Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Kindergarten 2009-2010

DS5 will be starting K on the 10th, and I know that several of you have DC also starting K this year. And there are a few that are skipping K and a few that aren't in K until next year, even though they could be this year.

Anyway, I thought maybe we could have a "year long" discussion about our woes & successes this school year.

I think it's going to be an interesting one for us b/c DS5 had his K screening yesterday, and he came out and said "Mom, that was super easy. The last thing I had to do was JUST write my name".

Anyway, no need to respond now... just thought I'd create the thread so we can chat about this school year.

I'm in, though I'm still not sure what is up with DS5 (GT or no, LD or no, vision issues or no, etc.). It will definitely be a year of discovery for us with him!

My DS5 has not been officially tested or diagnosed either, Kriston. I just happened to notice there were a lot of us with kids going into K this fall.

I'll join the discussion as my DD5 is going into K (or extended day as they call it in Montessori) this year. She has not been tested yet and seems so different than her HG+ brother who is 6. She is still not independently reading---flat out refuses to even try stating she is "too young". She is a wonderful artist, very verbal and has lots of physical talents. Last year her teachers told me that she was very advanced in math but unfortunately her older brother really skews my perspective of advanced--since she is no where near he was at the same age.

I think it will be an interesting year. I'm curious how learning to read will go for her since last year her teachers told me that they thought she was going to be like DS6 and never use phonics to learn either. DS6 was more of a whole word reader and learned spontanteously just as he was turning 4.

DD5 is also a lot more of a teacher pleaser and is very social. I could see her hiding her abilities in school if it made her different than her peers.

Let's all hope for a good school year for our K'ers.

Ditto everything you said for my DS5, crisc. Maybe it's all a younger sibling/older sibling thing?

Anyway, I didn't mean to insinuate that kids had to have been tested or IDd or anything to be discussed here. Sorry if it sounded that way. I was just reflecting on my own nervousness about the year and how much we have to figure out about DS5.

<nervous teeth chattering>

I'd love to join in the discussion.

DD5, my oldest, is starting in K mid-August. We are going in on Monday for her kindergarten assessment. DD goes to a private, gifted school (she went there for most of pre-school as well) and this is considered the first "academic" year. The assessment should be for placement in math and reading groups.

I'm trying not to think too much about the assessment, but I do have some secret fears that dd will throw the whole thing by being silly or refusing to cooperate. By my best guess, she is quite capable of doing 3rd grade math and reading at that level or beyond. But sometimes she feels like doing it and other times she says, "Oh, I wasn't thinking with that part of my brain." Sometimes she refuses to count accurately, yet I know she can multiply, divide, add fractions, etc. I know that she will eventually find her way into the correct grouping (even she can't hide her abilities all year), but it would make life so much easier if she just started out in the right one.

I feel like we're making a big sacrifice by spending so much money to send her to this school because it's supposed to make life easier. So she can be with peers her age but learn at whatever grade level she needs. So now it's time for the school to step up to the plate ... and I'm praying no one is disappointed.

Wow, guess I was more stressed about it than I thought. Thanks for letting me vent. I love this board

I'm in! My DS4 (December birthday) will start kindergarten next month, and I couldn't be more excited. We're very fortunate in that he'll go to a private school with less than 10 kids per grade where, supposedly, every kid is taught at the level of his/her ability. They spend the first two weeks of school assessing each child's personality, learning style, and achievement levels in all core subjects, and then develop an individualized curriculum for each student based on the results. I'm dying to hear the results--not so much for what it will tell me about my son, but for what it will tell me about the school. It would be so wonderful to be able to hand his education over to people who really "get" him and what he needs. There have to be SOME good schools out there, right?

If you had told me before I had kids that I would send mine to private school, I wouldn't have believed you, but I also didn't know then that two-year-olds can read. So, here we are. After hearing so many horror stories on this board, I'm just happy to have this school as an option, even if it's going to cost us. Ironically, the school is less than 10 minutes from my house, but it's so small and low-profile that I probably never would have known it catered to gifted kids if it hadn't been for the Davidson site. Thank god for the internet!

Anyway, we're cautiously optimistic here.

I want to join in!

We're still not sure whether DD4 will be in K or 1st. She is enrolled in K at an arts charter school, but we have a meeting in 2 weeks to advocate for a skip to 1st. The principal told me they were all "philosophically opposed" to acceleration, but she did agree to schedule a meeting with the K and 1 teachers, special ed/school psychologist and us, so there's hope, right?

I gave her Nation Deceived and copies of the IAS last spring, but she didn't want to ask her busy staff to read them and told me they were being more than accomodating by agreeing to a meeting. I think they expect me to present the case for acceleration in general as well as DD's particulars.

I'm so nervous about what to say and what evidence to use (and what not to use!) so I educate without antagonizing. I think I'll start a new thread for people to share what specific pages from ND or articles and stats people have used to convince schools that acceleration isn't evil. ;-)

My DS5 will be starting K in late Aug. DS7's K year was a disaster and we ended up homeschooling part way through, but I'm hoping that things will be better for DS5. He's much more self-confident than DS7 and just seems more comfortable in his own skin. He isn't as globally advanced, so while he does crazy things with math, he isn't reading yet. I'm hopeful that having something concrete that he can learn at school will help. He's also just much more agreeable and gets along easier with people.

The school seems much more accommodating than the school DS7 went to. DS5's school is just our normal public elementary, but they have reading and math at the same times for K through 3rd so that kids who need to go to different levels can do so without feeling weird or missing out on other classes.

We'll continue homeschooling DS7 and I'm a bit nervous about having a foot in each "camp". I'm hopeful that this will be good for everyone and maybe bring a bit of balance into our days where the kids aren't together all the time and they get to have their own spaces and own sets of friends.

If all else fails, at least I already have experience pulling a child from school and homeschooling, lol.

We're right there with you, mamaandmore! We have a foot in each camp, too, a child nutty with math but not globally advanced like big brother, a go-along kid, etc.

However, we're sending him to the same public school that DS8 went to. If that doesn't work, we'll homeschool.

Private school is never off the table completely--nothing is if it might work!--but isn't being actively considered right now. So I'm very interested to hear about your year...