Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School 2nd/3rd Grade 2011-2012

Frannie LOVED her class yesterday! She knows the four boys also in the class. The teacher said she does need a confidence boost. She feels Frannie is more then capable of doing the work that is expected. woohoo

Awesome!

Conferences last night for ds8 - saw his long term sub in 3rd (teacher on maternity leave), and his 4th grade teacher (math and reading). Both full of praises as usual. I love to hear the 4th grade teacher talk about ds - he loves having him in his class, thankfully He said the "head" math person in the school district was visiting the other day, and apparently she just loves to hear ds give his math explanations Next year, they're changing curriculum, so the teacher wasn't sure how that would work with ds going up a grade, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. All in all, things are going great.

So, how did it go, for those whose children recently finished a school year?

This is the first week of the school holidays for DS8 who just finished the fourth year of school, so let's call that 3rd although the terminology here is different. It was a good year, with no major issues.

This year was the first in which he had lots of specialist teachers (his form teacher takes them for English, history and geography, only). That was definitely a plus in many ways. He has his own work in maths, and that went well this year. His maths teacher is great, and the head of maths has also been setting him work and seeing him from time to time. We settled into DS's having a maths folder with him from home which we ensure always has some problem-solving work in it so that if it isn't convenient for his teacher to give him something he can always do something from there. Speed of working has been a problem, but less so later in the year. I think a lot of it is that he goes slowly on boring things, and the level of work they've been giving him to do has gone up a lot through the year. We were a bit concerned at one early point that the HoM seemed to want DS to get as polished at the papers for 13yos as this school's 13yos are, before doing more advanced work, because that really isn't going to happen just yet; but we had a good meeting, and it looks as though we are all on the same page now. Here's hoping this lasts into next year. DS did well in two maths competitions; we'll have to have some discussion about what he enters next year. I think these were, in their different ways, very good for him: one involves writing out clear solutions (no marks for right answer unsupported by explanation) and the other involves a bit of time pressure. Also, the maths competitions are the obvious way into meeting mathematical peers, eventually.

DS has always found writing hard, and this year has been getting some help from the learning development teacher. He's still not as fluent as his peers, but he continues to make good progress, and now says he enjoys writing stories. He still doesn't write much at home unless he must. Must find some way to keep him in practice over the holidays.

Other subjects have been good but not great; he often finds the pace a little slow, I think, but does learn things. The main challenge is writing. Socially he has a good place in his own year, but has experienced some teasing from children further up the school. This has been well dealt with, but it's one of many reasons why we're not asking for acceleration.

Somewhat to my surprise he hasn't minded daily games at school (new this year) and took the compulsory 22km hill walk in his stride - he's unsporty, but he's fit! He continues to play the piano and started 'cello this year; he's no prodigy at either but is making steady progress.

Not well. I've posted before about our issues so I won't discuss them in detail here, but the whole year was essentially wasted in school. For next year the school didn't yet agree to another skip, but did under threat of legal action agree to an unlimited subject pull-out for math, which will probably be insufficient because of the poor math program. All the grand initial promises have turned out to be shams.

The school district capped off the year by posting all the students' private educational and medical information on the web, where it was indexed by Google. :| I was the one to notice this and bring it to the district's attention, which counterintuitively doesn't seem to have endeared us any further to them. Sheesh, some school districts!

K/1st/2nd 2011-12 academic year

I'm new to the forum but thought I'd chime in. I'm figuring out how very lucky we are to have the school my 6-year-old son attends.

It's our local public school. They allowed him to "skip" kindergarten (upon the recommendation of his Pre-K teachers) and attend first grade last year. He was enrolled in first grade and completed the second grade curriculum by the end of the year. They've enrolled him in third grade for 2012-13, and expect him to complete fourth grade by the end of that academic year.

I'm not very excited about my 6-year-old being in third/fourth grade, but his school is small and he's able to interact with kids his own age. Nobody seems to really pay attention to who's in what grade. The kids all just play together at recesses. The academics seem to be working for him at the third grade level for now.

All in all, we're very happy with our son's school. We'll see what next year brings!

Oh lucounu, I'm so sorry. What a horrible year.

We have been very lucky. DS8 had a really wonderful 3rd grade year. His teacher taught a bunch of her own curriculum after they quickly got through the regular (advanced) curriculum. She did a lot of really cool science units. Writing is still a struggle for our DS, but they learned cursive this year and his cursive is much better than his printing. DS has made some really great friends, close to his age and academic level.

There are downsides too. We spend a lot of time in the car - the school is 45 miles away. Also, the program ends after 5th grade so we'll be at a loss then. But for now, we are thrilled that we've had 1.5 years in the same school (a record!) and we still love it.

st pauli girl:

That's so interesting to me that your son's cursive writing was better than his printing. Sadly, the school system in my state doesn't include cursive writing in their mandates anymore. His first grade teacher advised us to start keyboarding with him, which he loves. (BBC Dance Mat Typing for anyone with young ones interested in learning.)

My son (6-years-old) struggles with his handwriting/fine motor skills. Though his teacher says it's exaggerated because of his advanced academic abilities. She says he's within the parameters of "normal" for his age on this front. I wonder if he'd be better at cursive than printing? Hmmm...I'll have to keep this in mind this coming year.

I think a big part of the problem with my kiddo was when he had to lift the pen off the paper - he was all over the place with printing. Much better with cursive, when he doesn't have to lift his pen so much. Still pretty awful, but readable. His teachers have always been good about his handwriting, telling us it was age appropriate and not making a big deal out of it. Well, except at the previous school when they wouldn't let my kiddo go up a grade for math because they decided his handwriting was too poor.

I know a lot of people here who have kiddos with handwriting difficulties have had success with Handwriting Without Tears. They have printing and cursive workbooks.

I agree with you that keyboarding is the way to go. DS8 can type much faster than he writes.

st pauli girl:

Handwriting Without Tears is what my son's preschool used. The program was able to help him put pencil to paper, which was more than I was able to do! I didn't know they had workbooks. I'll have to check that out.

Thanks!