Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Woohoo! Off to a good start.

DS has mastered almost all the Kindy skills early (and a bunch beyond that) but is not scheduled to start school till the fall. So today DH contacted the school about our concerns. He was trying to reach the principle but ended up talking with one of the two possible teachers for that grade. Turns out they are very open minded & she even mentioned the possibility of a grade skip. She also thinks that the principle needs to be involved & is having him call us back tomorrow.

Let me just say, I am THRILLED! I have been a stressed out mess about all this for weeks. I have heard all the horror stories & did not expect good things. I know that we are by no means home free but it is so encouraging to be off to a good start. Just wanted to share with some folk that would understand.

Yay! It sounds like a super start - long may it continue

Yippee!

Good starts usually bode well. I have high hopes for a good school fit!

Yay!

WOW! That's wonderful!

Sending good Karma }}}}}}}}

Clone 'em! Thanks for sharing the good news.

Well, I may have celebrated too fast. Turns out that while the person Dh spoke with yesterday had taught K for 10 years she is not one of the current teachers. No big deal & I was still optimistic. Hey this school is still saying that they have done grade skips and they don't want their kids to be bored. It felt like a great start.

Then DH talked to the principle this morning and that is where my optimism ended. He talked about how great his school is & how wonderful the K teachers are. That one of the K teachers has her doctorate and how they use the Responsive Classroom model. (any idea how well this method works?) And, that we should wait till fall to see if DS is misplaced at that point.

Unfortunately DH seemed content with this while I was very upset. We locked horns over it this am with DH agreeing to read more of the research. He is open-minded & still wants to get DS testing so hopefully we will come to some consensus between the two of us soon.

As far as the school, are they kidding? Wait till fall? This is the kid that has been adding since he was three. He knows 95% of the Science/Math/Tech curriculum now. There is also a ton of stuff he knows not even listed for K. Learn about the seasons? He has already learned about how the tilt of the earth makes the seasons! (He asked!) He would rather talk about tectonic plates forming volcano's & mountains. We are learning the days of the week & the names of all the planets at the same time. He once made me a model of our galaxy out of a blanket. It is not a big jump to say that something might need to be worked out here.

Problem is, he has not mastered all the K language arts skills yet. He is not reading & does not have all his letter names/ sounds. I have heard claims that reading is boring & he does not want to do it. Turns out it is just not easy for him & he does not want to work at it. I have been taking more of a how words work approach which seems to be working. I have no idea where he will be by fall.

Thing is, We did not ask for a grade skip. We just want to work out some sort of plan in advance. Eeerrrr

I am not sure what we are doing next. DH is reading some articles & I guess we will have to go from there. Any suggestions are welcome.

I think the testing is a good place to start. After I had the results, I'd ask for a meeting with the principal to discuss the results before the school year starts. It sounds like your son has a great deal of asynchronicity which will require a teacher who's comfortable with differentiation.

Will you be able to volunteer in the classroom? This can give you a lot of insight. You may also want to find math books that are the appropriate level and coordinate this with the teacher. At DD7's school, K was heavily weighed to the language arts and reading.

I would write to school to notify then about my childs strengths and weaknesses and request that he be placed with an understanding teacher. Then I would wait and see how K goes, you should get a lot information and feed back from a good teacher.
Our school will not skip grades until after K NEways and only then if they have mastered ALL areas off the curriculum, but I have heard of other schools which they place students in one grade for math and another for reading. Good Luck and try not to worry so much, there are alot of gifted children out there that loved K