DS is a first grader and has dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyspraxia. In the last two years he's had OT with Handwriting Without Tears, a neuropsych assessment with the Eides, Toe by Toe at home, a summer session at Lindamood Bell and then follow up testing with the Eides. He is doing great.
He attends a small private school with about an 8:1 student teacher ratio. His teacher wants feedback from us regarding his workload. In very simplistic terms, DS works above grade level with some accomodations and at grade level without them.
Here is an example: His reading comprehension assignment is first grade level. He reads a little paragraph and then responds to one sentence questions with one sentence answers. For him this is not really a reading comprehension exercise at his reading level. It is a handwriting exercise so he can practice writing sentences with normal looking letters, spacing and punctuation. He needs this practice and it doesn't seem overly burdensome.
Some assignments are a bit more challenging like looking at pictures and matching them to the constellation name.
A weekly assignment with his spelling list is to look up all twenty words in a dictionary and read the definition but only copy two definitions. I think he gets an oral quiz on knowing what each word means and coming up with a sentence using the words.
So what is an ideal mix of assignments for a 2e student in early elementary? I am guessing that for grades 1-3 the focus is going to be on the LD exceptionalities.
He complains about the amount of work but it seems more like "Spelling is no fun! I wish school were just lunch, recess and field trips!" not the concerning type of complaints.
He spends a lot of time at school 8:00 - 5:30. This means he has about equal playtime and work time. There is a two hour work period in the morning and a two hour work period in the afternoon. The rest of the time is spent at recess, reading books of his choice, playing games with his friends, eating and going on little excursions to the woods or library.
He never talks about the work during the work period except to comment that it is boring or that he made up a hilarious sentence. All his stories about the school day involve what he and his friends (and new this week - girlfriend!?!) are doing at recess.
Is it possible that after all my fretting and his hard work he is actually doing well, needs no advocacy from mom and I can just relax a while?
Some of his assignments seem pretty easy. There is regular equation math and then math with lots of drawing pictures. He draws funny pictures. So if the problem is "There are 3 sheep in a pen. There are 2 sheep in the field. The sheep in the field each get 2 buckets of grain. How many buckets of grain do you need? Draw a picture, write an equation and solve the problem." His pictures look like cartoons with captions and sometimes a backstory.
So in a nutshell - his assignments mostly tend to challenge his LD's more than his intellect, he self-enriches some assignments, has enough free-time and enrichment activities at school that the overall experience is enjoyable but is not getting a lot of academically accelerated work at his intellectually gifted level with accomodations.
Good enough for the first month of school or talk to the teacher about it?
