So, DS6 skipped K and is in first grade. Totally the right move -- I can't imagine him in K this year. Very social: all the kids love him and he thinks school is great fun. Academically, it is not the right fit.
I spent the fall overlooking the mismatch because I knew he was new to the routines of full-time school, not that that took the entire fall to adjust to. But once the new year came along I started talking to his teacher about trying to make the fit -- particularly in math since he's challenged enough at home in reading. The teacher is generally wonderful and has been providing problem solving packets that he does on his own and games that he does in small groups with kids above grade level but not at his level. But, the mismatch is now manifesting itself and the whole situation is starting to really bug me.
My DS, who used to LOVE to think about numbers and how they interact and make puzzles and mix together, now gets frustrated when he is asked to problem solve. This happens not only at school with the self-directed packets but also at home.
My DS, who sits through 6.5 hours of school each day that teaches virtually nothing new to him, has started to have problems with not listening to us and his teacher -- not in a defiant way but in a I'm daydreaming and totally not hearing you way. Again, his lack of need to listen is carrying over to his behavior at home.
My DS, who was able to sit still through an hour-long weekly adult bible study class when he was three and every night sits still and listens to middle-school level chapter books and discusses them now spins around on the carpet during group time at school and has started having a hard time sitting still through things like church outside of school.
Unfortunately, no matter how many times I mention subtley and not-so-subtley the connection between academics and his behavior at school, his teacher just thinks that it's not that big a deal. To be fair, he is NOT a discipline problem at school. But his teacher uses his activity level as the reason that he shouldn't be accelerated despite the fact that she acknowledges that he is more than ready for 3rd grade math and 4th grade reading. She just doesn't see that, perhaps, if he was doing work at his level, these behaviors might disappear because then his mind would be occupied with learning rather than entertaining himself.
I'm just venting. We've requested he try a math acceleration this year to see if it would be good for next year, but we're waiting for him to take the MAP math test with the second graders (the first graders do not take it at his school). He just took the MAP reading test and scored off the charts percentile-wise.
Is this now the point where we no longer beat around the bush? How do I make it clear to the school that it's academics affecting behavior so they don't use the reverse argument?
It was so much easier with my daughter, in some ways, who is a rule-follower and just sucked up the mismatch each day until we accelerated her. They had no argument not to accelerate her. Aargh!
