Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Lots of stress today! Testing tomorrow- long post

Between my stress with DS6's behavior lately and then him going from being homeschooled for K last year to started public school First grade next monday, I feel like I am graying as we speak!
We had a whole battery of tests (IQ and achievement testing) done this summer by a private psych because the public schools refused since he was being homeschooled. They very clearly show a Highly gifted child working at least one grade level ahead of where he would normally be and in some cases 2 grade levels ahead. With his dypraxia, he scored very low on the handwriting portion of the Woodcock Johnson - gee - no surprise there!
Anyways...after many calls between the principal and an advocate we hired to help us fine tune his IEP that he has had since he was 3 so that it is acceptable for a classroom instead of homeschool environment...it appears that they are only going to "look" at his test reports, they are not going to accept my K portfolio that I have kept all last year with all the work and projects we did(and throw in the fact that I am a certified K teacher and had worked in the county for years before leaving to homeschool) and that tomorrow he has to go into a complete stranger K teacher's classroom at the school and sit down and complete several assessments to determine if he "passed" K and can be placed in a First Grade class room...I am SO mad about the whole thing - we have a full report showing very clearly he is well past K along with all of his school work from last year that we did and they are still going to make him take yet another slew of assessments.
When DS6 meets people for the first time, he either is perfectly fine, or he acts silly or he completely ignores them.....so this could go well or turn into a nightmare...what if he refuses to answer or pulls his, "I'm tired" and just says, "I don't know" when he very much knows the answer! I haven't gone into a lot of explanation about tomorrow other than telling him that he is going to meet a K teacher and she is going to ask him some things about stuff he learned last year...I am just worried that he will have an Off day and not do well and then the school will just go, oh well, he didn't pass the assessments so he will be placed in K which would be a nightmare (he is the size of a 10 year old and will be 7 in Jan). not to mention he is several grade levels ahead of K.
Just needed to vent and have everyone keep fingers crossed that mister tornado child will just be his normal charming self :-)

Wow, your school system starts school early! I'm sorry your school is being so dense and so is stressing you out! {Hugs} to you and good luck!

I'm so sorry you are being asked to jump through unnecessary hoops. How stressful! Good luck tomorrow!

Good luck tomorrow and try not to let DS6 pick up on any of your worry. We will all be thinking of you.

Thanks guys for the vent :-) We are trying really hard to be super duper low key about tomorrow. He told me that he is really excited but "sorta" scared at the same time about the whole starting public school. The one key that seems to help a lot...is that he is in LOVE with all things Manatee and has been for over a year...and the school is Manatee Elementary -so he is just happy about that :-) I am just SO annoyed that they are making us jump through so many hoops when we have all the info they need right under their noses!

I really, really enjoyed homeschooling this past year and it is very much an option if things don't work out..when he asked about trying school again, I was very upbeat and open and said if there is anything he ever is interested in or wants to try, we will do whatever needs to be done to support him and let him try or explore it. I am just worried because his montessori preschool basically chewed him up and spit him out and it took us this past year to get our little guy back.

The next fight is that we were told that his teacher (if he passes the assessment tomorrow) will need to observe him for the first 9 weeks and then on her recommendation would refer him for the gifted program at the end of the first grading period...with all the meetings/paperwork..it would be close to December before he could actually start their one day a week pull out gifted program despite all the testing that they have in front of them...argggghhhh...one step at a time :-)

Yippeee..one hurdle over and ten million more to come! We finished the assessment and the K teacher said that he more than qualifies for first grade - she said the only thing that was clear was that he had a motor control issue....ie: his dyspraxia. She also voiced a concern about the proper placement....his Woodcock Johnson shows him reading at the end of Second Grade and math at middle of second grade and she said he mastered all of the K skill testing...so I am jus SO worried about what the outcome of all of this will be.... So they had us move onto the registration table to finish the process...DS6 was a saint because after 30 minutes of testing he was thrown into a mess of about 150 families all screaming and running around in the school's lunch room and he held himself together pretty darn well but was just on the edge of losing it sensory wise...I was SO proud of him....when we went up to the first grade table to drop off his paperwork the only really annoying thing is that they had already placed him into a classroom - I told the school very much up front that teacher placement was going to be a big discussion and would either make or break him and that I wanted to sit down and be able to discuss it before a decision was made...and of course the teacher they placed him with is a no nonsense, never smile teacher...over the last 2 years of us going in for speech and OT to this school, I would sit for my one hour 2 times a week in the lobby and watch all the K and 1st grade classes go by and this teacher honestly never seemed to crack a smile or speak nicely to the kids...and my heart sank in my chest when she said he was placed in her class. First off, I was just mad that they had made a placement when they knew that I wanted to sit down and weigh all the options and then second, why do they think that children that are "out of the norm" need no-nonsense, strict, you do it my way or else teachers????? This would be the WORST scenario for my child... he needs an easy going, understanding and patient teacher that knows how to work with out of the box children.....I have no clue what to do about it.
....I have to go back later after my husband comes home to finish the paperwork because honestly the insane noise and mayhem was trying my last nerve (I was SOOOOO proud my little guy held it together as well as he did) so I have no idea if I should seek out the principal and state my concerns or what....I have a meeting with our advocate tomorrow concerning his IEP and I am hoping she can help us with this as well....oh well...one down and more to come!

Have no clue what to do next...she also looked totally disgusted when she saw that DS6 was just starting to get overwhelmed...we all know the "look" that people give children.

Hi Belle, glad to hear your son held himself together.

Sorry to hear about the teacher placement (especially her apparent negative attitude about his sensitivity!).

I agree the teacher can make a HUGE difference, although we've not had much say so far with our ds9.
He had two 'so-so' teachers in 1st and 2nd, and his attitude about school really reflected this.
Ds' 3rd grade teacher was just like you hope for - easy going, understanding, someone willing to think out of the box to help and out of the box thinker!! She was a dream come true. We had forms to fill out this year for teacher 'requests' which are not for specific teachers, but to talk about your child's learning style, etc., for better placement.
Basically I put: someone like his current teacher would be fantastic. For a while I worried/wondered if she was 'too easy' on him, but now I realize she was gently motivating, kind and downright inspiring at times.
I do hope you are able to resolve this for your son and find that gem of a teacher.
Keeping my fingers crossed for both these guys for the coming year!!

Hi Belle,
Try to stand your ground and get the teacher your son needs - the teacher does make the difference! I always think that it needs to be someone that you are comfortable with too. We will all be here to support you