I just found this writing from years ago that never got posted, so I'll share it now.
I figured I would add this for those of you who haven't heard the trials and tribulations we went through to get Wolf into the school he is in now.
In July 2008 I read an article about gifted kids and said "This sounds like Wolf." I went online and did some research (ok, a WHOLE lot of research). It turns out that most kids aren't doing math when they are three, I honestly had no idea that was out of the ordinary. In my research I found out about early Kindergarten entrance and contacted my district to find out if it was an option in our area. Mind you, at that point I wasn't gung ho about placing him in K early, I JUST wanted to know if it was possible. Mid August 2008 I finally found one person in the school district who actually both knew the answer and was not rude to me about it which was a nice change. I was then put in contact with the charter system and told that Wolf could start with one of their schools (homeschool based system) that fall. We had never planned to homeschool so that was an adjustment, but it did make sense for Wolf. Shortly afterwards I was told he could not actually start that fall because the school was full (which the principal of the school later told me was a lie). I was told by the district to homeschool Kindergarten in 08-09 so we did and I just let him go at his own pace.
I quickly realized that a grade skip, in other words starting 1st grade when he was five, would do him a lot of good. It would be a closer academic fit, he was ready for it socially and then he wouldn't have to skip later when there was more social stigma and stress involved. I talked with the principal of the charter schools again to see about getting him placed in first grade in fall 2009. Much hassle ensued and as well as much disbelief in his abilities. The principal finally suggested that I give him grade assessment tests at home. I think they wanted to prove to me that I was seeing things that weren't there, or was pushing him, either way that I was ruining his childhood, etc... I asked what we should do if he aced them, they said come back and get the next level. By the time I asked for grade 3 math they were getting really tired of us.
I checked out several of the charter's programs to see if any of them would work for Wolf. Both Wolf and I were treated rudely by several of the well known and respected teachers we met. Wolf was blatantly talked down to and our interest in the programs was pretty much disregarded as soon as they knew his age. The teacher even said, "Oh, don't worry some of the parents bring their preschoolers so he'll have kids to play with." Seriously? We finally had an appointment with the teacher of the charter he would probably end up in and I spent a half an hour being lectured about how I was not allowing him to be a child. I didn't even get to ask most of my questions about the program. I drove home crying and feeling completely defeated. That was the last straw.
I ended up calling the Independent Study program in the neighboring district. I had talked with them before when we had thought about moving there. I told the teacher all about Wolf and what he could do. She loved the idea of having him as a student. Then I told her the thing that turned everyone else off, he would be five in August 2009. She had no idea what the problem with that was. She said he was my kid and I knew him better than she did. She was willing to take everything I said sight unseen. She also specifically requested that he be her student and was willing to fight to get a transfer to go through if that was what it would take.
We applied for a interdistrict transfer and they were going to make us go through a bunch of red tape since we hadn't even enrolled in our home district yet. However, the person in charge of the process was the first person I had talked to in our home district and I told her exactly what had happened, including all the mistreatment and lies (some of which she had been a part of), and she pushed it through on her end rather than face me going up the chain of command. We had to wait until the day school started before we got the official confirmation that the transfer went through, but it did and Wolf gleefully blasted his way through his first grade work and his second grade math. He even got to study Logic and Spanish to help keep him challenged. He loved it and the fit was perfect.
Wolf actually ended up back in our home district after several years (and an almost complete staff change in the charter program) having rules bent to allow him to to attend the 6-8 grade middle school program when he was enrolled in 5th grade and young fourth grade aged. That happened all thanks to his teacher in the Independent Study program who was retiring and wanted to make sure he ended up someplace that worked for him.
It took a year learning that school districts and a large percentage of school staff are less interested in a child's education than keeping the status quo and fitting all the pegs in their round holes whether or not the pegs themselves are round or square, but we found the perfect fit in the end and that is all that matters.
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