Hooked on Phonics.

Okay, we aren't really hooked on phonics at our house but I enjoyed a phonetical moment with Drew today. We have a gallery wall in our home with many, many black and white family pictures on it. In the bottom corner of the grouping there is a hand painted sign that says, "Happily Ever After." This morning Drew went through and produced all of the sounds in each word then did it again quickly so that he managed to read the three words.
I was so proud! IN YOUR FACE CMV!

"We are pleased to inform you..."

We got a letter in the mail the other day stating that Kat had passed the first part of her GATE testing. I was pleased that it was a pretty quick turn around between the testing and the letter. She took the test on Monday and we got the letter on Friday. I was not as happy that the letter didn't give us any other information. How did Kat do on the test? Just good enough? Stellar?
We found out that there are 100 children testing for 12 spots.
The second round of testing will occur when the school gets enough students together to hire an independent tester to administer an IQ test. They do it in groups to save money. After that test we will know in May what her results are and if she qualifies to go to the free-standing GATE school.

All about Drew.

I realize this blog has been Kat-heavy. Kat is kind of larger than life. She demands, she commands. Kat is just...Kat.

Now Drew, on the other hand, Drew is more of a sleeper. He's mellow and quiet and deep. He doesn't ask for much. He wants his toy cars, a quiet place to play, and sugar to eat. It's easy to focus all of my "worry" attention on Kat and to just quietly enjoy Drew without talking about it too much. Drew is a great kid. He's funny and silly and shy and loving. There is no one like him in this whole world.

When Drew was born he was diagnosed with complete hearing loss in his left ear. We took him to an ENT about a month after his first hearing test in the hospital to have a more extensive test done. I was certain CERTAIN the ENT was going to say that Drew had fluid in his ear at birth and he was fine now. Nope, he was definitely deaf in his left ear. The first ENT we went to was lacking in bedside manner. He told us the news of Drew's hearing with one foot out the exam room door and a hand on his cell phone. We had questions but we needed a minute to form them. We ended up following him down the hall trying to ask. The ENT simply told us to return in 6 months.

I wasn't happy with that so I called over to the University hospital in the next town and found an AuD to test Drew. The AuD was incredible. He was kind and cooperative. He answered questions we didn't know that we had. He led to us our current ENT, a fact for which we will be forever grateful for. Our current ENT was the first person who said that Drew's hearing loss might be a byproduct of Cytomegalovirus. Three doctors later Drew was diagnosed with CMV. The neurologist who saw us after the diagnosis told us not to expect Drew to walk or talk. At this point Drew was 9 months old and I had a pretty good handle on him. I kept saying that I think he is going to be fine. I think he is going to be fine. I was told that I was in denial and that I was going to have to accept that Drew would never be typical.

Well, he isn't typical. That's for sure.

Drew is a bright little boy. He's obsessed with numbers and is starting to read. He has an imaginary friend named Tianna who drives a red car and goes way too fast and is always getting into scrapes that involve tow trucks. Tianna is 5 and a half and has a sister named Toya.

Drew goes to preschool and loves it. We opted to send him to public school preschool for two days a week instead of 5 day a week Montessori like we did for Kat at the same age because Drew is a homebody. He's thriving in his little school, making friends and having lots of fun.

Drew is easy to love.

"Kat is perfect."

Yesterday we had our first official parent/teacher conference and I was really worried about it knowing how our last one had crashed and burned. This conference was completely different. The teacher was receptive to our thoughts, she was full of praise for Kat, the entire atmosphere of the room was positive.

Ms. M said that "Kat is perfect." She is the student that Ms. M can always count on to do the right thing. She is the student that Ms. M will call on when the principal enters the room because she can be sure that Kat will answer correctly and make her look good. (Sheesh but kind of funny.) She again recommended that we send Kat to the area GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) school for testing. We spoke about Kat's report card that came home earlier this week and how it couldn't have been better. It literally could not have been better, there was not one place for improvement.

She also asked us some bizarre questions. "Where does Kat do her homework?" At the kitchen table. "Does Kat sleep well at night?" No, but she goes to bed at 7:30 each and every night.
We requested that Kat be paired up with an upper elementary student for one on one reading sessions a few times each week. Surprisingly, Ms. M was very receptive to this idea.

Ms. M also commented on Kat's appearance, saying she is too cute with her red hair and that most of the teachers at the school joke about wanting to take her home with them. (Odd but sweet.)

I kind of wonder if at the first conference Ms. M was unprepared and that she really hadn't gotten to know Kat yet and just thought we were typical adoring parents who thought their child was the most wonderful/smartest creature on earth when actually their child was a typically developing kindergartner who would be best served in a mainstream class. At this second conference Ms. M couldn't say enough nice things about Kat. She commented that our daughter is gifted and agreed that she does need differentiated instruction.

I vacillate between thinking Kat needs to be taught at her level in school most of the time even thought that means that Ms. M would have to do a lot more work to make that happen and between thinking that as long as Kat is happy and not complaining that we should just go with the flow. I worry that she will learn bad habits if her schoolwork is consistently too easy. Hopefully the GATE testing will give us some real answers on what the best course of action is.

I am glad the conference went well and I am glad it is over.

First ever report card.

Kat got her first report card yesterday. She was graded on reading, math, behavior, art, and gym. It was a Stepford style report card. She got the highest possible score on every item she was graded on. This is what the school district says her grades evaluate as:

High achievement of grade level objectives: Consistently applies concepts and/or skills to meet grade level expectations. Students achieving at this level demonstrate superior academic performance, competency of subject matter knowledge and application of this knowledge to real-world situations. These students: Can extend their understanding by making meaningful, multiple connections among important ideas of concepts and provide supporting evidence for inferences and justification of solutions. Apply concepts and skills to solve problems using appropriate strategies.

Now, don't get me wrong. We are incredibly proud. Our daughter has done wonderfully these past 2.5 months of school. However, this begs the question.

What has she actually learned?

She has come home with stars on all of her assignments, but she hasn't mentioned a single thing that was tricky or fun or interesting. She does mention the singing and dancing they do each day and we couldn't be happier about that. Singing and dancing are beautiful, age appropriate activities. More, please!

I am worried that Kat is going to learn a poor work ethic. If school is this easy, what is going to happen to her when something challenging arises. Is she going to give up? Is she going to coast until graduation?

Tomorrow is our official parent teacher conference and we plan to ask for Kat to be paired up with a high achieving fourth grader (as high as our school goes) for enrichment. I am even willing to provide the enrichment so the teacher doesn't have to.

Who would have thought that having a smart child would be so worrisome?

Train wreck.

Yesterday, Peter and I met with Kat's public school kindergarten teacher. From the moment we got there this woman stonewalled us. She had nothing to say about Kat, nice or otherwise. She treated us like overbearing, obsessive parents.
It. was. horrible.
We all sat down at a tiny table in tiny chairs and the teacher asked us why we were there. I said we just wanted to check in with her to see how Kat was doing in school. She gave us a short answer that was basically saying "fine." I told her that Kat had been grumbling about the schoolwork and we wanted to touch base with her to make sure we were doing the right things for her. She then told us that kindergarten is kindergarten is kindergarten. There will be no deviation from her lesson plans. She really wanted to convince us that the lessons plans were set in stone, sent down from above and that was ALL she was allowed to teach. Not good.
So we asked what we can do to make sure that Kat will have a positive kindergarten experience. She told us to read to her. Then she asked what we were doing to make sure that Kat was learning.
She gave us a chance to talk about Kat, which I saw as placating us. Let's give the crazy parents a moment to wax poetic about their darling offspring so they'll leave happy.
She did say that we need to nominate our daughterfor the gifted program and that she does belong there. She told us all of the wonderful things that go on in that program but the gist is she is not going to do a thing outside of her lesson plans so we need to wait until next year.
She also implied that maybe we are pressuring Kat too much which made me angry since I truly believe we are following her lead. She said she thought we were a bit hasty in coming to see her since it was only the 4th week of school.
It sounds like Kat is going to have to wait a year because this teacher is set in her ways.
On the bright side, we did manage to convey all of our points. We know Kat is one of many, we know she (the teacher) is busy, Kat deserves to learn each day, we want to help, we want to be a part of making Kat's school experience positive, we want to do all we can for her. She asked us where Kat was in reading and I was able to tell her in the Fountas and Pinnel-speak that our school system uses.
DH says that now we just wait until conferences in November and see what happens between now and then.

Going to bat.

Kat is in kindergarten this year. Two separate kindergartens to be precise. In the mornings she goes to a lovely Montessori school. They meet her where she is at, they allow her to be a 5 year old girl with 5 year old feelings, they genuinely love my daughter.
In the afternoons she goes to public school kindergarten. They teach her things she mastered over two years ago, they teach her to toe the line, and they let her play outside at recess.
Kat started complaining after the first week of school that her public school teacher is like a preschool teacher and that she knows the material already. We encouraged her to write a letter to her teacher to tell her what she wanted to do at school the next day. The letter was met with a reprimand, "We do not chase people at school." (The letter was about playing tag at recess.) We encouraged Kat to read to her teacher, to wait until the other children were busy and the teacher was at her desk alone and offer to read her a book. Kat says she approached her teacher and said, "I can read." The teacher replied, "Okay." and that was the end of the conversation.
Her public school teacher does not seem interested in what Kat knows. We realize that this teacher has 24 other students to get up to grade level and our play by the rules girl is very easy to overlook.
So today we meet with the teacher. We decided to take it slowly, to just go and feel the teacher out a bit. To ask what she's done in the past with students like our daughter and to maybe show this teacher some of the work our daughter has done in the past. This is uncharted territory for Peter and I, we've never had to advocate for her before and it is kind of scary!