Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Mommy, when can I go to my school?

My DS3, almost 4) goes to a little in-home daycare run by a very smart woman. They don't do anything academic, but they paint, do yoga, frolic outside, sing, and read. He loves it, though it was a little bit of a better fit when he was younger (he is now on the older end). It's probably more like an extended playdate than anything, but that's fine. We can teach him at home.

I would be looking for something somewhat different if this was full-time daycare, but it's two half-days a week. You might want to ask around about small, good in-home places. I think DS has had a much more positive experience than DD, who went to a large center.

I'm glad your daughter had a positive experience with preschool. My daughter is extremely introverted. When she meets new people she goes mute for about an hour. At the park she prefers to watch other children instead of play with them (and she's told me so) but she'd rather they weren't there at all. She'd rather it be just me and her and the equipment. She does like calm, older children though, and just about anyone she sees regularly.

I'd be very pleased if she ended up in a roll like your daughter did, but I'm doubtful that she has the right attitude for it. Perhaps in the right environment she will surprise me. She'll be at full day preschool while her mom and I work, but only for three days a week. I think she'll spend the other 2 work days with her grandmother learning Chinese. My wife told me not to expect grandma to teach much else though.

I'm also concerned when I try to extrapolate from her current predicament what her kindergarten situation will be...

Doclori: <cleaning coffee off the keyboard> that's total blackmail material when she's 12.

-Mich

Mr W goes through this several times a week even with his acceleration. He questions much of what they are doing in class just about every day.

The greatest source of friction is the 1.5 hour nap time - he has not napped in 3 years. The rest is just the slow pace. ( He recently tested in the 90th percentile for a 7 year old on an achievement test. ) Some days he is perfect, others not so. Another is that he is seen by the staff as a PreK kid and not as a 7 year old in a Prek body.

I spend time every other night with him doing geometric puzzles and reading books. He is a lot better the following day.

We've got another adjustment coming up after the new years that may be the last one for a while. He is really excited about this and asks about it every day. We get a new set of questions every morning. Will I have to nap? Will I get to read big boy books? Will we talk about numbers? Can I study the solar system? Do they have dictionaries?

DD3 (almost 4) informed us over Christmas break that she was ready to move on to a real school now, she had done what there was to do at preschool and she wanted to go to a real school like her older sister did. When asked what she thought she would do at a 'real school" - her answer was, "what ever the teacher asks me to do!"
She is having a hard time right now at school because of boredom, we've talked to the teachers and asked for more,even brought in her books from home so she could do writing and stuff, and nothing has changed and she does nothing differently from the other kids. She has started to take over the teacher's desk though and tries to get the other kids to do what she wants them to do and then complains to the teacher that they aren't listening. Rather than seeing this as a ploy to get more interesting things going, the teacher sees it as a cute little game she plays.

What grade is her older sister in?

When I was a little kid, kindergarten didn't happen for some reason when I was five. I kept asking when I would get to go to school, and they kept telling me, "When you're six, when you're six." So I turned six in April, didn't get to go to school right then, and I think I may have thrown a tantrum.

My older sister was in second grade. The teacher was kind enough to let me come to school and sit on a stool next to my older sister's desk. I remember it being all day long, but maybe it was just an hour or two.

Um.... She is now being home-schooled, so by age she is in 3rd, if she were still in school she'd be in 4th, but at home she's doing a range of grades, mainly 6th.

This is what makes the comment so much more interesting - when we asked her if she wanted to stay home and have Daddy teach her like she does to DD8, she said no, she means she wants to go to the school her sister went to last year.

Every kid is different, and gifted kids are more different than most.