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Posted By: 1111 What do we ask of the school - suggestions? - 06/27/13 03:38 PM
We just had an updated Woodcock Johnson III achievement test for DS5 done the other day. The reason was we wanted to see how he had done this year in K and also to have something to bring to the school showing where he is at academically. As far as math and reading/writing he hasn't learned anything in school this past year. He has, however continued his KUMON and reading/writing at his own leisure a home.

Going in to 1st grade I am in need of suggestions, ideas, things you might have done that has worked for a kid like him. It is obvious he can not follow the 1st grade curriculum...but how do you find a practical way to have him stay in 1st grade and still be taught at his level, or somewhat close to it?

He is an incredibly self driven, ambitious kid who "LOVES to work" (His own words)

These are the results:

BRIEF ACHIEVEMENT: AE 11-6 SS 176
BROAD READING: AE 11-10 GE 6.4 SS 150
BROAD MATH: AE 10-5 GE 5.1 SS 174
BROAD WRITTEN LANG AE 11-8 GE 6.2 SS 163

BRIEF READING AE 11-2 GE 5.8 SS 171
BRIEF MATH AE 10-1 GE 4.7 SS 166
MATH CALC SKILLS AE 11-0 SS 163
BRIEF WRITING AE 11-6 GE 6.1 SS 161
WRITTEN EXPRESSION AE 10-6 SS 150

ACADEMIC SKILLS AE 11-9 SS 177
ACADEMIC FLUENCY AE 12-8 SS 191
ACADEMIC APPS AE 9-8 SS 163

Letter-Word Ident. AE 11-9 GE 6.4 SS 168
Reading Fluency AE 13-7 GE 8.1 SS 182
Calculation AE 10-6 GE 5.1 SS 156
Math Fluency AE 12-4 GE 6.9 SS 178
Spelling AE 14- GE 8.5 SS 172
Writing Fluency AE 11-11 GE 6.5 SS 180
Passage Comprehen. AE 10-2 GE 4.8 SS 154
Applied Problems AE 9-9 GE 4.4 SS 159
Writing Samples AE 8-10 GE 3.5 SS 142

Thank you for your suggestions!
Posted By: 1111 Re: What do we ask of the school - suggestions? - 06/27/13 06:00 PM
MON, thank you for those ideas! It helped me see outside of the box an realize that we have to go in with a creative mind. He loves writing but it has mostly been non fiction. A few months ago he got this idea about a zoo that would cover all of the world and wrote a 5000 word description of it on the computer. This was the first time he really wrote about something different than facts. It was nice to see the creativity come out. I think we should try to build on that although lately he has gone back to non fiction writing about dinosaurs. He is so driven and determined that there was never any use to try to guide him into something he was not interested in at the time.

I WILL ask him what he would like to do and present it to the teacher. As far as spelling I am not sure what they will do.Is it possible to ask for the spelling list of grade 8 instead of grade 1?? He loves words and I think he would thrive on it!

As far as math, it was suggested to us that EPGY would be a great program. Anybody have any experience with this? They are doing Singapore math until 5h grade at his school which seems like a big waste of time to me. EPGY might be an idea.We would have a tutor come in for math class. The Lower school principal agreed to that although this was before we had EPGY in mind. We were discussing doing Singapore math with a tutor.

Thank you for your replies and ideas!
Posted By: 1111 Re: What do we ask of the school - suggestions? - 06/27/13 10:09 PM
MON, my son does not need much socialization and actually prefers to learn by himself, even without our help. He is not a very social child and loves to sit by himself and work on things that interest him.

I am thinking to do a combo of EPGY and in classroom instruction. This all depends on his 1st grade teacher. After the short conversation I had with her it seemed she was on fire thinking thinking up activities.In her own words "This is what I would do with him. I would tell him to make up 5 problems for me to solve. And try to make it hard for me". Interesting enthusiasm at least.

Not sure how much work there will be in 1st grade. It IS a private school that has a reputation being a grade level above public school.. Who knows.

Do you home school?
I've been homeschooling my ds7 this year for 1st. Previously he had been in two different gifted schools (one structured and traditional/ the other Montesorri-type and unstructured/untraditional), but neither could accommodate ds. My son is like your son - very much an autodidact who prefers to self-direct, self-motivate with his learning. He's spent days just reading one book/subject after another. I'm waiting for another set of WJ-III test scores for DYS.

By all means if you have a school that is willing to do independent projects or accommodate your ds, then try it. Otherwise, there are many variables at hand from the curriculum and the way instruction is delivered or presented to other kids and social/emotional issues like bullying.

There are many ways to homeschool a child today; we loosely followed a general curriculum series for grades 1-6 this year for a bunch a reasons (including a portfolio/work samples for DYS), but next year I'm taking another tack. The world is your oyster. I think two of the most helpful books that I recently have read provide a good starting point.

1. Rebecca Rupp, Home Learning Year by Year (needs to be updated, but a wealth of resources and a basic guide on what usually gets taught in public schools from K-12 for each year). You'll find that the 1st grade+ curriculum is rather basic and quite lacking for your son unless a school makes accommodation.

2. Kio Stark, Don't Go Back to School. It's a collection of interviews on how people learn traditionally or untraditionally through school or not, but the resources and ways people approach subjects/work are helpful.
Posted By: 1111 Re: What do we ask of the school - suggestions? - 06/30/13 07:28 PM
My plan now is to try it for another year. If they can work with our ideas I think it might actually be OK. If not, I guess I will try partial home school. Send him in after the morning sessions. I just like the idea of all teaching taking place at the school. Even if that means working with a tutor in a separate room.

I will look into those book suggestions! Thanks!

Anybody else have experiences to share?
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