Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Grade accelertion

Thanks for all the quick replies.

He did well with the first graders last year, I suppose. Or, as well as he did with anyone. It's not that he wasn't liked by his peers, and he doesn't have social 'problems' in the way that some kids do. He seemed to find people to play with at recess and so forth. But he didn't really make any friends. The only people he asked to have over to the house were the boys he was close with in preschool. WIth the exception of those boys, he has always been quicker to mesh with kids who are a couple kids older. He's also pretty tall, so he wouldn't stand out in that way. He is, however, a really sensitive kid. He's quick to cry and has lots of anxiety. If it were a straight 2nd grade class, I wouldn't even hesitate. He would still be an outlier academically, but socially I don't think it would be a big deal. At his school, the 2nd/3rd classes do a lot with the 4th/5th. That's who they go to recess with and eat lunch with and go on field trips with etc. I worry that his anxiety level would be through the roof with so many bigger kids. It is also likely that I'm over thinking this and he will be totally fine.

The school did not bring it up. However, I think they will be open to it. It's a charter school, so they can be more flexible. Unfortunately, his teacher last year, although a great fit for his social needs, completely blew off his academic needs. I mean, yes, she gave him the first grade work, which is perhaps more than what some teachers would have done. But, she often said things to us like "Oh, we don't have to worry about him, he's got it." or "Gosh, we should just go ahead and put him in 3rd grade." Sigh. His teachers and the principal are well aware that he needs more differentiation than has been available so far. I also taught at the school for 6 years, and my husband still teaches there, and has been with the school in one capacity or another for 10 years. We have enough of a relationship with the school that they are pretty receptive to what we have to say.

The plan on the table right now is pulling out at least one hour per week for 'enrichment' activities and doing reading and math groups with one of the higher grades. It isn't a bad plan. The structure of the school has the kids doing a lot of independent and small group work. My hope if we put him in the 2nd/3rd, rather than just going up for certain subjects, is that the rest of the independent and small group work would be closer to what he needs. I know as well as anyone that teachers are already stretched thin and asking a K/1 teacher to even try to differentiate up multiple grade levels for just my one kid is a lot to ask. Putting him in the 2/3 would create a situation where his needs could be met with less pressure on the teacher. Or, at least, that's the angle I'm pushing when we meet with the principal.

Also, even though I worry for him socially in the older class, I think that it could be even harder for him to move between two classes. He wouldn't have a chance to get to know the kids he was with for reading and math and would likely be very anxious about it. He doesn't like having attention drawn to him and I think that just putting him in the older class full time would probably draw some attention the first couple weeks of school and then everyone would kind of forget. But, if he's always walking into a class other than is own for reading and math it remains an issue all year.

Your son sounds a lot like mine. My DS did not like attention either, and it's hard to avoid when you're getting pulled out of class all the time. (Of course, once we switched him to a better fit HG school, he complained that he missed the pullouts!) That said, pullouts are pretty normal in early elem - for all kind of things (speech, etc.), so I don't think the other kids would notice much. But in your case, I agree with you that the 2nd/3rd sounds like a better option (and there might be some pullouts there too). We found that even with a one-year skip, a lot of differentiation and pullouts were still necessary (leading to the transfer to the HG school). I can't imagine how much more work it would have been for the 1st grade teacher to have attempted the differentiation.

Your school sounds like a wonderful flexible school, and hopefully they will agree with you and support your plan. Do you know the 2nd/3rd grade teacher and if they would be more supportive academically than the last teacher? I am a big believer that if a kid is appropriately placed academically, the social piece falls into place, and I'm sorry to hear that she ignored many academic needs.

Welcome, Ibert4, Effiekins, and charlottemom! We're glad you're all here!

Effiekins, I've got a suggestion for your son: do you know Steven Caney's "Ultimate Building Book?" My lads just love it--it's huge, it explains various principles of construction in great detail, it's profusely illustrated, and it has hundreds of building projects using cheap and easy stuff (rolling up newspaper into long tubes to use for struts, for instance; also cotton swabs, plastic wrap, old sheets, cardboard tubes--basically just raid the blue box!). There's a pretty good preview on Google books (which I never seem to be able to link to--but just search under his name and it should pop right up).

Hope that helps! (I've got one of those need-to-build kind of guys myself, so I know where you're coming from!)

peace
minnie

PS: A couple more ideas for Effiekins:
-Complete-a-Sketch: elementary drafting program for kids, at http://www.sixbranches.com/CAS0P.htm
-some engineering lesson plans, located here: http://www.tryengineering.org/lesson.php?from=8&to=&cat_id=&keyword= and here: http://www.teachengineering.org/ and here: http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/category/lessons/
-some fun-looking projects here: http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/resources/ and here: http://www.sciencespot.net/Pages/junkboxprojects.html
-an interesting-looking math curriculum here: http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1280109929-824964&subject=11&category=6821

Minnie
Are these mostly for building at home or for reading about. My guy loves plans, schematics and exploded drawings but less interested in actually making stuff out of cardboard. The Caney book sounds great but I can't tell what the emphasis in the book is.

Thanks!

DeHe

Well, it's both, really, though weighted toward the project-building, I would say; there's a lot of explanation of different methods of building, and then some suggested projects to illustrate what has just been discussed (it's ~600 pages).
There aren't so very many things like plans or schematic drawings--the illustrations are mostly photographs.

I'll try to think of something your guy might like better, and will pop back in here if something occurs to me.

mm

DeHe, I wonder if he might like these:

http://www.godine.com/isbn.asp?isbn=087923671x
http://www.godine.com/isbn.asp?isbn=1567922848

mm

Mm
Thanks! They look great, also a nice way of introducing history which he likes when it comes with something else, like time travel or a mystery. We read something similar about the building the new york subway, wonder if it's the same series.

DeHe

Minnie-- You have such neat book recommendations! I'm filing those last two away for later, my son would love those.

So, we met with the principal today to talk about the grade skip for DS. It was all of a 5 minute conversation. We said we thought it would be a good fit for him & shared his test scores. She said that sounded fine and asked which of the 2nd/3rd classes we thought would be best for him. My husband is going to chat with the 2nd/3rd teachers on Monday and they'll make a decision. I am sort of stunned. Hopefully we are doing the right thing.