought process. Like when I read her the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (age 5) and she said...Aslan is dying so that Edmond doesn't have tot and the table is broken so not that stupid rule (about the witch being able to kill anyone who betrays Aslan) doens't exist anymore.

At 2 or 3, she asked me how the mall that we were in, wasn't falling down. She begs to watch "How It's Made" and has been building with things since like 6 months...EVERYTHING! Made me crazy. To keep her quiet at a breakfast place, we would give her the jellies...she made some pretty impressive stuff. To keep her quite at home, she played with the soup cans...building stuff with them...at 2 years old, she made a "thing" out of a lot of things and it wasn't a very stable thing...she said this....she exclaime...LOOK! I am the princess of cacophony!" (I don't even know how to spell that.!)"

So, yeah, I have been living in denial...but, I'm not going to panic...I will respond to her begging for harder work...but I'm not going to panic. She is my sweet baby. I think she knows that is what I want her to stay. So, maybe I'll have to start letting her know that it's okay to grow up a little, and she'll still be my sweet baby. She has said in the past.."Mommy, I'm not going to get married when I grow up. I'm going to stay here with you." Music to my ears...

But DD9 was reading real estate magazines at her age, with correct understanding and 'saying' the numbers in the hundreds of thousands. She knew when a house was expensive or not and was able to decide if a house was a good price or not worth the money.

DD6 now, can't really even do math in the teens. She can do it in her head, but her numbers are all backwards and I'm pretty sure she doesn't have that number concept that dd9 had...

Maybe it's because of her eye tracking problems or that dd9 went to Montessori Kindergarten, where they do a great job with that stuff.

I used to work with DD9, not so much DD6.

We shall see.

I showed my husband this thread...he says..."Well, she didn't 'snow' me!"

He is the one they get their 'smarts' from. He went to college at 14...

I wonder how many moms on here are just plain old, above average people, dealing with these amazing children, with no experience of their own to go on. I was NOT smart in school...until Highschool....graduated top 23rd in a class of 300. I wonder if it helps us to be more objective, or if it hinders us because we really don't understand.

I admire your dd for speaking up. In first grade I clearly remember those coloring type assignments and trying to do the most beautiful coloring job ever to at least try to make it interesting. I also remember one day just not doing the math work sheet because it was so freakin' boring and I knew that I didn't need the repetition. I thought maybe the teacher wouldn't notice. (Of course she did!) I was then mortified, but I never explained WHY I didn't do it.

I have to agree with Grinity on this one.

Yup - my son was like this - at that age he freaked out while we were trying to watch 'Fly away home' whenever the girl wanted to get into the small airplane because (who knows?) maybe he thought it was dangerous? (Of course I had fast forwarded through the car crash at the beginning in a different room.) What 2 year old does that?

And at 3 he would cry whenever we passed the apartment building where Daddy used to live before he met Mommy. Apparently the idea of Daddy without Mommy was too lonely for DS to bear.

I had no idea in the world that all kids weren't like this. At home. With their Mommies.

((shrugs))
It sounds like you are well on your way on the right path!
Grinity

So that puts you in the top 7.5% for kids who went to your high school - which could vary depending on if the brightest kids were already sorted out to the private school or if your community was above or below average economically...

But of the kids who scored higher than you - how many were taking classes less challenging than you and how many were taking classes more challenging than you? (or were weighted GPAs around back then?)

If you and your DH choose each other, and didn't 'have' to get married, than there is a pretty good chance that you married because you enjoyed each other's company, and got each others jokes. That suggests that your IQs are most likely similar if not 'quite similar.' Grades and SATs are generally fairly strongly correlated to IQ, but there are some folks that have strengths that aren't reflected that particular way.

Smiles,
Grinity

DD9 has been pulled out for science enrichment and has been loving the enrichment math she is getting in addition to the regular 4th grade math. She was given a pre-test on the unit of geometry they did this month. They were all given a pre-test. The teacher looks at the pre-tests and figures out what each child needs to work on and gives them the same exact test, a month later, as a post test. She shows the kids the pre-test and post test results at the same time. I guess to show them how much they learned.

Well, DD9 got one wrong on the pre-test...she got 3 wrong on the post test...She didn't do 2 of them cause...well, I guess she said she didn't see them...

Anyway. The teacher DID warn me that the bright students often do worse on the post test than the pre-test...

This doesn't make sense...right?

ps...the "enrichment" was 5 kids leaving math, all from her class of 19 to work with levers...she did like it though.

It makes sense to me. Your DD already knew the material (only missed one on the pre-test), and was tired of the material (it wasn't new enough to keep her interest) by the post-test.

The part that doesn't make sense is why they wouldn't give her something she actually did need to work on, once the pretest showed that she didn't need to work on any of the pretested stuff.

Finally got a call from the LA teacher. She and the Math teacher will see me before school. I'm feeling better because the LA teacher TOLD ME that dd9 was tested and scored 83 on her DRP which is a few points higher than on her State Test..She said she was reading and comprehending at a high school level.

So on with the meeting. We shall see. I am wide open to their suggestions.

Lately dd9 seems depressed. I don't know if it has to do with any of this, but hopefully we can get things fixed for her. Wish me luck...I hope I can survive this meeting!

Good luck!
Try to talk with DD9. It's ok to mention that you noticed X or Y, and ask her what she things is up. You many get something that you can share at the meeting that will get the teachers urgent about fixing the problem. School folks 'speak' social and emotional distress.

Smiles,
Grinity

It's so strange when you spend your whole life trying to get teachers to understand that your child is smarter than the average bear...

Then, they call to tell you that in no uncertain terms, your 9-year-old is reading at a high school (and beyond) level. This is not open for interpretation...she just is. It's kind of hard to swallow...even if you already knew. And by now, I have learned enough to know it is not an easy road. And somewhere I must have been hoping to be proved wrong. Because now I am kind of sad for her.

And we haven't even talked about Math yet...which...I suspect will have similar results if they ever test. Oh, geez.

No wonder she has been so distant and turned off and detatched...hmmmm...well, I can help her now that I can stop doubting stuff...:)

On the other hand, what are 'real average' high school kids doing with reading and Math. Probably nothing that would really impress you, even if your 9 year old was doing it. If you haven't already gotten an IQ test, WISC IV for example, then now is a really good time to ask for that.

It looks like you are having a hard time getting a fix on just how much of an Outlier she is, and the IQ test is your best hope of getting some real data on that - short of pulling her out and homeschooling her to see just how far she can go with proper materials....

Hugs
Grinity