There are certain assignments he just refuses to do, and frankly i understand. They are insultingly unchallenging and unindpiring. I know that the classroom that he will be going into in fourth grade is absolutely wonderful. The teacher is fabulous and will be perfect for him. So I'm going in today to ask that they move him now to the fourth grade rather than waiting until next school year. They're going to tell me that he's not ready because they are not seeing him working independently and the lower elementary classroom now. They see him as immature, and he can be.
Jen, how important is the 4th grade placement, vs. getting harder/more interesting work? I think you need to clarify the goal.
Maturity really is a big deal in 4th grade-- there is a quantum leap between 3rd and 4th in terms of expectations for self-management, keeping track of assignments and materials, all of the executive function/responsibility stuff. I would not dismiss these issues. My 2E DS9, young for grade in 4th, found it a shock and he has risen to the occasion, but not without effort. Gradeskipping a 2E kid might get them more interesting work, but keeping up with the non-content parts is also critical to success, and while I considered skipping DS earlier in his career, I'm very glad now that we didn't. He couldn't have handled the executive functioning required to succeed in 4th a year ago.
School personnel typically really hate it when you present the solution you want. Instead, they prefer it if you articulate the problem (he's checking out because he's not learning new things in math, for instance) and ask them to solve it collaboratively.
What are you doing to work on compliance? This is a minority position on this board, to be sure, but all of your DS's life he will have to be in places where he is bored some of the time. (Meetings at work...) He will have to know how to comport himself and how to do less interesting tasks successfully. It is part of life: no job is 100% interesting. Does he have support in class to support and reward him for completing all of his work? IMO that should be part of this negotiation.
DeeDee
