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feel good friday/Zoe @ school

Ok this is a little bit of a combined post. I was going to do one last night and then fell asleep at around 7.30 so never got around to it.

Heres why I'm feeling good:

• Brekky program is doing wonders for some of the kids. The principal considers me staff, I have keys, parking rights and right about now could just about burn down the school and he'd still be happy with me! The program is running like clockwork and the best bit is we have the family of the lady who left the bequest that is funding it coming to the school in a few weeks so we are going to present the with a big thank you card signed by all the kids who come along. I can't wait to be able to say THANKS. The kids are so excited. So all of that combined is making me feel good.
• I had a HUGE sleep last night, always make you feel good when your get to catch up on the shut eye doesn't it?
• Babe is doing well. And we've had some good news. None that I can share with you, but will help us out immensely and go along way towards seeing us get through all this.
• I FINALLY had a meeting with Zoe's teacher, the principal and the schools counselor, She has had the tests, we have the results and now some great ideas on where her strengths and weaknesses are as well as some ideas on where to focus and things to do. But more on that in the rest of the post.

Ok, onto more important things.

We have results from Zoe's WPPSI-III testing, which is used as one means of establishing whether a child is gifted or not. Zoe isn't. She is VERY bright, but not officially gifted. Which to be honest is a relief! However across the board she IS in the above average/superior range. The one area she struggles with is her comprehension. That is age appropriate, but in comparison to her reading/spelling/language ability, there is a huge gap. So the recommendation is to give her reading material that is below what she CAN do, and focus on teaching her how to get the information out and answer the questions about what she has read. It's interesting to note that she can answer very specific questions, but not general ones. Lets say she reads something about elephants. You ask her "what do you know about elephants?" and her response is likely to be "I can't remember" yet if you ask her "Tell me two places Elephants can live" and she'll be able to tell you. So thats what we are going to focus on. Teaching her how to use the information she has to answer the non specific questions as well. The biggest problem that the counselor could foresee, and this will apply her whole educational life, is that there will be unrealistic expectations placed on her based solely on her reading/spelling ability. So we have to be careful that any school she deals with doesn't do this. I admit that as parents, we are probably guilty of this at times too, but not much. We have to pull her back sometimes and say "Hey, just go be a kid!! Dig for bugs! Get dirty! Stop reading!!"

Bottom line of all of this is a few things:

• She is NOT gifted, which from our point of view is a GOOD thing
• Currently her needs ARE being met by programs and extension work and what we do at home. This will be monitored on a regular basis though. And this whole experience means that we aren't the only ones doing the monitoring. She is now part of the 'learning support' team. And everyone is talking to each other, which was all I ever wanted in the first place.
• We haven't been reading too much into her abilities, or been those boastful parents who think their child is smarter than what they are. She surprised us with just how bright she is - one test showed her spelling ability to be nearly 10 years old.
• I'm convinced that the school is doing what they need to be doing, and then some. The more I see, the more I'm impressed with her teacher. She's been very quietly extending Zoe all year with none of us realising just how far she has achieved this year.
• We have a few ideas on how to ensure that she keeps the enthusiasm for learning, as well as build on the social skills she will need.
• We should be very proud of not only her, but ourselves. All of them in that meeting remarked that while she has such an open, encouraging and loving family life like she has now, then she will be able to do whatever she wants and succeed not only on an academic level, but in life as well,

Ok, I'm shutting up now, I just thought I'd let you all know how things were. They are just fuckin brilliant is all I can say!

Take it easy ok?

p.s For those of you that frequent Michael, over at Smoke and Mirrors, you may have noticed that he recently had a guest blogger who goes by the name of 'writer chick' If you enjoy Michael's, you will most certainly enjoy her brand new blog I am sure. So stop by, say hi, and let her know that when she writes, you'll be reading!