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    JBDad Offline OP
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    (I've been continuing to lurk; I still log on each day, but generally don't post.)

    Well, we're back from our family vacation and after a little effort we have an appointment with the school district. We're still not exactly sure what we will do with DS5 for next year. We're hoping that the person that we're meeting with can help us figure out. I think the first thing will be to get our options, although I think the option is going to be either some supplemental teaching in K-school or skipping directly into 1st. The person we're meeting with seems to be pretty receptive and asked for us to bring some of DS's work. We really would like to get DS tested, but in PA until the child actually starts Kindergarten, the district it not required to test. I don't want to wait until the fall to start the process if I don't have to. I think worse case is that we'd pony up the money to get him tested so that we have a better idea where we stand.

    And yet I still go through periods of GT denial! I ask the boy "what do you want to learn in school?" "Really hard math" "Really, like what" "Like what eighty one divided by one googol is"

    At any rate, things are at least moving forward.

    JB

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    Moving forward is good! Good luck at your meeting. Keep us posted.

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    Hi JBdad,

    Congrats on moving forward and investigating what options are available at school to help him learn.
    I would definately ask what they are learning in K and what they need to master in order to move on in first.
    That should tell you a lot about whether or not the K classroom is appropriate.
    If you've been reading posts you probably know by now that a kid far advanced from his grade level curriculum can be very happy in K not advancing in achievement. There is a lot to learn socially as well. Also, it could be a total disaster as in my second daughter's case.
    A couple of things. I come from a VERY gifted denial family so it's very difficult for me to be blase concerning the fact of my child's giftedness. I tend to want to minimze things, so as not to be a trouble, or different. I was conditioned to have this somewhat kneejerk response by my upbringing.
    Second, I had an exceptionally successful year advocating for my girls. It wasn't perfect, but I've been told I made more progress than most and that I am a genius. In the past I would have completely rejected that compliment and the idea that I am anything other than ordinary.
    However, If I believed that about myself or my daughters, how could I expect the school to believe any differently? Thus, why would they attempt to make accomodations for them?
    My best advice for you is to spend some time addressing the GT denial you have just mentioned. If you go into the school wishy-washy concerning your child's educational needs it's going to be really difficult to get anywhere.
    Third, I would suggest you attempt to figure out what your child already knows to help you decide if K is a good fit.
    Lastly, I always think it's a good idea to go into a meeting with a firm expectation of what questions you would like an answer to and what are you trying to accomplish for your child.
    I hope this e-mail doesn't come across as abrupt. I am just pretty matter of fact about this stuff when discussing.
    I wish you all the best and hope your meeting accomplishes what you want.
    Keep us updated, I would love to hear another success story!

    Neato

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    JB - good luck w/ the meeting!

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    Great advice, 'Neato!


    Kriston
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    Why thank you kind friend. ((tipping hat))

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    JBDad Offline OP
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    Thanks for the post. Not abrupt at all.

    I was lucky enough to be the parent to attend the orientation and between that and the curriculum on our K-school's website, I have a pretty good idea what is covered academically. Unfortunately, yes, DS has those concepts mastered. He probably has 1st grade mastered too, with a few gaps I'm sure.

    One of the reasons that we're seriously considering skipping K (as a starting point) is that at most only one of his friends from nursery school will attend his K-school this year. That is not even a sure-thing either as his friend may be an afternoon child. So one factor we're weighing is if we accelerated after Kindergarten he'd be leaving all new friends behind. DW and I are trying to approach this with an open mind for some of the reasons you mentioned: there are certainly social lessons to learn during the Kindergarten year. We're also not sure if DS is ready for the level of focus required. If it's something that he is interested in, it's not a problem. wink

    At the same time the last three or so months have been phenomenal. After DS (at the time, not quite 5) taught himself how to count in Roman Numerals from a chapter book, I started to show him some things about math in a very informal setting... Usually at the dinner table. He's now up to multi-column addition, knows his multiplication tables, and understands exponents. "Please dad, show me more." All of this happened in a very short time frame and really grabbed our attention. From my perspective, I assumed that all pre-K kids read and hey, DS is just very interested in math. It wasn't until K-school orientation and that I realized that their hope is that entering children are able to recognize their letters and do 1-to-1 correspondence counting to 10. I think DS was 3 or 3 1/2 when he was counting to 100... memory is a little hazy on that.

    I think that part of the issue that I have had personally with denial is a lack of reference point (I do not interact with many other children so I don't have a good comparison) and I tend to be very analytical. This is why I'd like to see DS tested and I think both DW and I would like to have that independent validation on what we suspect is true. "We all think our children are smart." I've heard that too.

    So--to your point--one of the things that we'd like to get out of the meeting is a plan to confirm that DS is gifted. We'll bring some of his work (we've started documenting it). We do have a framework in PA to work within, but I don't want to wait until next year to begin. Then, we want to make sure that we have a good plan for DS which maybe that means that we start his GIEP now. If we decide to keep him in K for the year then great. But let's just make sure that he is getting exposure to new ideas/learning that he finds interesting.

    JB

    Last edited by JBDad; 05/23/08 10:19 AM. Reason: had a typo; most of DS's friends will not go to his K
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    JB-

    Have you seen this chart? It may be enlightening to see what "average gifted" looks like in a young child. http://members.tripod.com/~gleigh/gftskills.htm

    hth-

    Lorel

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    I just want to add the standard caveat that the IQ scores are from the old tests. IQ tests nowadays ceiling at 160, so the scores at the top of the page are impossible to achieve and that chart is no longer applicable.


    Kriston

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