Inwe and Kindergarten Take Two

Need to refresh your memory on my first post or do you want to read it for the first time? Just click here. Let's get few things straight before I start this post on what to do about Inwe and Kindergarten for next fall:

• The cost of private school is not a problem.
• I'm not comparing Inwe and Larien. Larien is doing great and is well above other two year olds.
• I'm not trying to rush Inwe through her school years.

In order to have some hard data regarding Inwe's abilities we had her tested by the Clinical and School Psychology division at the Curry School of Education here at the University of Virginia. The instruments used were the WPPSI (Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence) and the VMI (Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration). Her overall or Full Scale score fell in the "Superior" range of ability and at the 99th percentile among children in her age group. There's my hard data. The researachers not only measured her intelligence as able and capable of entering kindergarten next fall, but they also stated that Inwe would be successful.

And, just for kicks, here are some quotes from the report:

• "At times, Inwe tended to fidget by standing next to her chair or leaning her arms on the table, but she continued to focus on the task at hand."
• Inwe's "verbal ability is clearly an area of strength for her. She demonstrated a well-developed vocabulary and ability to answer factual questions. At times, [Inwe] would add to her answer in order to create a discussion. For example, when the answer to a question was 'green', she not only replied 'green' but also pointed to a flower embroidered on her pants and said 'green is on my pants too.'"
• "Her playful personality was evident when she responded to a picture of scissors by saying 'scissies,' giving a silly smile, and then pronouncing the word correctly."

So, are we going to put Inwe in kindergarten next fall? Absolutely.