I am seriously considering homeschooling at this point. My DD LOVES the school atmosphere though. But I have heard her talking to some kids from school on the phone and she seems to 'talk down' to them. Like, she was playing 'Math Playground' last night and wanted the girl to click on 'Grand Prix' but DD pronounced it 'Grand Pree' and then turned to me and whispered that she said that so the girl would know what she was talking about. I have no idea if this girl know how to pronouce 'prix' but my DD assumed she didn't. This isn't healthy. She is developing this poor image of her classmates. She is always gentle and kind, but I don't want her assume that others don't understand basic things. This could create a very bad personality!
My daughter did this with her age peers and the only thing that helped it, for us, was her grade acceleration. Honestly, she did know more things than her age peers a lot of the time, but obviously not always. But usually being in the position of knowing more made her assume she always knew more. She was never thought of as a know-it-all by her age peers, but I didn't like what I was seeing and I didn't want it to continue. I really saw it as a symptom of her being in the wrong group. With older kids she is definitely on a more even plane, both academically and socially. Not really helpful, I know, but I just wanted to say that your DD isn't the only one who does this.
As far as reading goes, a librarian at school or at the city libary
should be able to help you. Perhaps classics are the way to go? The series
The Mother-Daughter Book Club is written at a middle-school level but is based on classic books and talks about classic books within a modern setting of middle-school girls and is a good jumping-off point into the classics. Another option would be to use the Teacher Book Wizard website (
http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/). You could look up a book like
Love and Hate in Jamestown which has a lexile of 1230 and then look for books at a similar lexile level.
About the math projects, it sounds like your DD likes them and is really taking ownership of her work, so I think that's great! I think it's ridiculous that the school is so insecure with their teaching that they are actually saying kids shouldn't do learning activities at home because it affects their ability to grade accurately. Talk about losing sight of the point of teaching! I'm not sure why schools think everyone should be going wider and deeper and not higher. I think you're lucky in theory that they are trying to do something for kids who already know the math, but I don't think it's enough. We're struggling with a situation where our DD isn't even being offered enrichment, and she wants desperately to learn new math, but she wants to learn it in school and not come home and add on more math (exciting new stuff though it may be) when she's just had to do an hour worth of inappriate-level math at school.
What does your DD think of the idea of homeschooling? Have you discussed the options and pros and cons with her? Where do her priorities lie as far as social versus academic growth?
