I was all set to have my daughter start at the public kindergarten here but something just didn't feel right, so I decided to look into a private option, primarily because while I think my daughter would academically be more than fine in K, she makes the cutoff by just a few days and socially she is very shy and has a lot of anxiety in large group settings.

At the ninth hour (i.e. last week), I applied to a private school near us and had her tested (requirement for application). She was accepted into the program, but for preK, not K because their cutoff is earlier. The preK is full-day, five days a week though.

I'm not sure what to do. I was leaning towards the private option because though it's pricey, it's a smaller class size and there is much more individualized instruction happening. This school has a reputation for being academically "rigorous" so their preK is more like a K, K is more like 1st, etc. I think their teaching is very hands-on, open-ended and investigative/exploratory, which would be good for my extremely inquisitive daughter.

However, I received her test scores a couple of days ago that seem to indicate that she is performing above grade level. Would it be a mistake to enroll her in preK rather than K? Or does it really matter that much as this age? Also, I'm not sure how I should interpret her test scores, how significant is a 99.9% at this young an age? I'm thinking it's too early to mean much at all.

What should I do? Am I just being an over-protective first time kindergarten parent? Any advice is appreciated.

I can't really give any advice. I would personally prefer my gifted child went to a play based pre school rather than an academic pre-K. If she is advanced it just adds another year of frustration to her life that she can probably do without. Or try the public school and transfer her later if you don't like it.

I thought there were more tests in the WPPSI though.

It's really hard to advise, because it depends crucially on the schools involved. I wouldn't pick the private school because it's rigorous, but high staff:student ratios do give them the possibility to be more flexible and individual. My son's with his age-peers in such a school and it's working well. But that works because this school really does work with the children as individuals - not all do. Equally, some public schools do brilliantly for their children. The right advice may be "visit again, and trust your gut".

I'll just bet they accepted her! I am struggling to find anything useful to say that's short enough to type on the phone, but basically I'd be more likely to consider grade1 than preK!

Good advice from Colin's mum! Also that I the full WPSSI, though possibly one o the verbal tests is one of the alternate tears not a standard core test, though I am not sure about that. The WPSSI3 has 3 each for VCI and PRI, two for PSI and no WMI section.

I agree with MumofThree. I would NOT consider holding her back. What type of programs does your local school have for highly gifted children?

I agree.

I also agree. Did the private school do the testing? if so, and they are aware of the results, i have to wonder what they're thinking suggesting pre K for your 99.9 dc.

They can get an extra year or two of tuition fees.

That's the elephant in the room I didn't want to point out in case my cynicism is undeserved, but yeah. And if it's an institution that puts money before a child's well-being than it's one I'd want to rule out. Class size is tempting, but if they don't have a plan to accommodate your dc very unusual abilities, then she may well end up frustrated and underachieving.

My girls were previously at a private school, there were SO many things they did far better than our current public school. And they were heavily skewed to gifted due to who could afford to send their kids. But the leadership so did not get levels of gifted and the difference between the 125-135 that they saw day in day out v. 140+ that they had maybe one per grade (still a lot for a school with 50 kids max per grade).

This totally screwed up preschool and school entry for my kid and we left. We left KNOWING she'd likely be better off there in another year, but she'd burned her bridges with them (or rather they with her). And sure enough the public school that were happy to skip her into the bottom of a composite class made for a much better year, but now that she's caught up (a year later), I do find myself praying to be able to afford to send her back to different but similar private school ASAP. Not an option at the moment and it kills me...

I'm not in the USA, our public and private systems are different and I'm a firm believer in the right school for the right child, I don't think private is always better. But in our town the system is such that there is a massive "brain drain" to private schools where you do get smaller classes, much more flexible instruction and they are all k-12 so more scope for extension via upper school teachers/resources. Also Special Ed is taught by specialist qualified teachers, not untrained assistants and there is SO much more support available, at both ends of the spectrum.

My point being that even being able to see that theoretically the school had much more for my DD, even having been ecstatically happy with it for my older 2e daughter, their failure to "get" my HG+ 4yr old and subsequent misshandling (holding her back in preschool because ahe was "too young" to start school with her friends, despite being more ready than many of them) left her curled in the fetal position sobbing and begging not to go to school.

Thank you all for your input. I came back to edit my initial response, which was that I was going to go the private route, but now I'm having second thoughts. I haven't turned in the contract yet because something just doesn't feel right. But the public option doesn't feel right either.

To update you all, the psychologist calculated the fsiq as 152. At first I thought that just meant she's pretty smart. But now, after a few days of poking around the internet, I'm realizing that maybe it's a bit more than just smart. That she could potentially be exceptionally gifted if not profoundly gifted, especially since she hit the ceilings of a number of the subtests. I'm new to all of this testing/identification and a little bewildered and overwhelmed by what it suggests. Also a little incredulous.

But..a lot of things I couldn't put together before about my daughter seem to make a lot more sense now. Like the social piece - she's often playing by herself on the yard when I go pick her up from preschool; she told me that she doesn't like playing with other kids, that she likes playing "one-person games" instead. Or that her favorite playmate (besides her little brother who she love/hates/bosses around) is her cousin who is two years older than her...and that she can't fall asleep because she can't stop thinking..or the fact that one minute I feel like I'm talking to a 10-year-old and then I'm totally flustered when the next minute she bursts into tears and throws a temper tantrum like, well, a 4-year old...is this sounding familiar to anyone?

Anyway, sorry I'm babbling. I don't know what the best route is for my daughter, but I guess I will figure it out as I go along. I'm going back to the private school tomorrow to talk with them about my concerns. I guess we'll go from there.