So, I'm in the position of choosing to point out to my daughter that her teacher is not correcting the test right, or allowing my daughter to think that she got spelling words correct when she didn't.
Yes! We have this issue, too. And sometimes DD's teacher is a little off base in the stuff he tells them. They are learning cursive this year and the teacher taught them that cursive letter "Z" was actually "Q." DD insisted that her teacher knew best; and I didn't want to undermine him, so I encouraged her to ask him about it. His answer . . . "You're right. I made a mistake and we'll fix it today." I thought that was great. Everybody makes mistakes, even adults. It's good to learn from them. But then he added, "That letter used to be cursive Q when I was a kid but they changed it to a Z." Umm. No. They didn't. I am fervently praying that DD's incredible second grade teacher will decide to move up the fourth for next year. I come from a family of teachers, so we are really trying to work within the system and respect their professionalism, but . . .
The CTY thing is a little intimidating for her. Her confidence has really been shaken this year. It was good for her to take the SCAT so we could see that she really is strong in her verbal skills, as we thought. She did not qualify in math, but it showed that her current math placement is good. We haven't done full testing, mostly due to cost and because I don't think it will make a difference at school. They use CogAT as a screener and she did not make the cut-off, which we were told was around the 99th percentile. I don't think she could handle a class during the school year but I thought it might be good to keep her engaged over the summer. But, as Alex'smom pointed out, not for all that $$ if I have to cajole her all summer.
I can't decide if it's best to push her or completely back off. We're not that far from DC. I'm thinking some summer day trips to the Smithsonian museums might be a natural way to get her engaged again. We talked tonight and she told me that learning used to make her feel like she had a campfire in her heart. Now she has a tiny flame that is about to go out. I told her that DH and I are trying to help her get her campfire back, that we believe in her and that we are trying to work with her teachers to help her. Now I just hope that we can have an open, productive conversation at the school.
Thank you for all your responses. It's nice to know I'm not completely nuts.
