Hello, just wanted to start by introducing myself and saying "hi" to all. My name is Melissa and I am a SAHM to two awesome kiddos, a 4 year old daughter and my first-born son who is just beginning his journey, as we all are actually. He is 5 and in Kindergarten. My husband and I always knew/felt he was "special", but sometimes as a parent you wonder if your just wanting to see your child that way. Fortunately, our city has mandatory G/T testing in place (NNAT2 & NWEA)to identify these children early. He passed his series of tests with one of the highest scores in his district. The district has invited him to attend the special G/T public school next year. The school appears to be very good and offers a free-form IB curriculum.
We are very excited about the changes and the new school next year, especially since he has NOT flourished in his class. As is often typical, he has minor behavior issues due to his lack of challenging work. An even bigger challenge has been convincing his teacher of his advanced ability to learn. From the beginning, when I would approach her with questions/concerns about him maybe needing more, she would brush me off and say comments like "we need to focus more on his maturity level. Right now he is so far behind, maturity wise, then the other kids that that needs to be our main focus". She has described him as "spacing out" in class, which just confirms to me more his obvious boredom. My lack of ability to communicate effectively with his teacher has led me to all but give-up on Kindergarten being anything worthwhile for him. But, all this was BEFORE his test scores came in. Now, his teacher can't deny (though she is reluctant to admit) his potential for advanced learning. She hasn't made too much effort to hide her surprise at this results. So, luckly he will get a fresh new start in 1st grade at a school that is specifically for G/T students. It will be a big and exciting change for all of us! My husband and I are so new to all of this and have so much to learn. We have a long way to go! Thanks for reading and happy to "meet" you all!
