Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Indivual Learning plan ideas?

I've heard good things about K12 for gifted kids too.

If 'social development' is the main argument against homeschooling, then I have really good news for you. Lots of folks who have lived this report that they child has more social time and better quality social time once they leave 'bricks and mortar' schools behind. It's not like your child is learnig with other kids at his current school, although with a few subject accelerations that might happen.

Best Wishes,
Grinity

Has anyone heard of a math soap opera? It just never ends...
Warning this is long you may want to turn around right now and head to another thread. I just needed the venting so here I am again. sorry after reading this again I realized I'm repeating my self here with some stuff but I'm to tired toedit- I got to go back to sleep.

My DS is doing 3rd and 4th grade Math both this year and should finish both this year. I had talked about DS going up a grade in June but it was a scheduling issue. I don't think this would of worked anyway because it will still be too slow with too much review.

In 4th, He is doing some pre algebra? 10-X=2 (I'm not Mathie) which is good but there still is much too easy Math mixed in. The gifted instructor is supervising 4th Grade math and letting him skip some work he doesn't need. I'm not sure what his grade is I would guess about B-. He is using a new format not used in earlier grade math. He has had issues with not showing his work, leaving answers blank, not labeling, putting his computations in the answer book and not in the show your work area. Points off have been do to these situations and not an understanding issue. He and another boy have been going to gifted instructor for his orientation to 4th Grade Math up till this week because now she will be busy with gifted pull out classes. I think he has improved on this checking work on 4th Math.

In 3rd grade math all students listen to about 5 mins. of instruction then do side A of Math page. My DS can go on to his 4th Math or do his Mindware Math book. He doesn't have to review the Side A with the rest of the class.Side B is HW, but my DS skips this. I tried to get him out of Side A suggesting he pretest a week ahead. I would be willing to review anything he missed or he could do that week of papers if needed. The teacher will not do this.

She says there is terms he must learn and this is the only way she knows he is getting all the information. I just don't understand this. I think he will grasp the terms in her instructions. He had some work checking issues, leaving answers blank, not doing the second part of an instruction. She commented on this and I think this immaturity of work habits are her reasoning to hold him back. I think in the past 2 weeks he has overcome this. He brought home a paper for Math today to color in 4 different thermometers to show the given degree. Why?

I explained to his teacher he is not the average student who may need 7 or more repetitions to get something he usually needs 1 or 2. ( I asked her if she could see this and she said he gets his work done first and has more time to read than anyone else. I let her know I see the frustration building and was hoping there was some extra work he could skip because he feels overwhelmed with so much work that he is bored with. (I wish I didn't say bored.) She said it's all necessary.

I didn't get this into the conversation but: His WWJII broad Math is 145. 3 deviations from average students. He has amazing comprehension, reading speed, and memory. He just gets a lot easily. He could do multiplication and division in K. He could do 4 digit addition and subtraction with carrying over in 1st.

Well this teacher seem bothered by me as it is only 6 weeks of school and she has had two conversation's and 2 brief notes from me. I left it with her that I will let this Math go for now and encourage my DS to take pride in completing all his work and meeting the student expectations for a 3rd grader. Hopefully he will not turn into a problem with him. He has been sad about school and says he doesn't like the way class is. I'm going to try to keep talking to him about this. I know the empathy and understanding helps a little.

We are suppose to have an IEP meeting soon. Hopefully I can make some progress with our new principal. She asked me to give her time to research acceleration and gifted.

I think the best way to have him do Math in this school would be to take it out of there hands. If he did an online class with Northwestern for example with a teacher and students that might be great, I'm a little concerned about student to teacher communication because that was hard this summer with his online writers workshop. Or if he could do something like Alex where he could go at his own speed and the school could get proof of mastery. DS says he is ready to give Alex a try after school. Our school is wireless so that should help.

Finacially I can not do homeschooling.

Accelloration and Above grade expectations?

I'm not sure I can really even ask this question properly so please be patient.

I have a 3rd Grader who I think could understand the 5th Grade science. I think he would be excited to be in this class. I'm not sure he would meet the normal 5th grade expectations. When he needs to do writing the physical writing of more than a sentence at a time in cursive would be bothersome. He does not know proper sentense structure yet. He has done just a little writing in school but nothing longer than a pargraph. What other considerations are there in a science class? Would they be worried about handling of chemicals and fire? How would you know a child is ready? Science is a passion and he reads and watches some at adult level.

I have emailed the state gifted education and left messages. I never heard back from them. I wonder if there is another way or do they only talk to schools.

If a teacher feels a pretest does not overcome the concern for a child to learn the information, would you think there is no way to convince her? I'm thinking I'm done with her she just can't see what I'm talking about.

I'm thinking the only way to make more of a change is to appeal to the principal. I'm going to show her some portfolio. I wonder whether she would know what happens at each grade of learning. Really the math situation is not such a big deal. He doesn't mind the 3rd Grade math page so much.

It's really a matter of balancing his day, using his time well. Giving him a amount of learning with in his day so he can tolerate his day. My big problem is what do I get him out of? How do I prove he can do this and overcome their concerns with out teacher maintance. What subject would he miss/condense or pretest? What do I fight for and how do I prove to school it will be ok?

I'm thinking about testing thru CTY online talent search. They do the SCAT test. I think the SCAT test does above level testing for language arts, writing and math? DS now in 3rd Grade is interested in taking an online class this summer. Do you think this would be the best testing to do right now. If its better to take something else he could enroll at Northwestern again instead because he will qualify with IOWA scores. Or should I try to get him to take the Explore test which I think is just for Math. I'm not sure where I would do this. I'm feeling impatient about school right now and would like to do something that proves his abilities more that the WJIII. Any suggestions. I am waiting to here about DYS application also.