ds5 starts K in the fall and I recently found out that the school has an "academic booster club" which is another name for a group of parents of gifted kids. The organization seems to be sponsored by the school. A gifted coordinator was at the meeting I attended which was at the school. They gave a presentation on underachievement in gifted kids/how to prevent it and next week it is on how to talk to teachers at conferences. The nicest part is that I met other parents of gifted kids. They also gave info about gifted programs around town which I didn't know existed.

I'm just wondering if groups like this are common. It seems like schools can be difficult to work with based on the stories I hear on this board. Did I luck out when we picked our school district (by where we chose to live)? I'm trying not to get my hopes up but it seems promising.

Sounds like it!

We have a school-wide group that is often attended by gifted coordinators. But nothing specific to one school.

We don't have such a club, or even a 'gifted coordinator' so yes, compared with my town, you are on the way! Although we tend to focus on the bad situations, there are many good situations out there. Or at least some good situations. If your school cares about 'preventing underachievement' you are miles ahead of my town's system.

Good Luck!
Grinity

We have a parent's group for our school district. Some nearby school districts have great ones and others are struggling to keep one going. Our group tries to bring in either GT teachers or community members to give parents information about their children. The gifted coordinator works with our group and is very supportive. I think that she is "on our side", but she does not have the ability to change as much policy as she would like. Some members have wanted us to go as a group and "beat up" on the school board, but we have decided to try to take a slower and gentler approach to change. I think they are paying more attention now, but only time will tell if we can improve things for our children. The economy and the underfunding of the school district will hopefully not work against us.

Hopefully they will be a good resource. I'm starting to freak out as ds5 is continuing to be obsessed with math. He asks me questions constantly. Today he said that he told his preschool teacher that a pentagon has 5 sides but she thought it had 7. I thought... oh, my! I hope he didn't make her feel bad. His teachers are so nice and caring - they have more patience than I would have with 16 preschoolers. He tells me he doesn't learn anything new there which is probably mostly true although I really didn't think he would learn a lot of new things - it was mostly for the social skills. He knew his letters at 21 months and has started reading basic books but they do the letter each week there. I would not call him highly gifted but the thought of him being in regular K next year makes me nervous, mostly due to his math ability. After I get a sense of what the parents group is all about, maybe I can get a better idea of what my options are.

He sounds a lot like DD5 - they'd make a great pair! She's totally math obsessed and asks questions constantly. She counts everything. Sometimes it's a relief to drop her off at school.

And yes, I am also nervous about K for next year. She recently said that counting to 100 is babyish, and that's all the math that K does for the first part of the year at our school. Our K is mostly about reading, which she is now picking up speed on as she discovers patterns in words.

Why do you think he isn't highly gifted? I do not know DD5 will test, but nothing will surprise me with her.

Hopefully the parent's group can help you learn more about your how your school's program works and help you learn about your son. It's also nice to meet some more parents.

I don't think he's highly gifted based on the book Losing our Minds - when I read about the 5 levels, he seemed to be very much in level 1 or 2 - not any higher. Maybe I'm also being cautious or modest on his behalf. I'd love to have him tested just to figure out what's going on but then what do I do with that info at this point? I am starting to realize that I need to supplement preschool with something because he is getting bored at home and at school. Is it helpful to be armed with test results entering K? Someone had mentioned using Learning Rx just for the test since it is much less expensive - I missed the update on how that turned out and if they were happy with the process. I've thought of doing that.

Lily - can you imagine our kids talking about math together? That would be so fun to watch.

It would be a blast - she has never had a peer that loved math.

I'm guessing that depends on the school. In our case, no, but I am allowed to ask the school to give her the CogAT soon after school starts. However, we are going to get her sister tested. The school won't care because they have already ID'd her as GT, but we need it to help us figure out what to do with her.