Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Introducing myself

Hello All!

So glad I found this board, I've been poring over it for the last two hours! I thought I'd say hello and give you a little about me and mine.

I live in New Hampshire, in a very small town with my husband and two children. DD is 6, just wrapping up K this week, and DS is 4 and just wrapping up his first year of full-time (8-3, 5 days) preschool.

Early this year, I initiated a request to the Superintendent to consider waiving the Kindergarten entrance date for DS. Very long, very drawn out story--where the Supt. claimed to have consulted "several District Professionals" (he only consulted one, and I called him out on it ) who felt DS's socio-emotional needs would be best served by attending K at the age-appropriate time, despite my assertions that starting K would in fact benefit him in that respect.

We took it to the school board, who invited us to meet with them in closed session, asked us what we wanted. What we wanted was at the very least for them to consider including him the K screening to see if, in fact, he was out of place socially/emotionally with the general population of incoming Kindergarteners, and at the most, to just waive the date (yeah, it was a pipe dream!).

We just received correspondence from the board. DS will NOT be attending K this year. "Fiscal constraints", they explained (I wish they'd told me that back in February when I first made the request...) Oh, and there was that cute line about "while based on his K-Seals scores and other evaluations, we believe that DS would clearly benefit from entering Kindergarten, so would many other children." This one really irked me. Quite frankly, I'm not interested in other children. I'm interested in my boy, and what is best for him.

Now, they've assured me they will welcome him in 2009, and will work with me in seeing to it that DS will be offered the resources necessary to ensure that he is challenged to "meet or exceed his full potential".

*** Hmm, if we're talking about his full potential, you can't truly exceed it. In exceeding it, haven't you actually expanded the parameters of what 'Full Potential' is for a given individual, thusly setting a new definition of one's 'full potential'? ***

Sadly, the services they've offered my DD to date have been miniscule, and clearly not doing a whole lot for her, except to break up the day a bit each Thursday. And, I'm certainly not anticipating an excessive bump to the GT budget over the next couple of years.

Financially, we're at the mercy of the schools. Private school won't fit the budget, but we don't qualify for financial aid. Homeschooling is not an option for me, despite a degree in education. So, I'll keep doing what I've been doing: Offering my kids supplemental experiences to help them to excercise their minds. I'm not sure what other options I have at this point, anyway.

So, that's my story. I look forward to getting to know y'all, and learning from your experiences!

Welcome! This board is a great wealth of information. I am also from NH with 3 children. My oldest is now 5.5 and he was denied early entry to K as well. I sent you a PM.

"Exceed his potential????" that's akin to "to infinity and beyond!"

Sadly, I find myself in the same filling with water boat - one single HUGE school district (all 3 schools the same), a few expensive private schools requiring 2hrs round trip driving. I'm considering HSing my 8yr old DS but it will be tough with a 17mth old who barely naps anymore. I also have a 5yr old entering K in the fall - we'll see how that goes.

Welcome!

Welcome, Small Town!

Seems like states are making progress little by little, but sometimes not fast enough for our kids. My state now has 4 yr public program for limited # of kids. Colorado passed a bill to allow early entrance for high ability 4 yrs olds.

We did church-based preschool that was more advanced than public schools, and then skipped K with assessment results. Others would have done K privately at accredited school, then move to 1st in public school upon successful completion. Maybe NH won't do early entrance, but you can explore how to advance him. Good luck!

Welcome to Gifted Issues!

My friend was recently successful in having her daughter accepted to 1st grade after completion of early K at a private pre-school. In addition to the best interest of her daughter, I feel especially satisfied because I applied my btdt experience and coached her throughout the process.

They pursued and received 1st grade placement with their local religious school and used the placement as leverage with the public school which wanted her dd to repeat K due to age. However, in IL, after 1st grade, the school district has no say in grade placement. They basically told the public school principle that repeating K was not an option and their daughter would attend the public school for 2nd grade one way or another although their preference would be to start her in 1st with her peer group.

My friend feels bad to turn down the Catholic school�s gracious offer, but their local district has equally high nationally normed ITBS scores so it really just came down to a matter of cost.

Is it possible to start your ds early at private school and then transfer over safely based on NH state law?

Welcome! And I'm sorry for your troubles with the school. It's so hard, isn't it?

I am curious about why homeschooling isn't possible for you, though I don't want to pry. May I assume it's because you work? I only ask because many people rule out homeschooling without really knowing anything about it. I know I did!

Before I shut up about it (and I promise I will very quickly!), I'll just add that HSing does not have to be 8 hours of school-at-home. Many people dismiss it as an option because that's what they think it is. (If it were, most of the HSers I know wouldn't be HSing, including me!) Last year we spent about 3 hours a day on school with DS7, and that included clean-up time. With a bright kid who loves to learn, it's pretty easy to get through school stuff fast. Also remember that you can get childcare during the day if you need some time for work or alone time.

Okay, done now! I just like to make sure that people don't rule out a workable option because of a misunderstanding. But I promise not to be (too) annoying about it.

Many people here on the forum have their kids in public school and then afterschool to keep the kids challenged. It can be a bit hard on the child sometimes, I think, since they're in school all day, bored and learning next-to-nothing, and then they come home and Mom asks them to think. But for kids who are desperate to learn, it can make an intolerable situation much happier.

Switching gears to a totally different option...Is it possible to find a play-based, half-day preschool program for this coming year and then spend the other half of the day working with your child? Again, if you need the full-day pre-K for the child care so that you can work, then that is probably not a tenable solution. But if work isn't the problem, then this might make the coming year go better. Full-day academic pre-K programs can be just awful for HG+ kids. But a play-based pre-K that allows the child time to explore his/her interests can work very nicely.

FWIW, our HG+ kid did fine with play-based, half-day pre-K and K programs. We ran into trouble (BIG trouble!) when we hit the full-day, academic 1st grade year. Personally, I wouldn't recommend rushing into a highly academic program unless you know that your child will receive good accomodations in it. Often that sort of program spells misery for an HG+ child.

hth!

K-

Hi welcome!

These boards are fantastic, or rather the people who post ....

Really, you get lots of good advice here.

That said, I cannot advice you but I can wish you good luck.

Hi Small Town,
Welcome! So glad you found us!

Questions - is the K program full day or half day?
Would the school allow you to pay for K as if you were an 'out of district' family? Much cheaper than private school anyway!

Also - don't rule out private schools - many offer Financial Aid. Also - as the years rolled by, I've come to a new perspective on what the family can and can't afford. My understanding is that many schools use a 3rd party such as http://www.psas.org/onlineapp.aspx where you give them your numbers and they calculate how much school you 'should' (LOL!) be able to afford and then get this info back to the school so that the school can give out it's need-based money.

If there was one thing that I wish I had done differently, I wish I had instituted a "in our family each child does 10 minutes times the grade number of homework, and if the teacher doesn't provide it, then MOM or DAD will." I don't know if my son would have had the stamina to go to school and then come home and do 'momwork' but I think that if I had started expecting in earlier, then we would have had a chance.

Smiles,
Grinity

Welcome! Another option is to enroll him in the public K and then skip first grade or switch to first mid-year and then go to second grade.

I'm glad I'm not alone in the parentheses abuse, kcab. I'm afraid I write on the forum very much the way I speak, so I often feel like I'm flogging those parentheses for all they're worth!

Sorry to go OT there. Please carry on!