Hi,
Some of you know my DD's history, but I will briefly go over it here. I apologize if I have already asked for this input before. I am just greedy for more input :-)
My DD is 3 soon to be 4 and is going to a play based preschool. Overall she is happy there because she is very extroverted, but she has had incidents like not wanting to sing the ABC song in class because she says, "that's for babies to learn" and being told to go sit in a time out. Now I can understand their being upset with her, but I think she really is insulted at times by being asked, "what shape is this" in a very slow voice as a teacher points to a circle during play time when she could tell you what a trapezoid was at one and a half. Her baby sister could tell you letter sounds and calls her pizza a trapezoid when she took a bite before two, so she must think it odd to be doing these things with kids a great deal taller than she is. She goes by their kindergarten class, points and names all the planets and wishes she was doing something interesting, but has another year of preschool after this one, and even then, the kindergarteners are sitting through letter sounds and have painful repetition of things.
She knew letter sounds by one and a half could read simple words at two and started spelling at two, and at three can read words like "impressive," "constellation" etc. Her language is astounding, her memory frightening, her imagination and creativity is endless , her drawings very advanced, sculpture amazing, etc. Oh she can add and subtract in her head, skip count, etc. Her puzzle ability was always very advanced, but she is less interested in puzzles. She has a high natural math ability, like I did, but is more excited about language and imagination.
Here are my concerns. Just after she turned 3, we had her see a psychologist because I was worried she had ADHD-she is highly intense, emotional, defiant, and could not stop talking or singing all day--
and they gave her an IQ test(I did not request it). I thought she was too young and she probably was. She did fine, but she gave answers that were intentionally wrong at times or they didn't catch where she was going with her answers etc. She "only" scored around 130 though her verbal composite was much much higher. My sense is she will score higher if tested later, but if she doesn't, can I assume she will be "fine" just going along with her peers. In a way being a 130 would make things easier: is a 130 kid as far ahead as mine is without being pushed? I read to her a ton,and speak ot her like she is an intelligent human being, but don't push her--she would never let me anyway. She does what she wants to do. She is doing first grade level things at three. This is embarassing, but she corrects me and there are times I will ask her something because I forgot, and she knows the anwers and I have a masters from Harvard, have a gifted level IQ, and my sense is her IQ is higher than mine and that would certainly make it over 130, but I could be wrong,and that is fine. As I said, 130 is a rather nice place to be since they can often stay with their peers and not be too bored if given something (I am hoping and assuming).
Now she has another year of preschool and then kindergarten ahead of her before she gets to the level she could do now. What to do. What to do. Would you test her again to see if her IQ is higher--if it were, I might consider early entrance. Almost every day strangers comment on something she says, that to me, is commonplace and taken for granted. We live in an upper middle class (we are at the poorer end of the community)educated community that values education, and she still seems unusual. They often seem quite shocked by what comes out of her mouth. Her little sister is also very bright so I really lose perspective on what is normal. I am truly not bragging, just trying to get a sense of whether it is best to stay on the beaten path or do something else.
She is short, has a baby face,and a May birthday so even if she goes on time, she will be young. She will sit attentively for books, but can get restless if she has to sit in a circle doing something really boring (to her). I hope I am making the right choice to keep her at the preschool she goes to this year for four year old preschool.
