Anyone else nervous about this year?

Ds will be at the local public school this year. We are looking into the private schools as a backup if things go south.

That reminds me... must start shopping for school supplies... (we start grades 3 and 5 in September)

Good luck with public school!! Ours is OK so far, so sometimes it works Every situation is unique... you just have to test the waters and see what works for your family.

We found that first grade was still mostly social, not that academic.

We liked how kindergarten turned out, after correcting for amblyopia, DS went from a word sponge to an an outstanding reader. My concern is in a K-5 school, he exited K reading at a 5th grade level; how will they even have appropriate materials next year?

We moved and are a short walk to this school, but if they can't keep up we are looking at a 30 min car trip or a 60 min bus trip each way to the HG+ program.

I can't even wrap my head around how "real" grades will work when kids are at different levels.

Just checking in..
How is first grade going for everyone?
EJ is bored with Math. Our district uses Everyday Math . Domino dot and tick tally counting just isn't doing it for him. He said challenge math is too easy as well. Our district just adopted guided math this year. It is not like guided reading where grade level doesn't matter. He is with all first graders (in a multi grade 1/2 classroom). He is bored. His reading has taken off. He wasn't an early reader and started kinder at a reading level of 'd'. He is now in the classroom at an 'o' but at home is reading 'q'. He is in the top 2nd grade guided reading group and for intervention/enrichment he is also in the highest second grade group (they pull these kids from all 6 classrooms).

DD's third grade teacher gave me 2 packets for him... multiplication and division. He looked at them and said "too esy". At least she tried..I am going to ask her for some geometry packets and fraction packets I think.

Hi, frannieandejsmom. If your goal is to get the school to recognize that EJ is ready for more advanced work, at the very least make sure that his teacher records in his file that he's getting more advanced work, what exactly it is (possibly with work samples), and how he's performing with it. Such info may easily be lost in the year-to-year shuffle.

I'm beginning to realize that a lot of gifted children find that the first years of math in elementary are wasted, if they're stuck with the normal curriculum. I chalk this up to the fact that a lot of kids hit kindergarten with little to no math exposure, even less than reading exposure in some cases, and the fact that a lot of schools don't differentiate much before the third grade.

(ETA: Looking back at a prior post of yours, it looks like EJ scored at the 99th percentile for 3rd grade in math. There's no way I would continue letting him be given first grade math work. I'd do whatever you have to do to get this changed for him. In my personal opinion, the school's continuing to give him such obviously mastered work is abusive.)

You could afterschool him. That might do a better job of keeping his spark going, since you know what he enjoys and can handle better than his teacher. Have you checked out the Mathematics Enhancement Programme? It's free, and he might like it. Maybe you could quickly afterschool him up to the third grade, skipping a lot of the early boring drudgework, and then he could try the new Beast Academy.

What challenge math did he find too easy, "Ed Zaccaro Challenge Math" or something else?

Is there additional testing you can request of the school? IQ and/or achievement testing might provide evidence that they can't ignore. I think you live in an area where they use the MAP, right? If his percentiles support it, I might ask for him to be exempted from the normal class work.

In "Developing Math Talent", the authors warn against using end-of-year math tests to prove readiness for subject acceleration. I think that a lot of the reasons why this is true wouldn't apply so much to the early grades and a highly gifted student, though-- and many teachers and school admins might not be up on the gifted literature (the understatement of the year, maybe). Your son would probably ace the end of year test at his current grade level.

Hi frannieandejsmom,
1st grade is going OK so far here. Teacher seems to be a great teacher for typical kids. She is open to giving DS more stuff after parent teacher's conference; we've been getting some multiplication sent home instead of all substraction and addition.

Spelling was interesting as he was a sight reader. The first few spelling tests were rough and they have a wide range of odd activities to help learn the words. But after a couple of months of spelling, he seems to have figured out how to remember spelling and we've excused him from any unneeded busy homework.

However, the overall pace and depth isn't quite enough for him; so, we've initiated testing into the district's HG program. He passed their achievement first hurdle with flying colors and now awaiting the scheduling of the Stanford-Binet piece. Not certain how it will all work out or if he will change schools.