gifted acceleration

My son is entering school this year. We did a high quality montessori
preschool this past year. He literally came home every day, told me
all the different things that they covered, told me "but I already
knew that", and then told me that he likes his class "but I wish I got
to learn about..." The teacher spoke with me about my plans for him
for school and asked if she could help by doing some evaluative
testing with him. Even she was surprised at what he was mentally
capable of. Right now, we're between a rock and a hard place.

The woman who will be my son's teacher is NOT open to acceleration.
She felt the need to tell me 6 times in one conversation that she was
"an early childhood education developmental specialist". She has yet
to ask me a single probing question about him or his abilities. I am
very frustrated. The gifted programs in our county have been
systematically deleted over the last 5 years to save school dollars.
There are no gifted centers, programs, or classes available to him.
There is not a decent, secular, private school. I am considering
homeschooling him. (I have a degree in biochemistry, have tutored
elementary age, substitute taught for 2 years, and am very
resourceful.) I can not find local guidance, support groups, etc.
They don't exist. Moving to a different district is not a valid
option.

I want him to keep his love, interest, and motivation for learning.
I'm not sure there's any value to him or the other children in his
classroom for him to bring up information that they may not be ready
for, and interrupt the teacher to do so. If he continues as is, I
think the principal's office will be informing me of discipline
problems. No child is a constructive force when they have nothing to
stimulate them.

So, what do I do? I am looking for the voice of experience. I have
also begun posting flyers to start my own homeschool group, but have
had difficulty finding recruits. I can't spend another year with him
being influenced to "just keep working'. He's a voracious reader and
learner. When the other kids are learning that a spider has eight
legs, he's interrupting the teacher to tell her that they also have
eight eyes that are on the front of their cephalothorax - with one
larger pair that they use for hunting, while the other six just help
them with day and night.


HELP!!

Have you checked out www.hoagiesgifted.com yet? Lots of resources there.

Here's a discussion board dedicated to HG+ children, and it sounds like your
son probably fits in that group. Many, many of the parents here have found
that homeschooling is the best choice for their child, and many others have
found ways to make traditional schooling work full or part-time.
http://disc.server.com/Indices/226130.html

On Jun 27, 1:49 am, wrote:
My son is entering school this year. We did a high quality montessori
preschool this past year. He literally came home every day, told me
all the different things that they covered, told me "but I already
knew that", and then told me that he likes his class "but I wish I got
to learn about..." The teacher spoke with me about my plans for him
for school and asked if she could help by doing some evaluative
testing with him. Even she was surprised at what he was mentally
capable of. Right now, we're between a rock and a hard place.

The woman who will be my son's teacher is NOT open to acceleration.

I started a thread recently about "entering kindergarten early" which
you could read, since our situations may be similar. Is your son
entering kindergarten or 1st grade? If he normally would be entering
kindergarten but is too advanced for it, maybe he ought to enter 1st
grade immediately, if the school district permits it. There is
considerable evidence supporting academic acceleration of gifted
children -- see http://www.nationdeceived.org/ .

She felt the need to tell me 6 times in one conversation that she was
"an early childhood education developmental specialist". She has yet
to ask me a single probing question about him or his abilities. I am
very frustrated. The gifted programs in our county have been
systematically deleted over the last 5 years to save school dollars.
There are no gifted centers, programs, or classes available to him.
There is not a decent, secular, private school.

I am an atheist and my wife is not a Christian, but we are sending our
son, who will be four in July, to kindergarten in a local Catholic
school. The preschool teacher gave him a test and concluded that the
decision of whether to enroll him in preschool or kindergarten was up
to us. I don't think public schools even consider taking 4-year-olds
in kindergarten. Catholic schools spend the vast majority of their
time on secular material, and many students in Catholic schools are
not Catholic, especially in inner cities.

I am considering homeschooling him. (I have a degree in biochemistry, have tutored
elementary age, substitute taught for 2 years, and am very
resourceful.) I can not find local guidance, support groups, etc.
They don't exist.

I've read that there about 1 million homeschoolers in the U.S. Most
states have homeschooling associations, for example Massachusetts Home
Learning Association http://www.mhla.org/support/masupportgroups.htm .
Those associations have links to email lists of homeschooling parents.

Moving to a different district is not a valid
option.

I want him to keep his love, interest, and motivation for learning.
I'm not sure there's any value to him or the other children in his
classroom for him to bring up information that they may not be ready
for, and interrupt the teacher to do so. If he continues as is, I
think the principal's office will be informing me of discipline
problems. No child is a constructive force when they have nothing to
stimulate them.

So, what do I do? I am looking for the voice of experience.

At most, others can share their experiences with THEIR children, and
you know your child best. You'll need to experiment. If you want to
homeschool and are able to do so, one of the first steps is to figure
out the legal requirements in your state. In many places you must file
a "letter of intent" with the local school district. I found the book
"Homeschooling for Dummies" (2001) by Jennifer Kaufeld informative. My
wife and I both work and are not planning to homeschool, but with
three small children (0.5 yrs, 2yrs, 4yrs), we'll see ...

I have
also begun posting flyers to start my own homeschool group, but have
had difficulty finding recruits. I can't spend another year with him
being influenced to "just keep working'. He's a voracious reader and
learner. When the other kids are learning that a spider has eight
legs, he's interrupting the teacher to tell her that they also have
eight eyes that are on the front of their cephalothorax - with one
larger pair that they use for hunting, while the other six just help
them with day and night.

HELP!!

Remember that having a gifted child is a great problem to have .

wrote:

So, what do I do? I am looking for the voice of experience. I have
also begun posting flyers to start my own homeschool group, but have
had difficulty finding recruits. I can't spend another year with him
being influenced to "just keep working'. He's a voracious reader and
learner. When the other kids are learning that a spider has eight
legs, he's interrupting the teacher to tell her that they also have
eight eyes that are on the front of their cephalothorax - with one
larger pair that they use for hunting, while the other six just help
them with day and night.

So, homeschool.

You might also hop on the home-ed mailing list. See if anyone from
there is nearby you.
Home-ed mailing list

http://www.twobar.com/mailman/listinfo/home-ed

Michelle
Flutist

On Jun 27, 6:31 am, Beliavsky wrote:
On Jun 27, 1:49 am, wrote:

My son is entering school this year. We did a high quality montessori
preschool this past year. He literally came home every day, told me
all the different things that they covered, told me "but I already
knew that", and then told me that he likes his class "but I wish I got
to learn about..." The teacher spoke with me about my plans for him
for school and asked if she could help by doing some evaluative
testing with him. Even she was surprised at what he was mentally
capable of. Right now, we're between a rock and a hard place.

She felt the need to tell me 6 times in one conversation that she was
"an early childhood education developmental specialist". She has yet
to ask me a single probing question about him or his abilities. I am
very frustrated. The gifted programs in our county have been
systematically deleted over the last 5 years to save school dollars.
There are no gifted centers, programs, or classes available to him.
There is not a decent, secular, private school.

I am an atheist and my wife is not a Christian, but we are sending our
son, who will be four in July, to kindergarten in a local Catholic
school. The preschool teacher gave him a test and concluded that the
decision of whether to enroll him in preschool or kindergarten was up
to us. I don't think public schools even consider taking 4-year-olds
in kindergarten. Catholic schools spend the vast majority of their
time on secular material, and many students in Catholic schools are
not Catholic, especially in inner cities.

Catholic schools do tend to be more flexible on letting kids start
early, but they also tend to have even fewer dollars to spend on
special programs at either end of the spectrum (gifted or delayed).
Where we live, the Catholic schools send their gifted students to the
public school GT pull-out programs and for special ed.


I am considering homeschooling him. (I have a degree in biochemistry, have tutored
elementary age, substitute taught for 2 years, and am very
resourceful.) I can not find local guidance, support groups, etc.
They don't exist.

I have
also begun posting flyers to start my own homeschool group, but have
had difficulty finding recruits. I can't spend another year with him
being influenced to "just keep working'. He's a voracious reader and
learner. When the other kids are learning that a spider has eight
legs, he's interrupting the teacher to tell her that they also have
eight eyes that are on the front of their cephalothorax - with one
larger pair that they use for hunting, while the other six just help
them with day and night.

I feel for you. Our boys would similarly interrupt their teachers
with additional facts and we found that some teachers really did not
appreciate it. We also struggled with what to do. Thankfully, we had
a great 1st grade teacher for both that was able to challenge the boys
and we just toughed it out for Kindergarten and 2nd grade. Our school
district has recently started offering full-time gifted classrooms
starting in 3rd grade and it's been a perfect fit for us. The
classrooms cover the regular curriculum at a faster pace and also go
more in depth into each subject because these kids don't need to spend
as long on the basics. Classroom discussion is highly encouraged, so
our boys fit right in.

It sounds like home schooling is going to be your best option. I know
when we were looking into it, we investigated a few online academies.
That would be the route I would take if we didn't have the classroom
option we have now.

Good luck,
Annie

On Jun 27, 11:53 am, annie wrote:

snip

Catholic schools do tend to be more flexible on letting kids start
early, but they also tend to have even fewer dollars to spend on
special programs at either end of the spectrum (gifted or delayed).
Where we live, the Catholic schools send their gifted students to the
public school GT pull-out programs and for special ed.

Yes, I think the tuition is less than $4K per year, which is much less
than the average spending per student in publis schools. Furthermore,
there are only about 20 students per grade and one teacher per grade,
so "ability-grouped" classrooms will not be possible. I don't think
the school will be our long-term choice, but we'll see. I think the
full-time gifted classrooms starting in 3rd grade that you mentioned
are unusual in public schools. Ability grouping (not exacly the same
thing) in all subjects started in 7th grade when I went to school, in
the 1970s.

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Jun 27, 11:53 am, annie wrote:

snip

Catholic schools do tend to be more flexible on letting kids start
early, but they also tend to have even fewer dollars to spend on
special programs at either end of the spectrum (gifted or delayed).

Yes, I think the tuition is less than $4K per year, which is much less
than the average spending per student in publis schools. Furthermore,
there are only about 20 students per grade and one teacher per grade,
so "ability-grouped" classrooms will not be possible.

Actually, Catholic schools don't have any incentive to keep classes small,
so a class of only about 20 students is not all that common. A first grade
classroom in a Catholic school in this area usually has 35 to 40 children.
The upside is, being a Catholic school they can kick out disruptive
children, so they might be able to handle 40 children with one teacher if
none of them are unruly.

Looking back, I was surprised to see my 4th grade class had 50 children.

On Jun 27, 7:29 pm, "Cathy Kearns" wrote:
"Beliavsky" wrote in message

oups.com...

Yes, I think the tuition is less than $4K per year, which is much less
than the average spending per student in publis schools. Furthermore,
there are only about 20 students per grade and one teacher per grade,
so "ability-grouped" classrooms will not be possible.

Actually, Catholic schools don't have any incentive to keep classes small,
so a class of only about 20 students is not all that common. A first grade
classroom in a Catholic school in this area usually has 35 to 40 children.
The upside is, being a Catholic school they can kick out disruptive
children, so they might be able to handle 40 children with one teacher if
none of them are unruly.

That has not been my experience at all. In the Catholic school I
attended,
the one my nephews go to, the one my nieces went to, the ones my
mother taught at and the one my daughter currently attends, class size
was/is 25-28 students per class. Plus, the elementary grades (K-3 or
so) have a teacher and an aide. (Note this covers 4 different
states).

It is true that they can be more selective in who they let in and who
they kick out. Also, the Catholic schools I've been involved in have
good parental involvement.

Mary W.

Mary W. wrote:
On Jun 27, 7:29 pm, "Cathy Kearns" wrote:

"Beliavsky" wrote in message

groups.com...


Yes, I think the tuition is less than $4K per year, which is much less
than the average spending per student in publis schools. Furthermore,
there are only about 20 students per grade and one teacher per grade,
so "ability-grouped" classrooms will not be possible.

Actually, Catholic schools don't have any incentive to keep classes small,
so a class of only about 20 students is not all that common. A first grade
classroom in a Catholic school in this area usually has 35 to 40 children.
The upside is, being a Catholic school they can kick out disruptive
children, so they might be able to handle 40 children with one teacher if
none of them are unruly.


That has not been my experience at all. In the Catholic school I
attended,
the one my nephews go to, the one my nieces went to, the ones my
mother taught at and the one my daughter currently attends, class size
was/is 25-28 students per class. Plus, the elementary grades (K-3 or
so) have a teacher and an aide. (Note this covers 4 different
states).


That's my experience as well (2 cities - Atlanta, GA and Charleston, SC.
My children don't go to Catholic schools but I did investigate them.
25 students per class seemed about the norm. 35 to 40 kids in a
first-grade classroom? That would definitely not be typical in the
places I've lived.

Clisby

It is true that they can be more selective in who they let in and who
they kick out. Also, the Catholic schools I've been involved in have
good parental involvement.

Mary W.

On Wed, 27 Jun 2007 05:31:59 -0700, Beliavsky wrote:

I am an atheist and my wife is not a Christian, but we are sending our
son, who will be four in July, to kindergarten in a local Catholic
school. The preschool teacher gave him a test and concluded that the
decision of whether to enroll him in preschool or kindergarten was up
to us. I don't think public schools even consider taking 4-year-olds
in kindergarten. Catholic schools spend the vast majority of their
time on secular material, and many students in Catholic schools are
not Catholic, especially in inner cities.

In our school district, children enter kindergarten as early as 4 1/2 and
as late as 6 1/2.