Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Defensive Grade-Skippers?

The skipping k didn't seem to make as many waves as sending our dd to a charter gifted school. But when I was checking to see if there were any equally good options closer to home I made the mistake of asking a friend about one... I forgot the stink between us last year over the skip. If I have to hear one more time about the kid in her son's kindergarten class who is a "good reader" ... HEY, that ship sailed. Good for him. He isn't my responsibility.

Of course that isn't what I said... I've started taking the same approach to dealing with people on school stuff as I do most conversations with my mother in law. I just come across as though I agree generically with whatever she's saying and then go about doing things as I planned. I'm the least likely person to avoid confrontation - frankly as a debater I usually enjoy it. but it isn't worth it.

But the PHONICS thing. What's up with that? I heard that from a parent at the gifted school that her kid would be made to go back and do the whole k year over because our school didn't do phonics with her. Honestly do I need to be concerned. DD6 is in 1st, skipped k, and today is reading another American Girl Mystery book (amazon lists as 5th grade level, i think 4th). so if she was never taught phonics will this hurt her?

If we do early entry for dd4 into K in the fall - I think all hell will break loose. I think because people could see what dd#1 was reading in pre-school they didn't say much. but with #2 it isn't as obvious... dd#1 birthday was dec, dd#2 birthday is in jan - so we are talking about a REALLY big early entry... which I've driven you crazy asking about. I'm still not sure. It looks likely the public school will accept her... but I'm not sure if she should go now or skip k all together. but that's not the topic here :-)

My dd8 bombed the Phonetics section of her Stanford Achievement Test (4 out of 9 on Phonetic Analysis - Vowels) yet for her free time reading at school she is reading The Fellowship of the Ring. It doesn't seem that phonics is critical for advanced readers.

My dd was reading chapter books when she started 1st grade. Her 2nd grade teacher told me that she is an outstanding reader (currently reads about 8th grade level).

She learned to read with what some call "whole language" approach. Basically she has a great memory and just memorized a whole lot of words. In second grade, her teacher started using a phonics system (don't know which one). At first I was uneasy with the idea, but it has actually been a good experience for her.

She was not asked to start reading books below her level, and by learning phonics she can actually tackle books way above her grade level. I don't think learning phonics is by itself a bad thing. I see it as a back up system. If you don't know a word, you can figure it out.

I agree that phonics is not needed for kids who are already reading well.

Our school teaches phonics coding in 1st grade which is used through approximately fourth grade. Our daughter skipped from PS 2nd to 3rd at this school. Lucky for her, ds was in 1st and could help her with the portions of her homework that still required coding. Neither kid ever used it for help in reading, but it is the way our school teaches reading. Worst case (if she didn�t have ds), she would have had lower grades in LA for the early elementary years, but the phonics focus dissolves by 5th grade.

Speaking of phonics, I saw �Hooked on Phonics for Babies� yesterday at Sam�s Club.

I definitely understand how phonics can help with decoding, but it never stuck with my kids.

I have a friend whose GT son (Definitely MG, very probably HG+, but probably also somewhere on the light end of the autism spectrum...or something) was reading well, but the teacher wanted to keep him from joining the GT enrichment group because he didn't have all the phonics down.

Mom: "Why does he need the phonics?"
Teacher: "So he can read."
M: "He can't read?"
T: "No, he reads well above grade level."
M: "Uh-huh. So he doesn't need the phonics."
T: "No, he must have mastery of them if he's going to be in the GT group."
M: "So he can read?"
T: "Yes."

She was so fed up with this ridiculous illogic and all the time she had to spend advocating that she finally yanked him and HSd him.

Hard to blame her!!!

I would have done the same.......sheesh!

I find this all interesting because DD8 at 4 seemed to learn how to read by phonics..sounding out the letters of the words and then her reading exploded.
DD5 has never really been able to sound out the words well, so I did Dolch flashcards for a few days, and then,, reading.
Clearly she memorizes the words and has more difficulty trying to sound them out, yet scored high in decoding.
Don't know what this means, if anything.

I

I don�t worry about decoding as long as comprehension measures are high.

Hey Debbie,

while you are here. My friend noticed C-dog can't touch right hand to raised left knee and vice versa.
Then she showed me she can't draw the infinity sign from left to right and vice versa, only from top to bottom.
She said it was some mid-line vision issue, but she is so physically strong and coordinated, she probably won't be able to get therapy. what do you think?

I

Hey Incog,
You have me confused with Debbie who is the OT here.

So many new people joined at once seemingly that I still get some people (or at least their children mixed up) too!

Debbie, where are you?