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Our school does this as well, also randomly (as far as we can tell.) We just took it for what it was- a "buddy." I guess you have to pick your battles, but our buddies met for a brief time, once a week- they aren't expected to tutor each other, but to get to know a kid of a different age/grade. They made little things for each other, like cards and bookmarks, and when the chemistry was good, it was a really positive experience. We did talk about how to handle the reading (they often alternated, every other page, for example) but otherwise it wasn't worth complaining about.
That's exactly what it is in our school, except it much more occasional than that.
My breaking point in complaining is to look at how much of the instruction is being done through this way. My DS is in half day kindergarten. His teacher reports that when you take specials and recess and other extras, she has a total of 90 minutes of instruction per day, or just 7.5 hours a week. If something like this is going on for 30 minutes once a week and my child is frustrated with the arrangement, then that's approaching 10% of instructional time not serving its intended purpose. That's beyond my break point and I'll bring it up with the teacher as a point of discussion.
Geofizz, that seems a very reasonable way to go. I seem to be erroring on the side of just letting things slide for this year. I don't expect my DD will learn anything at school in kindergarten and so do a very small amount of afterschooling to keep her mind engaged. Everything is so far below her level in there and although they say they are trying to differentiate, they shoot far too low and I am just accepting that this K year is a year for her to get used to this school, make friends, learn to tie her shoes and improve her writing and spelling (mostly at home). They are having her start in some sort of pull out next year even though it typically doesn't happen until second grade. Again, I think I am one of the few parents on here who isn't pushing for a skip. My DD5 is still 5 in some ways and I don't want to rush her through elementary school even though she is moving so fast academically...anyone else feel that way?
Geofizz, that seems a very reasonable way to go. I seem to be erroring on the side of just letting things slide for this year. I don't expect my DD will learn anything at school in kindergarten and so do a very small amount of afterschooling to keep her mind engaged. Everything is so far below her level in there and although they say they are trying to differentiate, they shoot far too low and I am just accepting that this K year is a year for her to get used to this school, make friends, learn to tie her shoes and improve her writing and spelling (mostly at home). They are having her start in some sort of pull out next year even though it typically doesn't happen until second grade. Again, I think I am one of the few parents on here who isn't pushing for a skip. My DD5 is still 5 in some ways and I don't want to rush her through elementary school even though she is moving so fast academically...anyone else feel that way?
That's about exactly been our approach as well.
My daughter is very young for grade, so while we've pushed for subject acceleration, we haven't pushed more anything more. I'm thankful, particularly since we're now facing consequences of either a poor fit to her early instruction or a mild LD.
My DS missed the cutoff for kindergarten by 7 weeks, so he turned 6 in November. Despite that, he's in the middle of the age range for his class (9th oldest in a class of 20). Hello rampant red shirting. The consequence is that a skip would put him significantly younger than his classmates.
However, being a full 6 with a solid grasp on his own behavior, that process of getting used to school was complete in October, and early friendships have evaporated. He now appears to be taking the "put my head down and endure" approach to school and his peers. When we started the school year, I saw no way that it would be appropriate to put him in the proper classroom for math (2nd grade) both on maturity, reading, and writing expectations. However, now we're looking at it and thinking it would work out ok. So we're in the process of trying to tease out where the best middle ground might be for him. He craves stimulation at school. Afterschooling is not a great option for us -- it doesn't help with the fact that he wants stimulation at school, and I simply don't have the spare minutes in the day to do it. The reading instruction is differentiated in the level books he's reading, but not in pace. He is sitting with the identical 4 books for 20 minutes a day, every day. One book gets cycled from the pile each week. That's a pace that's appropriate for an emergent reader. Not for a kid who just read me 3 chapters of a DRA 30 book.
DH and I are taking the 2 week winter break to formulate our priorities. I need to call the intervention coordinator on behalf of my daughter on the first day back to school, and I will be opening the discussion on getting DS placed and taught appropriately. We still have some sort of mysterious speech/auditory problems (which is why we have the academic testing we have) that leads me to be somewhat cautious in pushing him ahead. At the moment, I want him to learn math from a human with academic peers -- that must get fixed -- and to have access to a more quickly varying pile of books to read in class. The second should be easy to fix (ha!), the second may require major changes as a result of half-day kindergarten.
Geofizz... I wish you all the luck to move foreward with subject acceleration. I 'thought" i had it all worked out last spring for ds and reenforced right before school started. We even switched ds from morning kinder to afternoon so he could join the second graders for math. It was quite a blow for us when the district asistant super of math nixed the plan. We just finished with testing of ds. I should have the WIAT results in about a week. At that time , I may just go higher to the super and involve the asst super of gifted.
Ds just finished singapore 2a and we will start 2b after winter break. His reading is not quite as advanced as his math skills. His teacher says he is reading at a guided reading level f. he easily reads and comprehends 'h' level books at home.
Geofizz... I wish you all the luck to move foreward with subject acceleration. I 'thought" i had it all worked out last spring for ds and reenforced right before school started. We even switched ds from morning kinder to afternoon so he could join the second graders for math. It was quite a blow for us when the district asistant super of math nixed the plan. We just finished with testing of ds. I should have the WIAT results in about a week. At that time , I may just go higher to the super and involve the asst super of gifted.
Ds just finished singapore 2a and we will start 2b after winter break. His reading is not quite as advanced as his math skills. His teacher says he is reading at a guided reading level f. he easily reads and comprehends 'h' level books at home.
What reason is the district super giving for reversing the 2nd grade placement and afternoon kinder? I'm concerned there's some major $$ implication... That's exactly the solution that I think DS need educationally. Emotionally, it will be marked by many transitions, which makes me tread lightly.
S2b has been pretty trivial after 2a. DS can now do it independently with his improved reading and writing skills. He's picked through about half the pages in about a month. I might just bring out 3a and start pairing it with Khan Academy videos (see that 3a has lesson-by-lesson videos?). First we need to free ourselves from STMath, which is taking up time at home, and not adding much. Either that, or I keep along as we've been, letting him do whatever he pleases. I prefer it when he chooses reading, Chess, or Legos over STMath or Singapore, to be honest...
Our son is attending kindergarten in a small neighborhood school that struggles to meet accountability targets. However, we live in a university town, so resources for the gifted are plentiful and other schools in the district are much more typical high achieving suburban schools.
Our school has been wonderful about designing a program that comes pretty close to meeting our son's needs. He goes to first grade for language arts daily, and goes twice a week to a first grade gifted pullout that rotates between science and social studies. He also works with the gifted specialist for math instruction once a week, and gets specialized assignments the other four days that the assistant supervises in the classroom.
According to friends of ours who teach at other elementary schools in the district, this level of accommodation would never be allowed at their school. There is a policy that no child gets identified as gifted until first grade, and that subject acceleration doesn't happen ever.
So, my personal advice from my personal experience is to ask the school how they can work with your kid, don't necessarily go in with an expectation that they will do a specific thing for him or her, but don't back down if they are saying there is nothing to be done. The program they have devised for our son does not meet his needs perfectly, but it is good enough for him right now. No professional wants you to come in and tell them how to do their job, but most professionals do want you to provide them with the data and background information necessary to do their job well.
What reason is the district super giving for reversing the 2nd grade placement and afternoon kinder? I'm concerned there's some major $$ implication... That's exactly the solution that I think DS need educationally. Emotionally, it will be marked by many transitions, which makes me tread lightly.
S2b has been pretty trivial after 2a.
The district guy doesn't believe in math acceleration because he says there will be gaps. Ds is in the afternoon kinder now. I didnt want to switch him back to the mornings after school started. Also, there are less kids in the afternoon class and there is one other girl that is probably gifted but not nearly anywhere close to ds in math. She is ahead of him in reading.
I did look through the 2b and it did seem easier then 2a. I figure we will ski through many chapters and just do the end tests. I think we will be ready for 3a by the beginning of march. He really has no interest in anything but numbers. I have looked at hands on equations and found an online website that is very similiar that we have played with.
Its legal to just. Give the 5 hardest questions on each end test if the problems are similar enough. We also found it was useful to talk through some of the problems to see what methods he is using.
We have officially completed singapore 2a! We completed it in 3 months. ds scored 100% on the end test. We will start 2b next week. Anyone else at this point? Where are you going next? I think after 2b we need to find something else as I don't want him to be too far ahead. I was thinking of Hands On Equations as he thinks it fun but again, its going to pull him even farther ahead of his classmates.
