Vocal Voices

This morning Sasha had an assessment at a place call small poppies. Basically it's an enrichment program once a week for gifted children. We know she is smart etc, but I've never said gifted. To me that is another level all together, I have wondered at times though. I have always had to fight her corner to get the right level of toy, book, etc that is still age appropriate, and it's always felt an uphill battle.

It all really snowballed about a month ago at her before school check at plunket (baby until school age health agency) the plunket lady advised me to get her to a 4year old school, or to contact small poppies. I tried the (only) 4 year old school first, but they were teaching what she already knew. So I phoned small poppies and spoke to the lady there and the more we talked, the more she encouraged me to go for the assessment. So that was today.

Sasha has been offered an immediate placement.

I am in shock, feeling proud, and feeling justified that my intuition about her has been right all along, with a healthy dose of relief. I don't think she will be breaking any IQ records, I know she is above normal, but I still don't feel the gifted label is quite right. Perhaps after I have met the other children I may feel more comfortable with it once I see where she fits into the class.

I had such a sleepless night last night over it all, as you only get one chance. Sasha didn't sleep very well either, coincidentally. I had deliberately not told her. But first she wet the bed at 1, then had a coughing fit at 3 am, and at 5am I woke up to giggling as Oliver had climbed into bed with her. On top of that she had developed a slight fever during the night! So she went tired, grumpy, and dosed up on pamol to get her through. think I will sleep like a log, actually I think we all will.


The more I write the happier I am feeling.

And the other major news item for the day is over on pets.

That sounds as though it will be really good for her Weka
At her age, I'm not sure either about whether the 'gifted' label should be applied, but it will certainly mean she will be learning new things, and being stretched a little, rather than sitting bored while everyone else catches up.
Well done Sasha

As far as I'm aware, nothing like that used to exist, but at my primary and junior schools there was a system of tables. The top 4 children sat at the first, and so on around the classroom. The same syllabus was covered, but each table was taught differently; for instance when learning the times tables, those top couple of tables would go on to 13, 14, 15x, and then on to learning 3x each number, things like that.

So when does she start, and how many hours??

That sounds great for Sasha Weka.

It does sound like she's a smart girl and hopefully this will see her being taught to her full potential..but hopefully without the stress and overload that can sometimes happen. She is still a little girl after all.

Well done S.

It all sounds very good Weka. It is good that children are stretched just that little bit or they become bored and unhappy. As long as Sasha isn't stressed or pushed too hard she should thrive

We have been given a choice of 2 sessions, a Tuesday morning or a Saturday morning. I'm leaning towards the Tuesday morning as it is near my mum, so se can look after Oliver, and it would be instead of going to kindy that day, but I need to check if kindy will allow that. The Saturday one is closer, but it would mean that she would then have "school" 6 days a week, and I'm not keen on that. Even though it would mean that we would meet other who live closer to us.

I Need to talk to kindy first to see what they say. Each session is only for 2.5 hours with a morning tea break, so not for too long, and it's a mixture of activity play time and teacher lead instruction in a topic of interest, ranging from insects, to dissection!

Lozzles wrote:It all sounds very good Weka. It is good that children are stretched just that little bit or they become bored and unhappy. As long as Sasha isn't stressed or pushed too hard she should thrive

Absolutely what I was going to say! It sounds as though Sasha is more than ready to be stretched just a little

I should add, that they will not be teaching her to read and write and do her sums. They take a more balanced view and closely follow the strands of our ECE curriculum 'te whariki' , which are well being, belonging, contribution, communication, and exploration. I knew playcentre training would come in handy for something!! Te whariki is ministry of Ed and followered by every single early childhood centre regardless of what flavour they are.

The difference here is in a kindy they might say a spider is a bug, small poppies says, a spider is an insect, a member of the arancic(?) family and has an exoskeleton. (So I discovered today.) Then she asked Sasha if the plastic animal she was holding (a tiger) had an exoskeleton or an internal skeleton. And she correctly answered. I've never used the term exoskeleton before, and if took me a few minutes to remember what it was.

Edited: Oops sorry kaz about the spider reference

Well I hope she enjoys it

Weka, that sounds amazing and I'm sure Sasha will be very happy.

It sounds great weka and I'm sure Sasha will benefit from it