Our Brilliant Children

I met with Karson and Isaac's curriculum coordinator, Ms. Crump, on Thursday to discuss their academic achievement and how the school is addressing their academic needs.  Isaac was recently chosen to participate in Plano's primary talent pool which is an honor.  Unfortunately, they can't do a whole lot with the primary grades besides give them enrichment exercises and more advanced work in the classroom.  Isaac is so smart.  Although he doesn't really enjoy school much, he has an excellent memory, advanced vocabulary, he absorbs books and writes his own almost daily, his math skills are incredible, and the list goes on.  For his age, he is considered as part of the top 25% nationally for his grade/age.  The school uses STAR Reading for testing and Isaac scored a 98% meaning that he reads greater than 98% of other students nationally in the same grade.  His STAR Math was a 92.  

Karson continues to soar in the academic arena.  She has been selected to participate in the school's academic team in the areas of language arts, arts and humanities and quick recall.  She hasn't committed to any specific area yet.  I told her we needed to see the practice schedule first to see what we can and cannot accommodate.  Academic Team, although wonderful, is very time consuming.  Karson is involved in a lot of extra curricular things so we have to be somewhat selective.  She got her mid-term report back this week and scored 100% in spelling, language, math and science.  She scored a 97% in reading and 95% in social studies.  She also received scores from K-PREP which she took at the end of her 3rd grade year.  Karson's performance scores in reading and math were both distinguished.  She scored a 229 in reading (school mean = 209, district mean = 208 and state mean = 209) and a score of 234 in math (school mean 204, district mean = 204 and state mean =206).    Her national percentage rank in reading is 99% and her math is 95%.  She was invited to participate in Duke University's Talent Identification Program.  This program provides additional academic resources to help challenge gifted children and give them opportunity for growth.  Ms. Crump showed me the extra enrichment Karson gets in the gifted studies at Plano and how the pull-out program works.  She told me Karson is ranked in the top 5% nationally.  This child never ceases to amaze me!

Miles is a newbie in the academic arena and seems to be more interested in the social side of school more so than the academic.  However, he is quickly becoming an excellent reader and has already passed his Lexia Level 1 in reading.  Miles is very smart and very popular =)!  Who knows, he may be the president one day with those stellar qualities. 

Matt and I are proud of our children and love watching them succeed!