Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Throwing down the gauntlet...long post

I'd say that's a minor victory. Good for you & ds.
Now just watch for follow-through. I am finding that teachers tend to 'forget' since my dd doesn't have a formal plan drawn up yet (& they have 100+ other students.) We are just taking things a day at a time while we wait for evaluations to be finalized.

Thanks guys; yeah follow through is a question for sure. I think I had put ds primary teacher a bit on the defensive but I hope this chance to talk face to face has helped. I didn't get any feedback from ds that he got anything different than the usual yesterday, but it is only the first day. He did pick up some math work yesterday after cub scouts, so that was nice to see.

Yup, follow through seems to be the issue, for now. I have to complete all this paperwork for application for assessment. Meanwhile ds is enjoying some more geometry and 'mathemagician' books. And he doesn't seem to get any extra math work unless he finishes his other work...so I got him a digital watch to help with timing himself/get through what he calls the 'baby work' faster. Hopefully that will not cause pressure. I think he might be ready, at age 10, to start looking at a clock.... Sigh.

Your story is eerily familiar. In fact, last year (2nd grade) my son came home saying he hated math and was no good at. This caused HUGE alarm bells for me and my husband as we were already struggling with the school and my son's clear lack of joy there. We immediately got him a tutor who works specifically with gifted children (yes, big $, but we saw it as our only option). She does no drilling. Instead what we discovered is that our son is what she calls a "non-linear learner"...so the ideas that he has jumps YEARS beyond his abilities, and then he has to go back and fill in with all this rote stuff.

You may just be dealing with someone who needs that stimulation that they are only going to get from exploring algebra, physics, astrophysics, calculus etc. etc. and all the stuff that the school dist. does is just back-fill.

Take a look at the Kahn academy online or take a look at Zaccaros books. They might inspire your child.

Another thought is that my son has a VERY high IQ, but an average processing speed. My understanding from others is that this is not uncommon...so your child might be having very deep, bit thoughts, but "spitting them out" is difficult.

I would explore on your own what is going to work best for your child and then offer that as a solution to the school (obviously some schools/teachers will be more receptive than others). My son's teacher's for the last 3 years were not receptive AT ALL. This year's teacher challenges him to be just as smart as he is. So let your child know you support him fully and will make his learning opportunities outside of school as wonderful and exciting as possible. And continue to go to bat for him behind the scenes. This "minute testing" might really tie into a sense of perfectionism that many gifted kids have. This may to real damage. Talk to the school from that perspective.

Having recently discovered that my son panics on timed tests (the scat) I now ask him to make note of the time when he starts his work and when he finishes. I'm hoping that by giving him a sense of how long his work actually take, he'll realize that in most cases he has plenty of time and relax a little.

Your story sounds eerily familiar too! I had a zaccarro book and he did indeed like the work on astronomy problems, but sort of petered out after that. I have just recently gotten another book on pre-algebra, one on algebra and one on 'solving problems in astronomy' to see what would appeal, and to have something more substantial to hand in for the 'work at home' aspect of this assessment.

Well, the pre-algebra was ok for a few minutes, but quickly became obvious that he knew all there was or picked it up so fast it was like he knew it already...ok, onto the algebra book.
Granted this thing starts with pascal's triangle, which he's checked out before, and math with exponents, substituting for variables/etc., (easy stuff) but we are 1/4th of the way through the book in a couple of days and not finding anything to have him even pause to think about it before he's like 'ok', I get it, does a few problems and gets a bit bored with the repetition aspect....
This morning I rolled out the astronomy book and the ideas about ellipses and orbits was finally something a bit 'thicker' that he could sink his teeth into. We just chatted about that...

He just came into the room with his ski goggles on and his microscope, so I think I better end this post, but you get the idea....oddly HATES practicing with these concepts, but he seems to pick them up VERY fast.

Hopefully some of the work he is doing will hit the mark with the assessment folks...

Processing speed will come with drill. Drill also helps with test anxiety.

I did not enjoy drill a lot until I started working multi-part problems. Maybe word problems will be the ticket?

Thanks Austin, yes I hope the speed does come with drill, but boy getting him to drill!
Slowly he is coming along with the rote re-memorization as the year rolls along.