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    Joined: Dec 2012
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    Here is a resource site for a typical 1st grade reading curriculum:

    http://www.primarygradesclasspage.com/first%20grade%20harcourt.htm

    Note that even at the end of the school year, they are still reading beginning chapter books like Frog and Toad All Year and Poppleton. Do you know who his 1st grade teacher is going to be? Can you go knock on his/her door?

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    I highly recommend the Toe by Toe reading manual by Keda Cowling. It is available on Amazon for $40.

    The gifted/dyslexia experts Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide recommended it for my son and his improvement has been amazing.

    My son's teacher, who has over forty years of teaching experience, has never seen kid improve so much in such a short amount of time. She is recommending it to everyone.

    It only takes working with him at home twenty minutes a day. If you got it now, he would have time to make a lot of progress before first grade.

    Five months ago my son was stumbling through Bob books guessing based on the first letter and the picture on the page.

    Now he can actually read and is getting better everyday. Today his teacher mentioned that now he always has his nose in a book.

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    Originally Posted by MumOfThree
    I think the thing that makes this so hard is that it's SO unique to the child and also very changeable. A year ago I would have told you I had one who'd been skipped and desperately needed it, and one who was MG/2E and I'd always regret not holding back (she's so young for grade she could easily have gone either way in our system). Last week at her parent teacher interview I was astounded to hear that her teacher's only problem was how to extend her enough, especially in literacy. This is my child who was nearly held back in yr2 for literacy, who was finally diagnosed as dyslexic in yr 5... During yr 6 we were talking about repeatig yr7 through a school change... Start of yr7 and her teacher's only concern is that he's not extending her enough. In literacy. To say I nearly fell of my chair is an understatement.

    PG kids are singularities. But so are the 2e kids, especially the ones where it's so hard to tell for sure if there IS an LD at all... I'm not saying your child has an LD I'm saying some kids are late bloomers and its really hard to tell whiteout the kid right in front of you, and sometimes even then.

    My MG child hasn't started looking actually gifted until yr7, yr4-6 we could argue that her catching up instead of falling further behind was a sign of how bright she was. But she was absolutely behind in kindy and yes it seems she really is MG and is finding her feet and showing it at last....

    Thank you for your experience. It was very hopeful to me. Before testing I thought for sure there would be dyslexia or dysgraphia or *something*. The fact they didn't find something made me feel relief, but I think I should always keep in mind that children of this age change so quickly and to not negate it as a possibility. It's also good to hear of stories of taking off in school a little older, as I have the false assumption that G = accelerated in all subjects.


    Life is the hardest teacher. It gives the test first and then teaches the lesson.
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    Originally Posted by ConnectingDots
    Honestly, it doesn't sound like much fun to me, either. He's five, right? If you and the school keep working with him, and looking for opportunities to make learning fun, I would expect a lot of growth within the next few years (which will like occur in short spurts of big leaps forward).

    I would not hold back a gifted child because first grade is writing intensive. This is one issue with schools... I have had several teachers tell me that many young boys just aren't physically comfortable writing in K, 1 or 2. It doesn't mean they should stop learning while their writing catches up. This is one of the things that's great about our son's 2nd grade teacher... she gets that he's not going to love it yet, but works through it.

    BTW, our PG son consistently says lunch and recess are his favorite subjects... although recently he's been telling us good things about his accelerated grade math class.

    Yes, 5 y/o. I have to stop sometimes and think how different his childhood is from mine. I played at home everyday, wanted to start school, and then K was just playing too. He has been in a "school" setting/daycare since infancy, and now K is not how it was.

    Unfortunately writing/written expression is part of his grades. Not that I really care what his grades are now as I don't think they mean much anyway. My biggest concern is needing to write so much and that adding on to his dislike of school in general. I'm hopeful that as we work to improve his writing and it becomes easier, it will make his feelings about school change. Similar to how there were subjects I disliked but learned them after working hard and don't dislike as much.

    The other thing is if school is pushing him so much, it is probably at least somewhat challenging. I'm thinking him being the youngest in a competitive school may help with regards to his intellect as he may not get bored so quickly.


    Life is the hardest teacher. It gives the test first and then teaches the lesson.
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    Originally Posted by Aufilia
    Originally Posted by Displaced
    Well, the most recent conference with teacher has revealed that DS is "at level" but his grade is still not satisfactory. His reading has improved but he is not "confident" as a reader yet. She says he will pass K but only because she knows how involved we are in his education. She did not know the results of gifted testing during that conference, and no longer recommends retention.

    So, Yeah? Or Boo? I don't know how to feel about this, especially since all DS says about school he usually dislikes (except lunch and recess) because of all the work.

    Honestly, is that's really how the teacher is expressing this, I'd be wondering if maybe there's a teacher fit problem. He might be retained because he's at level but not "confident" yet?? That's not a reason to retain a kid. If he needs to be more confident, or if he's not quite at level, he should be getting extra help from reading specialists, aides, or special ed teacher. Retention shouldn't even be part of the discussion until the school has provided extra help in this scenario.

    For heaven's sake, I wish I had one of my daughter's second grade spelling bee lists for you. I'm pretty sure "cake" was on there last week. Also "den." The very hardest word on the entire list so far has been "tasteless." And our district is high COL and high achieving; our school's test scores are among the highest in the area.

    It's interesting you say this as when I asked the ed. psych what I could do to help him like school, she replied to get him another teacher. To me she seems sweet and nice, patient and competent. But to DH she seems to lack emotion. Maybe to DS she's boring. Per the teacher the school doesn't usually provide extra help officially until children are 2 grade levels behind. As I work with him and he's getting extra help at school I feel ok. Honestly I think my working with him is better than what they're doing (who doesn't usually feel that way?). I think he just needs a lot of reading and phonics practice. Teacher was giving him 1-2 books a week to bring home to read. I have him read 2 easy phonics daily. I think he just needs practice and exposure. Before last week, he didn't know th, sh, or ch. Now he's starting to read words with those blends in them.


    Life is the hardest teacher. It gives the test first and then teaches the lesson.
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    Originally Posted by Mana
    Here is a resource site for a typical 1st grade reading curriculum:

    http://www.primarygradesclasspage.com/first%20grade%20harcourt.htm

    Note that even at the end of the school year, they are still reading beginning chapter books like Frog and Toad All Year and Poppleton. Do you know who his 1st grade teacher is going to be? Can you go knock on his/her door?

    I don't know (maybe I don't even want to know!) the first grade curriculum here. I would say at least to books 10-12 they are expected to read by the end of Kindergarten here.

    I do think it's a good idea to find out ahead of time the levels of books starting and progressing through first grade. There may be overlap in the beginning of the school year with Kindergarten. And I hate playing "catch up", as I feel we've been doing. I'd rather use afterschool to get ahead some or do enrichment in fun activities instead of using it to get to current standards. I don't know about teachers ahead of time. The school has >1,000 students, so I imagine at least 7-8 1st grade teachers. I think they follow similar curriculums though with most things so I could probably find out some general ideas for the year ahead.

    Last edited by Displaced; 04/11/14 06:17 AM.

    Life is the hardest teacher. It gives the test first and then teaches the lesson.
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    Quote
    I'd be wondering if maybe there's a teacher fit problem. He might be retained because he's at level but not "confident" yet?? That's not a reason to retain a kid. If he needs to be more confident, or if he's not quite at level, he should be getting extra help from reading specialists, aides, or special ed teacher. Retention shouldn't even be part of the discussion until the school has provided extra help in this scenario.

    I have to agree. I am so surprised by what you describe. I guess it could be regional differences. I have my DS's K report card here because he received it last week and it talks about learning some high-frequency words by year's end, IDing all letters, and, well, it does say read beginner books. For writing, print "many" letters. "Write letters for sounds." For math, add and subtract to 5, understand 11-19, understand and name shapes, count to 100 by ones and 10s, write numbers to 20.

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    My DD's whole class was reading Frog and Toad mid year in 1st, in a very high-scoring school. (I mean, that is why we left, in part. But you see my point.)

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    Originally Posted by KJP
    I highly recommend the Toe by Toe reading manual by Keda Cowling. It is available on Amazon for $40.

    The gifted/dyslexia experts Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide recommended it for my son and his improvement has been amazing.

    My son's teacher, who has over forty years of teaching experience, has never seen kid improve so much in such a short amount of time. She is recommending it to everyone.

    It only takes working with him at home twenty minutes a day. If you got it now, he would have time to make a lot of progress before first grade.

    Five months ago my son was stumbling through Bob books guessing based on the first letter and the picture on the page.

    Now he can actually read and is getting better everyday. Today his teacher mentioned that now he always has his nose in a book.

    Thank you for this recommendation. I think we'll try it!


    Life is the hardest teacher. It gives the test first and then teaches the lesson.
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    Originally Posted by ultramarina
    My DD's whole class was reading Frog and Toad mid year in 1st, in a very high-scoring school. (I mean, that is why we left, in part. But you see my point.)

    To me, Frog and Toad books are pretty advanced! So, you left because they were too competitive or aggressive?

    Thanks for the report card benchmarks. Our report cards just say the grade next to the subject IIRC. The progress sheets the teacher fills during conferences are much more detailed. Though I know we're doing at least the core curriculum.


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