D's kindergarten screening

What can I say about Darren’s screening? He did not test as high as I thought he would, but he did not answer all the questions correctly when I know he knows the answer. For example, the first station was body awareness where you had to draw a stick person. They look for hair, facial features, clothes, hands and feet. He basically drew a circle for the neck, another circle for the head and an oblong circle for the body. Then he drew sticks for arms and feet and that was it. He has drawn several stick people before, and he does put a lot of detail in it.

There was a station, not sure what it was called, that asked about objects. They asked him what a watch was. I guess he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say because he said, “it’s just a watch.” He answered that way several times until the lady asked, “what does a watch do?” Darren said “it tells time!” and his tone was like “duh, that’s a stupid question.” A rose was just a rose, but I have never pointed out a rose to him so why would he know it was a flower? What is a doctor? He helps guys was Darren’s response getting another mark against him. He couldn’t recall what month followed June. Nor could he tell us what made the summer hot.

Another station was counting. He did not know which picture had a pair of apples. Nor did he know which picture had the least amount of balloons. I was told that he could not count blocks correctly so they deducted points for that. He knows how to count the blocks; he was excited about being finished so he was rushing.

I know he is a lot smarter than he tested, but he also had a problem sitting still. I had claimed from the beginning that he is probably ready academically, but not sure on maturity. I saw the list of kids being tested that afternoon and he was the only kid with a 2007 birthday; all the rest had a 2006 birthday. When we talked to the kindergarten teacher Miss H, she thought that he would do okay, but she did mention that he would be one of the youngest kids in his grade. Now we have a tough decision on our hands. Darren really wants to go, but with all the issues we have with Nathan, I am more than a little leery.