My DS6 skipped K and started 1st grade this year. In order to do that, he was tested with the Kaufman Abilities Test and the Kaufman Achievement Test when he was 5.8. He tested at MG (although that seems low to us -- he seems much like his sister who is HG) and in the 99th percentile for math. He is now reading at an early 4th grade level and we think doing math at an early 3rd grade level.
DS thinks school is great fun because he views it primarily as a social event. He has yet to learn much of anything academic in school. He tends to chat a lot with the other kids when he gets his work done early and never has to pay much attention at group times to answer questions. He is in the top reading and spelling group made from all the 1st grade students combined, which is still requires no work on his part, but there is no such math counterpart. The only math enrichment that he has is when I volunteer in his class and pull out the top several kids to play a math strategy game of some sort a couple of times a month. His teacher knows he knows all the 1st grade stuff and has since the beginning of the year, she and gives each student a packet of critical thinking worksheets "at their level" that they can work on when they are done with their other work. There is one other kid in his class that reads as well as he does (slightly more than a year older than him) and several other students who also have an easy time of the math (also all more than a year older than him). I know, however, that he knows things that none of the other kids does, like fractions and adding and subtracting with regrouping and telling time to the minute and multiplication and some division.
What I need help with deciding is what we're going to do about math. I'm comfortable with the reading status quo since he can read and discuss reading with me all he wants at home. For math, though, I would like him to be taught in a systematic way at his own level. Next year there are math ability groups across the grade. But I'm pretty sure he already knows most, if not all, of the 2nd grade curriculum. He enjoys doing math workbooks at home (and other math activities) and has completed several 2nd grade math workbooks with no difficulty whatsoever. Right now he is working on a 1st Grade Math for the Gifted Student workbook since it doesn't advance him in curriculum per se. I guess, basically, he afterschools math. Nothing really systematic though.
These past couple of weeks DS missed 5 days of school while he was home sick, but he still had energy to work on his math workbooks. It really hit home to me how he learned more in the 5 days he was home working mostly on his own than he has all year IN school.
I'm thinking I would like to ask his teacher if it is possible for him to take the MAP test this spring when the 2nd graders do, since it is not something 1st graders take. Maybe then I can get a better sense (as can the school) of his math level. But then, what to do with the information?
We do not want him to skip a grade, although his sister did it with no problem and she wasn't this far ahead in math at this age. He seems like he's in the right grade as far as everything non-academic goes. So, if it were you, should the MAP test show he is ready for 3rd grade work as we suspect, would you: 1) push for a subject acceleration for next year in math, 2) wait and see if the math ability groups will meet his needs, or 3) just continue with the afterschool activities since, while he's not learning at school, he does like school at this point?
Thanks for reading the novel and TIA for any help or advice!
Last edited by mnmom23; 03/10/10 03:29 PM. Reason: Add stuff
