Hello to everyone!

I'm a mom of three kids, ages 6, 3, and 20months. My 6-year-old son was identified as "profoundly gifted" this past school year. We have little experience or knowledge of giftedness. He's our first child, so we never noticed anything unusual about his behavior. He's always been energetic, outgoing, engaging, and all-around a fantastic kid. He walked early, talked early, played with puzzles, read at the age of 3, but we just figured he was doing things early. I guess we never really gave it much thought. He was doing everything early, he got along with all ages of children and adults, so we didn't have anything to worry about.

Then, he started preschool. He was already reading, it didn't take him long to learn how to write, and his teachers just didn't know what to do about him talking incessantly, running around like crazy, etc. (Did I mention he's energetic?) His preschool teachers recommended that he forego kindergarten and go straight into first grade, which we did. We informed his teacher that he never attended kindergarten, and to please let us know if he should fall back into that class of children. At our first parent's meeting in October, not only did she say first grade was fine for him, he'd mastered the curriculum. She started him on the second grade curriculum. By the end of the school year, she recommended that he skip second grade and move onto third grade in the fall. She didn't see any other way of meeting his needs academically.

So, he's going to third grade in September, upon the recommendation of his teacher, principal and district psychologist. We've looked into CTY (which his principal recommended to us), he's attending SIG starting tomorrow, and we're trying to get things together for him to join DYS. He just lost his first tooth, for goodness' sake!

Any advice, information, knowledge, a good kick in the pants...they'd all be very appreciated.

Thanks to anyone/everyone! I love reading all the posts on this forum. It's helpful to know there are others out there dealing with what appears to be the daunting task of meeting a profoundly gifted child's needs.

(If I've done something wrong I apologize. I've never posted on a forum like this before. I have no idea what I'm doing!)

Welcome! I'm pretty new myself. I really like this forum. Parenting atypical kids can be a challenge, so it's nice to have a place where you feel understood

Welcome! Wow, you have been fortunate to have such great support from your DS's school. I'm glad that you have found a place willing to try to meet his needs.

Welcome KatieMama! Just time for a quick note...I hope that you find a lot of good advice/ideas on this forum. It's been a wonderful place for me. I agree with knute that you are sooooo lucky to have such a supportive school environment! It is rare that a school recognizes such giftedness, and even rarer that they know what to do when they see it.

We would have been in your shoes (with a twice-skipped kid) if we had stayed in our local schools, but we transfered to an accelerated program for HG kids mid-year 2nd, after DS skipped 1st, so we avoided a second skip. The one thing we noticed about the local school was that the pace of curriculum was still too slow. You may have noticed that as well, or maybe you are lucky with your accommodating school. Hopefully your DS will be placed with others learning near his level, and that will make things better.

Good luck!

Thanks for the welcome, guys!

It seems like we've been fortunate with our son's school, according to everything we've read and what you've told me. He had an amazing teacher last year. I can't sing her praises enough! She works in general ed now because of budget cuts, but she was a special ed teacher for 18 years in the district. He's in a small, mountain school- kindergarten to 6th, about 50 students total. The classes are multi-grade, so he was able to be in a room with his same-age peers even though he did more difficult academics. Plus, all the kids (K-6) mingle with each other on the playground at recess, and for "specials" like PE. His principal is the gifted head for the district, although there's no program at his school because of the budget. They were the ones that recommended his second grade skip, but his teacher basically informed us that the district eventually wouldn't be able to meet his needs. She expects he'll be ready for Fourth grade material by the holidays and that he'll max out sometime next year and need something other than his local public school. So, we're exploring other avenues.

It seems like a move will eventually be in order. There are no options for special schools where we live. I've researched online programs and homeschooling, but the problem is my kid LOVES going to school. He's really outgoing and social. He loves to be in class, and be with other kids. I've got more research to do on the subject. If anyone has advice or information I'd love it!

I'm so glad that I've found this forum. What a relief to talk to people who understand! We can't even talk to our families about it. It's weird...they all just roll their eyes like we're out of our minds. So, we just don't talk to anyone about it anymore. *sigh*

We've been quite fortunate, too.

Don't discount your own open-mindedness, though-- part of our seeming good fortune there was to recognize good sources of insider information and make use of them.

For example, the daycare teachers that pointed out that DD probably wasn't going to be a "good fit" in a typical preschool...

the long-time kindy teacher that took a two minute look at my DD and informed me in a quickly whispered aside that while she'd deny saying it, we should NOT put our then newly 5yo DD into any district kindy classroom because it would have NOTHING to offer her, and the environment might well prove damaging.

Friends that pointed me at Davidson because of family in Reno and some familiarity with the mission...

and a push from extended family (educators) to conduct standardized achievement testing out of level even though we were homeschooling.

Welcome, by the way-- my DD also 'entered' her public (virtual charter) school as a third grader when she was six. I, too, second the suggestion to keep an eye on the pacing of things, because that was definitely a problem. We've since had to do additional tweaking and another skip, and it's still not ideal. Funny how behavioral problems vanish when a PG child without other challenges is placed appropriately!

The more I read the stories of school placement angst, the more fortunate I feel that we have a wonderful French Immersion school. I've found that language immersion levels the playing field a bit, and many of the kids enrolled are clever or gifted. There's a broad range of abilities and talents as well as a diverse culture of strong personalities My two kids love this school. I think they would be very out of place and isolated in a typical public school.

Hi KatieMama! What an interesting school you describe-- I bet your son is enjoying the age-mixing on the playground. My DD3 is also very social and loves playing with the older kids in the yard at her preschool.

CCN-- I would love to hear more about your children's experiences in a bilingual school! My DD is bilingual (Spanish/English) and will be moving to a bilingual (Spanish/English) preschool/elementary school in the fall. It's been one of my pet theories that having to do everything in two languages keeps her mentally busier (and therefore happier)! I have nothing to back this up, just a theory-- but she does enjoy her two languages a lot.

CCN, it's so interesting that you talk about immersion programs. My son's teacher at school has mentioned she thinks he would benefit from a chinese immersion program. (He has an interest in the chinese culture and language.) She said that she feels like it would somewhat "level the playing field" for him if he has to work in a foreign language. It's definitely something we'll look into if we move. There isn't anything like it where we live, but it's a very interesting idea.

Best of luck to your kids and their success in school!

Just a quick note on language immersion. I recommend doing a google search with davidson gifted issues and immersion programs. There has been a lot of talk about this on the site. What I recall is that while it works well for some, for others it only seems to give enough of a challenge in the early years. Unless there is additional acceleration, you're still learning concepts at the same pace as everyone else. Once you've cracked the code of the language, pacing may be too slow all around. Again, works great for some.

That was one of the reasons we turned down the Chinese immersion last year for ds.

st pauli girl: I've definitely thought about that problem. It would be interesting to see some research done on that. I'll have to go look that up and find out what's already been done.

Thanks for the input!

I just love that I found this forum! :-)

I'm glad you found us KatieMama. It's so nice to be able to talk about things without having people look at you like you have antennae or something. It does get better when everyone really gets to know your kid, though.

I think that your one-room school house type set-up is probably the most ideal setting for a PG kid when you don't have full-time HG/PG school options available. Sounds like you really lucked out there. Some of the things you do miss out on are faster paced materials and intellectual peers closer to your kid's age. But it sounds like your son is quite social and doesn't have difficulties getting along with kids of all ages.

I can definitely see that happening with some kids... you're absolutely right.

So far my two seem ok, partly because their strengths are in math. DD9 is in the gifted math program: funding is limited and they only take about 3-4 from each school from the intermediate grades, and at the moment there's no primary program (they ran a pilot when DD was in grade 3 and she was in that, but it was cut from the budget).

DS8, meanwhile, has ADHD combined type and a language processing disorder (expressive and receptive), and is constantly challenged by the French - and is very happy.

DD9 was an early reader and has no language challenges so she sometimes gets bored... but grade 4 was good because I was able to have her placed in the 4/5 split: so much of what she did was grade 5 work, and in French. She's also a late November birthday and was the second youngest in the class.

So... so far so good.

However... the numbers suggest that the 5's won't be split next year, and the small group of 4's who were in the 4/5 split with my daughter will likely be reunited with the lion's share of the other 4's, who were split with 3's. THIS could be interesting.

So we're happy right now, but we'll see what the future will bring. DS8 will likely continue to be challenged because of the language processing disorder, and DD9 will be doing the on-line math enrichment which should be fun. Her other subjects may not be as engaging, but... the good news is that there's a chance that she could have the same teacher (who she loves :-), who is comfortable challenging the kids, and who has previously taught higher grades and is more likely to push kids than placate them.

Fingers crossed

Welcome to the forum, Katiemama. You'll find an amazing amount of support here from a quite diverse set of members. The help, insight, and commiseration go a long way.

My husband is profoundly gifted, and I have one child who is high gifted in all exceptionalities, one child who is gifted with ADHD and very mild dysgraphia and a youngest child who has severe dysgraphia, dyslexia and possibly an auditory processing disorder who has yet to test gifted because of the LD's but who is obviously gifted. Without the folks here, I don't think I could have made it through the last year without having melt down.

Congrats on finding a good fit thus far and welcome!

Welcome Katiemama! So glad you found us! This is a wonderful forum with lots of experienced people. I am new to this but learning..:-)

Sounds like your DS is going to an amazing school! My DS4.5 PG is entering Kindergarten early this fall but I have a feeling a first grade skip might be in the future.

I am curious to see how your DS does skipping to 3rd. So please keep us updated!

Thank you so much to everyone! I'll definitely keep you all posted as to how he's doing.

Right now, he's attending SIG and he loves his classes. School starts at the end of August and he'll be taking his math course online with CTY. We're hoping all of this will help with his "behavior problems" in school. (He likes to help the other kids with their work, talk to friends, and work on his own thing, which gets him into trouble. Not big trouble, but trouble nonetheless.) Hopefully, third grade will keep him busy enough to alleviate some of his "trouble".

We homeschool with Abeka video. A great program, but dd finishes by noon and I feel I need more material and ideas for the afternoon. I hope to find online or video classes that will keep daughter 11, 7th grade challenged. She loves a fast pace.


Cindy

Thanks! I think that's a great point, St. Pauli Girl. We are hopeful about this school because it is also an IB school and theoretically committed to differentiated education. It has a units of inquiry model which kids can then explore in more depth if they are so inclined. But, hey, I know very little about this. Mostly we're following DD3's obsession with languages-- a distinct passion.

Do you know much about how the IB model has worked with gifted kids?

Anyone out there with a GT kid in IB? I only know from my own investigation way back when I was in high school. The IB program seemed like a ton of extra work, and I chose to do post-secondary enrollment instead (going to the local university and getting dual credits for high school and college). But that was a very long time ago. Hopefully someone will chime in.

ETA: It might be a good idea to start a new thread with questions about IB...

I know someone (though not well) who has a child enrolled in an IB program in another state. They've been quite happy with the experience, from what I they've said to me.

This is a child who is HG and high-achieving.

I don't think that it would be a great fit for my DD, who tends toward perfectionism and task-avoidance underachievement. It's much more cohesive as a total program when compared with the a la carte offerings via dual enrollment or AP, however, which appeals to me personally.

Thanks for the feedback! HowlerKarma-- yes, probably depends on the particular kid whether it's a good fit or not. No idea how it will work for my DD3-- she's too young to tell. I'm just curious about other people's experiences. St. Pauli Girl--I just started a new post on this, per your suggestion.

I've long daydreamed about a one-room schoolhouse set-up for both my kids, especially my younger, who doesn't seem to need same-age peers at his level/intensity the way DD does. He's a happy-go- lucky little dude, but his academic needs are up there. He could easily sit on second-grade reading and science classes (well...no writing), a first-grade math class, and K for writing right now, then go off to play with other four-year-olds at recess.