Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How is your experience dealing with public school?

That is wonderful. My dd has had a very similar experience. She thrives with the extras that the school has provided along with her after school activites. I think that is why I have found my ds's situation so discouraging. I wanted him to have the same sort of experience, not realizing he may need a different solution.

I'm glad a number of people had good luck with public schools.

Unfortunately, we did not have such good luck with DS7 and public school. Given my personality and my HG+ DS7's, we chose to homeschool him instead of fight with a "We're a good school! How dare you suggest your child needs more?!" school system. It has been a good choice in his specific case, FWIW.

OTOH, DS4 will start public K next year. This is partly because he is a very different child than DS7 in terms of personality and learning needs, partly because all the K teachers are good and K is not a highly academic year, and partly because I want to request that the school test him so I don't have to pay for it.

1st grade is when we will decide what to do with DS4 for the long(ish) term. If public school will work well for him, that's where he'll go. If not, we'll homeschool or try private school.

DH and I are all about serving the individual child's needs to the best of our ability, whatever that may mean. No decision is final for us. I think that's true for many people on this forum.

YMMV...

This year, after much advocating, we are having a good second half of the year. My DD9 attends public school for ELA, music, spanish, and speech and language therapy. This gives her almost a half day in public school. She homeschools all math, science, history, art, gym. It seems to be working for her. Sadly it took four long years to get here and I feel bad for the time and opportunity that she lost while stuck in a bad situation. Those were my denial years I'm afraid. I didn't realize how much we were holding her back.

My DD6's homeschool exclusively.

My DD3 goes to an early childhood program through our school district and then learns at home. I say learns because we are just following his lead at this time.

We have the same approach, everything is subject to change, it depends on that particular childs needs at a given time.

I hear you. I definitely have some moments of kicking myself, too. I think it's normal to feel that way.

But forgive yourself. You did the best you could at the time, given what you knew. You learned, you adapted, and things are better now.

After all, bruises on your backside from all the kicking don't help your kids.

I agree with Kriston.

We all do the best we can on every given day. It's impossible to know if the choices you make today will do any good tomorrow.

Flexibility is king! For the school AND for the parents. Many great things CAN be done, but that doesn't always mean they are.

We have recently had great success for our kids through flexibility at school. It took a long time to get here, a whole lot of patience, a sprinkling of forgiving and a couple of fake smiles.

In the thick of things with DS6 school. They won't accept private testing (highly reknowned doctor ID son as gifted & needing academic accomodations) & insist we wait till the end of next year for their group ability testing. So basically my son will have been subjected to at least 3 years of remedial education - really, isn't that what it is?
Teacher is passive-aggressive & now is skipping spelling all together rather than differentiate - in her words she's sure he knows it all. . Sent home a print out from a science website that I had a hard time reading - because my son complained he was not learning science. The purpose - for my fluent reader to underline long vowel sounds??? What???
I'm planning to homeschool.

You crack me up, neato. Was it really only a couple?

That is exactly what it is "remedial education".
It it really aggravating.
Why should a child have to waste time learning what they learned years ago, what a waste!
Good luck if you do homeschool.

Wow, doesn't sound like a good experience at all. I am curious, is the principal saying that they won't accept private testing? Also, even if they won't accept the testing you are able to schedule a meeting with support staff (psychologist, social worker, principal, teacher, etc.) to discuss your child and what is or is not working in the classroom. That is your right, and they can't deny that. We call the Child Study Team meetings (CST's) every place/state is different. I would talk to them there about your concerns. I would also be persistent about scheduling one and asking when the date is instead of waiting for them to get back with you and schedule something. I don't know if the psychologist you used could help advocate for you (attend a meeting or suggest someone that could) to help support you...but that would be helpful. Also they seem completely uneducated about gifted children and may need some gentle help with learning. Or you could always try homeschooling, but I personally would be more apt to try it if the school still wasn't working with me by the end of the school year and if they hadn't made any changes yet.