Sigh. Had P-T conference yesterday and then had a follow-up e-mail exchange with DS6's math teacher tonight. Turns out, he's not finishing the bulk of his work. Homeroom teacher had mentioned this weeks ago, and I asked her to send work home for homework so I could enforce the importance of finishing what he starts. Nothing came home, until tonight. What I saw:

An entire packet (10-15 papers) not finished b/c he wanted to finish coloring or drawing a picture (the actual work was done). And a bunch of work that was really rote that he simply didn't do (like writing a line of letters or simple words over and over again).

It's no wonder he's finding the conversations going on around him so much more interesting. When I had him do some of the work tonight, he finished 6 worksheets in a 1/2 hour.

And the math testing showed him completely done w/2nd and 3rd grade math computation. But the teacher marked his grade slightly down b/c he's slow to finish his work ... not b/c he actually gets any of the answers wrong.

Are any of you finding speed to be an issue even though your kids know the material?