Gifted School-Age Children

I used to pop in when my ds (now 9) was in first grade. I need some advice on several fronts.. First, I'm frustrated with our district's gifted program (or lack thereof). In a nutshell, they don't do anything specific until 5th grade and that's based on the standardized tests from 3rd and/or 4th grade. They only take the top 2% of the kids in the district! This year my ds took these tests for the first time and managed to misalign one section causing him to drop from the 95+% to the 75+%. This totally sucks! I spoke to the "differentiation specialist" about it and she assured me that it wouldn't have an affect on his opportunities in elementary school. Great, what about middle and high school? The kid is in every possible advanced (technically not gifted) program they've got (spelling, math, and reading) program they've got, wins the brainteaser challenge in the class at least twice/week (in fact last week the teacher admitted she took the second person in line on a technicality because my son wins so often and she's put up the question while he's out of the room to give the other kids a chance before), and is frickin' bored out of his mind in school. Last week he was complaining that he had to read forever while the rest of the class finished a multiplication lesson of some sort. It took him about 10 seconds to pick up that you add decimals the same way you add whole numbers and they spent several days on it in class. The teacher is phenomenal and is trying to keep him challenged but he's careless with his work and has a bit of an attitude so I don't think she knows how much he really know. I try to help his mind by expanding his horizons at home but then he's just bored when they finally around to it in school. He's known how to multiply for 4 years and is finally getting to it at school. I don't want his mind atrophy but I don't want him to be bored. I'm afraid he's not going to qualify for the gifted program setting him up for further boredom and ultimately causing him to be less than he really can be. He's in a program for gifted kids at the local university and I try to encourage that but even then, it's 2.5 hours a week and there isn't much work outside of class. How do I help him reach his potential? How do I get the school district to believe what he can do when he won't show them? He was tested at age 5 and had an IQ of 155. His current principal poo-pooed this saying he was so young that it really wasn't relevant. I want to help him more at home but don't know where to start. We've been through the basic math curriculum and I don't know what comes next or even if I'm capable of helping him with it. Any suggestions? I'm pretty convinced that I'm going to have to take his education into my own hands but I'm not really qualified to teach him. I'm not stupid but this kid scored in the 99% on all but two sections of the standardized tests he took. I'm beginning to wish I had put him in the gifted school we looked at two years ago. Based on his latest scores I don't think he'd get in now. :( All because he screwed up one section (by starting in the wrong column and getting flustered by the mistake.

The second thing I need help with is this... How do I help him realize how important school is? He HATES physical writing so his classwork is often messy and he feels it's beneath him and isn't interested so he really doesn't care. He doesn't like the homework and really doesn't care if he does his best or not. He often skips problems, scribbles answers so they can't be read, rushes and gets easy things wrong, etc.

Third, has anyone had their child take the EXPLORE test? Was it helpful in determining your child's strengths, weaknesses, and progress from year to year?

Thanks for any advice or comiseration...

Amibee - looking for the pulling your hair out emoticon!!!

http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/Visual_Spatial_Learner/vsl.htm
I was looking into this today for my ds13 and came across this site on visual spatial learners. If this describes your ds as close as it does my ds13, you might have your answer. My ds used to do great on standardized tests til about 4th grade, and now does marginal at best (they now require a lot more writing and 'showing your work' that he flat out refuses to do). About 50% of the time, it also happens to him in class on tests (yet he goes into a test and comes out of it knowing the work - says it's not anxiety; more like he just has a million other things going on in his head) - the doctor has no clue; he's not ADHD/ADD (was evaluated in 2nd grade), the teachers all think there's no issue as they know him and know he gets everything based on homework and in-class performance. It's TERRIBLY frustrating, as then he feels 'stupid' and it sometimes takes a long time to talk him down to feeling ok about himself again, as I, too, know he knows the stuff.

As for handwriting, his is awful. He started learning to type in 3rd in school and we got software for him at home prior to that too, which supplemented it. If he is permitted to type, he does a great job and gets more written. If he has to write by hand, it's miminal and marginal quality.

He's accelerated a year and is in the best public school district in our metro area. So we're trying to make the best of it and hope the test scores don't jeopardize the future!

He took the EXPLORE last month; we don't have results yet but other parents with older kids found it pretty useless.

I can definitely commiserate, and if you come up with an answer, I'd LOVE to hear it.

Sue

Amibee.

Im new here so I dont have any answers. I've noticed that my DS (7 end this month) HATES to write too. He can read etc with no problem. I think his mind just goes so much faster than his mind does that he can't get it down fast enough and neat enough for him to re-read. So instead of working on it to improve, he just says, ah heck with it.

My brother (who had the same issues in school himself) suggested I teach him handwritting (cursive). So I'm going to see if that will help.

Good luck!
Shannan