TerraNova

Daniel is taking the TerraNova test with the Department of Defense school here in Korea this week.  We won't get the results for another couple of months and it will be hard for me to wait as I am super interested to see how he does on it.

Though he ended up returning to homeschool after the first couple of months, he started this school year out at the DoD school and I was impressed by his grades for the first quarter.  He got an A+ in Math and Science!  The reason this is so impressive to me is because he is 1 to 2 grades ahead of his age.  He just turned 8 on December 30th and he is in 4th grade this year.  He completed 3rd grade at home last year (skipping 2nd grade) and he did very well, but sometimes I have a nagging wonder if I think he's doing better than he actually is.  The grades from the public school were an encouragement that this is not true and that he is on the right track.

He woke up early this morning and after he ate breakfast we sat on the couch cuddled together under a blanket. He began to tell me all about how the 4 chambers of the human heart pump our blood.  This is not from his science class but from a detailed book about the human body he read on his own months ago.  We moved on to talking about the brain and then onto how gold is used in medicine and technology.  I love these talks and I'm always amazed by what he knows and understands.  I love that these are the things that he wants to talk about!

I am so proud of him.  Not because he's smart, but because he's just a great kid.  I am interested to see what this standardized test will tell me about this kid who is anything but standard.

*The results came in today.  His total score for Reading, Language and Math was a National Percentile of 96% for students grade 4.7!

Home again, Homeschool again, Jiggity Jig (Part 2 of 3)

Daniel's birthday is December 30th.  In most of the 50 states, that would set him to start kindergarten at 5 1/2.  In Hawaii, though, the cut-off to start kindergarten is turning 5 by December 31st.  It was a perfect place for us to be stationed when Daniel was 4 1/2 because he was more than ready to start then.

I wanted to start him in a little Christian school, but they held to the standard of turning 5 by August and would not hear of making an exception.  This was very disappointing, especially when they gave me the very condescending "You'll see.  Next year he will be bigger, stronger, faster." speech, sure that I was just a naive parent who didn't really know what was best for her kid.  But while it maybe true that some (maybe even most) kids are more ready to start at 5-5 1/2, Daniel already was big and strong and fast.  He was plenty mature physically and emotionally, and already advanced academically.  He ended up dis-liking kindergarten at the public school and I feel it would have been different in the private school setting if only they had been willing to consider it.

After a disappointing year of kindergarten at the public school, we brought him home to homeschool for the 1st grade.  Then I found out about a private school for gifted students and he went there for the summer session in a combined 2nd/3rd grade class.  Since the school was more than we could justify spending for the regular school year, I was hoping that maybe he could try the public school again and that the gifted program would keep him from being bored.  I had thought this would fix what he didn't like about kindergarten.  His teacher at the private school advised me that she didn't think this would be enough though.  She believed that he should skip 2nd grade altogether.  This meant we were back to homeschool because I was not naive.  I knew that he was not ready for a 3rd grade public school classroom at 6 years old.

For homeschool that year, we started a 3rd grade curriculum and I knew that we had made the right choice because he barely blinked at any of the work.  He hardly ever needed any help with math or spelling.  He liked reading, poetry and art.  He loved  the Science curriculum and would beg to do it first and do extra.  He did need a little help in Social Studies, and while he understood all the grammar concepts, he hated writing.  Homeschool was good for him because it let him excel at his strengths and get extra support for the subjects that he did not excel at.

I'll be honest though, with my husband deployed for the second half of this school year, it was not an easy one for me.

Home again, Homeschool again, Jiggity Jig (Part 1 of 3)

It's not how I hoped it would turn out,
        but probably how I suspected it would.

Asha started a special needs preschool 3 hours a day when she was three.  She moved on to full day Jr. Kindergarten the next year to continue receiving speech and language services.  This year she is still receiving services in Kindergarten.  School has always been good for her in more ways than one.  She loves school!  She loves her teachers, she loves her friends, she progresses and blossoms there.  She had a hard time with our move to Korea this summer, but I knew all would be well as soon as she started school.  And it was.

Daniel went to preschool when he was little, but it was not much of a structured place.  More creative if you please.  He didn't really play with the other kids.  On the playground he often stood next to the teacher talking.  Talking, talking... and the questions, ohh.  This kid has never been at a loss for questions!  His first word was 'Dad', but Lord help me if his second word wasn't 'Why?'

While he enjoyed the creativity of the preschool, he didn't really learn much there.  He knew his letters and numbers back when he was 2.  He was reading at 3 and skip counting at 4.  He was very excited to start Kindergarten but I knew it would be a lot of stuff he already knew.  After the novelty of going to school wore off, he started to dislike going.  He would beg me some mornings not to make him go.  I assumed it was because he was bored.

We stuck out the year but the next year I purchased homeschool curriculum and gave it a go.  He was an easy student and finished all his school work in 2 hours a day.  I knew this meant he was not challenged enough.  I knew he needed more.  I heard about a school for gifted students nearby.  We applied for the next year and he was accepted.  He attended the summer session and loved it!  They did a lot of science and math.  Both of those were right up his alley.  I found it interesting that even though he was now around kids who were just like him, he still did not play with them on the playground.  He mostly stayed to himself.  I found it interesting because he lived to play with his friends in our neighborhood.

It didn't matter much though because the school did not come through with financial aid for the regular school year and their tuition was much higher than we could justify paying for a 2nd grade student.  I need that arm and leg, thank you!  We already knew the local public school did not work for him, so back to homeschool it was.