My son is in kindergarten and he’s very strong in math. He’s at a small STEAM focused private school that has an interesting, project based math program that tends to be about one year ahead of the public schools (and other local private schools). The classes are small (16 kids with two teachers, one of whom is a math/science specialist) and the kids do most of their work in small groups. The teachers track which kids are in the high, middle and low groups and claim to differentiate the kids’ tasks. My son, however, reports that he spends most of his time doing group games and activities with assorted kids (not just with the other “high” kids). They also do some open-ended work, like math talks. The only real differentiation that I’m aware of is giving the “high” kids larger numbers to work with. There could be more; my son doesn’t report much about what happens during the day.

The math specialist for my son’s class says that his level is higher than any other kids in the class (and, I believe, his grade). She sometimes works one-on-one with him to provide additional attention. She believes that he is being challenged daily but I’m not sure. One thing she has focused on is speeding my son up, which I disagree with as he’s a deep thinker with average processing speed. I don’t think lack of speed is a sign of any fundamental weakness and I think the focus should be on providing challenging concepts. This strikes me as a lack of understanding about how gifted math kids function but I digress.

Here’s my question. My son has been complaining that math is too easy. He said it’s starting to make him “feel bad.” He even approached the head of school and asked for more challenging math opportunities. This week we asked the teachers about exploring a subject acceleration. The next day they had the head math teacher for first grade meet with my son to start assessing where he is at. I assumed that this was an attempt to gather information to consider an acceleration. Today the teacher emailed and told me that she is still gathering information. She also said that the math in first grade is highly differentiated and that some students are currently working at a third grade level. She said she is gathering information to figure out how to meet my son’s needs next year and to ensure that he will be challenged. I am interpreting this to mean that the school intends to try to differentiate in class instead of doing a subject acceleration.

On one hand, this sounds good because if my son were to be accelerated he would find himself without any math class in fourth grade. Fifth grade/middle school is far from the elementary school (a couple of miles). Once he gets to fifth grade, the math classes are combined with other grades and kids can work 2-3 years ahead if they are in the “high” group. So maybe in-class differentiation for a couple of years is okay because then he can radically accelerate once he hits fifth grade. On the other hand, my son’s math level is so far above the other kids’ in his class that he doesn’t have any peers who are even close and that’s not ideal, either.

For what it’s worth, my husband has a Phd in math and he can do extra ‘enrichment” stuff with my son so he’s not in danger of lacking opportunities to do fun math. But I’d prefer that he also receive challenging material during the school day, especially since we are sacrificing to send him to private school.

I feel like we are at the early stages of gathering information and that we may be able to influence the school’s decision about how to proceed. I’m at a loss about what is best here and hope that some of you will have some valuable perspective.

Bumping in case anybody has any advice about whether, in your experience, in-class differentiation is comparable to single subject acceleration.

I would take it one year at a time and not worry about the running out of math, just yet. He may be ready for full grade acceleration by then, or perhaps he could do a single year of independent study...but that is years away.

The "enrichment model" did not work well for either of my DYS and next year is the first year they will experience single subject acceleration. At this point, we feel it is absolutely needed.

I think that in-class differentiation can be comparable to single subject acceleration, particularly in early elementary. It all depends on the school, on the class, on the teacher, and on your DS. However, it is far more difficult to effectuate. There is really no single right answer and the better approach may change over time. I would take it year by year.

I have a 7th grader who did not subject accelerate until 2nd grade although he knew intuitively how to multiply/divide in his head ($10 roll divided by 25 cents equals 40 quarters) by K and was very disappointed with the math curriculum. One of my main reasons for waiting was to get him to the point where he was mature enough to travel alone within the building and skilled enough to keep up with the writing requirements inherent in our math curriculum and not be treated as a second-class citizen. I actually requested and would have preferred in-class differentiation but it wasn't an option.

We've not seen in-class differentiation done well yet. I hear it exists. I would ask a lot of questions about how they manage differentiation in the current class where first graders are working at a third grade level. Are they working independently? Do they have some daily instruction? Do they still have to do the first grade and second grade work each day?

Also, as this develops, it can be helpful if everyone agrees when you (parents and teachers) will meet in the fall to discuss how either solution is working.

My DS7 is in first grade and started in-class differentiation in third quarter, after he got the DYS qualifying IQ score. It is not working very well. He doesn't like to do the math packet he is given. He'd rather draw, read a book or chat with his friends. He doesn't see the math specialist every day so there is no big push for him. He says it's boring but his teacher said many times he wasn't sure what to do and had hard time getting started on his own. They think the big issue with him may be his limited vocabulary in math preventing him to fully understand the questions. I've asked his room teacher if I could see the math packet so I may be able to figure out why he's not interested in doing these problems. She told me that the math specialist would like to keep it in school. So I really am not sure what he is learning.

In 2nd grade, he will get into the extended math program for advanced 2nd graders (currently being set up). If he tests really well on the fall MAP test and CogAT, he may have a chance to take the advanced math with the third graders in the currently offered gifted program. I think he would do better with either program since he'll be learning with other kids. However. I'd prefer the 3rd grade math as it is more challenging, which is what we are lacking right now.

So in my DS case, I think a single subject acceleration would work better than in class differentiation. I think it really depends on the DC, the teachers and learning material.

I personally remain deeply skeptical of differentiation to address the needs of highly able students for appropriate pacing, difficulty, and instruction. Being "challenged every day" sounds nice, but I prefer the framing of "learning something new every day." Doing basic math facts every day to increase speed is being challenged, but there's obviously a diminishing return of educational value.

Agreed.

You may have already read this elsewhere on the forums, but because there are always new readers, I'll link to a couple of posts which some may see as negative but which are important nonetheless.
1) Differentiation[/i] is just a buzzword. It only means [i]something is different... it does not mean that the education is better suited for the child.
2) Challenges [/i]which may close gaps by capping the growth of kids at the top. Yes, some schools actually provide "services" designed to provide [i]equal outcomes for all students, by keeping the top students spinning their wheels with busywork until they are stuck in a rut.

Although your child is enrolled in a private school, not a public school, and therefore any advocacy would hinge solely on school policy (as opposed to State laws for public schools plus school/district policy), you may which to learn the 5Ws of any customized educational plan or differentiation/challenge introduced into your child's school day experience. Do not settle for buzzwords.

I think that, as you describe it, the situation for your son is not too bad, considering it is Kindergarten.

Looking forward to future plans, I think you might want to keep in mind that the differentiation needs to include actually teaching him new things and it should not be isolating. And yes, he should not have to do all the regular classwork in addition to the more challenging work.

So sitting apart from the other kids doing a packet of harder work that no one instructed him on -- is not going to work, in my opinion. But first you need to see what they are planning.

Good luck!

I think that differentiated classes within a grade works better than having a teacher CONSISTENTLY have to find time to differentiate within a class. Admittedly, however, you need a big school or many teachers to pull this off. The problems that I've observed with simply asking a teacher to differentiate within a classroom for your child are: VERY hard on teacher, even if very well-intentioned, to point where it almost doesn't happen (or starts OK, but falls apart); teacher never really understands just HOW ADVANCED the child really is - they go in with an "enrichment packet" they think is suitable for a slightly advanced child and never really realize what level the child is actually at; or child ends up working alone which is tough at a young age (and can even be when older) and child starts to feel disengaged or isolated.

We've experienced all of these issues, unfortunately, over the years. DYS DS7, is currently isolated, but with a better plan for next year and with a great teacher who finally gets him and is working for future acceleration. We've tried enrichment for a couple of years now, and even with really great, well-intentioned teachers, it has just fallen short. Unless they can come up with a class for him, acceleration appears to be his best option right now.

But every situation is different, of course...

This.

I did see it work well once! Kindergarten year for ODS was the continuation (third year) of the primary sequence at an accredited Montessori school (private). Excellent differentiation for a PG kid (and some of his high ability classmates). Of course, it's a totally different structure than most classrooms, since students are working at their own pace.

Unfortunately, sensing a need in kindergarten and finding that need to be unmet may result in an earlier cascade of negative impacts:
- child is bored in school
- child disengages
- child learns that teachers have nothing new to share
- child generalizes this and becomes disappointed in adults
- child skates through easy work and does not learn study skills
- child experiences brain changes from lack of learning in his/her zone of proximal development (ZPD)
- child becomes an underachiever
- child has a poor self-concept and a bad attitude

Gifted kids have needs. These can often be apparent at a very young age.

Agreed!

In theory this may sound good, however... and unfortunately...
1) Many schools are reluctant to have high students in a separate classroom than low students because they believe it is unfair to the teacher.
2) Even when classes are somewhat grouped by ability and readiness, there can be a wide range of skills, talents, and/or gifts among students.
3) A gifted kid may be well above even the next brightest kid(s) in their grade level and may benefit from cluster grouping by readiness and ability in each subject, regardless of chronological age or grade level (multi-age classroom). These links provide more information on flexible cluster grouping by readiness and ability:
http://www.casenex.com/casenet/pages/virtualLibrary/gridlock/groupmyths.html,
http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rbdm9204/rbdm9204.pdf
4) While many "gifted programs" may consist of teaching a subject one grade level advanced, this may not be enough for a gifted student.
5) Research studies reveal that gifted kids are in such small numbers that classrooms are padded with non-gifted high achieving kids, which may then outnumber the gifted kids. In a typical classroom of 20-24, the teaching/instruction may then be targeted to this majority population and be well below the zone of proximal development (ZPD) of the gifted kid(s).

Having said that, I agree with Loy58 in that having a somewhat narrower range of student abilities within a classroom, it may become more realistic for a teacher to provide meaningful leveled instruction for groups of students in that classroom.

Many private schools pride themselves in having all gifted and/or high achieving kids, therefore they may believe that they are already providing this type of high ability level classroom experience to their enrolled pupils.

My experience the past year with in-class differentiation in early grade math (before GT kicks in) is mixed. The teacher was enthusiastic, encouraging, and rather creative with her extension work at times, and DD regained confidence and happiness. When the teacher had time and a sufficient cluster of students to work a year-above level, this was done, through rotating three ability groups. I found out though, that if DD did not get 100% on a pre-test, she still worked though the regular class material. Sometimes she was working above-level for that topic, using the standards rubric for next grade mastery as a guideline. That meant only topics that spiraled were taught at the next level, where appropriate. Recently, though, when DD got 100% on a pre-test, she was given a packet of related work to do independently and not actually instructed in higher level material, because the teacher only has so much time and DD was the sole member at that level. Next year, I'd think SSA would be a better fit, but I don't know that it'll happen.

Thank you for all the feedback. Here is some additional information, if it helps:

1) My son’s classmates are a pretty bright group. Most of their parents have advanced degrees and are scientists, engineers, doctors and lawyers. At least ⅓ of the class are gifted. Even with a VCI in the 140s and reading at a second grade level, my son isn’t in the top reading group. Also, his writing is just average so I suspect he may experience difficulty with keeping up with the written work of older kids if put into a class with them.
2 My son’s math level, however, is above any of his classmates’. I’m not sure how he compares to the kids in the other kindergarten class but from his teachers comments, I suspect he is much higher than anybody in his grade.
3) The school seems to be committed to differentiating. The kids’ reading groups are cross-class so that everybody can be appropriately matched. In older grades, the kids are tracked according to math ability and put in cross-grade classes. I understand that some fifth graders are even doing Trig.
4) The curriculum is project based, so math is integrated in all the activities and the kids aren’t given packets of work or asked to work alone. The school doesn’t use an off the shelf math curriculum but instead has a scope and sequence and a resource room where teachers can choose from a range of activities/games/lesson plans to cover each concept. According to the curriculum director, this allows teachers to tailor activities to the ability levels in a given class. Most of the math is done in small groups and consists of games and activities. Kids are also given individual, open ended activities at least once a week with the idea that kids can work at their own level. Then the kids share their work/reasoning with others. For example, when the kids were working on greater than and less than, my son wrote a series of math sentences comparing square roots of numbers. So he was able to take an open ended activity and make it more difficult/interesting. But he didn’t learn about square roots in his class, he learned about them from talking about math with his dad. Also, he is still spending most of his time playing the math games that other kids are doing.
5) While the kindergarten teachers in my son’s class are relatively inexperienced and also new to the school, the first grade teachers are veteran teachers. The lead math teacher for first grade said that math is “highly differentiated” in her classroom. She said that while kids are all working on projects together, she assigns parts of the project that provide different levels of challenge to various kids. I know a woman who co-taught with this teacher before and she reports that the teacher “bends over backwards to make sure kids are learning and challenged”. She said that some kids were doing very advanced math in the class and that all the kids were doing multiplication and division by the end of the year.
6) I suspect that while my son’s teachers call him “brilliant” or “the next Elon Musk” that they don’t really have any understanding of what he is capable of in math. I could share his IQ scores but if they don’t have much experience with gifted kids, I’m guessing that won’t really mean much to them and I’m afraid it will make me just seem obnoxious. I do believe my son has been challenged and learned so much in kindergarten, I just don’t think he’s being challenged in math.

All this is to say that I’m tempted to just see what happens BUT I’m also worried that my son will spend another year not learning anything in math. This week he told me that math is his favorite subject but it’s getting “ruined” because he never gets to learn anything new. He’s not particularly assertive so when he approached the head of the school to ask for more challenging math, I knew that he must be really unhappy with the current setup.

I feel like I want to get this right now because coming back to complain again next year will undoubtedly strain our relationship with the teachers. I am leaning towards asking the school to finish an assessment of where he is in relation to the current first grader’s math and also if there will be any kids who are similar in his class next year. I suspect that no amount of differentiation would be as good as being paired with at least a couple of other kids who are developmentally matched with my son’s math level.

You may wish to prepare yourself for the idea that he may actually need to take end-of-year math assessments for several grades, as he may far exceed end-of-first-grade math expectations.

Agreed. It is good for kids to have intellectual/academic peers, especially in a subject of particular interest. All in all, it sounds like a very workable situation with your school (which sounds wonderful) and it seems you have a solid understanding of the who-what-where-when-why-and-how of any program implementation buzzwords such as differentiation and challenge, and what they translate to in this particular context.

If your son were to take math class with students one or more grades ahead, this would typically be called single subject acceleration (SSA).

Yes, understanding his optimal curriculum placement for math now may allow the school sufficient lead time to schedule fall classes in a manner which makes it logistically feasible for him to attend a math class with students in a higher grade level (for example, leave 1st grade math class to walk to 4th grade math class).

ConnectingDots beat me to it. We started my son's schooling off with "differentiation" - he was in a 1st grade math class for K where he was way beyond all 1st graders and was blurting out answers before anybody else - and they gave him "work packets" sporadically - but, these work packets did not come with any instructions or teaching by the teacher. The teacher said that differentiation meant that they will provide challenging work, but they had no time to teach new concepts and expected the child to already know them.
We moved to a school which gave him a 1 year acceleration in math - too slow paced and boring for him.
We moved to a school that placed him in a special class (ability grouping) where kids were accelerated 2-3 years in math - he is happier now - a lot of the kids are hothoused and go to evening classes in math centers, but, he has met 5 kids who are at the same level in math as him - they are his peers and he is feeling competitive and energized in class because he enjoys the interactions with them.
This placement is not perfect, but we appreciate that DS can meet kids who have as much passion for math as him.
We are continuing to after school in his strength areas, because he has the ability to handle more than what the classroom provides, but, he learns a lot in the class as well (this year, he has been learning geometry and it is new to him, though he gets the concepts quickly, he is thrilled to learn something new at school).

Differentiation in the class room did not work. But, we have had some success with a combination of "ability based grouping" and after schooling.

One smiley face for each of the intellectual/academic math peers he has found to connect with.

This is exactly what I am seeing. Not every PG kid can learn new concepts on his/her own, especially at a young age. He/She needs instructions and some teaching before they can get started. What happens to my DS is that they expect him to know how to answer the questions already but what's the point of learning that material if he already mastered the material. What's different about these PG kids is that they learn and master a concept more quickly than non GT kids, doesn't mean they automatically know or can learn a concept on their own all the time.



This is what I am hoping for next year when my DS is grouped with similar ability kids. He does seem to be more interested in doing the packet if he's doing it with another kid (he's also doing a math packet from his room teacher besides the one from the math specialist, and another boy is doing the same packet from his room teacher). He was able to finish this packet quicker because he was doing it with his classmate.

I also do Beast Academy outside of school with him to provide more challenge at his own pace.

Can you talk to current first grade parents and see what it is that the most advanced kids actually do? If you don't know which parents to ask, then actually ask the teachers to show you? That would probably give you a better idea of whether it will work. Personally I haven't seen a teacher yet who has been able to make in class differentiation for math work out. The best anyone could offer was to give him independent worksheets that no one else was doing, and put him on the computer to do programs like ixl or Khan Academy. It was better than nothing but the acceleration has worked a lot better. So in second grade started to go to a 5th grade classroom for math. Now in third he is going to 6th grade. The problem is now what? Everyone in his 6th grade math class is going onto middle school. Someone will now need to figure out how to do in class differentiation, but at least he got 2 good years out of an acceleration (luckily he is about to enter a class where all the kids are highly gifted so my hope is that there are other kids close to his level). I would do an acceleration if possible and you can always switch it to differentiation in class later if there is no where for him to go.

I initially sent my kids to the biggest (about 500) school in town assuming that would allow for ability grouping as there were several classes at each level. I found they deliberately split the bright kids over the classes because having bright kids made it easier for the teacher. I bave moved my younger to a smaller school where they placed him in a mixed class as the youngest and are really helping him with learning to manage his emotions. Big should be more flexible but doesn't seem to be.

I wanted to provide an update since so many of you took the time to weigh in last week. The lead first grade math teacher met with my son a couple of times last week to assess his math skills to determine if she recommends an acceleration or in-class differentiation. Here, in part, is what she concluded me:

“ From what I am able to tell, he seems to be a strong math student with a genuine grasp of the concepts for which he expresses interest.

He has a solid understanding of place value, subtraction, adding large numbers, multiplication, and elapsed time in five minute increments. He showed a preference for mental calculation.

The possible areas of growth within them are; speed, differentiating hundreds and thousands places (when dealing with money), flipping of numbers (50 vs 05), attention to detail of operation (+ vs -), and accuracy in calculation. He will also benefit from strategies to organize his work, as well as developing his ability to show his thinking in a written (non-verbal) format.”

I agree that my son needs support in writing and organizing his answers. He has a forty point spread between his highest index scores and processing speed (where he got a 100). The psychologist who administered the exam wasn’t worried about the average speed; she said my son is careful and needed to work on fine motor skills but it probably wouldn’t be an issue. BUT I suspect that reducing his work to writing and developing any kind of speed will be an area that he struggles with. I note, for example, that while my son has quickly learned to read above grade level, his writing output, while average for his class, isn’t advanced in the way his other work is. He hated writing and drawing until recently and never voluntarily did it until kindergarten. This has not been an issue for my son in math because the work is very hands-on and project based.

For example, his kindergarten was studying money last week. They set up stores and had real money and customers came and bought things and the store clerks had to add the totals and make change. The stores were run by teams and the “high” kids were on my son’s team so I’m guessing they had more difficult sums/change problems to work on. I think this is a really nice way to work on math and keep it interesting and I can see how it lends itself to differentiation. I also know that while it increases fluency with math, it doesn’t translate to doing well on written tests. The school has started doing “mad minutes” in math (starting in first grade) so the kids will become familiar with testing and doing work on paper. Because my son isn’t in first grade yet, he hasn’t had any experience with doing a worksheet so when the first grade teacher assessed him, I suspect this slowed him down. I am guessing that some practice will remedy this.

We haven’t met with the team to figure out what they recommend for math next year. I suspect the first grade teacher will recommend keeping him in her class and scaffolding areas of “potential growth” while differentiating in an attempt to provide some challenge. The teacher has a background in learning disabilities so she may have a good understanding of how to scaffold the skills my son needs to work on. On the other hand, I’ve read that kids who are gifted in math often struggle with basic computation and writing math down but excel in higher level, abstract thinking. This perfectly describes my son. I wouldn’t say that he has a problem with basic computation but he can often do advanced, complex math problems more quickly than adding sums. The kid spontaneously figured out multiplication at the age of three and is currently obsessed with factorials, combinatorics, exponents (and plexing) and square roots. Most of what he knows he learned through conversation with my husband, who is a mathematician, or reading books, not through any kind of practice at home. I know that if we did practice at home, my son’s computation skills and writing would probably improve but we don’t want to turn him off. My husband prioritizes fostering wonder and love for math instead of building skills. We really want to follow my son’s lead.

The day after the teacher met with my son, he said that during math he did a “mad math minute” at school with two other students. I am guessing she gave the kindergarten teachers the “math minute” so my son can practice on this skill. My son loved it.

I know this is very long but I’m struggling with the question of whether we settle for differentiation in class next year with a teacher who seems to have a good understanding of my son’s challenges and will scaffold skills he needs or whether we should push to have him accelerated so he can actually learn new content next year and engage in the higher level math concepts that he loves.

Admittedly I'm one of those with strong math ability who tends to ignore relatively simplistic work showing and only ok processing speed, but I think that early elementary tends to over value mad minute type work. Not that it isn't important, but higher level math just doesn't require that sort of skill. There are computers for that sort of thing.

Those all seem like good things to work on, but I would also ask about growth beyond his strengths as well as the listed growth within those. I would want to be sure that what they are offering is what he needs rather than just being what they have available to offer, if that makes sense.

One of the strengths of the kindergarten setup was the pretend play involved, like the store you used as an example in your post. This is fun, interesting and involves some roles for the students that may be more difficult and allows for a bit of differentiation.

What we found is that in 1st grade those elements go away. So even though Kinder didn't match for pace of instruction needed, it was bearable and still fun for the child. In 1st was where the boredom and suffering from poor fit began.

What I would suggest is making a decision the best you can tell now, with the idea in mind that after 6 weeks or so of school in the fall you will call another meetings to discuss if it is working.

Hope that helps!

We have a son with similar issues...
Given the level of your son's interests, I highly doubt that a teacher will be able differentiate sufficiently (does a first grade teacher even know factorials?) Then again, having looked at some elementary school textbooks (albeit European) - have you thought about how many grades ahead your son would have to work at? Second/third grade likely won't make a big difference (especially as I would expect your son to learn any gaps quite quickly). Would there be issues in him having to explain his strategy in words, which might be a concern with kids many years older than him? Could you homeschool him just in math?

Like Malraux, I'd be a bit concerned that all these are processing skills, not conceptual challenge. These skills will almost certainly improve with age; they may or may not improve a worthwhile amount with excessive practice while he is still this young.

From my own experience, I can say that nothing will teach a math-loving child to hate math faster than forcing them to spend all their time on basic computation, processing skills and writing. (Multiply exponentially when the kid has challenges with fine motor, writing, processing speed, attention, etc). These may be challenge areas, and addressing them is important, but doing so as a primary focus can be detrimental. We've found it really important to allow our math monster to explore and be challenged with new concepts and more complex problem solving. When school focused only on the kinds of skills you list above, he became anxious and withdrawn. Eventually, he decided that not only did he hate math, he was also no good at it: it demanded only his weaknesses, and made no use of his conceptual math strengths.

So long way of saying - yes, of course it's important to work on the processing bits. But not to the exclusion of growth on the conceptual side. For us, those skills were far more readily improved when they were practiced in the context of a motivated kid engaged in challenging problem solving. (Thank god for AoPS! He learned to love math again.) So personally, I would look at which option will more likely be able to provide conceptual challenge, and scaffold the other parts as needed while he builds up skill in the mechanics.

It seems like you may be in one of those rare situations where differentiation would actually, really happen, so the common concerns of implementation, in what ways and how often, and whether actual different instruction would be involved seem less concerning. The other big consideration may also not apply here: that is, if he gets differentiation instead of skipping, what is the likelihood next year's teacher may not recognize that work, and make him repeat the same stuff in the next grade?

@ Platypus, you articulated my feelings/fears precisely.

I met with my son’s teachers today. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. They said that at this point they recommend that he stay in first grade math next year. During assessments he was able to do everything the first graders are currently doing but he made lots of errors. For example, I saw a “mad minute” quiz that my son had taken. It was his first worksheet/quiz that he had ever done. The sheet was covered with subtraction problems but my son added every time. His addition was flawless but, of course, he got every problem wrong. He declined to do a second row of problems because he hated “all the writing” but was happy to give verbal answers. He correctly identified the times on a clock worksheet but wrote “3:50” on one instead of “3:05”.

The math teacher tried to reassure us that the first grade teacher is currently working a couple of years ahead with some students and that she would be able to differentiate enough to meet my son’s needs. I feel conflicted. On one hand, I agree that he would struggle with second graders if he makes basic mistakes like this. But I also know that he was doing basic addition like the problems on the mad minute quiz when he was three and getting them right. He also spent choice time today computing medians and making sets of prime numbers.

On a more troubling note, the math teacher reported that they are giving my son more challenging work and that he often refuses to do it, saying it’s a waste of his time. Today he refused to do some problems with money, saying “I’m doing a private study of fractals.” (He was, indeed, covering pages with fractals and math trees.) The teacher is frustrated because she is trying to provide challenging material and, from her perspective, my son is rejecting it. I suspect that what she considers “challenging” is still so easy that my son has decided that he’s going to challenge himself. Is this the start of “checking out” and misbehaving that all the books about gifted refer to?

Apparently my son has also had a bad attitude since he started to meet with the first grade math teacher for assessment. He has decided that he doesn’t need to participate in activities that others are doing and has announced (in front of classmates) that he is the best mathematician in his grade and doesn’t want to waste his time doing the same stuff they are doing.

We talked to my son and said that the teachers are trying to provide challenging material, that he must demonstrate mastery instead of bragging about it and that if he wants to move on to more interesting material, he must first show the teachers that he can do the work they are providing. We also explained that while some concepts don’t seem particularly advanced/sexy, there is plenty to learn about those concepts if he goes deeper into them.

I think I’m open to keeping him in math with the other first graders next year and seeing how things go. I’m also trying to figure out if we can work on these issues over the summer in a way that challenges my son conceptually but gives him some practice that will help to remediate some of the basic issues he is experiencing. The first grade teacher will reassess him in the fall and I suspect that if he shows improvement on some of the basic/processing stuff then she will reconsider her recommendation to keep him with his grade. Does anybody have recommendations for addressing these challenges? I got the Primary Challenge book and thought about working on that over the summer. Any other ideas?