If your child is doing well in school and seems happy and challenged in most areas, do you still push for challenge in an area of strength or do you wait until your child expresses boredom or dissatisfaction?
My son is six weeks into kindergarten and it is going very well- much better than we had ever hoped for! After a stressful year of worrying about my son's challenges and agonizing about finding the right school for him, this is quite a relief. My son is really enthusiastic about school and is enjoying classes that I didn't expect him to appreciate (drama, Spanish, music, art). His attitude has shifted dramatically and tasks that he has always resisted (writing, drawing and reading) he now tackles enthusiastically. He has peers (at least half the boys in his class are gifted) and is enjoying imaginative play during recess (he didn't really do this in preschool and didn't connect to the kids there). My son reports that he is happier than he has ever been.
The only concern I have is about whether he will be challenged with math. My son is fairly precocious in math (he started to multiply in his head at three, understands fractions and percents, likes to convert various units of measurement for fun and loves to talk about probability and combinatorics). When I see his class doing basic pattern work or talking about shapes, I cringe. I know the teachers must cover basics but I wonder if I should step in or talk to the teachers or if I should instead wait until there is a problem. My son is very happy and reports that he is learning things every day. Is it better to let him focus on learning what he has struggled with (social skills, reading) and not worry about the fact that he isn't challenged in math right now? Or is it better to be proactive and seek out more challenging work so my son grows and feels challenged in this area?
Here is some relevant background on his school. His school has a STEAM focus with small classes (fifteen kids with two teachers; there is a math/science specialist in each class). The school is focused on project based learning and the kids are broken up into small groups according to ability. There are cross grade reading groups and the school is considering doing the same for math. When the kids get to fifth grade, their math classes blend children of various ages based upon math ability. The standard curriculum aims to have children doing math about a year ahead of the common core requirements . There are several gifted kids in my son's class who are all strong in math. The teachers have expressed a commitment to make sure that every child grows in every subject this year. They are still assessing the kids' math ability but will be grouping them according to ability. For now, they are doing at least one project a week that is supposed to let kids work at their level (math talks where they have a topic and each kid does their own project and comes back and shares with the group). My hope is that once kids are grouped according to ability, my son will get much more challenging work. On the other hand, I am guessing his group won't be working two or three years ahead.
We have our first parent teacher conference coming up in a couple of weeks and I'm wondering how I should approach this. Or should I just wait and see how things evolve? I'd appreciate any insight from parents who are further along in this journey!
