A school doesn't need to cater exclusively to gifted kids to be a good fit for gifted kids. Indeed a two hour pullout shouldn't totally rearrange your plans. What were your original reasons for choosing the charter school over your current school? Would two hours a week of gifted programming substantially change the balance? My kids' school has no gifted programming for their ages, but it's a great fit for gifted kids. I'd rather have on-target education in the classrooms with teachers that stretch my kids than a short pullout.

In my area, there are the kids with significant after school activities who skip homework and kids who do all the homework and then some, with fewer activities. Trying to do both means you're cutting out something else essential, like sleep. Is this a sixth grade still with a primary teacher? By sixth grade back in my day, we had seven different teachers, lockers, and complicated schedules, so discussing homework with teachers would be unsuccessful. If you're sixth grade still looks like a primary school, you may have more luck. Still, I'm not sure what you're hoping for ... less homework (which would be great), permission not to do homework (also great), better spread out homework (not likely to happen). Don't keep your kids up past midnight for religious homework. Or any homework, since at that time, a child is too tired to focus and learn properly anyways. I get the feeling that you need to get everything done, but sometimes it can't all get done. Life is about choices, and indeed your child may have too much scheduled to complete her academic work at the pace of her abilities. I definitely agree about the priority put on sports and the insignificance of some homework assignments. But if that's your priority set-up, it will mean that not all homework gets done.

Wikipedia isn't a bad place to start if you can't get the book recommended by PP. I had also never heard of Young Earth until after college. Obviously, the Wikipedia articles present the Old Earth viewpoints as facts and the Young Earth viewpoints as beliefs, but that's consistent with scientific consensus. One important part of science is being able to read information from multiple viewpoints and assess the validity of the statements, so this would be an easy, quick way for you to see what the secular scientific community has to say about YE. A secular, scientific foundation for how the world was created is not incompatible with religion for many people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Earth_creationism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_Earth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dating_creation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relationship_between_religion_and_science

Ruf's estimates always seemed so off. Bizarrely subjective criteria (what defines an alert baby at birth? what is "near-adult complexity" in speech?) paired with incredibly specific timelines (favorite TV shows by 6 to 8 months) smacks of pseudoscience. The variation in IQ produced by scientifically validated tests, and the documented variation in an individual's IQ over their lifetime, make it hard enough to quantify intelligence. MG/HG/EG/PG labels don't help clarify the situation much. With a margin of error of +/- 3 IQ points, which could be higher at the tail end of the curve, the labels are unnecessarily narrow.

This is great advice. OP, I wanted to encourage you and tell you about a very conservative Christian I know who now has a PhD. in chemistry. He ascribes to a Young Earth worldview but indeed learned to operate in with multiple mindsets, as Mike indicated. Faith can be very separate from science and you're doing your child a great service by teaching her secular science and allowing her to draw her own conclusions on faith. She'll be much stronger going into college, whether that it is in science or not.

My son was a very reluctant writer, and his writing lagged behind his other skills significantly. He did preK at a private school and is now in K at the same school. Thanks purely to practice at school, he's now a very neat writer and easily writes a story with at least five complex sentences, filling a page. He writes happily now at home, too, as it's no longer a horrible chore, even this weekend decorating a paper airplane he made and writing a letter to Easter Bunny. This is a child who never voluntarily wrote, colored, drew or created anything that didn't involve building. My younger boy is a much more natural writer and at four is much further along than his older brother was at that age who was still struggling to write his name. Younger boy makes me cards that say, I love mummy, and wrote out Happy Birthday for a favorite friend. Still, no one would say that older has a delay now, and the amount of writing he does at school without complaint is impressive. I'd definitely attribute his skills to the level of practice at school and recommend you increase the output demands.

Accuracy in IQ testing is a different matter to whether a person's IQ is fixed. Accuracy refers to how well the test measures the IQ of the subject at any one time. The error in test measurement, typically 5%, can be higher or lower based on the score achieved. For example, a near average score will have a smaller error, as the evaluation is based on more similar measurements. A score near the end of the bell curve will be less accurate. Additionally, a young child's scores are generally less accurate than an older child due to testing difficulties. Stability of scores over time is another consideration. In general, test scores obtained after age 8 are significantly more stable than test scores obtained earlier. That results in part from the inaccuracy of the test at younger ages. The principle of fixed IQ relates to how much of a person's IQ depends on their genetic makeup, versus how much of their IQ results from enrichment and life experience. In general for the middle class and above, heritability of IQ explains approximately 75% of a person's score. It has been suggested for wealthy, highly educated families, the family correlation is even higher, as the families have resources to help children reach or get closer to their maximum potential. Since a child doesn't have much choice about the socioeconomic makeup of their family or how much enrichment and life experience he can get, I would suggest that even the part of IQ not based on genetics is far from flexible or changeable. The growth mindset is somewhat difficult and troubling in my opinion. It's demonstrated and demonstrable that children and adults who believe IQ is not fixed do better on cognitive tasks, but it's demonstrated and demonstrable that IQ is mostly fixed by genetics (and much of the rest determined by socioeconomic factors). What you believe is the source of the research, not that IQ is actually flexible. Of course, you can "game" IQ tests, but you're improving a score on a test, not the child's actual level of intelligence. Of course, using varied and complex language and reading to your children can raise the actual level of intelligence, but it won't turn an average child into a genius. A single test score is a snapshot of a child on a particular day, with accompanied errors and qualifications. Testing makes sense for solving problems or for admission to programs. Otherwise, I'd suggest that you have a sufficiently good idea of where your child stands and what your child needs without a number.

I'll echo Mom2Bee and say that you have half a curriculum before you need to worry about what's next. Both my kids did 100EZ lessons at age 3. Oldest finished just after turning 4, but about halfway we ran into difficulty. We took a break of a month or so, and then we started back from the beginning. With a week or two, he was back to the point at which we stopped, and he finished without difficulty. Youngest was a slightly older 3 when we started, and he was able to do the program straight through with no difficulty. He finished 2 or 3 months before turning 4. He's a stronger reader than Oldest, even though Oldest is off the charts at his school (getting 4th grade books sent home from school as a K'er). Afterwards, both of mine went straight to reading library books. Elephant and Piggie were great transition books, and our library had lots of simple read-alouds that were perfect (Goose, Rascal, Fly Guy slightly later, etc.). Neither continued with any reading curriculum, though now that I've gone back to full time work, they get taught at school. ETA: Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. There aren't many who do this curriculum, but honestly, I think it's great. Cheap, effective, and better at getting kids reading library books than most programs I've seen (which require multiple levels to get a child to same point). There's a reason I did it twice, but also a reason I let Youngest start at a slightly older age, even though he picked up reading faster than his older brother and was reading words without being taught before age 3.

This can't be the first time a school has had this happen. I'd schedule a meeting quickly before he moves to remedial math. First off, you need to find out why the teacher wants him in remedial math. Is he not paying attention? Is it the placement test scores? Your goal is to get the teacher on your side, and to be 100% on the teacher's side. You are working together to help your child, and you need to completely hear her out. She may say that he needs to go down to remedial math because: - He's not fast enough with his calculations (could be attention) - He's not focusing on his work and completing it (could also be attention) - He's disturbing other children - Etc. If the placement test is a big deal, ask to have it redone. If possible, redone with one-to-one support. You'll need to talk to your child in advance and explain that if you goof around with the easy problems, they will think you don't know the answer. To get fun work, you need to try your best, even on the easy problems. Otherwise, you'll have to work on getting the teacher to understand that his attention problems relate to the level of math. Don't tell her it's too easy for him (she'll say it isn't). Tell her that he loved math and now seems reluctant. Ask her why she thinks that has happened, why he's less engaged with the material. In the end, I'd make sure to plant the suggestion that remedial math will make problems worse, rather than better. FWIW, a bright kid I know got moved to the remedial table because he couldn't focus. Turns out he had severe ADHD and needed medication. With medication, he's back at the top table. Working with the teacher will help you best find a way to help your child.

I can't believe your school gives GPAs in elementary. My kid is six, and he hasn't gotten a "grade" yet. Effort is marked in every subject, and at the end of the year, he has either met the grade requirements, exceeded those requirements, or not yet reached the requirements. I get that's not fifth grade, but the school doesn't grade 7-year-olds either. A GPA sounds awful.

My parents weren't particularly mathy and ran into this problem when teaching my siblings. The child doesn't understand the homework, the parent tries to teach it in the wrong way, everyone ends up confused. I knew a family that ran into this where I live, and they started outsourcing math to a tutor. I'm thinking it may be time for you to tell your children to get help at school when the math isn't making sense, or find a mathy tutor, rather than continue afterschooling. You can post the problem they were having and see if we can help explain the answer without the negative number "trick."

Good luck! I agree with PP; check out Istanbul very well before committing. It isn't as safe as it used to be. Friends of ours just moved to Kuwait in December. All positive so far!

Op, please keep updating and commenting here. Yes, plenty of posters have disagreed with you, but opposing viewpoints are part of what makes a community stronger. For your parent teacher conference, I think you'll be more successful if you try to see the teacher as someone who is playing on your team as well. How can you help your child at home? How can she help your child at school? What issues can you address? What things can you celebrate? If after a constructive chat, you ask to come in a time convenient for her to review your child's work once a month, I am quite sure she will be happy to let you. It isn't the same as homeschooling, and I suspect it will get easier with time. Good luck!

My son's K class sends nothing home. The children do all of their work in books (literacy, math, and project books), and the teacher corrects these. One color highlighter for good, one color highlighter for incorrect. The kids get feedback, but it doesn't come home. Our school is the same, except that they send out weekly emails with the curriculum targets. This week my K'er's class is working on counting money by 10s and missing number sentences with money. Ask the teacher to see the books if you want to know more information. Most teachers are more than happy to comply with showing you.

College level classes vary greatly in difficulty, and I would expect a CC math class aimed at education majors to be low level. How long has she been in this class? All my classes started low key and ramped up the intensity as the semester went on, so it's also possible that this is the beginning and relatively easy compared to later expectations. I would not afterschool a college class, in the same way I have no intention of afterschooling middle and high school. Placement should be addressed instead. I'll add an additional point. Very few of my college classes required that I turn in homework. There were recommended problems, and you could do them or not. There were classes where I did fewer problems than assigned and classes where I did more problems than were assigned. Up to you, but if the class is a waste of time, I wouldn't ask her to do of the same. I'd either let her coast for the class and decide for herself what preparations she needs, or I'd find a different class to take.

OP, I'm an afterschooler who has gone back to work full time. It's hard adjusting to less control/oversight/influence over your child's education. I get that. I miss being more on top of things and sometimes wonder if I made the right decision ... until I see my son flourishing without my input, succeeding on his own, and choosing his own path. Please sit down with your child's teacher and principal. Would it be enough for you to get more work after it is already completed and graded? It's not okay to coach your child from a C to an A+. The scaffolding that a parent provides is not what the school is looking for. They want to see what a child can produce at school, in the available time. Even my K'er has "hot tasks" where not even the teacher or TA interferes, so that the school can see a child's work in class without help. Sure, he could do better at home with me reminding him to check his spelling, but that's not the assignment. Don't get in the habit of overly helping with your child's assignments. You'll find your child more and more incapable of creating quality assignments independently. The skill of independent work will serve your child more than any book report scaffolding or fifth grade spelling test ever could. Looking over graded assignments is a totally different matter.

I second a vote to avoid Reading Eggs. Math Seeds was actually a much more enjoyable experience, but the trial period is more than enough. I never paid for it. TeachYourMonsterToRead.com is excellent. I highly recommend it, and my boys loved it at that age. There are three levels, so you can pick the most appropriate. My older boy only did level 2, my younger did levels 1 and 2. Neither really liked level 3 as much. For independent learning: -- Mazes (Kumon has a great variety): my boys loved to sit and do maze after maze -- it's the only fine motor work they would do. -- Building: started with wooden train track construction, moved to building with Duplos, then Legos, then Kapla. Anything that can be built and rebuilt. -- Sticker books -- Audio books or song books with CDs: the biggest problem was when I only had one physical book and both boys wanted to follow along

Sounds ideal. It's not in the least surprising that her reading hasn't been picked up by the school. Our school does baseline testing for the 3-year-olds, so that's how they "discovered" my early readers. YDS is more likely to pick up a book and read it for everyone. My ODS was much happier racing around on the bikes. I think he spent every possible moment at preschool outside. He misses that much play now that's he's in K. Your school sounds great, and I wouldn't rush academics in the least.

I know a family who homeschools one child (AL, not a good fit at school) while both working full time. Their nanny does the bulk of the childcare and home ed, but there is also a younger child for the nanny to care for. Without childcare or dramatically flexible hours, I can't see homeschooling being very successful.

I may have said this before, but I would make educational plans for your daughter that allow for easy movement into other fields of science, as her interest may change. The sort of biology/ecology research she does now isn't particularly attractive to highly STEM-oriented students because it's not very high level. She may realize as she matures that genetics in her snakes is interesting, but that her real passion is understanding how the proteins responsible for DNA replication mechanics leads to errors that cause human disease. Or how misfolded proteins cause disease states. Both of these topics were discussed in my intro bio class in college, so I'm sure the ivies are doing much more interesting research on these topics (full disclosure: I'm a chemist who tried very hard to like biology, but even biochemistry didn't suit me well -- organic chemistry is absolutely my passion though). She'd be more likely to find intellectual peers at better universities.

This depends more on her long-term goals than anything else. Does she want to finish college early, or is she more interested in (relatively) on-time college, which in itself can be a great experience, at a more elite level? Homeschooling plus early college is going to get her a degree early at the cost of peers. All the way through. It will matter less as she gets older, but even being five years younger in grad school makes a difference. The tradeoff as well is that it's going to be hard to get an elite education, if that's her goal. Basically, a community college offers significantly weaker classes than an elite university (or even a solid state flagship). I tutored a state school student who took one class at my elite university. He was the best student at that school and still significantly weaker than the other students at our university. His math and science background was weaker, which meant that he had trouble keeping up with the high level class. The advantage though of early college is that a highly motivated individual can reach a terminal degree early and start earlier on the carrier ladder. Regarding IB vs. AP, if I had a choice for my kids, I'd vote for IB. DH did IB at school; I did AP. IB is much more rigorous; AP can be a joke (though perhaps it's gotten better over the years). I'm perpetually skeptical of magnets, though.

At my boys' school, the kids with behavior trouble or those who struggle more with learning get "star student" more easily, as any little improvement is encouraged. I definitely wouldn't quit a school over my child not getting star student within the first three months of the year. I've even explained to my child that his behavior has no influence on the "star student" award, as he was getting very discouraged about his efforts not being recognized (he's very well-behaved at school). I told him he'll get a turn eventually. However, I'm a bit confused by your post. You have a psychologist who has presumably run a full battery of tests, and she has ruled out ADHD. My understanding of that diagnosis is that a report from a class teacher is needed; did the school participate in that evaluation? Is there behavior at school that you don't see at home? Parental and teacher reports weigh heavily in an ADHD evaluation, and having only your view of things may have affected the evaluation. Definitely sit down with the school and try to make things work before you jump ship. You can re-evaluate in a few months time and either stay with the school or make plans to switch in the fall.

Personally, I think the "physical safety" aspect of parent worry about bad neighborhoods is overestimated, while the influence of peers is underestimated. Sadly, kids growing up in poverty are exposed to more violence, experience more stress at home, and are more likely to have behavioral problems. It's an important consideration to make when choosing a school for your children, and calling it "classist" trivializes the importance of weighing all factors. For the record, I strongly disagree with the US policy of creating a magnet school in a poor school to bring up the quality of that school; the poor school should get much more money and strict oversight to improve -- that way all the kids benefit, not just the bussed-in gifted kids. OP, I wouldn't stress about changes for your daughter, if the move to the gifted magnet would fall with the beginning of the school year, and I wouldn't worry about fitting in when middle school starts. As others have pointed out, kids come together from different schools at the beginning of middle school, so it's a very natural point to arrive from a different place, as friend groups are just forming. The length of time on the bus would be a big factor in the decision for me, as would educational opportunities staying on at the current school and peers who stay or choose the magnet school. If there are one or two quality kids from your current school planning on going, that would make it more attractive to me. Can you apply and choose to back out later (in which case, apply and decide later)? Also, can you talk to parents who have children in the gifted magnet? They'll probably be able to better answer your questions. Afterschooling/enriching is hard work, and not all kids are equally eager to spend a mind-numbing day at school followed by hard work at home.

I missed a lot of brainstorming during the holidays, but I'd agree that any potential path that doesn't begin with VWO in secondary is less than ideal. You'd already have all of the high achievers skimmed out to VWO, and HAVO is going to be at a lower level. HBO for the record looks a lot more like a US high school than a US college, with lots of (mindless) homework for the students, while WO (university) is a sink-or-swim sort of thing like most universities (don't do your homework, that's on you come test time). Gross generalizations, honestly, but you get the idea. For the record, while HAVO-HBO-University is possible, HBO will be on your CV forever and basically tells potential employers immediately about your general capacity. Many jobs require university thinking level, so not just a degree but also the associated level of analysis. (All not relevant for now honestly). I wouldn't mention anything to SIL, personally. Even the Dutch around here don't think that kids should spend time doing homework, so even the bright ones are behind at school because all of the English (UK, Australian, North American) parents make sure the kids do homework and reading from school.

Not sure if it's recent or regional, as my experience is anecdotal, and I don't live there anymore (nor did I grow up in Holland). My DH was grade-skipped from groep 1 to 3 relatively painlessly back in the 80's, and one of his nephews with dyslexia has repeated a year, also without significant issue or problem. The Netherlands has a system where kids born between 1 Oct and 31 Dec can move from groep 1 to 3 or stay for groep 2. It's not clear to me if kids born after 1 Oct are considered grade-skipped or not (and this is relevant because one of my kids falls into this group, and the other just outside). With regards to an extra year basisschool, I have only seen things online (for the Dutch readers): http://www.hb-kind-forum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=11307 More relevant to OP is indeed how flexible schools in general are with moving kids up and down based on their needs, and my understanding is that the schools are generally flexible in that. So hopefully as the fluency progresses, he can at the minimum move up with peers. My DH moved internationally at age 7 to a school with a language he didn't speak. Just as with OP's son, he got put down a year from his age (this was after his grade skip, so he moved down two years). Within a few months he was moved to his age group, and after a year and a half, he was grade skipped again. He graduated valedictorian less than a month after turning 17. There's no reason OP's son can't end up in the right spot, as long as the schools are willing to be flexible.