Do the other children have to do hours of kindergarten-level worksheets before they are allowed to do work at their own level that helps them learn? That is the position your son is in, and I completely understand why he feels it is unfair: it IS unfair. Why on Earth shouldn't your son be excused from doing busy work that he already knows how to do? Why should he be required to waste his time and do double work when the other children are not? Work at his level is not a "reward" to be earned, it is the whole reason he is in school. What he is learning from this situation is not "that not everything is fun all the time", but "being smart gets you punished."
ETA: I get that the school thinks that adding large numbers is "harder" than adding smaller ones, but it isn't: it's just more tedious. Once a child really understands place value and how to add two two-digit numbers, he or she understands how to add numbers with any number of digits, so those worksheets really are far, far below his level.
Last edited by aculady; 08/02/11 11:04 AM.
