[Pocahontas]

Hi ladies,

Needing some advice...

DS1 is currently in the FYOS in NSW and is the oldest kid in the class, turning 6 the other week. In hindsight we should have sent him to school last year as he's ahead of the other kids in his class in many areas but with him being our first kid, didn't realise and thought it better to hold younger boys bacl. I'd say that (without any testing) that he's academically talented without being gifted.

He is doing really well socially and enjoying a lot of aspects of the classroom. For reading they seem to stream them so this has been fine. His teacher has is selecting readers that are appropriate for him to take home.

Where they don't seem to be stretching him at all is maths. DS is very maths inclined. As a preschooler he counted house numbers as we walked and taught himself to count in 2s. He can do times tables up to about 6 as well as his 10 times tables. He also plays card games that are maths based including one that has decimals. None of this is being driven by us. As far as i can tell, there is little in the way of maths in the classroom other than very simple play-based activities focusing around counting and sorting numbers up to 20 which he is waaay ahead.

How would you approach the teacher to discuss extending him in maths? I haven't until now as I didn't want to be the pushy parent - I just feel that he needs more. I don't have a close relationship with the teacher but no issues either. This being my first time discussing all of this I'd like to start the converstaion in a positive way.

[bluemonkey]

Sorry for jumping topics but I think I had a lightbulb go off - for those who had the WISC test done, it it normal that they would do the WIAT achievement test too? Would it be part of the report that you get?

I have to say that I do feel somewhat down when I come in here to read the posts and updates. Just how hard is it for the education system to teach our kids ? DD is doing ok at the moment, but I vary between worrying about her needs being catered for and then worrying that I am worrying too much

Oh, one thing that has improved is that at homework time, she now has a 30min timer to get her work done.... the difference is amazing, what could be dragged out to 40mins+ is now getting done in about 15mins I think I was going about it all backwards!

[eboyd]

HI Everyone,

I am new here and not sure that I belong yet. We are getting our DS1 (6) grade 1 in Vic tested next week, unfortunately we started the ball rolling through the school before I had read up on this forum, it seems that getting tested through the school might not be the best thing however at the moment due to finances being a bit tight it is our only option.

We are not even completely sure that our DS is gifted, he is at the top of his class, has been doing the year ahead maths and still finding it too easy, the school is not sure about giving him harder stuff yet (not sure why). Not sure what his reading lvl is as even though he is doing the lvl 25 PM Plus readers he finds these too easy as well and is reading way beyond that at home.

He was really good at doing puzzles from an early age doing the 48 piece by himself by 2 1/2 and the 100 piece with help by 3. His memory is amazing, recalling things that have happened ages ago. He LOVES documentaries and gets really terrified at any movies that are slightly "scary".

He is very sensitive to others emotions and gets upset if others are hurt (esp family). We have fairly aggressive outbursts every couple of months where he will punch the wall, kick things at the wall etc.

The form the school gave us to fill out asked all sorts of developmental questions that I just couldn't answer. We moved back to Australia from NZ two years ago and I think that the books that I have the info in must be still packed over there. How important is it to be able to give them ages of when he talked, crawled etc? I just can not remember them at all. The only one I remember accurately is his walking age.

Sorry for the long post, thank you if you got this far, and you all seem like really lovely helpful and encouraging parents so thank you for that too.

Emma

[Therese]

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