Except he's only average in the way a man with his head on fire and his feet in ice water is average.
Yes, this is my child, too. Love your wording..... perfect!
DD 9.5 has dysgraphia/stealth dyslexia/ADHD. She seems, for all the world, like an average child. Her last report card had 3 A's and the rest were B's. She struggles with her written work, but can do a good job with her accomodations in place. She loves the social parts of school, but describes the rest of it as tedious, boring and VERY BORING!! Our situation is a little different in that there are no gifted programs in our area. She can choose to do enrichment in any subject she cares about, but it is left up to her to ask for it. And now that she has realized that it is simply extra work that she has to complete at home, she no longer asks for it. She has had some really wonderful teachers who engage her verbally whenever possible. They are always taken aback and amazed at her verbal abilities, and then days will go by where they just look at the written work and they seem to forget what she is really capable of.
On our part, we spend a lot of time reminding the teacher what she is capable of and advocating for challenging and DIFFERENT work. We have successes here and there, but nothing consistent. For the most part, DD is a very happy child. Her anxiety and perfectionism keep her happy with less than challenging work. She only wants to go above and beyond when she can do a verbal presentation. I ask for these opportunites often, but have little success in getting them to replace other work. She is still required to do the regular classwork, too. We spend a lot of time and $$ allowing her to pursue activities outside of school. She takes private art classes and takes part in an all-girls science club at a local university. Whenever a topic excites her, we jump on it. Two weeks ago she was consumed by the Titanic anniversary and her aunt and grandfather whisked her off for an entire day at the Museum of the Atlantic, taking in lectures and viewing artifacts. When she was interested in anatomy and physiology we visited the science centre's "Grossology" exhibits.... and we took her out of school to do it! When she fell in love with the Anne of Green Gables book, we planned a family vacation to PEI and visited everything Anne-related. Now, she is Harry Potter-obsessed. I have promised her the entire collection of books and videos after she finishes an extra credit project that her teacher asked her to do.
I guess, in short, it is a struggle to keep her giftedness as part of her profile. I tirelessly advocate and search out activities and ideas to engage her. We are very lucky that she has a fantastic teacher who wants our participation. She asks for our ideas and is open to all of our suggestions. I wish that someone else was in charge of arranging her enrichment, but at least her school is letting me do it. And I do know her better than anyone else. I feel like her public relations agent a lot of the time. I am her tireless promoter and cheerleader. It is worth the effort. Her school is getting to know her and her abilities. My goal for grade 5 is to get them to replace work in some subjects. God knows, I will probably end up writing her curriculum for that to happen, LOL!
