Oh No! My little one, just turned 6 has been fine in school. She has many 7 year olds in her class. I went to her open house the other day and the teacher told me that there was one other boy in the class that she put in her "reading group." He is 7. She told me that he is not reading at dd6's level, but it should work out. I did not expect her to be the ONLY kid at her level. She tested (DRA tesing) at the end of K with an independant comprehension of 2.0 and a higher decoding...I wasn't too impressed since my dd9 was way above her at that age. My dd6 also doesn't write or spell very well and isn't amazing a Math.
She is reading Diary Of A Whimpy Kid - fluently, with expression, and understanding...because she thinks it's funny, so she may have jumped a few levels since the end of K.
She has been so happy so far with school - i couldn't imagine a better fit. BUT! On the way to school today she started with this:
"MOMMY! MY morning work is soooo easy. It's like, ridiculously easy. It's like coloring in the right colors! I can't believe it! Isn't this suposed to be FIRST GRADE! I mean, I thought coloring was for pre-school and maybe Kindergarten, BUT FIRST GRADE?! I think I should be doing like Math stuff!"
She has been complaining a little for a few days, but this morning she seemed actually upset.
The teacher actually told me at the open house that she wasn't pushing for DD6 to finish her morning work because she is obviously beyond that. But DD6 is a hard worker. The children are given the oportunity to finish work during Silent Reading and DD always chooses to finish it rather than read. She colors beautifully and adds lots of detail to things, so it takes her a while to "do her best work" which is what they talk about in school everyday.
I told DD6 to tell her teacher that she would like to continue to do her best work, but it would be easier to do her best work if the work was a little harder.
We will see what comes of this. She is actually a kid who has it in her to advocate for herself. Maybe I can catch this one early and teach her early so we don't have the problems we are having with DD9.
On one hand you are so proud to have children who are so smart and creative, but when you find out that they aren't happy with school, the way it is, you feel so overwhelmed. I just didn't think I would have to go down this road with DD6.
I don't think I can handle TWO kids needing advocates!
Thanks for listening.
