Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion What's your opinion based on your experience?

Well, our school meeting is Tuesday and we've got lots of good samples from DS to bring to the meeting. DW and I have talked, and we're optimistic that this will be a productive meeting. Our primary goal is to talk about getting DS testing (the school is not required to do this until officially entering K but they may choose to make an exception). The second goal is to discuss what we're going to do for next year.

At any rate, in a pure anecdotal, unscientific manner, I'm interesting in your thoughts. I suspect that DS might be in the HG range--but this is just my suspicion. He's currently 5y 4m.

DS didn't read at an exceptionally early age. He was probably sight reading at 4.5y or so but it's really hard to tell (could have been earlier; he's always loved books). He has always had a nearly photographic memory, and he learned counting at a young age. I want to say that he was counting up to 100 by 3, but my memory is hazy. He got negative numbers almost immediately. About the time that he turned 5, he taught himself Roman Numerials up to 17 because they where used in a chapter book that had 17 chapter :-) . He proudly announced to us that "some people count with numbers this way!" At that time, we started showing him a little more about numbers and within about a week he knew all his Roman Numerials and decided that he'd write all of the RN up to some ridiculously high number like 100 or 500.

Not long after that, one night at the dinner table I showed him how to do simple addition. I did about 6 or 8 math problems first starting with one column, then two column, and then three column (no carry-over/regrouping). I talked him through it and then wrote out a few problems for him to do. He got it immediately and from there things just exploded. Fast forward a couple of months and now he knows his times table, does math with carry over, subtraction with carry over, exponents, and roots and some basic algebra. When I showed him how Fibonacci numbers worked, the next day he got out his simple calculator as used it to get Fib. numbers in the thousands. Because MS Word has a lot of neat equation symbols I get asked about things like much greater than (>>), much less than (<<), approximately equal to, and so on... I used to worry that I'm teaching him things out of order, but really I'm letting his curiosity direct things. And by teaching, we're literally talking about 15 minutes at the dinner table or during bath time. Now that we have bath crayons, that's really his favorite time to ask me what the "googolth root of 8 is". :-)

His reading is fairly advanced too, but it evolved over a longer period of time. He can read Little Golden books without problem. At night we take turns reading Harry Potter (2nd book) and he reads very well, including using proper inflection. He'll get stuck on new large words but he does attempt to sound them out. Generally I'm surprised once a night on some large word that he does read (even if he's sight reading it).

He loves using the computer to look up things on Wikipedia. It makes "booklets" about things like all the planets including moons, etc. Generally I can show him how to do something once, and then he'll do it all on his own. For his last show-n-tell at school he created one of his booklets on the planets and brought in one for every student (we had to warn the teacher that this was coming!)

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. This has actually be therapeutic for me! Collecting my thoughts on exactly how we got here. But for those of you who have been there, what are your thoughts on DS?

Thanks.

JB

DS would enter K this fall if we decide not to change that.

Our goals are to get him in the queue to be tested so that we have a better idea of where he is. Where we live, technically the school does not have to start that process until day one of K. We'd rather not wait that long.

Our second goal is to find out what our options are, including the possibility of skipping. Because of his age and his nursery school class, at most he'll see one of his old friends. There is no GT program at K-school, but starting at 1st there is. So there are a couple of good reasons to consider skipping him now.

Otherwise what will likely happen is after K he'll skip 1st (my guess) and then leave behind all of the new friends he made in K. If he goes to K, then I want to make sure that he is learning academically. He won't learn any new math (maybe a little about money, but that doesn't come until the end of the year) so we'd like to know what options are available. When I ask DS what he wants to learn at school, he tells me "how to do hard math." His idea of hard math is long division... Reading wise he'd likely be differentiated into the highest reading group, so that might work if he's given the right books.

We're lucky in the regards the socially he's at least on track if not a little ahead. There was a point when he was 3 that he was in a little bit of a shell (his nursery school teacher once said "... doesn't say too much, but when he does, it's very thoughtful"). He socializes very well with our neighbor's child who just turned 8 and about to complete 1st grade.

Since this is the first meeting our goals are simple: get the test schedule and open a dialog about our options. This may include starting a GIEP but we're not sure if they do for K-school since K is not mandatory in our state. So I'm also trying to get a good pulse on our school and the issues we'll face.

JB

Dear JBdad

Many schools can be somwhat dificult, even with proof. Most want to do well, but have a hard time understanding or beliving. K-school is mostly social. I can give some examples of our DS5 K program. 1/2 day, number and letter recognition to start. By end of year most read a little and some addition. The hard part for us was to understand that no matter how much the school tried to accomadate, our DS5 would always not fit in (academicly). We had to augment at home. The school placed our DS5 with a 2nd grade teacher for 15min each day for math, and although this was very nice, it really did little as far as teaching him. he did enjoy it though and liked going to the 2nd grade class. In reading they could do very little, so we read at home. In writting he coresponded with his k teacher, and started a journal. Also did some spelling work from 1st grade.
Testing will help for itentification, but many schools really just don't understand what it means. Or they belive that school is for social development and that is just as important to them as academic. The good thing is that you are aware and that you can advocate for your son. There are also some great ways you can augment at home. We do math at home from Singapour and have considererd John Hopkins on line program. next year we are going to a private school, but will still work with our DS at home.
I hope the school works with you. It takes time, they have to see it themselves first. We went to our public school before the start of the year with test scotes in hand and copies of his work, met with the principal,even the district GATE supervisor. But it wasn't untill the k-teacher noticed things that any acomadation was made. As a mattar of fact the K-teacher was not informed at all about the information we presented to the school and the district prior to our DS5 comming to school. In thier defense many very well meaning parents of bright children ask for acomadations in K or 1st before the year starts. These kids are bright and quick learners but not the same as HG+. The schools and the district are used to many parents advocating early and some Hot Housed kids also. They have to see it themselves first before they can try to accomadate, if they can accomadate.

Edwin

Even if you don't get testing done, perhaps you can advocate for a skip. Sounds like he should go into 1st (at least)--I'm one of the advocates for skipping K.

I've heard the schools in Philly are usually not very flexible. There are some good charter schools around, and sometimes they have long waiting lists. You might want to research those as well, because it's easier to get in at the beginning rather than older grades--usually. Charter schools may have a more enriched curriculum and be more willing to work with you (or maybe not).

I went to JR Masterman (public gifted magnet school) in Center City, but they don't start till about 5th grade. I had to take a train & bus every day starting in 4t grade (Masterman used to start that early), but it was worth it--a great school, and I understand it's still the best.

That's one thing I considered: bringing a written request letter for evaluation to the meeting in case we need it (there is a sample on the PA state site). Thanks for the suggestion. From what I read that process does take a while.

JB

Yeah, we're in the western suburbs. I have shopped around for schools as it's something that we've considered (although financially it would be tight). Of course DS is so looking forward to riding the bus to school I think he'd be crushed if he went somewhere that we had to drive him to! :-)

JB

Edwin, yes, this is exactly what we're worried about. During his pre-screen they made a big deal of the fact that he was already a reader (back when I thought all of this was just "normal"). I'm afraid that he'll be bored to tears and even if we supplement it won't be an ideal match.

We do believe that there is something to learn socially because these are good life skills to have. But right now he's a very well adjusted little boy and we probably have typical behavioral issues for a 5 y.o. (with maybe the exception that he's already outwitted me once during a lecture!). But that being said, my inclination is to expect at least some grade acceleration at some point. If not now, then down the road.

Not having a lot of reference points--case in point being that I thought most or all children know how to read before K and that counting past 100 was typcial--I was curious with the group's opinion of DS based on what I listed. It's going to be a while before the test results come through and it's not really going to change significantly our approach. Not yet anyways.

I'm really hopeful that we'll have a positive meeting but I have read and researched enough to know that we might have to be very vocal advocates for DS.

JB

Yeah, I know and read that too and for a while it raised my anxiety level a bit. Following this group helps as I see that we're all in similar boats.

I did find out from another teacher who was also a parent of a gifted child that at our K school one other student in the past had some sort of supplemental teaching or pull out program. So at least that's a positive sign. (My current thought is simply why bother? Just let DS go to 1st.)

Good luck to you too Dottie.

JB

Good to know!

JB

I spoke to a mom recently whose DS is the only one in the history of our HUGE district ever to be accelerated. SHe said you must, must get assessment based on your school's end of the year test. She had her 5th grader take end of the year 6th grade assessment which he aced, so he was skipped to 7th for math w/ advanced students (7/8 combo).

And I think our school district falls into the "good" schools which think their curriculum is so demanding, it's good enough for all.