I, too, was in a similar spot about DD's preschool. She seemed to be happy but was just not herself. She was the baby of the class and the teachers treated her as such and she played the role. DD is a very imaginative child and can stay in character for hours on end so it was nothing for her to play the baby part. She pretended she didn't know: letters, colors, how to draw or write, how to speak past 3 word sentences, how to feed herself... the list goes on and on. She was a shell of herself and I was frustrated.
When I finally said something to the teacher she was in complete shock. She had seen no signs of this extraordinary child and I didn't doubt it. I certainly didn't see my DD when I dropped or picked her up from school.
When pondering what to do I looked at under achievement and if it was so important at this age ... it is just preschool isn't it?
The reason it's important is they are shaping their character during this time. The way they interact will start to be established during this age and with that the trying to fit in and under achieving. I knew at this point that we had to do something and we knew that the school (which is a great social program) just was not the right fit for my DD, so we moved her to a more academic setting. Long story short... she is back to my DD. She loves learning again and isn't trying to fit in and perhaps it is because she is being challenged since it is taught in Spanish. With this move we had two major hurdles come up. First one was potty training: My DD absolutely refused to potty train, probably keeping up with the baby image but when she started that school she was placed in the baby class until she was potty trained ... yep that changed her mind and she was potty trained in 2 days. And the other hurdle that shocked me was she came up to me and asked to read. She has been our sneaky reader since before she turned 2. Sight words and brand recognition ... things like that but if we made a big deal about any of it she would clam up. One time while trying to explain to her it is fine that she knows some words and all her letters while in the social program she quickly responded 'NO, kids my age are not suppose to know that.' I still wonder if she overheard the teachers talking about something that led her to that conclusion...now she is coming up to me and asking to read. Huge differences and validation for us on changing her school.
