Hi everyone,
I just thought I would give you an update on Sophia as we complete her first term of school today.
I was initially very worried about her starting school almost a year early. Turns out that this has been a fantastic move because she has just fitted in and has just run with the academics and is doing well socially.
This term Sophia has completed not 1 or 2 or 3 maths work books but has completed 7 in one term. She has completed 3 on addition 3 on subtraction and 1 on multiplication. She is loving maths and really enjoying the learning. The best thing is that she is not held back she is really encouraged to follow her intrests in the class.
I got off to a rocky start with her teacher thinking she was not going to let Sophia keep up her reading level because their was no appropriate books at her level (which means appropriate content) I have taken over and I send Sophia to school with chapter books and we have started on other genres. Sophia is really enjoying poetry books at the moment especially A.A. Milne. So during the school holidays we will be off to the library to find more poetry for her to read.
We had a parent teacher interview last night and he thinks her memory is boderline photographic. They only have to teach her things once and she is off. He didn’t say gifted but she is highly capable! She just needs to improve on her handwriting and spelling. I said I know Sophia can spell and write because she does at home but I think that Sophia does not enjoy handwriting and therefore will not do it but as she sees her friends doing spelling she will want to do it and since I know she can spell and write I am not concerned. I think she will do it just when she wants to.
The other thing i’m really pleased about is how she is becoming a self-directed learner. She has a work-card with a number of subjects on it and in the first term they expect the child to complete half of it a day but she came up to me the other day and showed me her completed work card. She managed her own time and completed it. You could see the pride in her eyes when she showed me because she felt that she had accomplished something in her day. The work card has Reading, Spelling (Box work), Hand writing, Maths, cultural studies, snack and one other which escapes me right now. She completed the whole thing in the morning work period. which is 3 hours after lunch they work as a class on a specific subject like the human body, landforms, 2nd language, music, and so on.
I think the fact they she is becoming a self-directed learner is the most important skill of all and the one that most warms my heart. Because once the academics are down-pat, managing yourself and your time is a really important skill to learn. So to see her learning this skill at 4.5 to me amazing and the fact that she wants to do it.
We have had one problem with bullying this term with one little girl picking on her and telling her she wasn’t allowed to play with her or learn multiplication until she said so. So we alerted the teacher to what was happening and the teacher acted upon it immediately and now Sophia and the other little girl are fast becoming good friends. Which is a very positive outcome and fantastic to see that it was not left to fester.
So all in all I feel at this point in time Sophia is very happy, and flourishing in her environment. She is well supported by her teachers and peers and I feel sending her to a Montessori school has been the right move so far. I have not ruled out homeschooling providing Sophia is continually supported by her teachers and peers. If things make a turn I have no problem pulling her out and bringing her home. She is loving it ans when she was home sick the yesterday she asked me if she would be well enough for school tomorrow as she would hate not to go. She has even asked me to make her work-card for her when she is at home for the school holidays. haha 
Thought I would let you all know.
Kimba15