Well, it has been an interesting beginning to the year. DD5 hated school for the first couple of weeks, for lots of different reasons, but then she started going to phonics lab in the mornings to improve her reading (she could read butterfly but not boat sort of stuff). She was happy going for about 2 weeks, then she was bored and thought it too easy etc etc. She no longer wanted to go to school anymore - the whole nine yards. We talked to the teacher and she said she would be going to phonics lab for at least a few more months, to which I said "that's not going to happen - she will not make it that long without something changing. Well, the phonics teacher and her classroom teacher talked along with the principal. The next day I see the teacher when I went to pick her up and she expresses concern that DD is not only not ready to move ahead, but is struggling with classwork! I asked what indication she had of this, her response: she is no longer the first one finished and is asking questions about her work before she answers the questions! We discussed that speed is not necessarily an issue of not understanding, but is probably an issue of no longer wanting to be the teacher's helper everyday in everything. And the many questions is more than likely her perfectionism coming out. All of which the teacher immediately dismissed! She did say that if we really pushed she could be moved up, but it would be against her wishes. How can the stories of what is going on in class be so different between a child and a teacher?
Fast forward to the next week - I am told she will be tested again on her core knowledge the following week and that is when they will make a decision about her placement. By the end of the week DD is telling me that she has already had the test again and it was really easy?! (A week early?) When DH went to bring her to phonic's lab the next week they were told that she is no longer in phonics lab, but is in reading lab and will be going to 1st grade for reading now during the day.
I am happy with the end result here, so far, but am completely confused about how this school is working. (And I work here, so I should have a clue about what is going on.)
So, at the moment DD is happy again at school, loves going to 1st grade reading and is only concerned about the science that they are not doing in class.
Hopefully this upward trend continues.
