Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Help for a Kindergarten Mom

On the fourth day of Kindergarten my son said he didn't learn anything new and the math worksheet would have been more fun if it had been challenging. We moved to this public school because of the gifted program, but now I'm not sure what my next step should be. Do I wait until the teacher identifies that he needs more support? If so, how long? Do I demand IQ testing and get a GIEP right away? How do I advocate for my son's needs without being "that mom". Any suggestions from folks who have been through this would be great.

I would start by talking to the teacher. What is her impression of you dc? She may have started to notice your child advanced abilities. Then the you could work together with her.

From experience, go with your gut. Don't wait. Kindergarten was very damaging for my ds.

One thing someone told me to say was school is easy right on purpose, so you can learn school- routines, school environment, etc. it is the beginning and the teacher is trying to assess the kids right now.

I'm sure others will give more advice. Keep us posted how things are going!

Give it a month. Give the teacher a chance to know who she has in the classroom. Going in early could put her offside and that will make life more difficult than it needs to be. We went early entry and the school met with us after a month to see how he was fitting in (not to see if he was ahead of his peers in maths etc). If you do decide to wait, make sure he knows that you are waiting to talk to the teacher, it will give him some perspective and he knows mom is going to do something about the boredom. Our little guy used to say he didn't learn anything new and I used to tell him he must have, because unless he had lived that day already, most everything he did would have been new.

I agree with Melessa 100% that Kinder can be very damaging!

My DS6 HATED kindergarten for same reasons. DS complained he wasn't learning anything new. I tried saying just give it some time, but weeks turned to months and DS was miserable.

The teacher was no help, stating just b/c DS memorized "sight words" or simple math facts, didn't mean he could read & comprehend etc and so on... I asked if she had ever actually HAD him read to her, and then retell the story or answer other questions to show comprehension? (she hadn't)

I pulled DS from kinder after nearly 3mos. He was pretty much shutting down @ that point. I was angry at myself for not taking real action sooner.

I enrolled him in the public independent study program, where they assessed him and gave him 1st grade work. Even though the work was still fairly easy for DS, esp with 1:1 teaching-- I got my happy, eager to learn new things, kid back!!

DS is now in 2nd- in the same program for now.

*If this is a real issue with your child and you aren't getting the help you need- I would definitely be Proactive, you are your kiddos best advocate. I don't know what options are available to you, but start looking in to them...
best of luck!!

While I think you need to give it more than four days, I also would not expect a K program to be challenging. Sometime I will start another thread about K programs and ask why folks expect them to have real academic value (so people can rip me apart), but even in the best of districts, K typically is not a challenge.

While I don't want you to reveal your exact location in PA, can you give us a general idea of where you are? There are a lot of PA folks on this forum and if this is your first kid going through the system, they might be able to give you some insight. For example, most of the districts around me would not let you demand IQ testing and get a GIEP right away. There are various steps to the GIEP and time limits for each - and most districts will take it to the last day in the time limit for each step. So even if you started now, you might not get the GIEP until the second half of the school year.

Can you tell us a bit about the gifted program? In this district and the two adjacent ones, the gifted programs are weak even though the average PSSA and SAT scores place the three districts in the top one percent in the state.

I think you need to wait. Maybe not a couple of months, but the first few weeks of K is more about getting used to the routine, the teacher's figuring out how to manage the class, she's trying to not only figure out your child but all the others too. There will be children in the class who never went to preschool, and even for those that did, it's still all new. It takes a loooong time to do all the placement tests. And I'd put money on the early work being super easy to build confidence.

I waited six weeks and then fought them for years, but I think I was right to wait six weeks. It was respectful of the teacher's many challenges, and gave her a chance to figure it out for herself.

Notsogifted, I'll take you up on that.

My first thought in reading your post is: Do you have any data to show your child is gifted or needs anything moderately beyond the regular K curriculum? I ask because without data school likely will see you as yet another parent who thinks their child is SO advanced which is probably what you were referring to as "that parent". Many parents at my son's school "thought" their children were gifted but testing doesn't always bear that out. Data is also important because it is difficult to know what to ask for without it.

Four days in is boring even at a school that gets the academic level right. It does take several weeks for teachers to "place" the children in appropriate groups so they can differentiate. It always takes a toll those first weeks. I remind my child that if he does his best work and shows what he knows then it lets the teacher see that he can already do the "too easy" work. He has to prove what he knows first... every year. THEN If he still doesn't get what he needs... then you contact the teacher and schedule a meeting. Bring work samples from school and home and talk about what he is saying about school.

Best wishes for a good school fit!

I would wait a few more weeks - and while I was waiting, I'd do a bit of research to find out what the gifted ID and gifted ed policies are in your school district, as well as collect samples at home showing what type of work your ds is capable of, and look for a listing of grade level curriculum benchmarks for your district to compare to your ds' current academic levels. Collect the data/etc so that when you've given the teacher a few weeks to assess all the children and come up with a game plan - if things still aren't working out then you'll have data to back up any requests you make.

The other bit of advice I'd offer up is you don't need to start by *demanding* anything - explain how your ds feels, show examples of his abilities, ask if the teacher can give him appropriately leveled work. If that doesn't work out - then turn in a written request for gifted program evaluation.

Best wishes,

polarbear

My kids go to a fabulous school which does gifted the best in our state ( it is said!) and NO WAY would the kids learn anything 4 days in. It's all lining up and going to the toilet and putting your hand up.
I would definitely not approach the teacher yet.
Is this your first child at school?

The internet is tricky, cos things come across as blunt that I mean in a nice way. But what I mean to say, nicely, is that i think your expectations are too high. I would not do anything for a month. If he is reading, don't wait for the stupid readers, readers are a waste of time, take him to the library. The most I would do in terms of advocacy would be to unsubtly send in a book he has read himself for show and share time or something like that. Or innocently ask, oh (son) was asking when we are going to get readers, he's reading XYZ at home and he really enjoys them, there are a couple of words he stumbled on ( you get the idea...)

To offer a different persective, we are two weeks in and my kindergarten child has been placed in reading and math groups by ability and his teacher is trying to give him some differentiated work. He has been assessed, albeit not in a really in-depth way.

Don't wait too long. Things get entrenched. I would say, another week or two. Six weeks is too much, IMO.


This is also good advice, but a lot for a K kid to remember and follow. Is your child obvious with his abilities? Does he talk a lot? Does he read? It is definitely not impossible for a good K teacher to notice a gifted kid by a week or so in.