Lack of Focus - 05/31/12 09:42 PM
Aargh! I just have to get this off my chest . . . .
So DS8 just got his report card from the end of third grade today and it was filled with "needs to focus" and "can do more but only does the minimum required" and yet more "needs to focus." The only area where he got good comments (although, admittedly, there were some areas with no comments) was in math, in which he is subject accelerated and got the highest marks possible. I've mentioned in passing to the teacher that it's hard for my DS to focus all day because he's easily capable of all the work without focusing, and she agreed with me! And, she knows that DS reads for a couple of hours at a time at home almost every night in books a couple years above grade level, so she knows he is perfectly able to focus when not surrounded by a bunch of unruly classmates. And the classroom is a bit unruly and I've repeatedly seen in person how quickly he finishes his work and how much time he wastes waiting for everyone else to do theirs. So why can't she hold off on the negative comments and just chalk it up to the fact that she didn't do a good job keeping him challenged?
And, thinking ahead, what am I supposed to do about next year? I and others have seen how he focuses when he's in a group but with challenging work (e.g., Sunday school, where he's with 5th-8th graders)? He's even finding the math acceleration to be too easy again, but he's grade-skipped already and we just can't see grade-skipping him again eventhough most of his friends are a year ahead of him in school (but at a private school) and everyone already thinks he's redshirted. I guess I'm just going to have to wait until the fall and have a pre-emptive please-challenge-my-child-or-he-won't-pay-attention talk with his new teacher. Fortunately and unfortunately I'm friends with his teacher for next year. We have a private school option, but to keep him from having to repeat 4th grade math we'd have to gradeskip him into a class of a ton of redshirted kids because the private school does not differentiate or subject accelerate.
Anyway, aargh!
So DS8 just got his report card from the end of third grade today and it was filled with "needs to focus" and "can do more but only does the minimum required" and yet more "needs to focus." The only area where he got good comments (although, admittedly, there were some areas with no comments) was in math, in which he is subject accelerated and got the highest marks possible. I've mentioned in passing to the teacher that it's hard for my DS to focus all day because he's easily capable of all the work without focusing, and she agreed with me! And, she knows that DS reads for a couple of hours at a time at home almost every night in books a couple years above grade level, so she knows he is perfectly able to focus when not surrounded by a bunch of unruly classmates. And the classroom is a bit unruly and I've repeatedly seen in person how quickly he finishes his work and how much time he wastes waiting for everyone else to do theirs. So why can't she hold off on the negative comments and just chalk it up to the fact that she didn't do a good job keeping him challenged?
And, thinking ahead, what am I supposed to do about next year? I and others have seen how he focuses when he's in a group but with challenging work (e.g., Sunday school, where he's with 5th-8th graders)? He's even finding the math acceleration to be too easy again, but he's grade-skipped already and we just can't see grade-skipping him again eventhough most of his friends are a year ahead of him in school (but at a private school) and everyone already thinks he's redshirted. I guess I'm just going to have to wait until the fall and have a pre-emptive please-challenge-my-child-or-he-won't-pay-attention talk with his new teacher. Fortunately and unfortunately I'm friends with his teacher for next year. We have a private school option, but to keep him from having to repeat 4th grade math we'd have to gradeskip him into a class of a ton of redshirted kids because the private school does not differentiate or subject accelerate.
Anyway, aargh!