Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy When to rebel?

Wish me luck! We shall see what transpires! I also scheduled a parent/teacher conference with her to discuss homework in general. She probably will hate me after this, but I'm the only one that is going to advocate for him. It's my parental duty and right to ask that he complete to the best of his ability and not to the best of what is available through the class.

My son's class is 22, so I totally understand she is doing the best she can. I do a weekly Jr First LEGO League with four energetic 6 year olds. It is hard to work the middle between the kids that can't read/write well yet and the kids that can read/write. They are all kindergarteners except my son who is in first grade. It is easy to forget to challenge the kids that can for fear of alienating the ones that can't.

The time from ages 5-7 where kids are so all over the map. I truly believe age grouping does a disservice to many children who are capable of so much more than their age implies. This also is a disservice to the teachers when they can't must cater to the lowest group. I mean are there groups that complain that teachers are moving too fast? I'd like to find one!

Very good points! I will absolutely grade the work if that is what I need to do for this to be successful. She never truly grades his work. It is more for completion. At best, he gets a star and some small edits marks for capitalization or punctuation.

I usually have him proofread and correct before he hands it in, so it won't be that much different. If I need to write a more in-depth summary so she can check for comprehension, I'm down for that too.

Just an update on this in case anyone is interested. The "rebellion" worked! My son did his longest book journal entry to date. I wrote the teacher a note to accompany his journal when he turned it in on Friday. She returned the journal the following Monday with a note back saying we can use our own books. Yay!

Since then, we had a parent teacher conference. She also agreed to let us determine the homework he is doing instead of what she sends home. I agreed to grade it for her. My son was grinning from ear to ear that he could turn in more challenging homework. Since then, we've been turning in crossword puzzles and 3rd grade math worksheets. We've been learning about the Titanic with the Kids Discover magazine and using the worksheets you can download to accompany them. No more adding dominos or counting coins like they have done all year long. Who knew that just controlling the homework aspect would be such a relief! It is about 2 hours of work every week, so I'm happy to spend that time helping him learn.

Her attitude was so different from our last conference. I'm happy it was different. I guess she just needed more time to spend around him. There wasn't any doubt about his giftedness this time. Whew! I feel way better about the last 10 weeks of school!

Congratulations!

Yay! That's great

So happy to hear!

Good for you!!!!!