Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Practical Issues With Young Child in Two Classes

My DS5 does all academics with first grade and everything else with kindergarten. The academics part of things hasn't been an issue. He finds first grade very easy. However, he seems to have trouble with the practical part of moving between two classrooms. When I went to the school to pick up another child this morning, I saw a teacher (not one of his teachers) bringing him to the office. He had gone to kindergarten after completing first grade and no one was in the room (they were at music... he was supposed to have gone to the office to wait... not sure if anyone told him that) He had been visibly upset about not knowing what to do about being in an empty room. These type of things seem to happen a lot. He spends a decent amount of time sitting in the office waiting, wondering around looking for where his class is, lost, etc. I know a lot of people on this forum have kids doing work in multiple grades. Is this the norm? Do you have any suggestions? I don't know if I should have the school write out a schedule for him or what. I'm beginning to wonder if these type of problems are causing more stress for him than the grade skip is worth.

Is going to 1st full time an option?

There is always a certian amount of 'last minute I forgot you existed' - but this sounds like an unusual amount.

Some schools get around this by creating a team-teaching situation where two classes with different grades are paired.

Another thing that can help is get get another kindy buddy who can also go to 1st for academics - is there another boy who is a likely candidate?

Some schools over come this by having the whole school meet at the same time for Math and LA and getting every kid to switch rooms for both topics.

I get your frustration with the first grade stuff being too easy, but would encourage you to see this current accomidation as part of a larger process of 'inching' toward a workable public school experience.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

Sounds like less than stellar communication between the two teachers, honestly.

That should not be your son's problem to fix, but the school's. I'd let them KNOW that there are gaps like this, however.

After all, if he is being left unsupervised and nobody even knows about it, that is certainly a problem from a liability standpoint.

ETA:

It seems to me that logistically, there needs be an adult involved in the "hand-off" from one teacher's responsibility to the other when he transitions. Otherwise, how does the kindy teacher even know he made it to the 1st grade class? Or, as in your example, vice versa? What if there were a fire drill or lockdown? He'd be unsupervised and unaccounted for, perhaps for hours.

This is different than a child being sent to the restroom alone-- in that case, the classroom teacher definitely has an awareness of when a student has been absent "too long" and can investigate.

Even a peer "buddy" as an escort might be a good idea if nothing else is workable. At least that way a teacher is aware of whether or not there has been a glitch.

Yeah, you definitely don't want to freak them out.

Maybe more like, "This was a little disconcerting to {child}, and I'm sure to the teachers, too! Is there a way for each teacher to know whether or not {child} is back in class with Ms/Mr Z/X?"