I am finally writing instead of lurking, as I have been for the past year or so. My ds9 is the obvious gifted chid and my dd7 is the come out of the woods and showing a completely different type of gifted. My ds presented gifted from almost the instant he was born- you may laugh but the first time he was put on my chest he lifted his headvup( by himself) and stared me in the eye as if to say- Are you ready for me? Are you sure about that? Was early for every physical milestone and was speaking in full sentences by 18 months- which started some weird peer moments with other Mom's which I am sure you can relate to. By 4 he was discussing his hypothesis about things in the car and bypassed the question why for how way to quickly....school----he is a behavior challenge and does not always preform to his capability. We had some health issues when my ds was diagnosed with PANDAS syndrome in march 2009. He had varying symptoms from PANDAS that completely disrupted- really halted our lives with one of them being literally losing a whole year of math knowledge( yes he literally did not know them anymore). Since he was the youngest in his grade we repeated him in 2nd grade to let his brain recover and we did not know the severity of the illness and how long it was going to take to heal. We also switched schools- I could have an entire post on the HORRIBLE principal at the old school. The new school had another child with PANDAS and handled it beautifully. We were welcomed with open arms. Last year he healed and reagained his knowledge that he had lost(very traumatic) and kept going. He had not tested for the gifted program previously because we were in the middle of hell- even though I knew he would eventually belong there. I decided not to push it but the teachers asked for him to be tested- he passed and is now in the gifted program. Socially he is. In the right grade- so many people in Texas red shirt that he was so young compared to his peers previosuly that he does better with friends in this grade- EXCEPT now his brain is back and turbo charged. He tests way way way above grade level on just about everything on his MAP tests. He has an 11th grade reading level( and clocks about 700-1000 minutes a week- we have to keep track for school) , tests in the 87% for 10th graders for scientific concepts, math- did not test to his true level( I have him in an extracurricular math class when he is doing advanced work) but still is at 99% for his grade. I am so cautious because when I tell you we went through HE'LL- it was bad. He is not starting to be a behavior issue in school and it is clear that the teacher- evenvthough gifted certified does not knownhow to go outside her specific gifted box on how to challenge him. At the last conference she told me That the advanced kids will be starting a novel study- on a book he read 2 1/2 years ago. Not sure how that is going to work. I don't regret my decision to hold back because he was so sick and we did not know what his brain was going to be like when he recovered. I am also pretty clear that even 4th grade would not cover most of his needs. I do have to say he is AWFUL at spelling and finds it useless- so he is at a 3rd grade level there. Reading, math , science, history- I could see him doing what was put in front of him. Homeschooling is not an option. So I have a turbo charged brain back again and trying to figure out how to keep him challenged- even though he is LAZY when it come to doing the work. He moves so fast that he makes carelss mistakes and needs to learn to respect everyone- especially teachers- he quickly identifies if someone is not as smart as him and well.... Loses respect- even if they are more educated. He is my loophole King and uses technically, specifically and precisely to make his points why his way is correct- religiously. We call him our little lawyer. I know You will relate( hopefully not to the being sick part) but now that I am not holding my breathe about his health- see his brain functioning the way it used to I am trying to figure out what is next!
I apologize for typos- I am on my iPad and editing is challenging. Above it says he is Not starting to be a behavior prob- he IS and I can't figure how to get the box to move up to edited it
Glad to be "out" and no longer a lurker, your posts have been a great help- especially book suggestions- he blows though so many that I am very challenged with finding appropriate books at his level and I like to read for myself too- not just screening for him!!
I look forward to getting to know everyone!
Brandy[
