Yeah I think she could learn a lot in a short amount of time at home...but when I was looking up the requirements for home school where I live I am supposed to give her 4 hours of instruction a day, 180 days a year. I asked if I could give her less per day and stretch out how many days a year I teach her and I was told that I basically have to follow what they accept as a full day at public school which is 4 hours of instruction and 2 hours for all the breaks and lunch and recess and what not. I don't have to account for the 2 hours of course...but you get my drift probably.
She can read as far as knowing a lot of words from memory, sounding them out and using clues to figure out the ones she doesn't know. But she doesn't like to push herself in the area right now so she is still in beginner books because she likes the satisfaction of not having to "try" to read. Of course today she sat down with a 101 fever still and read 3 books from start to finish. Dr. Seuss. She makes me a liar on a daily basis:) I think this may be one area where she may respond to flash cards because she doesn't want to solve it...she wants to memorize it. I thought I would try some phonics flashcards and flashcards with larger words. But she is also following her typical pattern she has had since she turned 1. She started with art then started scribbling again and went to numbers then acted like she didn't know them. Then she went to letters and sounds...and even spoke some Spanish. Then she "forgot" that and went back to art. Now she is on a math kick again...science and dance have been her only constant areas of interest. She seems to use all the other subjects to advance in those areas. I have a feeling she is about to move back into language soon because I gave her a second grade math workbook today just to see what she may or may not know. She acted like she couldn't do a lot of it. So I gave her the pen and talked on the phone for about half an hour. When I got off the phone I looked at what she had done and she had finished 4 pages of stuff she "couldn't do" and it was all right. First grade math isn't an option. I also found that out tonight. I gave her that workbook first and she would finish a page in seconds or look at a page and say "boring" or "nerdy" and turn to another one. She loves patterns though so I showed her how 10 x's a # or 5 x's a # etc. creates patterns. So then we moved back to the clock. She can tell time but she counts each minute mark to do so. I gave her some patterns and ideas about how to tell time faster by using the multiplication and the addition or subtraction so she found that interesting. So yes in a matter of 2 or 3 hours she went through several pages of math, we talked about space, she read some books, we went over time, and talked about why she has a fever now that she has the flu...so even with the flu she was a sponge. I felt bad teaching her while she is so sick...but she was trying to get up and add to her "collection" so I had to find some way to keep her occupied and settled at the same time:)
I would go back to letting her go to school then come home and that is where she actually did most of her learning...but first off I feel sort of like she should be benefiting from school as much as everyone else. I also feel like she won't take school as seriously later on if I do get her more help. Then lastly, well not lastly since I have lots of concerns about letting her just ride it out, but I don't want her to feel bored or misunderstood in class all day. It would be like sending my 8 year old to pre-k during the day so I could work.
I have a feeling that they will draw this out so a grade skip this year will more than likely not happen. But I think I may try to teach her what I can and let her progress as far as she seems ready to so that next year we may can go full steam ahead on a grade skip. I am still worried a little about that also. She learns so quickly I don't know when she will find a grade to rest in or if she ever will. And I worry about her being physically younger than everyone else. I guess I should rephrase that though...she learns quickly when I give her the tools and let her do everything on her own time. When I try to sit her down with any structure or show her things she will only let me go so far and then she pushes me out of the picture or gets really hyper. So she is an incredibly fast learner with little or no structure but if you put any walls around her she doesn't know how to cope.
As far as the initial testing went...I don't know. She always swears she can't remember what she did at school even though she can remember very small details of things that she did when she was 2. She said she pointed at some pictures and spelled green "grn" I asked her why she left the e's out, because she knows all of her color words. She said "grn" is a shorter way of spelling green. And the test she did was just a assessment of what she knows as far as kindergarten material goes. It was supposed to be a test to see if we should test her for giftedness. I am supposed to be getting a call for an appointment soon to have a meeting with the gifted teacher and her kindergarten teacher to see where to go next.
What do you guys think I should say, expect, or suggest at the meeting?
Oh, and her teacher was supposed to be giving her different work for in class and was going to send some higher level math work home for her to do but that was about 3 months ago and I haven't seen any of it. So I talked with her teacher and let her know that my daughter was covering her ears refusing to do the regular kindergarten homework that was being sent home and I asked if I could give her different homework at home to send to school and let the teacher make a big deal about her working hard...so that my daughter at least tries to have some sort of structured assignment. It worked for a couple weeks then the work started coming home untouched so I was afraid that my daughter would think the teacher didn't care as much anymore so I just stopped...it was almost Christmas break anyway so I figured if I stopped sending it my daughter would just take it as part of the break and not that she wasn't doing something right. Now with the second semester she is coming home with a folder every Monday of homework to do for the week. She did all the work for the month in the first night. But the teacher only gave her a sticker for the first week and is still sending the same homework home on Mondays...already finished. Her teacher was working with me until my daughter lost her initial shyness and started shouting out answers in class. I talked to her about it and I haven't heard any complaints but since then her teacher seems to not like my daughter or me or both as much...and I am not sure why the sudden change.
