Getting Tested

As James' vocabulary, reading, and math skills continued to advance at a fast pace, I began to wonder if I should have him tested.  Living in a rural area at that time, I could not find anyone who tested gifted children, and those I found in the larger cities were far too expensive.  I asked his doctor for advice, and she suggested that I wait until he was five years old and have him tested at our local school.  I had always somewhat planned on homeschooling James, as I knew he wouldn't fit well in a regular classroom, but when it came time for Kindergarten to start I decided to let him attend and see what happened.  Within the first month I was called into school to discuss what to do with James.  They had tested him and he had scored at the gifted 4th grade level in math, and very high in reading skills.  They suggested that he attend kindergarten part of the day and go to 4th grade for math class, and second grade for reading group.  They also gave him unlimited access to the library.  After the first semester they decided to give him an IQ test.  He scored very high--in the highly gifted range.  He was then put in the school's gifted program, which was 30 minutes of each school day.  The gifted teacher told me she suspected his score was actually much higher, as there had been many distractions in the school on his testing day and had to be stopped and finished the next day.  She saw no reason to retest, as his score was so high that he would qualify for any gifted program.

I always knew it, but now had the "proof" that my son was highly gifted.  What now?

Recognizing the gift

I will always remember the moment I first became aware that my child was advanced.  He had just turned 2 and was at a check-up with his doctor.  As we were waiting for the doctor to come in, my son James was sitting on my lap turning the pages of a book.  He was counting the page numbers as he turned, 15...16...17...when the doctor walked in.  "Ummm...he's not supposed to be able to do that", she said.  I told her how he had always loved numbers, he could count easily to 100 and beyond, he knew his alphabet, day's of the week, month's of the year, and colors, but his true obsession was with numbers.  He could read them, count them, and scribble them out on paper.  She proceded to tell me that he shouldn't be able to do any of that yet, and he was more than a little advanced.  She told me he was probably ready to start doing simple math.

I remember feeling a little stunned as I drove home from that appointment.  Being my first child, I hadn't realized how smart he really was.  Later that day, he was playing on the floor, and I walked in and said, "What does O-F-F spell?", and he looked up and said, "off".  I knew then that the doctor was right.

From there I began showing him words and writing them out into sentences, and he would easily read what I wrote.  Within months of that visit he was reading books all on his own.  I never really figured out how he did it!  I couldn't take credit for teaching him, he just seemed to know.

I introduced addition and subtraction to him at that time and he loved it and grasped the concept immediately.

I guess you could say this is when I began "homeschooling" him.  Mostly my job has been struggling to answer his many questions.  That is how my homeschooling a gifted child adventure began!