Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Frustrated and need advice

Public school K12 schools may want your child to start in the age grade level and then allow them to accelerate in math and english. If they complete the lessons (meet objectives)in math and/or english before the end of March usually, then they will send the next year's math and/or english to start work on. Now I have heard of some students being placed in a higher grade altogether initially, but I have also heard that they are really trying to get students to start at age appropriate grade level However, sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease Also, sometimes K12 will give the student an assessment to determine the appropriate grade level.

As far as the private K12, I would imagine that they are a lot more flexible. It does cost a fair amount of money, but that is relative to which part of the country you live in

I would ask for clarification from your local K12 school on acceleration or working at a faster pace. In our school he is also free to work at a faster pace in other subjects, but the school will only give him math and language arts materials early and not the rest. This is ok with me since we have so much flexibility that we can play with many other things in regards to education

Pris

WE use the whole package via a public cyber charter school. Honestly, the science is good and there are many suggested experiments. What age is your child? Depending on their age I would look at My Pals Are Here Singapore Science if you were only interested in Science. I have only seen the K through 2nd grade K12 Sciecne. It is pretty good, but to be honest my son knows much more than the material presented so far. He likes it, but if I had to pay for a science course then I would look at Singapore Science IMHO or elsewhere such as a science spine and do outlining, summaries, and activities related to it. Now if you were using a higher level science, then you may want to look at K12 and ask them for a good sampling and the scope and sequence of the curricula.

pris

My DS is 3rd grade and is definitely ready for something more at the jr. high level. I'd love something that has a hands on/lab component with it and not a ton of work load. I was just thinking of buying something like 7th grade earth science directly from K12. I am really struggling with finding secular science curriculums, preferably affordable. I *love* everything else we're doing, but science is stumping me. We've been doing a lot of science outings/classes (and some Plato for DS). K12 is available in our state, but I think we're too lazy and open ended to do the real deal at least at this age.

I may try the Singapore materials with my DD5 next year though. Maybe I should just order them and see if I could enhance them "up" for DS with library materials, etc.

There are 3/4 and 5/6 levels of Singapore and I have heard that the Higher Order thinking is good to use with them as well. You could check out the threads on WTM.

Thanks! I've just been digging around on WTM and the Singapore site.