Hi again
Chris - to be honest I am quite worried about his scores on his self concept test. That website looks great, will definately keep that for if/when we move across the ditch. It came as a bit of a surprise to us as he is such a lovely kid with a great sense of humour. We have several older teenage girls who work for us (coffee shop) and they fight over each other to babysit him or just take him out to do cool things! His teacher aide adores him and will be devestated when she finishes up this year (no more funding, has to self manage his allergies). He has a great sense of humour - cries with laughter all the way through AFV. Very caring and very sensitive but we generally thought he was happy. We are now questioning the grade skip - were we right to go with the school? But even at the end of the year when we were discussing placement with the Principal she made it quite clear that to hold him back (my suggestion to give him more confidence with his peers and a change to excell academically and in sport) would not be a good move because he was too far ahead of his age peers and is at the top of this 'gifted' group. But seeing his IQ results now I'm left wondering if we've made the right choice. The one really good thing about this school year is that he is going into a pilot class for a programme of 'Self Regulated Learning' where they get a laptop each so a lot of their work wil be typed (I think they are getting typing lessons too) and they will work to their own 'level'. I see this as a big plus and it wasn't an option if he repeated a year.
Grinty - always love your take on life... I'm looking into the OT etc, I suspect dyspraxia as well as dysgraphia so will pursue that. He does swim weekly despite the constant ear infections but it takes a long time for him to progress stages - sinks more than swims and can't keep a straight line to save himself. Has been 'rescused' twice through the hols - thought he could jump off the high board??
I'm thinking now with his results that school have him more than covered academically - he is in the top maths, reading and spelling groups, he is pulled out for extension math, science and he takes Spanish at lunch. He does chess and robotics after school. His robotics teacher is now teaching him electronics and basic programming, scratch etc. because she feels he 'needs more extension'.
I have to say that given his performance at school and in his extra curricular (they all seem blown away by him and are used to GT kids - robotics instructor has 2 of her own, she has a Phd in electronics and teaches high school math) so I was a bit surprised his scores weren't higher.
The one area that he is failing at in school is writing (well below national average) and he can't draw for toffee.
I guess I really want him to be happy and I'm struggling now to come to terms with choices we've made for him on the assumption that he was smarter than he is. I've been totally guided by others in his education and thought that they were the experts now I'm not sure and maybe if we do move to Aus we should just let him go with the flow? Thoughts??
Best be off now - got a gym assessment, new years resolution to take more care of me.
Thanks again for the support and advice, always appreciated.
