Update on The Girlchick

I posted awhile back that we had our last meeting with The Girlchick's Montessori teacher and that she needed to be tested for the gifted and talented program or tested out of Kindergarten.  little girl growing up.  

We have been really struggling on what to do about this for her.  We meet with the councilor at the public school where she would be going.  We asked about the G&T program and what it would mean, and what it would for her, also we asked about having her tested out of kindergarten (which we really didn't want to do).  The councilor wasn't that helpful, her main answers were: you know your child best, and telling us that she had been in the school for awhile that she had never had a child test out, and that 90% of incoming parents tell them that their child needed to be tested for G&T but only about 40% actually make it into the program.  It was a little frustrating, since we asked her what incoming kindergartners on average know, and what they know when they end the school year.  It turned out that The Girlchick already knew what most of the kids knew when they ended the year.  The only thing she didn't do at the time and was just starting to do was write a story with a beginning a middle and an end.  

We went back and forth on this for a few months on if we should just put her in and hope for the best, or if we find a private school that would be willing to work with her on a more personal level.  One of our main issues, was that she is not emotionally ready to go into first grade.  She still has temper tantrums and fits, and she does not do well with a lot of change.  Plus if she isn't challenged with work to do, she has behavior issues.  If she wasn't challenged in public school were we willing to put up with the behavior issues we feared she might have?

So after a few more meetings with the public school we decided to enroll her in private kindergarten.  We had really hoped to be done with paying for her daycare/school until she went to college, but it looks like we have at least one more year to go before that happens.  Both N and I really want her in public school, but I hope that the rest of public school is going to go a little better than our first intro to it.  I was really not impressed.  Our elementary school is supposed to be really great, and people move into our neighborhood for it.  I hope it gets better.