Hi, I am a new member to this forum and have a question that I would like to hear some opinions about.
I have a very bright 8 year old daughter. I am not calling her "gifted" as she has never been tested. I am a nurse and my husband is in the Army. He and his sister were both in the gifted programs when they were younger.
Due to my husband's military career, we have moved a lot during my daughter's school career. She attended Kingergarten and First grade in Tennessee, at 2 different schools. She met her kindergarten reading goals 3 months in to school. In first grade, her teacher recognized her potential, and started giving her extra second grade work to work on, but half-way through the year, the teacher changed, and even after a phone call to her, pleading for her to continue this, nothing was ever done. The second teacher did state that she wanted to have her tested, but nothing came of it.
We moved to Kansas last year. I was told that we would be placed into one school and at the last minute, was told that due to class size, the superintendent's office recommended that she attend a smaller school that was the same distance away from us. I agreed, thinking that with a smaller class she would get more attention.
Her school is a very small rural school and she had 12 students in her class. Her teacher also expressed to me how far above the other students she was, and if she was to test any of the kids in her class it would definitly be her, but again nothing. I attended 2 parent teacher conferences, and asked if I could work on anything with her to challenge her, and was told that she was doing fine. I know she is getting bored, because when she finishes early they would just have her go back to her desk and read. She is already reading several grade levels above where she should be. She has started creating things for herself to do. Like science reports and researching animals and continents. She was also excelling at art, prior to moving to KS but her school does not have an art class. I asked the teacher to encourage her to draw or do other art projects and she said she did not think she could do this because then the other students would think it was ok for them.
I am now trying to talk with the superintendents office to get her moved to the other school, since we are on the line between 2 schools. They do not want to take on extra children because they think the class sizes are too big. I have another child about to start kindergarten. I think that my daughter would do better in a larger class, as she would have more competition. I also think her other class room will be shrinking to around 10 students this year due to others moving out of districts.
Help!!! I would like to keep her in 1 school as much as possible, as due to my husband's career, we may be moving more, but I also want what is best for her. Any opinions???
