Can I please get your opinions?
DS6 is in 1st grade after having skipped K. He's doing very well, although the academic stuff is generally still unchallenging. He's getting challenged in reading on occasion and he can read anything he wants at home so I'm not worried about challenge there. But I am worried about challenging him in math.
He knows virtually everything taught in 1st grade math, as well as regrouping, multiplication (although he doesn't have the facts memorized, save 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s), some division, fractions, time, etc. and just generally seems to have a good sense of how numbers work. His teacher knows he is beyond the 1st grade curriculum so she 1)has him in a small group that I pull out once a week for a math game of some sort, and 2) has provided him with a packet of problem solving activities that he is supposed to pull out when he is done with his work.
He is scheduled to take the MAP test this spring sometime with the 2nd graders (since our school doesn't test the 1st graders in math) so we can get some sense (and proof) of where he is math-wise. His teacher has commented that he's ready for 3rd grade work across the board, but she thinks he's socially where he should be and that he's still not great at sitting still all day since he's had one less year of practice than the other kids (she has never thought it was a problem).
We (his parents) have been thinking that subject acceleration would probably be the best way to go next year. The problem is, DS has been getting frustrated with the problem solving enrichment packet. He gets really upset that it doesn't come easily to him and that he doesn't always know the anwer right away, and he'll sometimes get frustrated and cry a bit. I kinda think it's just because he's never had to really think much at school, so it's good for him to feel some frustration. But I also talked with him about how it's okay if he doesn't know it, try his best, take it slowly, etc. It's possible he just doesn't know how to do these types of problems without someone to walk him through it a bit at first.
Does the fact that he's getting frustrated with problem solving enrichment (without any instruction) mean that we should focus on that since it's important and forget subject acceleration? Or, is subject acceleration still an important thing since he's working at a 3rd grade level and he could benefit from direct instruction?
Thanks if you've read this far!
Oh, I should add, that DS has started to get careless with some of his work. On his last math test he missed three problems for adding three to some of the numbers in the "math machine" instead of two and he missed one problem for miscounting pennies. Clearly, work that is very easy for him. I'm pretty sure his teacher would agree that those were silly mistakes, but still, it doesn't put his work in a good light.
Last edited by mnmom23; 03/17/10 08:40 PM.
