Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School 4th/5th grade 2011-2012

One of DD10's goals for the year is to become "perfect" at math. I definitely need to step up my efforts to find more challenging work for her.

Second week of school and the principal has already contacted us to review her CUME file and adaptations, to get our input before he has a phone conference with her psychologist. He also wanted our permission to involve the school psychologist, so she could help the classroom teacher understand DD's strengths and weaknesses more fully. He is arranging for DD to have a personal mini-typer this week and promises to set up a meeting with us as soon as the handwriting assesment report is complete. We met the teacher tonight at curriculum night and she is 'in love' with DD. She is planning for homework to be given in a monthly packet and wants to individualize DD's, not sure how that will look yet but happy to hear it. She also wants to sit down with DD one-on-one and get her opinions on the existing adapations before we review them this year.

Baby steps, but we are happy that the new school is working hard to get to know her. I think I am more impressed that they want DD involved in the process... this is the only way to get her buy-in on anything. Bonus points!

Just have to say just over a month into school and DS8 who went into the school year hating writing, is growing in leaps and bounds ( at least I think for it only being a month - 3 word answers to 2-3 sentence answers ) and his attitude towards it is no longer a complete refusal, homework in writing doesn't take him 500 years to complete because " he can't do it ". I'm just thrilled...its the only thing hes found " hard " which is why he resisted it and I'm seeing his block slowly melt away! Maybe this will be a good year afterall <knock on wood>

DD10 is in 5th grade in a magnet (but not accelerated) classroom. So far this year:

1. We're homeschooling math because the district refuses to work with us on any other options to get her appropriate level work. Programs like online classes are not available to elementary school students, and teachers are not allowed to teach above their grade level.
2. She brought home a phonics(!!!) worksheet as part of her week's literacy work. Apparently, in 5th grade, they need to spend time on the difference between a hard "g" and a soft "g". Oh, and the other side of the worksheet was a lesson about nouns (did you know that you capitalize proper nouns?)
3. Her teacher prepared an insert to be pasted in her spelling/vocabulary notebook. It contained 2 typos--and one of them was the word 'misspelled'!

We just had our school open house tonight and the teacher kept talking about how our district's standards are so much higher than others in our state. Seriously?

Sorry, just had to rant after tonight's meeting and this week's homework. At least we're having fun with math. I may turn into a full time homeschooler yet.

Frustration 1 & 2...

#1: Summer reading = 2 books. DS read them in June. Having a test on one of the books today. WTF? Aside from rereading a book you read 3 months ago (and didn't like) how do you prep for that? Besides, DS insists he "knows the book" but I know his teacher is a tough grader and the child with the amazing comprehension and 15th grade reading level in 4th gr could end up with a "C" in reading class. how annoying.

#2: Cover Unit 1 science. Prepare for big Unit 1 test. Get a 99% on the pre-test. Have test postponed 2 weeks because other students are not ready for the test yet. 2 weeks later and guess who's moved on? DS of course. ggggrumble. Wish she let him take the test when he was obviously ready for it.

I have my fingers crossed that things will improve when DD10's school is done with their assessments this month. She's working on things that would be great for a typical 5th grader, but she's not typical. *sigh* My goal for the year is to find one subject in which DD can be challenged and hopefully placed in a class where she's not the top student.

Gah, still rough. Two "conduct marks" today, for talking. The first after a reminder that there was no talking during the test, and the second for talking after she was already in trouble for the first time! (DD says, "I wasn't talking! I was just moving my mouth like this!" And then demonstrated exaggeratedly mouthing words to someone across the room.)

DD has never gotten so much as a warning in the 3 years of school prior to this. The attitude we're seeing at home is apparently not confined to home.

Ah, yes. I sympathize! The thought crossed my mind today that if DD rolled her eyes at me just one more time I might sew her lids shut. Sadly, I would almost be glad if she shared the attitude with someone besides DH and myself.. it would make it easier to take and feel less like a personal attack. No one believes us when we say that our sweet lil darling is becoming a snot bag.

Hi Midwest Mom, thanks for starting this topic.

I have a DD (4th gr) and we homeschool. We're doing nicely with approx. middle school level science material, and above grade level math, keeping it on the edge of challenging. We also do above grade for language arts reading/spelling. I think we're probably grade level for writing output, not actually a problem, just that DD is very methodical. We have extracurricular activities "after school".

We struggle a lot with finding like minded peers at the appropriate age level (not too old, not too young) and finding ways to have common ground, and thus have a connection.

Are your DDs/DSs finding like minded peers in their 4th/5th grades? How are your gifted kids finding similar interests at these grade levels? What are the girls into at this age level?

One nice thing about DD's 4th grade teacher is that she seems to be ability-grouping kids, which usually results in DD being paired with one particular girl, and the two of them are getting along. I'd say that 4th is starting off better socially than 3rd did.

But it's still hard to find kids who want to sit and quietly work math problems at recess. (One of the solutions we came up with for DD's recess woes was to give her a pocket-sized packet of long division problems, and a pencil stub, so that when she chooses to sit recess out, she has something to do.)

My girl is into BOYS-ARE-ANNOYING, Rick Riordan books, skimpy tops, flip-flops, hair-and-nails, and designing her own dresses out of two enormous scarves. Also, refining her plans for personal hovercraft, playing hide-and-seek in Jumpstart with her cousin (assisted by Skype), and learning how to do a jump dive from the low board.