Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Really need some advice, Kindergartener

Cookie,
there are some schools like that here too that do a lottery, but i didn't even apply to the, i only applied to this one school cuz it was in the same town were in and we were "zoned" for it (sort of, maybe in-area is the right term). he had to qualify and then they only had so many spots. they said that a committee decides who gets the spots if more kids qualify than the number of spots they had.

Hard situation. Based on your son's level of advancements, I wouldn't rule out that he is not gifted according to a test which doesn't seem like a proper IQ test done by psych. Having a real IQ test (I know it's really expensive) will help you a lot on going to different schools which you think a good fit for your son.

Levia,

yeah =\ i just looked into it over the weekend and it loos like a base price is like $500 - a lot of money for us. it's kind of sounding like though that kids who are gifted at math are sometimes not considered an overall gifted child. i'm wondering what that means when it comes to an IQ test. does it mean he may never score in the ranges that would qualify him for a specialized program? seems unfortunate if thats the case because he could really benefit from having some people in his life who play-in-math like he does.

i'm still looking into the psych eval too though, i definitely get the significants of having it done by a psych rather than 45 mins with a grad student now more than i did before posting this topic. not to imply she did a bad job but he might just need a different approach. i also don't think at the time he had any concept of why it might be important to answer the questions to the best of his ability, or even answer them at all.

Your DS sounds mathematically talented to me but that does not necessarily mean he'd score above 130 (or whatever the cutoff number may be) on standard IQ measures. I assume he was very young when he was tested. If he didn't feel comfortable being in a room with a stranger, he might not done as well as he could have.

Did the school not offer you an option to go over his assessment results in person? If they didn't, maybe you still could ask for a meeting because you have some concerns.

A small school that is willing to offer individualized instruction might be a better fit for your DS than a sought-after gifted school that has a long waiting list. Some elementary school teachers, including those who teach at gifted schools, may not feel comfortable teaching math beyond 5th grade level. My first choice for my number-obsessed child was to send her to a public charter school where she would have had an access to their high school faculty even as an elementary school student. If your state offers a similar setting, I'd certainly look into it.

I don't want to be a wet blanket but my DD goes to a gifted school but I don't think she's found anyone who wants to play math with her. Maybe this would change as they get older but thus far, her kindergarten class is doing standard math activities that she could have done when she was a year old.

We are starting to after-school so much that we're basically homeschooling her and her time at school is her downtime.

Mana -
got it, yea - that makes sense about the testing. i don't know whats still available from the school cuz it was last year but i can at least give them a call a shoot off an email. thats a bummer about the GT school though for your DD, if we get him tested again and he doesn't score high enough to qualify for a specialized program i'm thinking of just trying to get him a specialized math program, maybe that will end up being a better fit.

i'm looking at the one from Stanford, EPGY i think it's called or maybe the one from Sylvan, Edge. are you familiar with either of those?

We haven't tried either since based on reviews around here, we opted for Singapore Math and Beast Academy. Just in case DD ever has to go show competency on Common Core Math at some point in her life, I am making her do Singapore CC edition through 5th grade. She doesn't hate it but she prefers Beast Academy and in a year or so, we probably can start of AoPS.

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com

You can see if your DS is ready to start:

http://data.artofproblemsolving.com//products/diagnostics/prealgebra-pretest.pdf

OH thats what AoPS is! i saw that referenced elsewhere and didn't know what it was. thanks!

i just looked at the pre- test, does he need to be able to do all of the math in his head or can he write out the equations, do you know?

I don't think mental math is expected. I'd think that they'd note it otherwise since they do discuss their expectations at the beginning of the test.

You don't have to pay for the class, btw. You could simply order their books.

In general, does he hear you well at home? Any issues paying attention in class? He certainly sounds gifted when you describe what he can do with written instructions. Might be a hearing issue. Should be pretty easy to have his ears checked at a well visit at the pediatrician and I'd expect it to be covered by medical insurance.