Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy 1st grader needs some challenge.

need some venting...

My DD6 keeps complaining about 1st grade. Today she said it feels like preschool but she doesn't get to play.

The teacher sent me a email a few weeks back that she was sad in school. I knew she was sad about missing some of her friends, adjusting to less playtime. I also mentioned please challenge her. I let her know: I believe she is reading at 2 or 3rd Grade level.

Last year, the kids in her class were in reading groups. She was in the top group reading paragraphs on a page. I would think they should pick up where they left off in Kindergarten and then see what they have gained over the summer. They are sending home little story books where they subsitute the word for the picture. WHY????? She is reading all her picture books with paragraphs. Once in a while she needs help with big words. She also reads some of her brothers Jake Maddox books that are about 3 grade level.

Then there is the coloring. She would rather draw her own picture. The Math seems to easy - Why are they asking these kids to do patterns? Can't we move on already?
I could just cry...Here is a girl who is ready and eager to learn. Isn't that what schools want?

No. Schools want kids who will do what they are told to do and parents who won't ask questions. Particularly questions like that. Anything else would be too much like work.

Sorry you're having difficulties with first grade. We've been lucky with our school and teachers so far, into second grade now, but we do have DS7 do extra things for homework and take them back to school when the homework is pure fluff. If your teacher would not react well to that, you could just do extra pages of something more interesting and NOT take it to school.

I know that doesn't help with being bored in class...we still have that problem anyway.

Is it typical to have the first graders tested on reading? If so does the test stop at a certain level? I asked my DD6's 1st grade teacher at open house if everyone would be reading at their own level and she said yes. I don't get why the one sentence per page books keep coming home. Maybe my kids should start school in October after all the review is done.

I put in a email to the teacher.

I feel your pain. We are in the same situation with DS5 who is in first grade this year. He never went to K, but instead was in a Montessori school that had a lot more freedom and was only a few hours a week. So he is getting used to being in a public school all day (much more kids and much less one on one attention)...and has his moments. He says he enjoys school...but he always talks about lunch, recess, and gym as his favorite times and talks about not liking when the teacher teaches the other kids all the stuff he already knows. He also was excited he went to the library and got a Magic Treehouse book he had been wanting to get for a while (he apparently had been remembering the title for months). He said if they finish work in class they get to read some which is good. But up until yesterday he had told me that they hadn't read at all, just the teacher read. He came home with 3 letter spelling word lists that he has to write several times for homework. He has single digit addition and he is probably at least at 4th grade level in math. It is frustrating. We are having a meeting this week to discuss subject acceleration because it is clear that the first grade Math and reading are not going to work. He does enjoy interacting with peers in the class. Since he didn't go to K I am looking at some of his learning as social skills this year, and hopefully they can subject accelerate him as well. And he already had a girl give him his phone number and came down the hall the other day holding 2 girls hands. That's scary.

Can you set up a meeting with the school? Have the done any testing on her yet? I would suggest starting on that whole process as it takes forever. And unfortunately schools are not in a hurry with a child who is compliant and does the work. It's too bad.

Good luck!

That sounds very good socially. Very cute. thanks for sharing that I needed a giggle today.

It's funny because I don't usually pick him up from school so when we walked out of the school. I said "do you usually hold people's hands when you walk down the halls?" (I was kind of wondering if they made kids hold his hand or something or if they trusted him to walk alone since it had been a rough week for him, LOL) He replied "no, I just wanted to hold their hands today" I said "and they didn't mind?" he said "nope" He has a friend who insists she is going to marry him and he always shrugs her off saying it is not going to happen. It's pretty humorous watching the interactions.

shellymos - that's cute. you should write that down somewhere. We should all keep diaries. I wish I did.

I talked to her teacher today and she said they are almost done with evaluating and she will get more challenging work with her level reading. She suggested she do AR's which are optional at her grade. I think that would give her a good feeling. The teacher said she will look for opportunites to challenge her.
I think she will get placed in enrichment soon. Some of her frustrations may be that she is in her big brother's shadow.

I'm gonna go with this for now. I want to lay a little low and see if my DS get into DYS.

I wonder about her. She seems ahead in some ways.

I told the teacher that I would not ask her to do the counting to 20 practice with pennies as she mastered that at age 3. She counted to 300+ while trying to beat her holla hoop record this summer. I think she has got it. Could their actually be kids in 1st grade that can't count to 20? Wouldn't they stay in kindergarten another year?