Thanks for your thoughts Grinity! Appreciated more than you would guess.
We have been partially homeschooling this year in practice as school was a half-day program. We are keen to keep her in the French Immersion program as we think that learning a second language is useful and will open doors for her later (and gives her something to learn). I can't provide language instruction myself. She is also very social and enjoys recess etc. If it wasn't for recess and French, I would probably homeschool her and be done with it. As it is, we take days off school sometimes and go and do things like wander around the natural history museum.
This year we have done a lot of things at home before school e.g. I read aloud and we end up having long conversations about what we read. She is interested in metaphors at the moment. We have been reading Harry Potter, which provokes discussions (initiated by her) about whether evil is relative or absolute, what dementors represent and where the first one came from, whether transfiguration of an object into another changes its nature etc. etc. Swiss Family Robinson provokes interruptions with suggestions of how they could set up pulleys etc. to build the tree house (and then the book describes exactly what she suggest and she is thrilled.) All of this comes from her, and is fine as long as I have been allowed to drink my morning coffee first.
I also used the mornings to schedule gymnastics, art, go skating and swimming etc. She propagated seeds, kept a weather diary, learned to play the recorder, worked on printing and she likes doing math 2nd+ grade workbooks. Partial homeschooling worked out fine this year, and (as far as I was concerned) being bored at school for a couple of hours a day didn't seem like the end of the world. Next year is a full day program, and being miserable most of the day everyday does seem like a problem... She will lose her place unless she is there full-time though...
Our school board absolutely opposes grade-skips. E. can go in a 1/2 grade split next year, but that is the only modification they will entertain. (We don't know what the teacher will be like as she is a substitute teacher.) The school won't identify her as gifted, despite this report. There is a congregated program (enrichment not acceleration) in the board, but it doesn't start until grade 4 so there is no such thing as gifted students until then. I am beating my head against a brick wall with the school until grade 3 when they will identify her, but still not modify for her - it is so frustrating. I want to have a constructive relationship with them but it is hard to have constructive suggestions when I am out of ideas... Hence my posting....
The psychologist and I don't think she has attention problems. She does seem to have some sort of motor problem, but I am not sure if it is lack of maturation (of her motor skills?) or an LD. I am not sure whether time will improve PSI and WM, or whether I should be doing something about it. I feel really overwhelmed... Maybe I just need to be talked off of the mountain, and back onto the mole-hill :-)
Thanks for 'listening'. If anyone recognises the description of her "spikyness" (love that description) I would appreciate any pointers.
Best wishes
Nadro
