The following article is based on a blog posting that appeared on October 13, 2013, in the blog Chasing Hollyfeld (chasinghollyfeld.com).
Parenting twice-exceptional children as they enter school could be likened to hacking your way through a horrible, complicated maze in the jungle, only to finally come into a clearing and realize that homeschooling is really the only viable option. I retell our personal experiences here not only to offer some hope to those considering homeschooling their 2e child, but also to inform others about dyscalculia, a math learning disability. Had we, or the teachers we encountered, known about dyscalculia sooner, it would have saved my daughter a tremendous amount of pain and heartache.
Off to a Good Start
Our daughter, H, went through the usual early childhood milestones, a bundle of joyful exuberance and dramatic entrances. She entered a Montessori preschool along with her twin sister, learning to read at age
3 1/2. The preschool was a fun place for both of them to make new friends and learn new things.
During parent-teacher conferences, the reading teacher glowed about how well they were both doing with reading; and the math teacher told us how well our one daughter was doing with the math activities. When we asked about our other daughter, she noted that H didn’t like to visit the math area. We didn’t think too much of this fact because we had no expectations of them really learning anything of substance at age 3 or 4. It seemed H was learning her numbers along with the other kids.
Next, we enrolled both girls in our local kindergarten. While H struggled some with basic addition and subtraction, she didn’t seem to be behind most of the other kindergarten kids.
On to a Gifted ...
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