The wife and I have a meeting with some local public school personnel tomorrow morning, to decide what to do about DS5, who has spent the beginning of the school year in kindergarten. Since he's been there, he has settled in and made some friends.
He has been doing well behaviorally (after a preschool year where he acted up/out because of extreme boredom), but is really not challenged at all. He reads at least 5-6 grade levels ahead at this point with ease, but the first month's big reading accomplishment for the class was to learn "I", "am", "a", and "little", and to learn to recognize some letters. (I am not knocking the program here, and actually think the reading part is well-thought-out, but want to convey the size of the subject-matter gap we're facing at this time.) He is doing 3rd-to-5th grade math, and they're learning to count, etc. etc. etc.
This afternoon we had a conference call with his teacher, whom I like quite a bit, to prepare for tomorrow's big meeting. She said that our son is absent-minded (absolutely true), and could stand some more training on school routines, of the type they get most/best in K; that skipping him to first won't solve anything, because he probably won't learn a single fact or skill during the normal first-grade year that he doesn't already know; and that she's thus going to recommend that he stay in K.
What she's offering so far:
1. During breakaway sessions, putting him in his own group with advanced material, perhaps with a few of the brighter kids in the class, which he could sort of teach (?). I'm not sure how this will work-- but the way she explained it, it seemed like she's trying to find a way to keep him from being isolated in a corner with fourth-grade workbooks, which means to me that (a) she did her homework, and (b) she cares about doing the right thing. Breakaway sessions are currently used for reading and math, and I'm not sure what else.
2. When other kids are learning about subjects on a basic level, having him work on research projects in the same area. So, for example, she said that they will begin learning about ocean life soon, which will involve reading / being read to about sea creatures, etc. He will be allowed to listen in if he wants, but will be given a project that he can work on at his own pace, to learn on a deeper level about the subject (maybe learning about what marine biologists do, I dunno). She made this sound pretty good, too, although I guess we will have to learn more about the details tomorrow. I'm not sure if these projects will be done on his own, or if his little super-team will be with him.
3. Putting together, with the rest of the team with whom we'll be meeting tomorrow, a special curriculum to keep track of each of his subject areas. I don't understand much about this yet-- it seems to me that one could just string all the parts of the K-6 mandatory curriculum together end-to-end, and track his progress through the list. I think what she's saying is that they will track him separately from the class and grade his work separately, which sounds good, though it also sounds like it's a necessary consequence of giving him accelerated material. Perhaps I'm missing something-- perhaps she means that she will find activities that will appeal to him more than the rote-learning activities they normally give the children. I just don't know.
4. Giving him more appropriate homework (instead of the normal homework, not in addition to it).
This is only the second year that kindergarten has even been offered in our school district, and the vice principal told my wife previously that this was completely new territory for them (I think this may mean acceleration in general, across all grades, which is a little scary to say the least). But so far I have faith in our teacher, who sounds like she is signing on for a ton of extra work just for our son, and who sounds like she is doing her best to think of what's best for him.
Is there anything specific we should ask for tomorrow? Do you think this all sounds promising? I tend to agree with our teacher that grade-skipping is not the answer right now. We couldn't possibly grade skip him multiple grades-- his motor skills aren't up to it, the size/maturity differences would be extreme, etc. Pull-outs would be awkward at best for the same reasons.
