Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Kindergarten Jitters...

I know there are several of us here who have kiddos starting K this year. My DS5 starts in two weeks. His b-day JUST missed the cut-off last year, and there are NO exceptions to early admittance, which makes me concerned about how he is going to do as one of the older ones in the class PLUS coming in already reading (probably at 3rd grade? higher in vocab than in fluidity and comprehension), doing math (doesn't have facts memorized but can easily do multifactor adding/subtracting and simple multiplication/division in his head). His newest thing is ancient Egypt, which he went on and on about the "Great Stinks" the other day (ROFL).

We live in a very educated community, so I'm really hoping that he's got some kids in the same boat with him in class (or at least in the same lake, haha). I'm not even sure at this point how advanced he is...my litmus for normal is so off, maybe there's going to be a lot of kids coming in like him.

He's definitely asynchronous with his emotional/social development, so he'll be with appropriate peers in that respect. I'm not sure if I'm more nervous that he's going to be bored or that he's going to lower his pace of learning and hunger for knowledge.

I passed up a few workbooks in the dollar bin at Target today that I would've normally picked up for him (math facts, animal facts)...I had to remind myself that he is going to be at school so much more now. We will still do supplementing at home, but we don't have the luxury of time any more. Sigh.

Anyone else commiserating? Any advice from BTDTs?

Oh yes, and he is THRILLED to start K. Today he made a count down calendar so he can put a big X through each day until he goes. At least I don't have to worry about that.

Is it full-day K? My DD5 starts half-day K next month, but she's not too excited about it. And she's adamant that she will never go to first grade because that's "way too long".

I'd be interested to hear how it goes for him.

In my experience, even if you go in ahead of time and let the teacher and principal know that your kid is already reading at a third grade level, they will still want to get to know your kid on their own. Depending on whether you have a kid who shows his stuff or who likes to blend in quietly, you could have very different outcomes. Personally, I would give examples ahead of time of what types of things your kiddo is working on/reading, and say something like, "I'm not sure if that's normal or what - will there be other kids like that too, and do you group kids based on ability?" Make sure you go in asking for advice and thinking of it as a partnership -- teachers will quickly get offended if you sound like you're just telling them how to do their jobs (even if you didn't intend it that way).

Since you're in an area with a lot of highly education folks, you may get lucky and have nothing to worry about. However, in most places, kindergarten is about letter of the week and very basic math. Kindergarten teachers are used to many different levels of kids in their classrooms, though. But usually not so familiar with the way-out-there kids.

We met with our K teacher a few weeks ago. We brought our OT, the psych. report, work samples and handouts to address giftedness, learning style and sensory issues.

I realize that is probably way too much but the teacher knows our son and wanted information. She is really excited to have him in class and as a group we came up with some great ideas to help him have a good year.

Now if I could just get him to be as excited as we all are...

His only interest in worksheets at this point is that they "make excellent fuel for fires, can be made into airplanes, can be shredded to make bedding for an animal or recycled and made into something more awesome than a worksheet"

I will definitely be posting how he does. I guess I'm lucky that he's so excited. It's been a loooooong wait this past year because of his birthday. I'm so glad my DD is an april baby.

St. Paulie Girl,

Thanks for your advice. My sister is a K teacher (moved to first grade this year), and she keeps reminding me to 'be patient' instead of coming in like gang-busters and having the teacher biased against anything I say about him in the future.

I really don't know what to expect with the levels of learning. I try not to talk about where DS is with this compared to his peers because it seems to 'braggy'. I have one friend in the same district whose son was somewhat advanced with reading/math (not reading at start of school but quickly progressed), and he was placed midyear with the first-graders for those subjects. Not sure if that is standard practice here though.

KJP,

How awesome to have a teacher so invested already. I don't have anything to even give a teacher at this point. We've never done any evals...I'm only 'assuming' he's gifted until proven otherwise (new acronym, GUP) since his pediatrician and a good friend kept prompting me to do some looking into it. I'm new to this giftedness stuff. We knew he was smart and doing things early, but I guess we are hard to impress? I guess we'll see what K holds and if testing would be prudent at some point (they don't even do GT identification here until 3rd grade, frown).

I was hoping we could have a starting K thread! DD doesn't start until the end of August. I go back and forth being excited and worried school will be a terrible joke... it's just impossible to know until we get more familiar with the school, which is a gifted focus but open lottery school. Full day but homeschool all Fridays and other days. My daughter sounds a lot like your son! DH is convinced she'll need a skip but K is a good start bc she's not done formal preschool. AND there's a maternity leave sub for the first two months so it'll take a while! The idea of the assessment the week before school makes me excited and sick--will it mean someone else to get my DD and really partner with? Or DD get all perfectionistic/not answer or will the stuff be aimed so low they don't even know? As a teacher myself I like to hear from parents but I'm planning on being pretty patient, just going to school will be plenty for DD for a bit.

K here doesn't start until after Labor Day so it still seems far away for me. My son will be four when he starts but turn five soon after. He is still considered early entranced given local cut offs but it isn't by much.

My son went to this Montessori school for preschool and the school director is also the K teacher. While she let the preschool teachers run their own classroom, she was aware of some of the challenges he had while in PreK.

He'll be going a half day in a class with only eight students for one teacher and an aide. The teacher's plan for him is a bit different. He will arrive for the last half of the day while the rest of the class is at recess. He'll have about twenty minutes of one on one instruction at his level and pace. Then they'll do a group activity like a demonstration or listening to a story. After that, the students can choose their own activity from the materials in the classroom. She knows he loves science so she is going to increase the depth of the science materials available in the classroom. Plus, he will have a friend in the class who seems to be working at least one grade level ahead. It really is ideal.

I am nervous because if this doesn't work, I am not sure what will (except waiting until he matures or looking into whether there is another "e" that isn't identified as of yet)

Our Kindergarten experience with our DS was not the experience that anyone would want. We encountered an older teacher who really was not happy to be teaching anylonger. Her complaints about my son was that he was so capable but she could not get him to work. When we saw the work, we realized that he did not understand why she wanted him to complete twice the amount of work as the other students. The sitution deteriated rapidly. That teacher had a terrible affect on him and he shut down. This is the short version. We moved to a public school and he was put in a class with 27 children. However, he loved the teacher and still talks about her fondly. It was not the experience that one would want! I think the most important thing about Kindergarten is being in a class with a loving teacher who fosters learning and creativity. This is there first experience with "big school," and it has a life time impact. If they are gifted they are going to learn.. it's important to have a teacher who just accepts them.

DS4.5 completely agrees. He is skipping k (starting yr1 in Jan- in Australia) but we still have a sense of trepidation as a lot of enrichment will still be needed.