Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Skipping into first now. Advice?

Sounds like a good plan Niki. Kids are pretty resilient, I am betting he will get the routine down quick. And as we have talked before, I know the academics won't be an issue. What may be an issue is him thinking that since he is going to be going to first now they will know more and be able to do more, that isn't always the case. DS5 didn't do K and started this year in first so didn't do the transition. With us we have some of the behaviors when he gets bored though, which I know you don't. No awful behaviors...just developmental stuff mostly (like walking in line right, staying in his seat, calling out without raising his hand, being overly silly) etc. Those are the things that get him in trouble regularly. First isn't the best fit, but it is a better fit. It sounds like yours will be even better since there are some other gifted students in his class. There aren't any in DS's and they have not told me of any in the grade yet, although there is one boy from another class that may be since they are going to pair them together for reading. Anyhow, I am rambling. The transition process you have in place sounds good, keep us updated on how it goes!

Hi,

One thing that helped my daughter last year when she moved into 3rd grade was for the teacher to pick one or two other students that were nice kids and good students to kind of buddy up with her, at least for the first several weeks. Could you ask the 1st grade teacher to do this for tomorrow or Wednesday? My daughter didn't know these kids before the transition, but it was nice for her to know she always had somebody to buddy up with at recess, lunch, small group time until she was able to make some friends.

The other suggestion I would make is for you to request the school supply list for his new class. We didn't do that right away (just didn't think about it) and, while it wasn't a big deal, it would have been one less thing for her to worry about and one more way to make her "blend in" more quickly.

How did it go for your DS today?

DS loved his new classroom tour today.
He really liked his new teacher, and was very impressed by a rat (which they have at an observation center) named Neal Amstrong (DS thought that was hilarious).
Anyway, he is very proud and was announcing at our library, that he is going to go to a first grade this week. The librarian was very impressed, which gave DS the idea that it is something special. When he was falling asleep tonight he kept saying, I can not believe I am going to be a first grader!
I let him picked his favorite foods for his K goodbye party tomorrow. The K teacher announced about DS going to first to the K kids and about the party tomorrow, a lot of kids told DS that they are sad that he is leaving, which made him feel very good. He kept telling them that he will still be their friend, just in another classroom and they can always do playdates after school.
So overall, he is handling it wonderfully.
Thank you for the buddy idea mnmom23, I will talk to DS first grade teacher tomorrow, and will mention that. I like that. Although DS already knows 2 boys from first from the enrichment pull out classroom.

Best wishes to you. While we did not do a mid year skip, we did skip K and it is a very small school with the K and 1st next door to each other.DD5 knew all of the K kids from Pre-K, so it was awkward to not go to K but to first.
These are the lessons that I learned:
1) don't overanalyze at first. don't continually ask how he feels/how it is going, they can't survive under a microscope when everything is so new.
2) he and you will get questions, sometimes at weird moments when you don't feel like answering, it is just par for the course
3) in our case: it was a great move and a big relief to see her actually (sometimes) work at something. OK, just for a moment and then she gets it, but at least there is that moment.