Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion End of year reflections - How did yours go?

Dd13 is finishing up 8th grade and had a wonderful year. The skip from 5th to 7th was the right choice and she has chosen a great group of friends. She won a Scholastic Writing Award Gold Key which did so much for her confidence with writing and she has a plan to write every day over the summer. After some disappointments with orchestra auditions she buckled down and was placed in the level she audtioned for at the (large, affluent, super-competitive) high school she will attend. And she was accepted to a foreign language academy at the high school which seems like it will be a really great fit for her. Academically I think she would have done fine with another skip, but she had great teachers during middle school and enjoyed herself and was challenged. I think she is set to have a very positive experience high school experience.

Dd7 first grade is a puzzle. She bombed the CogAt. I really do think she is some level of gifted but just does not show it. Considered doing private testing this spring, but she is still a little silly and I think the results will be more accurate next year so we are waiting. She seemed happy at school, and loves her teacher, but has frequent melt-downs at home--who knows if poor academic fit is a factor in that. Getting her to do homework is a nightmare.I need to make much more of an effort to seek out some fun math/science stuff for her, and that is not me so I need to try harder. Chess has been positive, she won a big trophy for winning the most points out all the rookie players, k-5. Hoping for a good teacher next year, and very curious to see what testing eventually shows when we do it.

Ultramarina, I WISH they would pay for it, but no, we do. It is fine though. I figure I would be paying for it if I were homeschooling as well.

The teachers at the school do tutoring in their off time. This particular teacher has taught college math as well so I figure we will be able to use him for a good while...:-) We do pay for his time but it is very reasonable.

They provided a computer for him to use and placed it in a room where they usually do admissions testing. Works out really well. For the reading sessions we actually sit in the conference room.

deacongirl- my 1st grade ds did not score well on CoGat this fall, yet with WISC IV scored hg with some 2e issues. I understand your desire to want to wait for private testing, but I fully believe based on our experience, CoGat is not the best measure. It will be interesting if behavior improves when summer vaca comes. That will lead to school being the issue. Good luck! Keep us posted about your younger dd. Congrats on older dd flourishing!

Yes, I have heard many anecdotes of gifted kids doing poorly on CogAt. Happy for your child that you got some answers! Thank you for sharing your experience.

This year has been a mixed bag for DS11. He skipped 6th and started 7th at the beginning of the year, with 8th math. His nonexistent executive functioning got him some grade problems, with all the missed assignments that he either forgot all about, turned in unfinished, or completed and then forgot to turn in. He managed to pull at least a C in all his classes at semester, due to last-minute cramming to catch up. At semester, I lobbied for, and got him, a switch of two classes to the e-school, and he started in Video Game Design and the second half of Algebra I. He has done very well in those, with nearly 100% in both, but his other classes continue to be plagued with the forgetfulness. He pulled everything back up at the quarter by turning in a bunch of missing stuff, and he's managing to hang on by the fingernails this last quarter.

I'm aiming for 5 e-school classes next year, with two regular classes, the ones at the end of the day. I want him to keep his feet in the door and be able to see people a little bit, but I think he will do much better with a large proportion of online classes.

DD7, in second grade, has had a rough year and it's hard to tell where she's at. She switched from the high reading group to the regular reading group at the last quarter (or semester? time flies) because her comprehension as tested was looking grim. I haven't heard how she's doing in the new group, really. And her grades all dropped at the last quarter, including a U in math facts. I don't know what her hangup is there. But she did just pass subtraction and start on multiplication this week, so I guess there's hope. She had some rough times with getting in trouble over stupid things (touched x's backpack, etc.), and I don't think the match with this teacher is the best. I hear this teacher is moving to third grade next year, so I really hope she doesn't end up in her class again!

The year has been much calmer and less stressful than last year. I doubt much could have been worse than that, in retrospect. So let's say it has been a very happy year for DS7, who has made many new friends after switching schools. My parents visited recently from out-of-state and noted how much calmer he seems. My mom (who is very familiar with what we went through) credits the new school environment. I suspect she is largely correct.

He's not getting as much differentiation/acceleration as we might like, although he is two years advanced in math (and doing great there, though it's probably also not quite enough stretch, it is enough that if he gets lazy and makes mistakes, he wants to and does correct them). He's had some special projects at school (wrote a play, which was performed by some of his classmates, researched several topics and made reports), which have been great, and has had fun.

We are meeting w/the teachers (current and next year's planned) and administrator soon to hear the plan for next year. I am anxious and feeling unprepared for this meeting, despite knowing so much more than I did at this time last year. (Perhaps because I know so much more!) This year's teacher has been so supportive of him, and the next one may not click. One never knows at the start...

We have talked briefly about the IAS with the head of school, who has only used it once but is open. Not so much because we are in a rush to do a full acceleration, but because we think it might be illuminating.

DS has read oodles of books and attended one G&T weekend session this year (and some online sessions), so despite the lack of acceleration, I think he's learned this year. He likes fact-based books (think: encyclopedias of various sorts) as well as fiction. We are blessed to have a fabulous local library.

I was enjoying the break from having other grownups talk to me but after church today, the leader of the children's section (the kids step out of it) approached me to discuss how to improve DS' behavior. Seems he has been bored and thus going back to negative leadership (leading the others astray with his wisecracks). Sigh. The very nice man said several times he knew DS was very intelligent, but could do better. (He handled the conversation beautifully.)

This year I pondered sub-letting a room from DS8's school and relocating my office to that room, the better to make myself available for the endless meetings. The meetings have helped, a bit, but DS8 remains disengaged and dysgraphic. Next year brings a small, specialized, class to work with the dysgraphia, which will provide a delightful opportunity for still more meetings to ensure sufficient challenge to address the disengagement. A new, exciting, hobby of curriculum research awaits.

DD6 has had a fabulous year with a teacher who differentiates as naturally as breathing (they exist!). If I weren't so worried about next year, I'd be enjoying this strange feeling of happiness. I have the IAS on my nightstand for this one.

We've been doing lots of traveling.

I wanted to wait until school was officially out to call it. DD5 had an amazing kindergarten year at her highly regarded, selective private school. They have provided her with so many avenues of challenge. She is so happy. I haven't really had a complaint, which is why I have only been lurking recently. She loved school. We did not have to do any enrichment or after schooling. Instead, we filled that time with playing with new school friends. Her friends from school are really great and like-minded. I mean, did we win the lottery? She still reads a lot (a lot even for this board), and we are really starting to see how educational all this free reading really is. She knows a lot about a lot. I think as she matures with age this is becoming more and more evident.

We began first grade with DS6 convincing everyone in his class, including his teacher, he was 7. No one even questioned it until we saw it on some artwork and made him admit that he just turned 6, not 7!

This was the year we finally did testing to see just how gifted DS6 was. It was eye opening in many ways. After the initial shock, we shared the 99.9% results with a completely unresponsive teacher. I had multiple frustrating conversations that were more about her trying to convince me that my son wasn't really that gifted. He didn't already know all the vocabulary words; he couldn't finish writing the 30 addition problems in a minute; he doesn't actually comprehend what he's reading beyond a 2nd grade level because he didn't understand the tester's questions; he has friends and really gifted kids don't do well socially; and reason after reason. I don't know why she was so combative about it. The principal was a complete flake and against skipping him up a grade, so we decided to change schools for next year.

We've dubbed this year the "Confidence Crushing" year since he was often called on in class to know things that hadn't been taught and ignored the rest of the time. She did support him skipping a grade and eventually let us determine his homework, but we decided to enroll him elsewhere. This year was a real let down academically at school. It is heart-wrenching to listen to a kid complain that school is "wasting his time" and that it "takes up too much of his life every day just being bored". We counted down the weeks to the end of the year because we couldn't really do anything else.

At home, we worked through 3rd grade curriculum for his homework. He read too many books - and all were above 2nd grade level. He became obsessed with the Titanic, Alcatraz, and Greek mythology. We supported his interests with movies, documentaries, books, and worked it into his homework too. He worked differently when he was engaged and supported. I hope his new school, with small class sizes and interest-based learning will help him blossom.