Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school I'm pretty sure...

Hi all, I hope you don't mind my posting here. So, I am a mom of two girls, 28 month old and 10 month old. I've been on a researching binge as it's started to sink in my DD is more than usually smart. I mean, I guess I am realizing I need to do something more at this point, I've known she was smart for a while.

I've known since her birth she'd miss the K cut off (Sept baby), but that seemed so far away and abstract I thought well, she'll get an extra year of pre-school and that'll be nice for her. I figured we'd just keep her going with fun things at home.

Then she started talking, and around her 1 yr birthday knew several words. She had tubes put in in Oct after having repeated ear infections over 6 months long and constant fluid issues. She'd been baby signing with us for a while with lots of words.

By 14 months (we made a list at Thanksgiving that year) we counted she knew at least 50 words. Very soon after, she was speaking in sentences, which then became 5 or 6 words. Before 2 yrs, she was adding clauses, and I take for granted what she says as complex sentences and questions.

Some examples from recent days: I'm trying to get soap and water so I can wash this hair (at bath). Mommy, can you wash this shirt so I can wear it tomorrow? Mommy, do you call Daddy [his name]?

We took a walk in the woods yesterday (her first time) after a recent snow. I was talking about how pretty and quiet it was, etc. I asked her what she thought and she told me it was spooky.

We were talking about the grocery store at home during a bathroom visit, and I asked what she liked to get at the store. She named something, thought for a second then added, but we don't need to get any because we have some (we did). There's a bunch of other stuff but I have probably said enough for now.

I was shocked to see what books/parenting web sites are talking about for three year old milestones like knowing some colors, 5 word sentences, following simple directions. We are well past this type of thing.

She goes to day care several days a week where they seem to do typical things, lots of coloring and crafts, reading books, playing with toys and costumes, discuss ideas like sharing, etc. I don't think they are doing anything special in terms of playing/teaching at this age.

So, this is a really long way of asking do I need to be worrying about her entering K as a basically 6 year old when at 2.5 she seems to have skills more like a 4+ year old already? What should I be doing in terms of preschool?

And upon reading about early milestones, I'm thinking her sis the 10 m old is pretty smart too, the DC has volunteered that she says some words they understand (I agree, but didn't ask them).

Thank you for your thoughts.

The good news is, you've got a lot of time.

At this point, I'd start thinking about where your kid is now in terms of what she needs to know for K... letters, numbers, shapes, colors, letter sounds, writing name, coloring within the lines, etc. If she's already where she needs to be, or very soon will be, then it is an appropriate time to begin asking the same question I kept asking my DW at the stage you're in right now, "What are we going to do with her when it's time for her to go to school?"

Definitely, start reading all the materials you can about the nature of giftedness, which will help you understand your DD better.

And finally, learn all you can about your available options. What are your state's policies regarding gifted education? What is the public school district's policy on early admission to pre-k/K? What charter or private options are available in your area?

I would start observing her preschool and seeing how she interacts with her age mates. You don't want her gathering the impression that her peers are 'damaged goods' in some way. It's nice if the materials availible are ones she might find interesting, but to me, it's more important that the teachers treat her as if she has a brain in her head, and she can start practicing social skills with kids who have a chance of 'getting' her. If you ask, you may be able to get the school to place her with older childen who are more on the level of her social development. Otherwise limit the hours that she spends there and she may find it fun anyway.

For reading, I would recommend '5 levels of Giftedness' by Deb Ruf, but for ideas of what to document, and for ideas of what to try next.

I like how thoughtful your DD is in the examples. The idea that she is aware that her Daddy isn't your Daddy, and that you might call him by name is very touching. We make a great game of teaching DS that his Uncle was my brother, etc, around this age.

Smiles,
Grinity

We had a great experience with an arts-based preschool. It did not have an academic curriculum, but did have a strong emphasis on music and art, and also on child-led group projects (like putting on a play based on a personal story their teacher had shared). The fact that my 2.5 year old dd was reading at a 1st/2nd grade level already was a non-issue.

We kept dd and her twin brother there until starting K in public school at 5 yo, the specified age for the district. They are now 12yo and in 6th grade, both engaged and happy and very high achievers.

How set in stone is the K cut-off where you live? I ask b/c, in my state, each district can set their own cut-off although none of them are later than 10/1 b/c that is the latest date the state will fund. Our governor did sign a bill allowing for funding of early entrants a while back however, if the child is a "highly advanced gifted" kid. I don't know what type of testing they do to ascertain that, however.

We have two girls with bds right around that same time & a district with a 9/15 cut-off. My oldest just made it and my youngest missed the cut by two weeks. The youngest we managed to get around the cut-off by starting her in a different district with a 10/1 cut-off and then moving her to the one with the 9/15 cut off in 1st. They generally don't make kids who have done a year of public school repeat the grade. We were told that kids who had done a year of private K, on the other hand, would likely be forced to enroll at K students again.

Our other option, had the one district in which we started our youngest not changed their cut to 10/1 the year dd started, was to do both K and 1st in private school and then the public schools told me that they'd let her continue into 2nd without repeating.

I'd look into whether you have any 'sneak around the cut-off' options like that.

Hi, and thanks for answering. I was long winded in my first post, but I have started trying to dig up what are the typical pre-K/K skills. I suspect she is close to if not at many of these already.

She counts objects (not sure how high, maybe I should see) and rote counts to 30. Knows most uppercase letters (maybe all), knows all her colors, shapes (circle, square, oval, hexagon, triangle, heart, diamond etc). Recognizes her written name, and her sister's written name (it's short), maybe some other simple words. Can tell us full name, address, town, state. I should teach her our phone number I guess. Sings too many different songs for me to count, memorizes whole books. Identifies when characters in pictures etc are sad/happy/mean. Loves puzzles.

Yesterday after work my DH brought home a Darth Vader Mr Potato head, from a coworker cleaning up his cube, for her (or not, who knows). It is kind of scary looking with the mask, arms, cape but we did not discuss this with her or each other.

We played with it before bedtime. She decided to stow it away on a higher shelf (So baby sister won't get it) and facing backward because "he looks funny" - like she didn't want it creeping her out when she's not playing with it!

She just got moved into the next age up room at the day care. I'm interested to see what new experiences she'll have there.

I think I have a lot of reading to do.

Sorry, I didn't see more responses had come in. Thank you all. The idea to investigate districts or private K are good ones. I did note in my response to Dude she is getting moved up this week to a new age group. She has a few older friends in there already (kids she was with at some point before) so I expect it to go smoothly.

Grinity, she knows how her g-parents are related to mommy and daddy, as well as the aunts and uncles and which cousins they go with. We remind her with pictures sometimes because most live far away from us!

You do need to ask around in your district. We are in the same state as Cricket. Unlike her area, a common "work around the cutoff" in our area is to have the child attend a non-public kindergarten, i.e. private Montessori or religious school. I also know one family that tested their kid straight into the district's lst grade gt class instead of going to kindergarten. There are no cutoff dates for first grade. I haven't met anyone who took advantage of the early access program. I've heard that the testing is much more extensive than the testing required for the gt program.

Ours is such a strange state b/c it can vary so much from area to area. Where we live, there is an age cut-off for 1st grade. If the kid isn't six by 9/15 (or 6/15 or 10/1 -- other cut-offs for different districts near me!), s/he can't start 1st either unless s/he has completed K in a different district (public only). Point being, it can vary a lot even within one state, so it is well worth checking to see if there is a way around the cut-off especially if your child is close.

Re early entrance testing, I know that there are other states such as Oregon that also have it. What it entails, I do not know and I would expect that it is more extensive than GT admission in general b/c they are not aiming to offer early entrance for all GT kids. Where I am, GT admission requires a 95th percentile achievement score in any one area or evidence of subjective things like creativity, leadership, etc. That must be supplemented with one other area of evidence which can be, again, a 95th percentile ability score in the same one area or a host of other things ranging from parental rating scales to teacher rating scales to a portfolio of work. It winds up encompassing a pretty broad group of kids (about 15%+ of the general population and probably could be more if more parents pushed). This broad of a population probably wouldn't benefit from early entrance. I can only hope that the testing for early entrance weeds out mildly gifted kids but not kids who are really needing early admission. Of course, I wouldn't count on it!

My DS4 will miss the cutoff by 2 months. I got him into a 3's program at 2yr9mo. He did that and then got them to take him early for the 4's program (VPK here in FL). We just applied to Kinder for the fall. The public schools WILL NOT take them early for Kinder. Not that we were planning on sending him public. The 2 private schools we went to did the Kindergarten readiness test for him which he easily passed. We also brought in work that he has done in writing, math etc. By doing all this AND telling them he has already done the 4's program and that it would be crazy to have him do it all over again, they made an exception and agreed to enroll him in Kindergarten early.

Check with your district and find out what the regulations are. If they are flexible try to get him advanced early on so you have a track record of acceleration. Seemed to make a difference for us rather than him never being in a program trying to accelerate straight into Kinder.

Welcome to the journey of raising a gifted child. It truly is an amazing ride!