[Oz-gifted] first kindy report

[L B]

Robyn
I agree with Keith on a lot of issues. My dd is now 8 and in 3rd class.  We 
have had similar issues to what you are describing.

>Talk to her teacher (if you are comfortable doing so and have
>confidence in her) and try and get a more detailed idea of what
>she thinks and how she sees your daughter.

This is one thing I have found invaluable.  Some teachers are great (most of 
them in my experience), some not so good (my dd's year 2 teacher - we had 
major issues)

>Try and (gently) discuss things with your daughter (difficult
>with young children, I know). In my experience (2 kids), they
>can't necessarily articulate "why" but they can tell you likes
>and dislikes; what's fun, what's not; what's hard, what's easy;
>and so on.

I also found my kids couldn't tell me why. But on further discussion the 
reasons were becoming clearer.  Last year my dd told me "I am a hopeless 
speller. I am really bad at writing".  Turned out that she is a visual 
spatial learner, and the teacher was very auditory sequential, and had no 
patience for different styles of learning.  The teacher was also a bully, 
who regularly said things in front of the class - calling one boy stupid, 
and standing kids up to spell things in the front of the class even if she 
knew they would be wrong.  My dd, by the end of that year truly believed she 
was a poor speller. She really resisted writing anything because of it.

>It looks like something is not going quite right ("just a useless
>girl at writing" bothers me a bit) but it will be a matter of
>finding out what, why and how to deal with it. It *looks* like
>lack of confidence but the what and why are important. Perhaps
>your child's expectations are too high?

I spoke to dd's current teacher at the beginning of the year, explaining 
that we had an issue which needed to be dealt with.  I was very careful not 
to blame anyone, but pointed out it was a self esteem issue.  This teacher 
had already tested spelling for the class, and it turned out that my dd 
spelled better than most of the year 4 students (composite class).  She 
isn't a bad speller, but it has taken a long time to get some of the self 
esteem back.  She still resists writing, but we are coping with that in 
other ways.

One way we are encouraging writing is through drawing.  She is allowed to 
illustrate her writing, but only after she has written the required amount 
(started off at one picture one sentence, now one para one picture).  She 
also emails her friends and grandparents.'

One thing which has been good for my dd is the UNSW competitions.  We 
entered her for the purpose of practice at tests, so when she came to the 
basic skills tests etc she wouldn't be so stressed about them. We emphasised 
that we don't care if she fails, or gets nothing right, it was just for the 
experience.  She has 3 distinctions (one of which is English), which have 
really boosted her self esteem.  We are still waiting for the spelling one.

>I wouldn't hit the panic button but I wouldn't be seeing it as
>quite "normal" either.

Talk to the teacher, or to other parents (the ones who help in the classroom 
may have some insight).  Or, can you spend a little time helping in the 
classroom?  I have found this a good way of finding things out from time to 
time.

Lynda