leenaok

Alisha went for her IQ testing today. The psychologist administered the WISC-IV and Alisha did really well, much more in line with where we thought she was. Her strength was in her processing speed (98th percentile) and her weakness was in memory (47th percentile, so basically in the “average person” range since 50 is average) There’s no doubt her scores are considered "gifted" in the clinical setting; unfortunately it’s still not high enough for the school district. Her Full Scale IQ needs to be in the 98th percentile to qualify and she was only in the 96th percentile. It came down to 4 lousy points. *sigh*

Seriously, why is the “system” so against the genuinely smart kids?? It is so frustrating, especially when you discover that they DO make exceptions: Although you need a 130 to qualify for gifted, you can also qualify with a 115 (which to me, makes it a not-quite gifted class), as long as you meet “part b” criteria: 1- Limited English Proficiency (can’t speak English) or 2 - you qualify for free or reduced lunch (you gotta be poor). If Alisha was a part B kid, she could have qualified with that 117 on the RIAS. I was really irritated when I discovered these exceptions to the rule. Although it’s no longer technically a “gifted” program in my mind, at least it would have provided Alisha with a free, somewhat challenging education. After seeing the low standards of the public school system through the eyes of a parent, I am really disappointed. It is really and truly a biased system. With all this in mind, it is highly likely that Alisha will be saying adios to public school and returning to Noonan Academy in the near future. Too bad we can’t take our tax dollars with us!

Alisha was tested for the gifted program this week. In order to qualify for gifted, you need an IQ of 130 or above. Alisha’s was “only” a 117, which is a high-average IQ, but not high enough to qualify for the program. I have to admit, I’m surprised that her score wasn’t higher. The RIAS, which is administered through the school district, is considered more of an IQ screener than a full-fledged IQ test like the WISC-IV or Stanford-Binet. With that in mind, we are probably going to request a full IQ test through a private psychologist. If that doesn’t work out, we will most likely send her back to her private school at Noonan Academy.

Why send her back to her old school? There is a world of difference between public and private school curricula. The curriculum at Noonan is at least 1-2 grade levels above public school. It’s the reason why Alisha has complained, since the beginning of the year, that she’s in first grade “all over again”. In her current school, Reading, Math and Language Arts are the only subjects that receive A-B-C-D-F letter grade on her report card. Science (optional in 2nd grade), Social Studies (optional in 2nd grade), P.E., Music and Art get an S or U. Bottom line is that in the public school system it’s all about demonstrating Adequate Yearly Progress which is based on scores from standardized testing, such as the Stanford 10 or FCAT. Private schools don’t have to demonstrate AYP so they can design a curriculum that’s not all about “teaching to the test”.

So, why did we send Alisha to public school in the first place? It was Sanjay’s suggestion :) He went through the Florida public school system and had no complaints. What he’s come to realize is that going through public school on the gifted track gave him a totally different (and much better) educational experience.

Aside from the educational aspect, Alisha really enjoys public school. She goes to the gifted class for reading (she’s currently at a mid-5th grade reading level) and it’s the only time she learns anything new. I’ve told her that learning is the most important reason for going to school so she knows that returning to private school is a definite possibility.

On day 6 of school Alisha (finally) got her first homework packet. And it was pretty lame. Like, alphabetize 3 words and they all start with different letters...gimme a break! Last year Alisha was alphabetizing 10 words with half of them starting with the same first 3 letters!

Here are the spelling words for the general education 2nd grade class: has, way, bad, six, will, sat, had, fix, him, if, can, hit, blue, even, study, because.

Here are the spelling words for the gifted 2nd grade class: safe, smoke, escape, flames, tell, wildfire, forest, heat, firefighter, brave, danger, prevent, neighborhood.

What a difference, right?

Because Alisha is such a strong reader, she will be going to the gifted class every day for reading and language arts. Right now she’s reading at a mid-5th grade level. It’s kind of amazing how quickly her reading skills developed. I mean, she wasn’t an early reader; she started reading in Kindergarten, just like her classmates. But somewhere between Kindergarten and first grade, her skills took off! In first grade, she had already read the entire Ramona Quimby series (which I did not read until 3rd grade). Being a strong reader doesn’t mean she is a "shoe-in" for the full-time gifted program, but having good verbal skills certainly helps!

Week # 1 of public school has come and gone with no homework in sight. However, we DID get a fundraising packet. Good to know they have their priorities straight :\ *sigh*

Alisha’s adjusting pretty well to her new environment. It’s certainly a change but I think it’s opened her eyes to what school is really like, at least here in Fort Myers. She went from a private K-8 school with <150 students to a K-5 school with 800-900 students. So far she likes the unimportant stuff, like “Fun Fridays” (aka free afternoons with movies/popcorn/no schoolwork), no uniforms, no strict nutrition policy (at Noonan they do not permit junk food), and a variety of “junkier” lunches, like corn dogs, grilled cheese, etc (compared to Noonan’s chicken and wild rice, or shepherd’s pie).

Anyway, I’ve already been in contact with the school guidance counselor to request that Alisha be tested for gifted. The main reason I chose this school is because it has a full -time gifted program for 2nd-5th grade students. We figured if we could get Alisha into a challenging public school program then why not go for it? It wouldn’t cost us anything (more than the $$ we pay in property taxes). Now, if Alisha doesn’t qualify…well, most likely she will return to Noonan.

 

My baby girl is now in 2nd grade. And in public school. I miss uniforms already (but we'll see how this works).

The Kurian family drove Alisha to school for her first day of second grade. Of course, I took pictures...to the point where Alisha was like, "You can go now!!!" (but I know she will appreciate my efforts...one day). Tomorrow she will ride on a bus to school for the first time EVER! 

This weekend, Alisha lost both of her upper lateral incisors! Kinda crazy but that’s just how it worked out.  And since Alisha said the tooth fairy pays double on weekends (have to thank Sanjay for that one), I had to cough up 2 bucks per tooth!!!

One tooth came out after it started bleeding from the way she bit into a cookie.  
Here is Alisha minus tooth # 7. 


The other one was just annoying her (and she didn't even cry). 

Good thing Sanjay’s in charge of tooth extraction because I can’t bear to watch it, although I do take video when I can (for blackmail purposes)  ;)

 
8 teeth down...12 more to go! 

Here's an easy-to-read printable check-list if you're wondering what in what order teeth grow/fall out. Jacob's teeth are coming in at the rate that Alisha is losing them. So, she's lost 8 teeth and he's waiting for his 8th tooth (lower lateral incisor) to come in. 

Today we went to Open House at Alisha’s new elementary school. We went to her 2nd grade classroom where we met her teacher (a man, for the first time) and helped her get familiar with her new surroundings. Alisha is going from a private school with 150 students to a public school with 900 students, so you can imagine that it is quite a change for her. Alisha is very excited about going to a new school but she’s even more nervous about riding on a school bus (in the mornings only). The bus is scheduled to arrive at 8:20. Estimated arrival at school is at 8:45. We figured spending 25 minutes on the bus wouldn’t be too bad. It's hard to believe her first day of school is in 2 days!

So, we’re debating the possibility of sending Alisha to public school in the fall.

A few weeks ago, I went to the school choice office and ranked all of the schools in the “south zone” of Lee County. Here we have what is called “school choice”. It means parents get to pick the school of their choice for their children. No, it’s not as great as it sounds because it’s all done by lottery, for the most part. Preference is given to siblings at the same school, proximity to school, and ESE/Special Ed status.

First you rank the schools in your area, then you take the list to the school choice office where they go through the first few picks with you and let you know if those schools have space or not. (I don’t know if this applies to both lotteries; I missed the first one so I entered the second.) If your first choice doesn’t have space, they go down the list until they see a school that does have space and will encourage you to make that school your first choice. Why? If you decide to go on the waiting list for your original first choice, 1- you probably won’t make it off the waiting list unless you’re first on the waiting list (and even that’s iffy); 2- you won’t be assigned a school (until you decide you want to get off the list and try a lower ranked school); 3- by the time you have given up waiting for your first choice, the schools ranked 2-14 might already be full, so you could get stuck with your 15th ranked choice!

That’s not to say that even if the school has space you’ll definitely get a spot. Like I said, it’s a lottery system so it’s all random. I just wish we had neighborhood schools like where I grew up in New York. Of course that’s easy to say when you lived in a good neighborhood with an excellent school district. I suppose if that weren’t the case, I would be a fan of school choice. Who knows?

Anyway, I got the school notification letter earlier this week; we got our “first” choice. Actually it was my 3rd choice but the other two schools did not have space in their 2nd grade classes, so I changed the order. I figured my odds were better trying to get Alisha into a school that already had space in her grade, as opposed to being on the waitlist.

Like I said, nothing’s a done deal, but we’re definitely talking about it.

This weekend we (as in Alisha & I) went to my friend Sneha's baby shower. I think Alisha had a so-so time. I think she expected games since that's what she always heard about showers. Unfortunately, there were no games :( But they did have an activity, painting little dollhouse pieces to go into a dollhouse for the baby (girl, if you couldn't figure it out). Speaking of babies, this time last year I was pregnant with a certain baby boy who we didn't even have a name picked out for! Wow, pregnancy feels like such a very long time ago...but maybe that's a good thing ;)

Today was Alisha’s spring program at school, “Education Rocks”.


Man, it is so hard to take good pictures in low-lighting situations with a regular camera. When you use a flash, the picture comes out dark. To get this picture I turned off the flash and increased the ISO. The only problem with that is image noise (aka a grainy picture). Maybe one day I'll get my digital SLR. A Nikon D90 would be nice :)

So, back to the program. It was only a 20 minute show so it's a good thing that Jim & Tami got there before it ended. Alisha loves having her aunt and uncle close-by, woo-hoo, more family to attend her various functions! Afterwards, we all went to Mimi’s Café, which is where we always go to eat dinner after Alisha’s school functions. What a lucky girl, to go out on a school night!

Next event on the calendar, Alisha’s dance recital is this Saturday. She’ll be performing two ballet numbers and one tap dance SOLO. Yes, a solo. The tap dance was actually supposed to be a class performance but the kids came and went and only Alisha stayed. The owner of the dance school actually kept the class open just for Alisha! She said she felt it was important for Alisha’s empowerment, or something like that.

Of all the classes that Alisha’s taken, I have to say that dance lessons are the most expensive! First the class itself (60 bucks/month/class), then the costumes (which average around 80-95 bucks EACH), and the recital fee (between 50-100 bucks which might include 2-10 tickets). When I was talking to another parent about the cost of costumes, she said her daughter used to wear hers for Halloween. Why not, right? I don’t know if we will be continuing with both tap and ballet this fall/September. Alisha said she’d prefer to stick with just tap, but if she’s the only student in the class, I am sure it won’t be kept open like it was this spring. I guess we’ll play it by ear.

Speaking of lessons, we’re adding another one to the mix – swimming! This Saturday is also Alisha’s first private swimming lesson. Since we’re going through the county it costs 10 dollars for 30 minutes. I consider that a good deal considering the average price for lessons are 30/40 dollars for 30 minutes. They only offer private lessons when they are NOT offering group lessons, which means I have to cram in as much as I can before the summer. Once summer arrives, they’ll only offer group lessons, which is fine, except with our going out of town here and there, Alisha will probably not be able to attend all the lessons in a session. Alisha is a very cautious child, so it might take her a while to get truly comfortable in the water.

But, who knows, maybe she’ll surprise me?