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

I hesitate to brag out DS4's school here because other people are having so many problems, but in light of the recent talk about negative posts dominating the forum, I've decided to come out and say our school is great and DS4 is thriving there!

As background, my son started full-day kindergarten about a month ago at a small private school where K-12 are all under one roof, and no grade has more than 10 kids. Because the school is so small, they can do extensive pretesting in all subjects and develop an individualized curriculum for each kid. It's not a gifted school per se (it's open to all students and is remarkably diverse), but the founder did graduate work in giftedness and started the school with gifted kids in mind. Not surprisingly, it attracts a lot of gifted students. Because they don't advertise themselves as a gifted school, I probably wouldn't have found them if it hadn't been for the Davidson site (THANK YOU!), even though they're located right by my house.

In kindergarten, my son is doing 4th grade reading and advanced math along with more age-appropriate work on things like writing. All the kids get hands-on science and geography lessons as well as weekly instruction in drama, PE, music and Spanish. They also get plenty of time to play with Legos (my son's favorite part of the day), regular field trips, and extra-curriculars like a Lego club and soccer (with the school--not the parents--hauling the kids!).

So far, everything the kindergarten teacher has said has been music to my ears. She has profoundly gifted kids herself and gets things like perfectionism, which she has been working through with my son. For shock value and to remind parents how good they've got it, she often brings up what the public school curriculum would be for the current week (i.e., "on" vs. "under"). And the best part is, the school is relatively affordable for a private, individually-tailored education.

My son has literally cried more than once when I've gone to pick him up (sometimes as late as 5:00, depending on my schedule), because he wanted to stay longer to play on the playground or build with Legos. I keep saying the teachers there must think we beat him at home or something, because he'd rather be at school.

I know things could still take a turn for the worse, but so far, we've really got it made. Good schools do exist! We're just lucky to have one within our reach.

I hope this post doesn't come off as callous, considering all the very real struggles so many people here are going through. I sincerely wish things could be so easy for this entire group!

Jamie B - Here are a couple articles on gifte vs. adhd: http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/adhd_and_gifted.html

http://giftedkids.about.com/od/giftedandld/a/gt_and_ld_3.htm

My DS5 sometimes takes a long time to get his thoughts out too, though not 5 or 10 minutes. For him, it seems to be related to perfectionism - he wants to get the exact right words. But I would say 5 to 10 minutes sounds like something to look into.

Shellmos - that is awesome! If it works out, I would love to know which program it is, so I can suggest something similar.

Ms Friz - WOW!!! That sounds fabulous. Clone that and bring it within driving distance to me, please!

Hi Jamie,
I would consider you look at that book, but also that you get an evaluation done just for more information. A few things that you said make me think this. 1. You mentioned he has difficulty focusing but other times he can focus really well on things. That can be because of his interest level or that could also be a symptom of a child with ADHD because they don't just not focus, they tend to hyperfocus and focus very well on certain activities. 2. The difficulty getting sentences out. That is most likely because he has so much going on in his head he is having trouble organizing it all. Things move so quickly in there and there are so many thoughts his mouth can't even keep up and he can't put it into words. So...while this could be him being gifted, again it can be a symptom of a child with ADHD. Children with ADHD often have a hard time with organizational skills, have a lot of thoughts going on as well. I am not saying he has or doesn't have it obviously, but those two things you mentioned as well as the school concerns makes me think that it can't hurt to get an evaluation done. It will help you out either way. If he has it, they can give you suggestions and treatment. If he doesn't, then you will have information for the schools if and when the topic comes up. Win, win. Good luck!

Thanks for the links!

It takes us about 15 minutes to get to school in the morning and the other day it took him almost that whole time to tell me one thing.

That's what I wast think too. I can take him to get another opinion and then I can decide what to do from there.

Ms Friz, that's AWESOME!!!! And I don't think it's callous or rude to talk about the GOOD. In fact, I think it's GREAT!


Us too!

DITTO!

I agree. I love happy stories!

There's room for both here. Always.

My sweet little DS5, who has resisted learning to write since he first tried a few years ago and nothing came out how he wanted it, wrote me a note last night. And he wrote the letters for the notes for his piano homework, without complaint.

He also commented the other day that he didn't like school so much because the only thing he's learning is how to write. He's kind of figured out the writing thing faster than I expected, and that was one of my big goals for the year... This is end of the 2nd full week, and we have a conference in 2 weeks, so I think we will hold our comments to the school until then. Or would you recommend writing up concerns to give to the teacher before the conference? I think I'll do that.

That's so sweet that he wrote you a note!!!

I'd probably write them up so that they have a chance to look them over.