Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Nothing particular, just want to whine

Last week, I took my boy to get a test. The doctor did not do IQ test, because my boy is only 4 and half year old. The Doc believed that IQ test is not accurate prior to 6 years old.

The doctor, nevertheless, did the achievement test. After the test, he commented that the boy is profoundly gifted .
He read some books and then was questioned by the doctor.

He did some math. He came up his own ways to solve problems.

What I want to whine is that the local public and charter schools still do net accept him to the kindergarten this coming fall because he is one month behind the school cut-off date (Aug/31) even with the Doc's evaluation.

I cannot afford to let him to go to the only private school that will accept him, because it costs $ 18,000/year.
Home schooling is not an option. Last year I was worried the problem will come up this year, now I am facing it and still have no solutions.

It's frustrating when bureaucracy gets in the way, isn't it...

I'd say, though, don't worry too much. Even a PG child doesn't need to start formal education this young and K might well have been frustrating anyway. Will he be basically with you this year, or in daycare, or what? I'd suggest that this coming year:

- try to find the most flexible school available to you for the following year

- do whatever you can to help your DS be strong in the non-academic aspects of school, to give him the best chance of looking like someone who'd be fine with older children, in case you need this later. Ideally, he needs to be able to follow adult instruction promptly, manage his own clothes, belongings, toileting etc, sit without fidgeting or talking, get on aimiably with other children whatever their age (including his own age!)

- academically, just follow his interests. Don't worry about teaching him, take him to the library! Encourage things that encourage fine motor skills, eg model making, drawing, writing if he's into that.

Good luck!

Oh yes the "if you're not 5 you aren't allowed to attend" rule. :P

Oh how I hated that one! I called the private schools for miles away. I pleaded with administrators to meet him and look at his results.I searched and searched. He had suffered through 2 yrs of alphabet and phonics while he had been reading the whole time already. He really couldn't take doing it again but yet he was "too young" for phonics and counting to 100 in K. So now he would be reading for 4yrs before he could enroll and be "taught" what he had learned as a 1yr old.

Mine had been successfully enrolled in preschool for 2yrs with the group entering K and had full IQ and achievement testing (hitting the ceiling at 2nd grade level), missed the birthday cutoff by a month and STILL was not allowed to even do a trial of K. I was exasperated!

We did end up having a wonderful THIRD year of preschool before K. But K was really hard because now he was even further ahead... reading 5th grade and above, math 3rd/4th, science skills of a middle schooler, and geography skills beyond those of adults.

My advice is if you must enroll him somewhere (I needed to as we'd have driven each other crazy home all day) then try to find the school with the shortest day and most flexibility in grouping. Try to make friends with someone who really sees your child for who he is and will advocate for what he needs ahead. This has worked well for us. We meet soon to discuss plans for next year now that school realizes what a different learner he is than what they have seen before.

Good luck to you in working through your "gap year" before Kindergarten.

Is it possible to qualify for tuition assistance at the private school? I'd try that first.

Perhaps a Montessori-leaning preschool would be a choice for his upcoming year if he's not allowed early entrance to K.

We placed our son (6) in a private school for Kindergarten. The school has assistance for those who aren't able to pay. We were able to swing the tuition, so didn't need the assistance, but the parents that did were obviously of a caliber that went the extra mile for their child's education. It was a good place for him because they were flexible on his reading and math assignments, yet he was able to work with other kids his age on writing-his challenge subject.

This upcoming year, he's going to the free public charter school. It's a blended-grade learning environment. They allow for placement in every subject at the child's actual level, so we fully expect him to be seated next to a 10 year old for math.

Maybe there's a public charter school nearby that will accept him early? If not, it's something to think about for the 2014-2015 school year...especially if there is a lottery for entrance.

You're really lucky that he doesn't have to go to school this year. You get another year of him doing fun crafts and playing with friends at preschool and doing whatever reading he likes at home.

In K he'd be asked to do a whole lot of developmentally inappropriate things (from sitting still to learning to read and count to ten). He's already beyond a K curriculum, this way you don't have to start fighting for another year.

we didn't realize how lucky we were with our Montessori pre-school! they moved DD (then just turned 2) up to the Casa room when her friends moved up - essentially a year early. they literally said to us: she's ready, so she's going. it was such a simple solution and even though she ran out of curriculum by the time she was 3½, she had some wonderful years there.

i honestly wish our Montessori could have gone on forever, rather than stopping at K. this year was truly horrible - and the carefully-chosen private school we scrimped for didn't solve anything. they were so dogmatic - telling me repeatedly that DD hiding her skills/having nightmares/being depressed/wanting to die was no problem - you know, because she was already beyond grade level. er, no.

so i'll second Mana's suggestion to check out Montessori-style pre-schools - the great ones are really great!

Ditto on the plug for Montessori schools (although execution of the principles is all over the map, from what I have heard--so you do need to make sure the school really understands what Maria Montessori had in mind). My mathy DS was doing multi-digit addition and subtraction in kindergarten, long division before first grade (taught by a Montessori kid four years older than him over the summer at our kitchen table)...The school can totally support this while keeping him at the appropriate social level (in terms of peer age). They can also support that kind of acceleration (though that terminology is very un-Montessori!) in reading, writing, etc.

Thanks for your comfort. I really like your viewpoint.