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

I get most of my information at bathtime. I don't know why but that's when my DS is most willing to talk. Other times it's like pulling teeth!

For us it was a pretty long process. It started shortly after I went to K orientation for parents the spring before DS was scheduled to start. Between that and his K screening scores, DW and I decided to talk to the school. We talked with admins in special services, the K principal and the elementary (1 - 5) principal. The admin was actually very helpful, and admitted that she had a bias against early admissions into first. The elementary teacher was strongly anti-early admissions. The K principal was helpful (she had GT kids) but was encouraging us to keep DS on track to start K in the fall.

We decided to have DS privately tested. Very, very expensive route to go. In our district the regulation is that you can request early admissions to first if your child has a "mental age" of at least 7 years old (which DS did). IIRC, that was not the IQ test but the achievement test.

We then went back to the admin, she read the results and said she'd support our petition, and then we had to go to the school board to get approval. Because the admin supported us, the board was a rubber stamp.

That's how we did it. The actual decision to push forward was a hard one and I'd probably choose differently knowing what we know know. But that was our process. Your mileage may vary...

JB

Yes, we do quite a bit of talking about dd's fears just before bedtime. It's a great time to talk about what's up.

So I guess I'm caught up now.

I'm getting more and more anxious about this year as time goes on. DSs behavior is getting worse and he tells me that he doesn't learn anything. I don't think it'll be long until he starts asking me to teach him at home like he asked almost everyday last year.

Saturday was family day at school where we went to the K classrooms and they had educational activities for the kids. Last year DS was the kid that was always blurting things out and getting into trouble for it and I noticed at Family Day he'd sit in the way back and not participate. I think that it's all so boring to him he's just checked out.

They won't consider moving him up for reading until after Christmas (even though they said that they would) because he's "fidigity". He got in trouble the other day for not doing his worksheet correctly. He said that he had read the instructions to himself and did it and then when he was done just wanted to do something else so he was making up his own instructions to have something to do.

I'm still trying to stay optimistic but it gets harder and harder each day.

All of that being said can you guys recommend some workbooks that I can do with him at home? Up until now I have taught him at home but I've held back because I didn't want him to be bored. I've now realized that no matter what I teach him he'll always be bored so why not give his brain some stimulation.

I don't know if I should go over the teacher's head and talk to the principal about my concerns or give the teacher another few weeks and see what happens.

Jamie B, we tried before K, but hit too many roadblocks and couldn't afford the private testing. We were just extremely lucky to get an awesome K teacher who saw DS5.5's strengths. She is the one that suggested whole grade acceleration, which apparently cannot happen prior to the start of K in our district (unless we go through the process JBDad did).

I don't remember if I updated but I responded elsewhere so you might have seen parts of this post in the not advocating Kindergarten post.

It was difficult to ask to accommodate for dd's advanced reading ability because she was selectively mute. Because of the selective mutism, we didn't rush to accommodate for that because if she couldn't speak in school, there would be no use in pushing her forward academically. Even though she was a self-taught reader, and even though she was tested through different kinds of testing that showed her to be 2-3 years above her age level, pushing for her to go to K last year might have been a really bad idea.

We focused instead on the mutism and the anxiety at school. She actually has an IEP for that. I worked on emotion coaching her at home using social stories.

But, we prepared her so well for this year, that she's made a huge breakthrough and spoke on the first day of classes and actually made some friends.

She did so well that when it came time to do initial reading assessments for her last week in kindergarten, she tested at a second grade reading level. She will be placed in a higher reading group and given challenging books to read for her take home books (if you are familiar with the DRA reading levels, she will be given books at a level 20 to start with).

The wait and see approach has turned out better than I'd hoped it would.

She has a really warm teacher who seems to really encourage dd and since she is only in half day K, she isn't wiped out like she would be otherwise (she tends towards reactive hypoglycemia).

I actually took DS to a psychologist last week and got some private testing done but don't have the results yet. I'm not sure how he did because he gets silly sometimes. I also took him to his pediatrician who said that he thinks that his behavior problems are the result of him being so bored. I am thinking that maybe I can bring the test results and a letter from his pediatrician to his school and see if they'll work with me.

He's in the gifted program but he only gets 90 minutes once a week. He loves that time and does extremely well but it's way less than he needs.

I'm afraid that because he seems to have already lost interest in Kindergarten and doesn't participate they can't see how really advanced he is.

That's great Sciencemama!! So is her anxiety getting better?

What is selective mutism?

Hi everyone. Just skimming a bit; so sorry to hear about the crying after drop off, mamaandmore.

Here's a quick update. Got DS5's first projects back on Friday. One was a picture of himself and his dog. Me: "Why did you give yourself a frowny face?" DS5: "Because it is a school day." I won't read too much into it yet. Another interesting comment, when I was pulling teeth to get info. He said he didn't think he'd like the parts of kindergarten when it seems like they're just wasting time. He would not elaborate, and I fear I will attribute every comment to his not being in the right placement if I pull things out of context. Though, getting context from this kid is hard! Like JBDad, I have gotten a little more info at bedtime. But not enough for me!

I hope that he starts to like it more!