Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Underachievement... there we go again...aaaarg !

Why good things don't last forever?

DD5 was so happy at the beginning in Grade 1. She came home really happy and at home she would happily spend one hour doing self-appointed homework, calligraphy, sums, trying to read words, or simply coloring.

I noticed however that maths were way below her level and pointed that out to the teacher, who as nice as she is, took a very long time to do something about it. This week, DD finally got a more challenging workbook. But somehow, DD is going backwards. She is now using her fingers for doing 2+3 and it looks like she is having difficulties with it.

With reading as well, she is not progressing as fast as I thought she would. She seems to have problems with phonetics. Mrs Teacher asked for help to the Remedial Teacher, who then ask some Advisors Bureau who put her in contact with someone specialized in gifted children. This person will come and observed DD in the classroom and then give her advice. This looks great, right? The problem is that Mrs Teacher noticed the problem with phonetics almost two months ago and this person has not yet come and even less give any advice.

In the meantime, I found some tactics about teaching phonetics using visualization of words (from Silverman's webpage) which was in line with what the teacher was thinking of by herself. She as well agreed to separate reading from spelling and allow DD to progress faster in reading even if she has problems with the phonetics.

Despite all that, DD seems to be loosing the spark about the school and while it is not as bad as last year, every day she looks less enthusiastic.
At home she is not interested anymore in doing her usual activities and she is in quite bad mood and capricious and prone to tantrums.

Something is not right but I cannot point my finger to what exactly.

Maybe it has nothing to do with academics but with the fact that her best friend was moved on grade up (friend is 7 but came from another country and the school made her repeat grade 1 until she got promoted to grade 2).
I think this has an influence in DD's humor, but I have the feeling that there is something more to it. But what???


Any suggestions. ideas?

I'm sorry Isa. No new good ideas on this front, just wanted to offer a little support.

I'd say just trust your gut and keep trying to figure it out.

Actually, missing her friend may have a bigger influence on DD's mood than I initially thought. Today she seemed quite more spirited and before going to bed she told me that today was the first day she didn't miss X and that they can actually play together during lunch recess.

Anyway, something must be done with maths... DH thinks that giving her the complete sum's tables will help her.

I was thinking of suggesting Mrs Teacher that DD gets some worksheets at home so I can 'push' her a little.