I’m sitting here in my living room in the the gathering dark. House completely silent. C. is away at camp. M. is in her room on her laptop. Husband just left for the gym. Finally, some time to snuggle up to the ol’ blog.
For the past month I’ve been working full-time outside of the house, as in get-on-the-Metro-every-morning-and-ride-into-DC working. Like competitive gymnastics, it seemed that doing this transition in the summer should be awarded extra points for level of difficulty. But to my surprise, it’s all gone fairly smoothly, knock wood. Some of it is the simple fact that the kids are older and C. is perfectly happy hanging out at home, crafting and reading. Some of it is that dear husband has admirably stepped up to the plate and rearranged his schedule, for example working from home every Wednesday. And some of it is killer planning on my part with a healthy dollop of friends willing to offer some cover.
- The first week of vacation a friend offered to take M. to the pool each morning for swim team practice and then have her hang with them for the rest of the day. I was thrilled…M. could have one week of “normal” swim practice and the simple pleasure of just playing.
- The next week both girls were scheduled to work as counselors at their old pre-school. Again, ideal. They’re taken care of yet have to assume some responsibility, they’re having fun, they’re earning community service hours (in the case of M, money), and they can socialize with their friends who are counselors. The mom of one of their friends offered to let me drop the girls off early at her house and she’d take them to camp and pick them up afterwards. When the camp is near our house they can walk. Sweet.
- Last week both girls were away at camp: M. at a one week Girl Scout camp (best bargain on the planet), and C. at a camp in the upper Midwest for two weeks. Dear husband and I had the luxury of dinner for two in town one night, and other night we met up with his uncle and aunt for dinner in Bethesda. It must be said that it was commented on that working clearly agreed with me.
Ahead? One or two more sessions of pre-school camp counseling for both. A 10-day father-daughter barbecue and roadside attraction road trip down South (as my husband says, “Regardless of what happens, there will be memories.”) A sport camp and tween day camp for M., and a trip to the West coast to visit a cousin for C. I plan to take some time off in August and then before you know it the school year starts. Expect more posting come September….
this is all overwhelming and exhausting! my son turns 5 in october and of course there was no way we could enroll him in mcps even though he already has internalized the curriculum. we decided to try a year in a dc private school and try to leverage it into first grade in mcps, and guess what? his needs still are not being met and we work on math problems (his favorite is working with square roots), reading, etc. when he comes home in the afternoons. i feel like there’s no gifted and talented progrms out there until third grade. so are these kids supposed to just coast until then??? in trying to find a “home” for him at a school, i’m also having to reconsider my bias against schooling him at home. furthermore, i feel isolated because no one wants to hear how frustrated i am searching for a program to challenge my son. i know that to my neighbors i’m being percieved as an overbearing “type a” mom because everyone in this area is trying to fast-track their kid to harvard, but i’d rather they treat me as a freak than my son (and some who have seen his gift for numbers have made a huge scene, thrown quizes at him to stumble him, and make my younger daughter feel inferior since she’s not as good as math at age 3!)
on this journey, is it best to start with an educational consultant and testing beyond the wpsii?
thanks for this site, i can’t wait to lurk some more…
Hi “e”
5 and doing square roots? Oh my.
I’m sorry to hear of your frustrations. As you say, the position you describe can be rather isolating in this area (in addition to being exhausting and frustrating!). No one wants to hear about your “problem”–granted in the big picture it’s a good problem to have, but still, when you’re living it, it’s hard. So what to do? To start, please check out my recent comment to Cheryl on the post “Normal is Relative” regarding getting some online support. And if you haven’t already, spend a lot of time reading on Hoagies, especially the section on highly, exceptionally, profoundly gifted.
It sounds like you need some further assessment. Again, I highly recommend Johns Hopkins CTY’s Diagnostic and Counseling Center. They specialize in gifted and they’re near by. Should your son’s scores merit it, they may recommend application to the Davidson Institute’s Young Scholars program. That will give you access to still more support, and most importantly, peer connections for your son.
Regarding school. Ack. This area is so school and school achievement focused, so it’s very hard to think of stepping out of “the norm.” My theory is that a lot of people who come to the DC area were school achievers themselves, so as a parent it’s really hard to go against that. But you should keep that option open. As you’re probably learning, MCPS is not very receptive to acceleration or thinking outside the box for accelerated learners. They have their programs….and that’s that. That said however, I have a friend in the system who has had amazing success in navigating some radical acceleration for her child. She lives in an outer part of the county (maybe not as intense?) carefully interviewed the elementary principal before she bought her house. It was her good fortune that he was help her get what her son needs.
But back to homeschooling. Check out Lisa Rivera’s Creative Homeschooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families. That may warm you up to the idea, or at least give you lots of ideas for engaging and challenging your boy.
Finally, you’re right to worry about the impact on your daughter. Be sure she finds places to shine.
Good luck!
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