I never thought I would be posting in here!! My kids are bright, inquisitive and well ahead of themselves in many ways, but Scotland has no G&T scheme and I'm not sure what I think about it anyway, the way it is administered elsewhere .... (am overthinking secondary teacher....)
Anyway. I have 3 dc, dd1 is 10, ds 8, dd2 6. All have music lessons - all very good at what they play (dd1 plays accordion, ds Piano, dd2 violin).
Ds was last to start as he hadn't been interested up to now. But at the start of the school year in August he suddenly announced "I want to play the piano" and so I got him a teacher, as the girls were already in lessons and he was so keen - about something other than Wii games!
10 weeks of lessons later and his teacher wants to put him in for an audition for a "Gifted Young Musician" scheme, as he seems to have a knack for it - has done the books at twice the normal speed, his teacher says it is like he was "born knowing" how to play the piano.
So I suppose my questions are these:
- By putting him forward for this, am I being a ghhastly pushy parent?
- How do I explain to his sisters who have both been playing for over a year and are good at their instruments, that their brother is getting special treatment?
- This will be good for him if he gets on the scholarship scheme (should be half a day a week out of school for Piano plus 2 more instruments every week)? Won't it?
He's already in the top group in his class for language and maths, and that's at a bilingual school where he has learned to be fluent in Gaelic as well as English. Even by ENglish language standards he's ahead of himself (Primary 4= Year 3 reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to finish by when the film comes out - with real understanding!)
He has passed the level tests (in Scotland there are levels A-E for core subjects which are for ages 5 (school entry) to 14 (exam choice time) ) at level C in Language (p5 or y4) and Language (both languages, level D, P7 or year 6) already though he is in P4, Y3). So a half a day out of school a week won't be that big a deal if he gets it, will it?
His sisters are at a similar (age adjusted) academic level. They are all also moderately fluent in Spanish (we decided to add another language fairly early as they were finding the Gaelic easy). I am musical (clarinet grade 8, guitar grade 6) and the girls are much better at art than ds is.
I'm not sure what I am asking .....
Is it going to make a big difference tot he family dynamic if one is "Gifted" and the others not? My dd1 wins art competitions all the time and it hasn't caused ructions at home.
I suppose the whole "gifted" thing is a bit foreign to my scottish teacher brain. Please tell me this is a fabulous opportunity for my son!!!!!