I'm not sure how to write a post without it turning into a long drawn out book about my trials and tribulations with my daughter. I will try to shorten it as much as I can. I will call her "K". K is 7 and going into second grade this year at a public school.
K started reading at 3 1/2 years old. And just a few months into kindergarten the teacher took notice and started her on the AR program reading 4th grade level chapter books, K did wonderfully with the books and that was great. The problem- all through kindergarten K did not learn a single new thing as I had already taught her all those lessons before she even entered kindergarten.
Then when the next school year started and she was in first grade (which she just finished) the reading and her attitude towards school went a little south. The teacher started her on 3.5 grade level books and K never moved up from there. This time all the students were enrolled in AR and the teacher was more focused on the amount of books read and the students would get rewarded for testing so often in the week. K started choosing books with big pictures and big words so she could try and keep up with the amount of books read that the other students were reading. Problem is they were reading kindergarten to first grade level books and they could read them and test the next day. That being said K never tried bettering her reading level all year. Not only that but all the material taught again she either already knew or she learned it very quickly. She was told to color when she was done with her work and so she spent most of her class time coloring rather than learning new material. She was enrolled in a Talented and enrichment pullout class but that only met a couple hours a week.
That leads me to where I need some advice. We at this time cannot afford private school. Do I keep things the way they are and continue to challenge her at home? Do I home-school? Do I get a tutor? She extremely shy so pulling her out of public school and homeschooling her might not be good for her, plus I have no idea how to home-school. Are there any other options for her? I don't consider her a child prodigy by any means but she learns and masters material at such a fast rate and on the school's state tests she scores way above the average I would have to look again to know the exact numbers. We live in Iowa by the way if that means anything

One more question: I'm looking for a good series of 4th grade level chapter books that have a lot of humor in them.

Last edited by Mom2KC; 06/26/12 08:15 PM.