Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Kindergarten 2009-2010

[quote=Jamie B]I don't know about the assessment. So what's he doing while the other kids are doing reading? I wonder if they have him in a reading group below his level because that's where the other kids in the group are.

Jamie: Not sure about every day, but earlier this week, I asked if he read with his teacher since he didn't go to the other classroom. He said yes, with his teacher and the classroom. Asked if it was an interesting book and he laughed and said it only had 2 words on each page! He actually thought it was highly amusing. Tonight at bedtime, he said the book he read with his new reading group this week was too easy. At least he's jolly when he shares this info. It's all like a big joke to him, but he did say he'd rather read harder books.

Yes, she goes to the 1st grade classroom in the a.m. for reading and math. In the afternoon she joins the K class for lunch, recess and specials.

It's hard to say about the assessments, not really sure exactly how they work. It makes sense if that is where they assessed him at that he is only doing it a couple times a week. Unfortunately if they are above level some, kids just get it sporadically, or sometimes not at all and are left to just read by themselves in the classroom, or work in groups of 1. It is also interesting when the school says that kids will be doing certain things and the kids come home and tell a different story. My DS5 came home the other day and told me he was all done with reading. I asked what he was talking about. He said that he got everything right and was at the highest level so he doesn't need to go to reading (I've got that one written down to ask about at our conference coming up). Not sure how much is their misinterpretation or actual facts. I think sometimes it is a mixture of both. My DS is the same as yours when it comes to talking about how easy things are. Most of the time he says it in an "I can't believe it" kind of way. At times he is frustrated, but pretty easy going kid in general. I was trying to get him to branch out from the magic treehouse books since that seems to be all he gets from the library and the classroom to read. I asked if there were other books there. He said "well there are some books about clouds" I told him that sounded kind of neat and he said "but they are for the other kids because there are only 2-3 words on every page....like 'one cloud, two clouds, three clouds.' " That's pretty crazy, but he thought it was a little humorous.

Hi I hope it's not too late to join in here

I *think* I read through most of this post and there were several times where I wanted to quote someone and say 'That's exactly like my son!'

We're not really sure what to do at this point. My DS5 was tested by the school district (not his current one) at age 3 for adhd, eye contact, behavior issues. The ultimate outcome was that he is very very bright possibly gifted (showed as gifted on the DAS-II test but we are keeping in mind he was only 3) and 3, lol. Most of the behavior issues have improved with age - I think it was just really hard to place the behavior with the intelligence as they just don't go together well.

He is in 1/2 day K and we love his teacher, but he is definitely not learning in class. She has him doing some 1st grade work when his group is in phonics since he is already reading, but even that is too easy and it's only in reading that he gets anything 'harder'. It's very hard to see his work come home and they are learning the numbers 0-5 - she knows he can 'do math' but is limited on what she can do.
My biggest issue - actually only issue, since he is learning to adjust to school and all - is homework. He still HAS to do the K homework, we also send in any completed 1st grade reading/math stuff we do as well but I hate that I have to make him sit and color --- he HATES to color.

I have a message in with the principal hoping we can come up with a game plan for next year at least that doesn't leave him bored and being a troublemaker. I won't feel ok with making him do extra work at home next year when he'll be in school all day already. They don't offer GATE until 3rd grade and even then I think it's all after school stuff anyways so wouldn't help during the school day at all. I'm thinking of requesting they test him now and if they can't/won't we'll do it on our own instead.

I'm super jealous of some of you since you have schools that seem to deal with advanced kids quite nicely. I will probably be taking some suggestions in to his teacher on Wed when I help in class

Have you talked to the teacher about giving him more advanced work or did she do it on her own?

I'm having the same issues as you where my son is bored but right now they won't do anything for him because of his behavior. They said they were going to give him some 1st grade work in class but what it's turned into is 1st grade (and Kindergarten) work at home so some nights we're doing over an hour of homework.

My son does things to make his homework more fun. Instead of counting normally he'll count by 2s or 5s or 10s. When he has to write his name he'll write it and make patterns out of the letters. I guess that's hard to know what I'm talking about without seeing it I do supplement some at home but with all of the homework that he's been having lately I hate giving him more stuff to do.

You should talk to the principal or teacher and see what they think about moving him to a higher grade at least for some of his subjects.

You may want to consider doing it for him. I do this for my kids when the work becomes pointless. I see no point in making my kids miserable if their teacher hasn't thought something through properly.

I did some addition problems for my 7-year-old just last night. He was given something like 20 too-easy math problems to do and wasn't offered time to do them during after-school care. He also had a spelling test today and I felt that requiring him to do extra math at home after dinner and spelling wasn't reasonable. So I had him do a couple problems and said "Do this one. If you get it right, I'll do the rest." He did it, I did the rest, and everyone was happy.

NB I can imitate his handwriting.



Val

I sent an email to the principal on Friday - still waiting on a response from him on that

His teacher knew he was reading as she is the one who assessed him in July - while they don't normally assess reading he was reading everything on the walls to her so she went and grabbed some books for him to read. She said she made lots of notes all over his assessment and was really glad she got him in her class. She started having him do reading comprehension worksheets on her own (1st grade ones) but we still haven't gotten anywhere on math stuff. She does keep all his higher grade stuff though so it may be that he is doing them and I'm not seeing them, but from my volunteering in class I haven't seen him do anything higher but the reading stuff.

She also (finally) got him tested so he can check out books and take Acclerated Reader quizzes so that maybe he'll continue to *want* to work on his reading. He tested at 2.3 there so we'll see how that goes. He's only taken one quiz so far but should take 2 more on Friday I think.

They don't do GATE until 3rd grade so I worry that my options are very limited but something needs to be different at least for next year (though I'd love at least 1st grade work to come home for homework). On a 'whim' I had him take the placement tests for k12 (we have cava.k12 here) and it placed him in 2nd grade for both reading and math. Of course I had to say he was 6 just to get the option to take the reading one. On a side note it put my 4 yr old in 1st grade (had to say she was 5 to take the math one even, lol)

I do help him a bit - mostly though I can't color like him or write like him (that's the one part he NEEDS K for, lol). I coax him in by just telling him to just color this part or frequently we'll just write a sentence instead of drawing/coloring. He even did that in class the other day - he refused to 'pretend he was a fish' and draw something he would do. So he wrote instead 'I wood not be a fish'

Haha...the fish story is cute My DS really needs to work on his handwriting too...and his shoe tying skills!

Do you see the principal when you go volunteer? Maybe you can stop in his office and talk to him/her?

Is GATE enrichment? DS gets 90 minutes of enrichment a week but honestly I don't know that it's helping. They mostly color and cut things out (which he hates). I think they also read books.

GATE is (I think) Gifted and Talented Education. I know at our school they offer after school programs like Art, Music, fun science stuff but what I don't know is whether they offer anything at all during school hours. Either way it doesn't start until 3rd grade

I volunteer tomorrow morning (only day my dd4 goes to school) and I have an hourish after that until K gets out so I may try to talk to him then. I will probably go home and call though so that I can double check my email first, lol.