Ok Gyus, now I need some help....
My DS11, gave us quite a headache last night.
He goes to charter school that accelerates in subjects and does ability grouping for math and language within a grade. So, my DS takes highest level grade 6 math, higest level language arts class (teacher opted out a textbook, instead they do novels and tons, tons of writing) and geometry (the school devoted two periods to math). But because he is the only sixth grader taking geometry, there are some scheduling conflicts. The school was really great trying to accomodate my DS, so last year, at the end of the fifth grade they gave him an end of level 6 th grade science test, which basically showed that he knows almost everything out of the 6th grade science core. So this year, while his "higher ability" class takes science, my DS has geometry and takes science with another class "not as bright", to quote his teacher. And here again they try to accomodate him, he does have an unlimited access to the computer on which he is to do research for his science projects coordinated by the teacher. But... there are lots of buts...everything is really complicated. Because he is doing science this way, sometimes he misses computer, which he really enjoys (they do coool things, like animated movies, ads etc...), so the teacher sends him to the computer lab. When this happens, he misses science for the day. Basically he never knows for sure what his schedule for the day is going to be. On top of that, he almost failed the last science quiz, becasue the teacher assumed that he is so brilliant he probably knows everything and she did not even gave him the script to study from, or maybe did not stress enough the importance of studying from it, I don't know ....
Another but.... he brings home copious amounts of homework, and yesterday on the way back from school I questioned his friend and it turns out that in his case homework is not such a big deal.
Yet another but....my DS is totally not motivated. If given a choice he would play on the computer all day long and stress about homework the last thing of the day.
My theory on what is happening goes like that: he plainly has too much freedom at school which he can't handle. Instead of concentrating on the work that needs to be done, because the teacher is going to check on it, he is just playing genius and spends time downloading music for his power point presentations . He is very smart but not very mature, he enjoys the company of younger kids (they do not question his strange play ideas????) and as I have mentioned he is absolutely not self motivated. Please tell me that this comes with age....
We have a conference with his teacher coming up in a couple of weeks and I am going to do something about his science curriculum. I will probably request a book for him, or maybe all the scripts that she teaches from, and make sure that he gets tested from each chapter. I do not want to remove the privilige of computer use, but what can I do to make my son control himslef a little better? I can't expect the teacher to control him all the time, she has another 24 students to take care of.
My dilema about my DS has to do with grade skipping. His math teacher asked us last year if we would consider it (much easier for the school to accomodate him that way)and we said no, based on his immaturity, his tendency to play with younger kids. I also believe that by skipping grades a certain advantage will be taken away from him - I am talking about competitions here.
I love his 6th grade teacher, she is so smart and so devoted to all the kids. 7/8 grade team does not look very bright to me, especially the english teachers. I was thinkig about maybe skipping 7 grade, but then again we are looking
into an IBprogram for High School, and they do not allow any acceleration. But if we skip 7th grade, then he will be a freshman ready to take pre-calculus, if we won't skip, he should be taking calculus his first year of HS, and nobody in an IB program will let him do that!
What to do? Why does it get even more complex the older they become? Would love to here from someone who has experience with middle/high school kids.And what to do about this total lack of self motivation?
Ania
