Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Early KG in private school or Not?

Hello All,
My DD4.5 is in prek 4 year old in private school. Her school offered her KG. (she misses cutoff by 20 days), so cannot go to public school.
We wanted her to start public school gifted program where my son going which we love it. But she has to stay in prek4 for one more year where not at all challenging or learning anything other than some letters and sounds.
At the same time, we don't know how the private school KG and 1st grade will be as compared to full time gifted program.

If she is not in challenging environment for 2 years(KG and 1st grade), will it effetc her gifted testing after 2yrs of non gifted private school education

If the choice is between a definite non-challenging prek4 vs. a potentially challenging K - I'd go with the K.

As an off-the-wall approach, you could do the private K next year, then go into the gifted program K the year after that (with the option to stick with the private school if they are challenging her enough).

-S.F.

Thanks for the reply. Your quote is good.
If gifted kids are in non challenging environment for 2 yrs, you think it will affect their IQ? or it doesn't really matter?

The answer depends on a lot of factors... your child's personality, her level of giftedness, how the staff accommodates her, and how the school screens for giftedness, just off the top of my head.

Generally speaking, those two first years in a regular classroom have a strong capacity for making gifted kids miserable, and turning them off of learning. This forum is littered with horror stories. The best solution appears to be homeschooling, but your results may vary. Some parents have reported success with Montessori private schools. With the right staff in place, publics seem to do better as a whole than traditional privates, because they have more resources... but usually, both fail these kids miserably.

Regardless of how the next couple of years play out, if your child is gifted enough, and she goes into testing with the right attitude, then there's pretty much nothing short of massive head trauma that can stop her from qualifying for that gifted program.

I would put her in private K next year. Here they will not enter them early into K in public school but they WILL skip K once age eligable. Maybe you can have her do K private next year and then enter her into 1st in public the following year.

Yes,I was also thinking in the same lines.

We cannot do homeschooling as we are full time working parents. I searched montessori, we don't have one closer.

Here We have to send in 2nd grade. 1st grade they check age eligibility.

My state (Iowa) has the same type of rules. They block you from getting into K and 1st too early, but once you are in second, you're fine (in theory, you could get into second younger than they would allow you into first). The only options are to wait, or home school/private school for the first two years.

As far as keeping your daughter challenged, you can try to do stuff outside of school. For my daughter K would have been a completely different year had we not started her in piano lessons. School was pretty much a waste of time, but the piano kept her challenged as it was completely new.

After an unsuccessful attempts to discuss a grade skip at public school, we ended up sending my daughter to a wonderfully challenging private school for 1st through 5th. Are there any other private schools where you are at that might offer a better challenge?

-S.F.

You are welcome. And thank you for the quote appreciation.

I don't know if a non-challenging environment would lower a child's IQ, but it certainly would affect how much they learn and could teach them that half effort will get you by.

Are you sure the 20 days is a real deal breaker at the gifted public school? In our state, the rules are district-by-district as to how to get around the cut-offs, if at all. If you can show by IQ testing at a certain level that your kiddo is qualified, you can get waivers in some districts. I recommend checking with the school again or at the district level. The school already has info on your family since your other child attends.