We had an "assessment" teleconference today with Dr. Deborah Ruf (Educational Options) regarding our 15 month old son. Although she said he was the youngest she had gotten started with, she was glad we did it so soon.
Since we of course we couldn't do formal testing, we filled out a milestone review and offered information on my husband and myself as well.
Wow! What a great 2 hours we had with her on the phone. I learned a ton and now feel so much more ready for what lies ahead. She also encouraged us to continue to fill in the milestone sheet (it asks questions such as when did child start reading, etc.) and use it to develop a portfolio.
She also gave us great ideas for early education options (we are in a no entry Kindergarten state, plus other issues) and has agreed to review the schools we are considering for ds when he is around 3/4 and give a recommendation.
It was a breath of fresh air to speak with a professional that didn't think we were bragging or making things up and gave us encouragement and affirmation we were doing the right thing. She informed us that the way ds is tracking at this point, we will probably have to stick with a Montessori type school along with at least partial homeschooling/turtoring which we were prepared to do. She also said when the time is right we can look into programs like Davidson. She also had great ideas such as letting him participate in community sports (if interested) for "age based" interaction so that the focus during education can be on education. This set well with us as my son is very physical now and my husband (also gifted, but never officially tested) played football, baseball, weight lifted, and ran track - all while taking advanced math and science classes. So, it really helped him feel good about encouraging my son in sports (he is quite the football fan so far), but we also won't push him.
Trinty - thank you so much for the recommendation!!
