Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy teaching to knowledge gaps before school

Hi - I guess I could have put this in learning environments too...

DD$ is due to start kindy equiv (new entrants) next May. After looking into the curriculum I had to get to year 5 before finding math content she wasn't yet familiar with. In the year 4 level she is familiar and competent with 80% of the work, and about 90% of the year 3 work.

My question is for the next 9 months should I keep going with her interests and let school figure out what level to teach her at, or should I try and fill in those knowledge gaps so that they can facilitate acceleration easier?

I don't want her having to spend years going over the same stuff, but at the same time I'm an un schooler at heart so I don't love the idea of introducing/pressuring topics she's not overly interested in yet.

She is still learning to read so she is not ready to grade skip yet - although even in the last week we have had a knowledge explosion so who knows with that!

Any advice from the BTDTers?

I'd probably steer literacy a bit, myself.

Math is easy enough to differentiate, in our experience, since it is decoupled rather well from everything ELSE in the curriculum.

Literacy skills are a lot of the curriculum otherwise in K through 2, however, and in years 3 and 4, there is a marked transition from "learning to read" into "reading to learn."

I'd be quite concerned that for your DD, "learning to read" is all that she is going to be getting out of her first several years in school, and she may see little POINT in doing so-- if you leave it to the school to do so. Why? well, because you noted that she already knows so much of the material that she's going to be expected to read-to-learn, even, as a 3rd-4th grader.

So in my mind, there IS only one "gap" here that even matters much from a functional standpoint-- literacy skills.

They might entertain acceleration without her knowing what the difference is between a "town" and a "neighborhood" or that plant cells have cell walls and animal cells don't... but not reading fluently is a way to deny acceleration across the board. It might even be a way to deny acceleration in mathematics, given that break from learning-to-read vs. reading-to-learn, and the fact that she's beyond it in math.

So I'd (gently) offer a variety of games/activities that encourage phonemic awareness, offer up some Letter People and Between the Lions on Youtube or the PBS website, etc. Letter hopscotch, rhyming games, you name it-- it's all part of the plan.

Once she learns to read for herself... she can take that tool and learn whatever she fancies with it, YK? That is definitely not a "schooly" kind of thing-- but it will also provide her with some relief in the event that she gets stuck in a classroom where she ISN'T learning anything new, too-- at least (with arrangements) she can probably unobtrusively read as enrichment, anyway.

Are you in NZ? If so can you home school?

Ditto Puffin. If you are an unschooler at heart - why not go with that?
It would perhaps be much harder to acclimatise yourself to having her in a schooling environment - especially if you have issues from the outset with needing curriculum adjustments and having to do major advocacy.

If you'll definitely be sending her to school, then yes, I'd seek out and fill the maths gaps so as to be able to tell a nice simple story, eg "she can do all the maths up to grade n, provided someone reads her the questions". But the reading is likely to be a block to even subject acceleration, in practice.

Hi all - just to put it out there - DH is 100% NOT on board with homeschooling at the outset. Of course this may change if the situation requires but we do have access to reasonably good education options if we can work out how to approach it.... He has concerns about the "social" aspects of it all - and he is unwilling to do any/read any research, meet anyone or be open minded about it at all. Not a battle I'm going to win. However if things go pear shaped at school, I know he'd be open to the idea of it, then.

Also DD is desperate to go to school, while personally I think she is in for a rude shock she does need to experience it first hand or we'll never get any peace! Personally I have very negative feelings towards school, some of which may not be entirely rational, so I'm prepared to wait until proven right on this.

HK - you are dead on with the literacy, we are having the difficulty that seems quite common of her not wanting to to push herself because it's "too hard" mind you she knows all her letters, can write legibly if copying and can sound out words like Scotland, popcorn etc. She just doesn't seem willing/able to make the jump to fluent reading. She is gifted visual spacially and auditorily (is that a word) so we can try lots of approaches but she is def a do it myself girl and doesn't want any input from me. She currently does reading eggs, and does quite well with it, but as soon as she has a book in her hands she doesn't want to know.

Being as she's 4 I'm aware that I can leave it, and I am really worried that pressuring her will turn her off reading, however I do see the importance of getting her up to speed.

As I said in my OP she is currently having a major leap in her knowledge so I'm hoping the literacy will come too. She's such a perfectionist!

Sorry should add that she can't read CVC words fluently, despite being able to sound out larger harder words

Mahagogo5, this really resonated with me so I wanted to give you some hope. Dd4.8 was exactly here 4-6 months ago. 3+ years ahead in math, able to spell and read long words but struggling with simple Cvc words. When I went for k screening at public school, they used her non-reading as an excuse for not being able to provide any acceleration in math. I, like you, was at a loss on how to bring her reading to at least end of k level. Fast forward now, dd is fluently reading beginning of second grade level. I wish I could tell you exactly how it happened and what I did. Alas, it just happened on its own. She went from a struggling, disinterested reader to a fluent one in a matter of weeks, increasing her difficulty level on her own. You might find yourself in the same situation in a couple of months or maybe even sooner since you mention the cognitive growth spurt. All the best with your decision.

That's just about how my DD learns too.

I really don't understand how it works but some children seem to have an internal compass when it comes to learning and if you interfere, they might withdraw and refuse to do anything for a long time. I don't want DD to believe that she can dictate her own learning across the board so it's been a fine balancing act. Outsourcing has made a difference for us. You don't want this to turn into Mom vs Child power struggle. I'd keep it fun and game-based as HM has suggested and provide her with many opportunities to choose her own materials but maybe you can also sneak in a few books that you think are at her practice level.

DD's piano teacher has 40+ years of teaching experience and she also teaches piano at a GT school so she's used to children who learn at a lightening speed. DD already has had 8+ months of private music lessons but she started DD at the very basic level, filling whatever gaps quickly. DD's done with Book A and moving onto Book B but the teacher decided today that DD can do the next level at the same time so when they are done covering the basics, DD would be ready to take off. Her teachers' words are "There is no point in holding her back or making her go through similar materials for repetition. We'll move at her speed." If only all elementary school teachers shared this point of view.

I never thought about compacting curriculum and filling the gaps simultaneously but DD was even more lively today than she has been during the last few lessons. DD has math gaps all over the place and for now, that's fine but when it comes to start filling those gaps, I'm going to see if I can use this approach.

Thankyou so much for this - it fits with her personality, I guess I'm still at the stage where I'm struggling to see how it can be possible to learn something so complex without any help! I think I'll keep you as my hope and try the other suggestions as a backup