Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy yay! It's summer, time for learning!

Yeah, just in the context of one year, I honestly do not know that my son did anything other than eat brownies and bring piles of stuff home in the last couple weeks. After the Va. SOL testing is over it seems like there is nothing left to do anyway so why keep them in? I can not imagine it going LONGER.

Ds8 burst into our room this morning earlier than he ever gets up just psyched about being OUT. It is a weight and a burden. And this is even with a pretty cool teacher and at a decent school.

Kcab, thinking about the 'negative self thoughts' that go on in ds' head all year, it would be soooo nice to be in a situation which afforded him having better feelings about himself.

Play and Learn and Dazed and Confused,
I get what you are saying and we will need more than just the skip.

However, when I saw that the K class learns the word "the" and such and at least the first graders are reading books, we thought it would be a step towards a better situation. Another example, learning to count to 100 vs. starting real math using Smartboards and other games, it was obvious which would be better. Not perfect, but better.

For DD9 some of the skip has to do with putting her in a situation where there are more stimulating kids (it is a small school so we know everyone) and where they are treated more like middle schoolers. They are given work for the week and much is self-paced, so she can race ahead and then read something she likes.

So, each school situation might provide different positives with a skip.

The problem with national standards is that they will almost invariably end up being those of California. That's what everything standardizes to in this country, otherwise known as "lowest common denominator". My folks moved away from California 39 years ago because the schools had gotten so bad. By the time I finished high school, twenty-odd years ago, the California standards had caught up with Colorado (which is twenty years behind in most things). Now we start talking about national standards, and you can bet that will be the ones we get.

elizabethmom - I definitely agree! My son would have been MUCH better off skipping K into 1st. He's now a rising 4th grader and when he was in 2nd grade, skipping into 4th didn't seem like the right thing to do...he needed different. I was just musing about my own situation and not judging yours at all. 8-) While 1st wasn't necessarily more challenging, it was a lot more fun! Whereas I've heard several times that K is usually fine for advanced kids b/c of the play aspect and freedom to move around whereas 1st grade is more drill, sit at your desk all day which can be a shock for a 5yr old. In my son's case, he was more than ready for that aspect of 1st grade. Every kid and situation is different.

I definitely agree that each school is different!

I agree. We definitely need to look at each kid and each school individually. The circumstances are all different. I didn't mean to question your decision for grade skipping. We do the best we can given what we have.

Sometimes we just have to take the least worst option .... and she could get a wonderful 1st grade teacher who identifies with her and really challenges her!

{W. Stephen Wilson is a Johns Hopkins math professor who teaches freshman calculus and is a former senior advisor for mathematics in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. He also reviewed the states' K-12 math standards for the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and he has strong opinions about which offer the best guidance. He called California's math standards "the gold standard." Wilson recommends that parents who want to make sure their students are getting prepared for high school and college compare the topics in their students' textbooks to the California standards.
"Odds are, if you can't do that easily then there is something very wrong," he says. Why Is Algebra a Big Deal? By Linda Strean}

http://giftedissues.davidsongifted....Why_Is_Algebra_a_Big_Deal.html#Post41325

My understanding is that CA really does have the top math curriculum but rather low reading proficiency benchmarks.

CA math standards and MA reading standards might combine well to change the educational tide in the U.S.

"My understanding is that CA really does have the top math curriculum but rather low reading proficiency benchmarks."

This is my understanding as well and one of the reasons we use the Singapore Math Standard Edition with my twins and son.

Not that my kids use it much anymore, but I set our subscription to ALEXS on CA standards rather than our own state (IL). I did the same for my nephew in MN.

With my limited experience I also agree that the math standard in CA is good. We've been in a CA school and a midwest school (both are very good schools in very good districts), and I have to say the CA school has higher standards not only in math but also in reading and writing. But the midwest school has a lot more arts and music.