Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Just introducing myself

Hello to everyone!

I'm a mom of three kids, ages 6, 3, and 20months. My 6-year-old son was identified as "profoundly gifted" this past school year. We have little experience or knowledge of giftedness. He's our first child, so we never noticed anything unusual about his behavior. He's always been energetic, outgoing, engaging, and all-around a fantastic kid. He walked early, talked early, played with puzzles, read at the age of 3, but we just figured he was doing things early. I guess we never really gave it much thought. He was doing everything early, he got along with all ages of children and adults, so we didn't have anything to worry about.

Then, he started preschool. He was already reading, it didn't take him long to learn how to write, and his teachers just didn't know what to do about him talking incessantly, running around like crazy, etc. (Did I mention he's energetic?) His preschool teachers recommended that he forego kindergarten and go straight into first grade, which we did. We informed his teacher that he never attended kindergarten, and to please let us know if he should fall back into that class of children. At our first parent's meeting in October, not only did she say first grade was fine for him, he'd mastered the curriculum. She started him on the second grade curriculum. By the end of the school year, she recommended that he skip second grade and move onto third grade in the fall. She didn't see any other way of meeting his needs academically.

So, he's going to third grade in September, upon the recommendation of his teacher, principal and district psychologist. We've looked into CTY (which his principal recommended to us), he's attending SIG starting tomorrow, and we're trying to get things together for him to join DYS. He just lost his first tooth, for goodness' sake!

Any advice, information, knowledge, a good kick in the pants...they'd all be very appreciated.

Thanks to anyone/everyone! I love reading all the posts on this forum. It's helpful to know there are others out there dealing with what appears to be the daunting task of meeting a profoundly gifted child's needs.

(If I've done something wrong I apologize. I've never posted on a forum like this before. I have no idea what I'm doing!)

Welcome! I'm pretty new myself. I really like this forum. Parenting atypical kids can be a challenge, so it's nice to have a place where you feel understood

Welcome! Wow, you have been fortunate to have such great support from your DS's school. I'm glad that you have found a place willing to try to meet his needs.

Welcome KatieMama! Just time for a quick note...I hope that you find a lot of good advice/ideas on this forum. It's been a wonderful place for me. I agree with knute that you are sooooo lucky to have such a supportive school environment! It is rare that a school recognizes such giftedness, and even rarer that they know what to do when they see it.

We would have been in your shoes (with a twice-skipped kid) if we had stayed in our local schools, but we transfered to an accelerated program for HG kids mid-year 2nd, after DS skipped 1st, so we avoided a second skip. The one thing we noticed about the local school was that the pace of curriculum was still too slow. You may have noticed that as well, or maybe you are lucky with your accommodating school. Hopefully your DS will be placed with others learning near his level, and that will make things better.

Good luck!

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

It seems like we've been fortunate with our son's school, according to everything we've read and what you've told me. He had an amazing teacher last year. I can't sing her praises enough! She works in general ed now because of budget cuts, but she was a special ed teacher for 18 years in the district. He's in a small, mountain school- kindergarten to 6th, about 50 students total. The classes are multi-grade, so he was able to be in a room with his same-age peers even though he did more difficult academics. Plus, all the kids (K-6) mingle with each other on the playground at recess, and for "specials" like PE. His principal is the gifted head for the district, although there's no program at his school because of the budget. They were the ones that recommended his second grade skip, but his teacher basically informed us that the district eventually wouldn't be able to meet his needs. She expects he'll be ready for Fourth grade material by the holidays and that he'll max out sometime next year and need something other than his local public school. So, we're exploring other avenues.

It seems like a move will eventually be in order. There are no options for special schools where we live. I've researched online programs and homeschooling, but the problem is my kid LOVES going to school. He's really outgoing and social. He loves to be in class, and be with other kids. I've got more research to do on the subject. If anyone has advice or information I'd love it!

I'm so glad that I've found this forum. What a relief to talk to people who understand! We can't even talk to our families about it. It's weird...they all just roll their eyes like we're out of our minds. So, we just don't talk to anyone about it anymore. *sigh*

We've been quite fortunate, too.

Don't discount your own open-mindedness, though-- part of our seeming good fortune there was to recognize good sources of insider information and make use of them.

For example, the daycare teachers that pointed out that DD probably wasn't going to be a "good fit" in a typical preschool...

the long-time kindy teacher that took a two minute look at my DD and informed me in a quickly whispered aside that while she'd deny saying it, we should NOT put our then newly 5yo DD into any district kindy classroom because it would have NOTHING to offer her, and the environment might well prove damaging.

Friends that pointed me at Davidson because of family in Reno and some familiarity with the mission...

and a push from extended family (educators) to conduct standardized achievement testing out of level even though we were homeschooling.

Welcome, by the way-- my DD also 'entered' her public (virtual charter) school as a third grader when she was six. I, too, second the suggestion to keep an eye on the pacing of things, because that was definitely a problem. We've since had to do additional tweaking and another skip, and it's still not ideal. Funny how behavioral problems vanish when a PG child without other challenges is placed appropriately!

The more I read the stories of school placement angst, the more fortunate I feel that we have a wonderful French Immersion school. I've found that language immersion levels the playing field a bit, and many of the kids enrolled are clever or gifted. There's a broad range of abilities and talents as well as a diverse culture of strong personalities My two kids love this school. I think they would be very out of place and isolated in a typical public school.

Hi KatieMama! What an interesting school you describe-- I bet your son is enjoying the age-mixing on the playground. My DD3 is also very social and loves playing with the older kids in the yard at her preschool.

CCN-- I would love to hear more about your children's experiences in a bilingual school! My DD is bilingual (Spanish/English) and will be moving to a bilingual (Spanish/English) preschool/elementary school in the fall. It's been one of my pet theories that having to do everything in two languages keeps her mentally busier (and therefore happier)! I have nothing to back this up, just a theory-- but she does enjoy her two languages a lot.

CCN, it's so interesting that you talk about immersion programs. My son's teacher at school has mentioned she thinks he would benefit from a chinese immersion program. (He has an interest in the chinese culture and language.) She said that she feels like it would somewhat "level the playing field" for him if he has to work in a foreign language. It's definitely something we'll look into if we move. There isn't anything like it where we live, but it's a very interesting idea.

Best of luck to your kids and their success in school!

Just a quick note on language immersion. I recommend doing a google search with davidson gifted issues and immersion programs. There has been a lot of talk about this on the site. What I recall is that while it works well for some, for others it only seems to give enough of a challenge in the early years. Unless there is additional acceleration, you're still learning concepts at the same pace as everyone else. Once you've cracked the code of the language, pacing may be too slow all around. Again, works great for some.