So he could do division word problems, but he didn't know how to measure with a paper clip. He must have missed the paper clip lesson last year in kindergarten when he fractured his skull.
blackcat, that's a shame that your ds missed the "how to measure with a paper clip" lesson last year… because… you know.. when I need to measure something that's always what I look for first - a paper clip (SERIOUS sarcasm inserted here lol!).
ps - about reading books ahead of school - my ds and older dd both typically found the school pace of going through books boring beyond belief, whether or not they'd read the books before the class read them. DS in particular usually read the books right away when they were assigned, so he'd be done with the book by the end of the first day they were assigned many times, so I gave up worrying about whether or not to tell him "no, don't read this yet because you might have to read it again in school later on". Which sorta comes around to what we've found with acceleration - acceleration may temporarily stave away boredom, but it doesn't (or hasn't for us) done anything more than a "step up" - the classroom pace is still slow, unless you are able to place your child in with other similar-ability kids and in a classroom without disruptions. That's been the biggest challenge for us in terms of finding an appropriate curriculum.
Yep, this is what I'm kind of thinking. DD did a whole grade acceleration and it solved the problem of her being bored and ahead of everyone else for about a year. Now she's back to being bored again. The classroom pace is still really slow and there's still the same repetition. It was better than doing nothing at all, but really the ideal solution would be to have kids work at their pace. I just wish this was more structured.
What she's doing for DS is taking the "suggested learning objectives" from the computerized test and basically going down the list in order. I have this for DD's test from Jan. but not for DS. It's structured into sections: Alegebra, Data Analysis & Probablility, Geometry, Measurement, and Numbers & Operations. So for the Algebra section for instance, it lists the 5 skills she attained since the last time she took the test (based on what? one question which could have been a good guess if it's multiple choice)? Then in another column are the suggested learning objectives. These are supposed to be in order from easiest to hardest. So for DD it lists the standard 6.EE.2.a (or whatever) and then "the learner will perform conversions between variable expressions and word phrases." Then the next one. "The learner will solve real world inequalities." Then "The learner will determine the correct equation for a word problem and solve." Then there's about 6 more for Algebra. Then for Data Analysis it's "The learner will use a tree diagram, picture, model, or list to show the possible outcomes for a given event." Then "The learner will find the probability of mutually exclusive events and inclusive events", and so on. So what DS's teacher appears to be doing is doing one standard from algebra, using worksheets she prints out online. Then a couple days later, she might do a standard from geometry, sending home worksheets until he's not making many mistakes. Then two days later, probability. Eventually she'll get back to algebra and do the next standard(s) on the list. So it is in order from easier to harder. But the problem is that some standards are missing, because the test thinks he mastered them when he didn't. So she might send home "convert 838 inches into yards" when I had never shown him how to divide by numbers higher than 10 and that would require dividing by 36. So for him to do the converting homework, I had to go back and teach that and it caused stressed.
I had to laugh about the paperclip measuring as well. Why even bother when she could have just skipped that and showed him cm, mm, etc. with a regular ruler!
