For those of you who have older science buffs, maybe you can give me some guidance. My ds5 is obsessed with science topics. He wants to know everything about the human body currently - first it was the digestive system and now he wants to know everything about the immune system and blood cells. He is in Kindergarten all day so we try to cram conversations in at night about all the things that really interest him because he has so many questions. He can't read yet to the point that he could actually read about these topics himself although he will study diagrams on anatomy. He also loves mechanical physics concepts. At school they will be studying trees, wood and paper for the science curriculum during the year (my heart sank when I read the curriculum - as if somehow anatomy and physics would somehow be listed there??).
Any suggestions on what I should do? I have a call into the gifted coordinator just to touch base with her so she will probably call back tomorrow. My plan was just to ask her how I can best help him and if there is anything the school can do. He has not been identified in any way however I had visited with her last spring with some concerns. In the back of mind, I keep thinking that I will pull him out of school in the afternoons and homeschool math and science which are the last subjects of the day. That is not my first choice however I was a math teacher so it's not that big of a stretch. I absolutely do not want to be pushy but I don't want to ignore his strengths and interests since they probably won't be nurtured at school in the standard curriculum. I will say that we are in an outstanding school system with a good gifted program from what I have gathered so far. I just question how much they would do in Kindergarten. Socially and behaviorally ds5 definitely belongs in Kindergarten and is not ready for a higher grade level.
And here is a sidenote about the math... they use Everyday Math curriculum and I ask him what he does in math and he gives me blank stares like he doesn't do anything math-related at school. I asked him if he does anything with numbers or maybe shapes. His response: "Math is when you do stuff but not with numbers" Yikes! What have they undone in my child's brain in the past month??
