DS is going into first grade next fall at a school that has a blended age learning environment. Since he's reading at a fourth/fifth grade level, we know he will be with the older kids for that. But as far as math, he has "holes" in his knowledge in anything above first grade level. From what I can determine through looking at IXL grade level expectations, he's got a foothold on second grade with a few gaps and about half of third grade. Currently, he's learning his multiplication tables by memory.

So, over the summer, we are considering placing him in Sylvan in math to assess the areas in which he's lacking so he can more easily fit into a grade for math this coming year. It's my hope that when he's given the beginning assessment in the fall, the results will place him solidly in either second grade math or third...with no missing knowledge on his part.

If you've used Sylvan, how did they react to teaching an advanced child? Were they okay with acceleration? I'm wondering if they will refuse because they'll think I'm pushing him.

I think what you'll find depends on your local center and their staff. Our ds went to Sylvan for awhile and there was a wide assortment of kids going there - from children who were struggling to children working ahead. Our ds really liked the way Sylvan worked... but it wasn't easy on our pocketbooks so we eventually gave up on it. I did find their assessment really helpful though - it gave us a good idea of what ds needed to work on and it also gave us another achievement test score we could use in advocating (our center used the CAT-5).

I may be remembering this incorrectly - but one thing I *think* I remember about Sylvan was that there was no homework, and it was purposely designed as a no-homework thing for early elementary kids (I'm sure the high school kids must be doing homework lol!)... sooo.. I think it's possible if you go in and ask for work to work on at home to be sure your ds is flying through as quickly as you can "push" him they might see you as an overly pushy parent. Our center definitely was all about having children learn at their own pace, whatever that pace was. It wasn't the type of program I could have micromanaged and asked that they fill in gap x first instead gap y... but was the type of program where they did the assessment and made a learning plan based on what they felt ds needed, and then ds was free to work through that plan as fast as he could or as slow as he might need to. There were frequent informal assessments along the way, and a bit of multisensory learning to so all in all, it worked great for us.

polarbear

More thoughts on tutoring: Would placing him for writing (his weak point) be a better use of his time?

Perhaps he'd be more "even" in his abilities and thus easier to place? Maybe it would allow him to skip first grade.

As an aside, we recently learned his eyesight in his left eye is 20/50. He's a "righty" and I'm wondering if that could affect his perception of letter placement, shape, etc. as he's writing?

I'm just throwing out random thoughts on this. Any insight would be welcome.

Our son has seen our optometrist and has been Rx'd as having a "lazy eye" and must patch his dominant eye two hours a day for at least two months.

I'm curious to see how this will affect his handwriting.

Approximately after his course of treatment (assuming it's only two months), he will be out of Kindergarten and we plan to send him to Sylvan for writing tutoring...unless, of course, he improves dramatically.

Hi Ametrine, I hadn't realized they did writing support at Sylvan. I may look into it.

My DS began patching for lazy eye at the beginning of K and it ran to 6 full months, and additional 3 months with less days per week.

I figured until the correction, his fine motor control hadn't been fully integrated. So, it is really a delay. His handwriting definitely didn't improve overnight. 6 months since patching ended and his writing is starting to improve a bit.

I hope you get quicker results.

The Sylvan in our area has writing support.
I assume all do because Sylvan is a franchise, right?

For those who may be following this thread who have children who need to patch, I have found a website that has soft patches that can slip onto glasses. Apparently, the adhesive on most patches cause quite a skin reaction for kids who need them daily. We plan to order from them this weekend.

Patch Pals

Update:

We had our son tested at our local Sylvan Center.

They said that they have an elementary writing program that begins at a second grade level. (DS reads at at least a 5th grade level) So we had him evaluated.

Long story short: DS tested in the lower levels for writing in the second grade (elementary writing) test. In the consultation, they seemed unable to understand that we didn't want him pushed to write "essays", but were there to help him with his handwriting and spacing. They said they were going to put together an individual program based on his age, but I didn't see that. My husband and I definitely felt as if this would be detrimental to his learning to write without anxiety. Perhaps our perception was erroneous or only central to our particular center, but I don't think Sylvan understands our needs.

We decided not to push this and are hoping this coming school year at a blended-grade charter will make the difference in his writing.

Funny timing, we spoke to Kumon this week and they talked about a full assessment, but nothing focused on just handwriting. The person there did mention Handwriting Without Tears, but we are looking for someone other than us to get into the nitty gritty.

I've heard of Handwriting Without Tears but don't know anything about it.

The center director told me that (even though she wasn't an expert) DS likely didn't have a visual impairment that is driving his sloppy writing and lack of spacing. She said that those who have that problem are usually behind their grade level in reading by at least two years. She again stressed she wasn't an "expert", but that told me DS likely doesn't have a problem with his eyes making the writing difficult.

We thought that if DS' handwriting is still "a mess" by Christmas, we are hiring a college student to help. Then, if that doesn't produce results, we would re-consider Sylvan for next summer.

Funny thing: DS loves to write. His writing isn't always legible, but he's a creative guy. Yesterday he wrote out a schematic for a game he made up. All the spellings of the words were correct and he separated things out into categories within boxes. (I'm keeping this.)

So...

I'd love to hear from someone on this site who was marked down for handwriting, yet blew the teachers away with essays later on.

Anyone?

Got my first C ever in math (of all things) in 6th grade because the teacher would mark off if my writing was at all sloppy. Still have horrible handwriting, but had an Advanced English teacher in high school who loved my writing. She was even critiquing a fantasy novel I was writing on the side. I looked back at that and I can't even read it. Amazing.

Some occupational therapists will teach Handwriting Without Tears. Am I right in understanding that your son is 6? I would not suggest going further with the Sylvan Center based on the what you've described above. She just doesn't have the background in gifted students to be able to assess him. In a normally developing child, a vision issue might result in below grade level reading. With a giftie, though, that is not necessarily true. They could be performing above grade level and still be having issues that prevent them from reaching their full potential. This is why so many 2E kids don't get support for their disabilities at school: because you have to fall behind to be recognized as having a problem. Their giftedness essentially hides their LD.

That said, if your son is 6 and was assessed at a 2nd grade writing level, that is still advanced. Perhaps not as advanced as other areas, but still above grade level. And a 6 year old may just not be physically ready to meet the handwriting expectations of an older child even if he is there intellectually. Sloppiness of handwriting is not necessarily related to sloppiness of organization or thought. It's just that pesky asynchrony where his hands are 6 year old hands but is thoughts are several grades ahead of that.

I would suggest an assessment by an OT (they often do free screenings) if you are concerned that he is delayed. They will compare him to his age peers with regard to fine motor skills. When I had my kindergartner assessed, the OT actually told me that the educational expectations of young children are often not even developmentally appropriate. For most kids at that age, for example, even writing lower case letters is a stretch.

And honestly,IMO, in this day and age, any teacher who would seriously grade down because of penmenship is out of touch with reality. Even now, elementary school is virtually the only place where anyone WRITES anything.