Hello -
You all were so helpful to me and my husband as we were trying to find a good educational fit for our kids. A brief recap - we have a 1 1/2 year old daughter and a 3 year old son. The three-year-old was acting out in a local ("highly acclaimed") preschool where we had good reason to suspect that his needs weren't being met. We switched him to a local Montessori and it's been
happy days ever since. He hasn't acted out (pushing or hitting other kids) once since the change. We also enrolled our 1 1/2 year old in the pre-primary program.
We observed the classrooms for the first time this morning. Both children are clearly happy and calm at the school, it's really great. The directress said that our son is doing 6 year old works and she is already needing to find additional more challenging works for him as well. Our daughter is surprising everyone that she is already knows her phonics, counts to 50+ (backwards too), and is doing some reading.
My husband and I have been doing much reading and learning about gifted education since I first posted here. We've come to understand/suspect that our children are highly and perhaps profoundly gifted. We've known that the local public schools would not be accommodating (overcrowded, not much gifted program, no skipping allowed). So we've been shopping around for a nice public school system, and also just a better community in general.
We think we found the right community - one which will meet a lot of our needs better as a family. We've made an offer on a house, and are waiting to hear a response. The schools there are considered to be in the top 100 districts in the midwest, and excellent for the vast majority of children. Will they work for our kids? That I don't know. But the community itself offers a much better environment for all four of us.
The location is also a 30 minute drive to a private gifted-only school, however I am not convinced that arrangement would be any better that the public schools in the new community. There is a university-sponsored weekend enrichment program for gifted kids (starting in pre-k!) within easy driving distance from this new community, so we will try to take advantage of those opportunities.
In all of our reading and observation, we've learned that when kids are at a certain level of giftedness, there are really NO schools that can fully accommodate them. At least, not anywhere I've found or have the means to send them to. So we figured that a generally great school district with lots of enrichment options would be a good move. We just pray we are right. We're making the best decision we can with the info we have. Plus, this new community will just be better for all of us in general. It'd be a good move even if schools weren't in the equation at all.
I know schooling will only get more difficult and more complicated as the kids get older. I'm very nervous about being able to meet their needs. My son, especially. He's a wonderful well behaved child when he's engaged in something that challenges him. When he's bored, he get's pretty goofy.
He may be very advanced intellectually, but emotionally he is very much a three-year-old.
I'm not sure how much longer they'll be able to keep him busy at the Montessori - but he has a fantastic teacher that is really working with his unique circumstances. She told us that she brought in some 7 and 8 year old level math works for him and she lets him read more advanced books as well. He's so happy there! (Thank GOODNESS!!!)
Our 1 1/2 year old told us this morning "I don't want to go to Montesorri, it's for babies!" D'oh!! She's in a classroom of 18 month to 3 year olds. She's one of the youngest, but does *seem* a lot older than the others. She's generally very thrilled to be there, though, so hopefully that statement of protest this morning was just a fleeting emotion. Her teacher is also working hard to keep her busy and challenged.
Whew! Long post! Anyway, I just wanted to post an update since it was thanks to friendly advice here that we even tried the Montessori. I can see how the experience at a Montessori would very much depend on the individual teachers... and we are very fortunate have a excellent ones that are up to the task of keeping the kids challenged.
