Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy IPP advice?

Looking for advice about things to ask, ask for or advocate for when we meet with DD's school next week about her IPP. She just turned 8 and will be starting grade 3 on Thursday. We found out that she is PG in the spring and, honestly, not a lot was done about it at the time. It was near the end of the school year and her teacher was not very motivated to make any accomodations. We didn't make a stink about it at the time, either, as we were in research mode and had no clue what would work for her.

The tentative plan at the end of the school year was to put her in a grade 3/4 split if there was one. I just found out yesterday that there will only be a 2/3 split and one grade 3 class, so there goes that idea. After several visits with the psych., she has some ideas to offer (and will be at the appointment with us). I still feel like I am no further ahead with understand DD's needs at this point and I really dislike feeling this way heading into a meeting where I have to advocate on her behalf. She is dreading school already and has made up her mind that it is "going to suck as much as last year." I really want this year to be better. The one thing I DO know is that there has to be different work as opposed to just more work. Getting her to do anything that she finds even remotely boring is really difficult.

If anyone can offer advice or resources, I would appreciate it. We live in Canada and in our province there are no gifted schools, gifted programs or charter schools. There are no gifted children associations, either. We really feel on our own.

DS9 Echoes your DD's sentiments exactly and I yours. We are also in a place where there is no gifted schools/mandates/options. I did arrange to meet with DS's teachers over the summer. Since he is entering 5th grade one teacher covers language arts/social studies and the other does math/science. Only time will tell if my meeting had any impact. Things said that were not encouraging were "Many fifth graders find fifth grade much harder than fourth." and when I attempted to illustrate his abilities by explaining that he was reading and comprehending Harry Potter in K the LA teacher asked if I had spent a lot of time teaching him to read and looking quite disbelieving when I said that I was surprised to learn he even knew how!
Since he is already grade skipped one grade I am looking for some subject acceleration. Like your DD getting him to do something he finds boring is like getting him to volunteer for a root canal.
What have you done to advocate for your DD so far in anticipation of the upcoming school year? Have you included her input on what types of accommodations she would like to see?