Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Lurkers: What's on your mind today?

Good Morning you who seldom post or only lurk.

I was wondering if you felt like typing about what's on your mind to day?

If so, please do....

If not, please accept my personal thanks for being just who you are and doing just exactly what you do. There isn't any 'one right way' to 'participate' with this board.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Hi Grinity!

I'm one of those who seldom posts. Well, there are a few things on my mind right now (Brownie meeting tonight that I still have to plan for, upcoming visit with the in-laws) but the one that falls in the gifted topic would be "What to do with my daughter next year?" The school wants to skip her right to 4th grade from 2nd, but I don't know how I feel about it. We have time to decide; which means I have time to vacillate and worry about it.

Ruby

I post infrequently, but i must say you guys/gals are brilliant.

On my mind today (you asked for it )..

First and foremost is; I was impressed at the speed in which DS got better reading books after speaking to the Head. I'm not really happy that any math acceleration has to come from him...But then he seems pretty ok at the moment so i'm not too worried...and we are still afterschooling.

Second; Just how many letters does DDjust2 know? I think i can count 10-15...

Third; after helping out in DS's class, i can see there is not one child with his math/reading ability there and that makes me realise we are going to have to keep stimulating him ourselves.... which means i should try to get a better estimate of his ability somehow...

hmmm, I'm wondering if there's something in the air, or if the fall/winter doldrums hit some of our kids hard. I'm in the same boat with Crisc and JBDad regarding my GS9. I've been wondering if he's been pushed too hard this last nine weeks, he had an AR goal of 100 pts, and various other things going on. He read 'The Hobbit' last week to complete his AR goal and has been fighting a bug this week. I knew they were taking a practice run on the state achievement test this week. He came home yesterday and said he felt like his brain was growing again after shrinking the last couple months. Evidently he likes the challenge of the achievement tests and has been stagnating the last couple months in class. He loves reading, and he asked for the increased AR goals, but his comments about his brain tells me he's not been challenged appropriately for the last quarter.
More on my dilemma later.

I know I don't post much - not shy, just busy!

DS9 is working on his science fair project this week... I finally said I wanted the experiments done by Saturday so I can have my kitchen back!! Also he's using all of my nice mini-loaf pans as molds... so my plan is Sunday will be pumpkin bread day. LOL

It's also "Shakespeare season" for our book group, so he's juggling both of those big projects. And we have two exams coming up that he needs to study for... (not including his annual standardized test -- doing the Explore for the third time!) and we all have colds/sniffles right now! /*thud*/

I would say I'll be more active when all that is done, but really it's never done... Fortunately we don't have any particular dilemmas at the moment... just sleep deprivation

Im not sure if I count as a lurker but I have plenty on my mind.

Ds is pushing boundaries at school.

During an r.e lesson they had to draw a picture of Jesus. Ds drew the sign for infinity and wrote "infinity rhymes with trinity."

Upon questioning he argued strongly that he was right. There were no cameras then so how do we know what Jesus looked like.


I wonder about him sometimes....

Hey, I teach r.e. and I would have found that to be a perfectly acceptable answer, plus bonus points for connecting infinity to trinity.....those words relate more than just in the rhyming sense.

I hope they were questioning him just to get a beat on his thought process and not criticizing his response.

I appreciate this thread. I'm more of a newbie than a lurker, and have felt a bit intimidated sometimes to post. So many of you have kids who seem more gifted than mine, and you're all so up on the various tests and educational options. I've been wondering whether I "fit" here.

I do have a question. Before you had your kids tested, did you question whether they were really gifted, or whether you were just an "overly proud" parent. Almost since birth, DS7 (who is our oldest) was obviously different to me, very different by 2, and now TO ME seems very different from the other kids, but his teachers and (to a point) DH don't seem to see it. They say he's bright, but not THAT bright. His reading, vocabulary, ability to understand concepts, and to a somewhat lesser extent math abilities seem to be much more advanced than his classmates. Sometimes I think a lot of the perception of other people is skewed because he's a very anxious child, has difficulty sitting still/waiting his turn to talk, and has difficulty with organization/ensuring that all his work is done. He's also eager to try to fit the way he thinks others want him to be. I've submitted an application for testing to JHU/CTY and am waiting to hear back for an appointment date (probably 3 months out). In the meantime, I find myself questioning our educational choices for DS7 every day, and then questioning whether I'm just delusional and he's not gifted at all.

Anyway, maybe this is all more a need for catharsis than advice. This fight is very lonely -- people seem to think I should just be happy that I have a smart kid, and stop worrying. Others think I push him too hard to be the "smart kid". Others think that he should be more disciplined, and therefore able to "grow out of" the wiggling/talking out of turn thing. I wish I had test scores today so that I could feel more sure of our choices for him.

Thanks for having a place I could vent. I know everyone's been on the waiting list for scores before. I just have to practice my patience!

OK... Here I go. Life has been very stressful the past week. The school is currently testing my DS6, They called last Friday to ask if they could extend the testing another 2 weeks. I have been waiting since October.

The company my DH works for wants promote him. My husband works from home and travels ocasionly. The company is trying to reduce employees slightly, to save money in today's economy. If he doesn't take the position, we're afraid he will be let go. If he does take the position, it will mean he will have to be at the company 3 weeks in row and home 3 weeks in a row. We live in New England the company is in Nevada. The company he works for is, his dream come true job.

I am concerned with how the kids will handle Dad being gone 50% of the time. Heck, how I'm going to handle it.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Wow, you gals have a lot going on!

Mamma22, I was pretty close to your spot about a year ago. Stick around and you'll pick up the lingo pretty fast!

Tall boys, when it rains it pours. The stress from the kids' issues can be incredible, but with economic instability added to the mix.......jeesh...it probably feels like crushing pressure.

Hopefully one day at a time will bring your family to a better place. My DH was recently laid off and was SO fortunate to find something relatively quickly. It's so stressful.