I do love the thoughtful and helpful advice. This really is a wonderful forum.
You are all making me braver about going to see her. She honestly seems nice and approachable. I guess it is because the kindergarten teacher wasn't particularly helpful or encouraging. She was concerned when I told her that DD was unhappy and when she learned that she is not normally very quiet and solitary but she didn't seem to excited to give her more appropriate work. Once she sent her home with an easy book -like a couple sentences per page x 5-7 pages and a blank page and asked for a book report. That didn't go well. DD was not excited about writing a bunch of sentences and then the teacher didn't like her work and never tried anything else. She was never assessed for a reading level and they never let her read anything but very beginner books. They didn't even let them choose from the entire library when they went every week. They had books set up for them to choose from. They did a brief assessment using some standardized testing 2x during the year. She made a couple stupid mistakes on some ridiculously easy stuff like counting boxes. They didn't test anything harder. She started off the year asking for me to ask the teacher to let her do more interesting and harder work but after a while she didn't ask anymore and seemed more or less content doing art all day at school.
Sigh. I know my DD is not average. She is clearly well above average. I think honestly I was/am probably MG when I look at things now and my DH somewhere in the gifted realm but held back by ADHD and other things. I think DD is more gifted than me but then I second guess myself. I thought the kindergarten teacher would see her abilities and do something but she did not. I kind of think she thinks that I am pushing DD. She asked me once "when does DD get to be a child?" Seriously?! DD is still very much a child and loves dress up and art and plays with horses and barbies. She is not pushed and in fact I often feel guilty that I do not have time to expose her to more since I am stuck working all the time. My DH does not seem to want to push things either. I think I need to meet with her for my peace of mind though and perhaps at least do basic testing so I am more confident about pushing things.
