Hi. First sorry for the long post. I have lurked here for awhile, but wanted some opinions re: how hard to push at this time.
My first grade DD age 6 is a wonderful reader, very advanced. She does really well in spelling and writing as well. Math too, but our school doesn't focus on math as much in the earlier grades.
Our district doesn't test kids for gifted until second/third grade, with no specific services until 4th grade. I believe she is gifted, not sure how much so. She has shown some signs of giftedness since she was very young.
They break into ELA groups for about 2 1/2 hours per school day. There they work on reading, writing, spelling in groups and social studies. Their homeroom teacher works on math, science and they have specials in that time as well.
At conferences in the fall (November), DD was at guided reading level "z"- was told Fountas and Pinnell but not really sure. Which translates to 5th-7th grade level, depending on scale. I am really not sure how they are pushing her to excel. I asked at conferences where was there to go to measure her and she said there was lots of room to grow.
They very recently changed her ELA teacher so the originial teacher could focus on lower level reading groups and when I questioned where she was I was told level "wxyz". When I ask her what she does in "reading class" it is I read this or that book, or we are talking about this topic, reading aloud in groups etc. Very vague but she is 6 LOL. I am hesitant to push with the schools for some reason. I was also told that she will be working with the lower level groups and flashcards on their sight words. They are hoping she will be a good influence. I have some problems with that, but she loves all her classmates and is a helper.
My DD loves school! She is very social, loves all her classmates and teachers. The only problem we have is with homework..kind of redundant and uninspiring...but overall she loves school, teachers, and friends. No behavior problems at school at this time.
Based on family history (me and her dad), I am concerned that if she isn't pushed, she will learn that "learning" isn't fun, school is easy and that she can float. At the same time, she is 6 years old, loves school and since she is reading so well, is it really important that she improves from a 5-6th grade level to whatever by the end of first grade?
I am not sure how much to push that she be challenged at this age and with her doing so well already. I would love to have her tested, but cannot afford to at this time and would prefer to work with the school if possible.
Thanks for reading this long post and forgive me my spelling errors. I appreciate any thoughts or advice you can give.
