Sorry things aren't going so well Karen. What's Walk to reading?

Sounds like they aren't giving him close to what he needs

Walk to reading combines all three kindergarten classrooms and group them by ability. He's in the reading group however I think he's the only advanced reader there, most are in the emergent stage.

Well it hit the fan today, he got into enough trouble that he had to be removed from the classroom. On the plus side I talked to his teacher and she is a lot more open than I thought to some alternatives and agreed he's getting nothing from reading.

On no...what happened? They let you go in when they took him out of the classroom?

At least you got to talk to the teacher!

I had already planned to come in and read to his class, it's something I do on Fridays. He wasn't in the classroom when I got there and that's when I found out what happened. I stayed in his classroom and got my son at the end of the day. I also had a chance to talk to his math teacher and found out he's having major problems focusing. He's capable and she sees that but he'll do a problem then doodle.

I have been upset with the school about a lot of things but I think had I been blunt with the teacher earlier she was more open than I realized. I think it's easier for me to blame the teacher instead of seeing that there's several things going on.

I'm sorry for his troubles, but maybe the situation can now change for the better? Sometimes things have to get to a certain (low) point before they can improve, you know? At least they did for us.

Thinking good thoughts!

Kareninminn,
Sorry that your son's behavior was bad.
Glad that the teacher can see he isn't getting his educational needs met in the current reading program.

I'm hopeful for the following reasons.
1) He has behaved well in Math and is happy there. So they understand the need for subject acceleration.
2) They group across classroom for Kindy reading, so they understand the need for flexible grouping

My guess is that they will offer you a gradeskip or reading subject acceleration. Is it too late to switch to the half day program (you may have to call it partial homeschooling, but who cares?)

Be Sure to sit in on a first grade class and observe what they are doing in there. Even if you son is 'only' MG, he may be a very good candidate for full grade acceleration. MG kids who have unmet learning needs are the best group for single grade acceleration.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Thanks for the encouragement ladies.

They're talking about pulling him from first grade math because of the focus problems. I am going to tell them I want to keep him there and work on it, I know this will likely always be a problem for him and I think it's better to face it now instead of just sending him back to kindergarten and putting him where he isn't learning. I do think they mean well and want to see him succeed but I think they view things differently.

The school only offers all day kindergarten but we're talking about me bringing him home early. I think the teachers theory is we'll work on the work they do at school, only at home, but I could have misunderstood as the conversation was brief. My plan is to cut some of the worksheets which I think are taxing him and add in some hands on science activities which I know he misses. I expect we will be working this out in the next week or so.

My son is sick today and I think that contributed to his behavior, I fear he's already seen as the bad kid. He is impulisive and lacks focus but I'm seeing I made it worse with the school choice.

I'd fight to keep him in 1st grade math too. How's he doing with the work? Don't they think that being bored in K will cause more problems?

Of course after talking to the principal on Wednesday I haven't heard anything back yet. DSs behavior continues to get worse and he complains that he's bored still.

Another thing that I've noticed that I don't like at all is some regression. When he reads the books that are sent home for homework he sounds out every single word where before he was reading fluently. When he reads other books he does just fine but I guess the teacher is making them sound the words out (dog, sad) and it's causing confusion for him. They're also working on patterns and he's been able to do patterns in his head since he was a baby. Now they have to do some sort of clapping/letter thing (I'm not sure how to explain it) to figure out what comes next in the pattern and that's throwing him off. When I tell him not to do that he does just fine.

In the books they bring home from school there is a teacher part that the teacher reads and a part they are supposed to read. I guess the teacher told them that they were to only read the kid part so when I asked him to read the teacher part to me he got nervous and told me that his teacher said that was for adults to read. I did send her a note and she told him that it was ok if he read it but I just don't like what I'm seeing at school