Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School K 2011-2012

Well we are now months into kindergarten, and some things are good and some are frustrating. My DD5 is not having any obvious behavior or sensory issues at school. In fact, she looks so "normal" they probably think I am nuts for mentioning sensory issues. She has good friends and is well liked. She showed them she was beyond their end of year academic and fine motor goals the first week. Her social skills also are great. The only things she is suppose to work on this year are related to focus and organization, as in coloring neatly (really) and not making careless mistakes on simple worksheets. Since I told her to check her work, I don't see careless mistakes.

They have seen IQ and achievement testing that places her very high, and have even mentioned noticing that she thinks differently and is highly creative, but little is done. She is in a reading group, their top one, but they are reading things like, "The cat sat on the log" REALLY. She read that sort of thing at 2. I don't want to be a thorne in anyone's side here, but why can't they move closer to the right level? Math is also painfully below her level as well. There is another boy who is similar to her in the class, yet they are doing nothing special with them...

At this point, I just afterschool her a little bit when she comes home, but wish the public school could do something besides babysit her and teach her to put her backpack away. We cannot do private school right now. In our state, there are no mandates for gifted education so they have no obligation to do anything more. In our town, many many parents think their children are gifted and many push for their gifted programming which starts in second grade, so they tend to be skeptical about incoming children whose parents think are so advanced. They met with the psychologist who did her testing and said that she was different and was not going to "level off" but they seem very closed off to outside opinions.

Her class is huge and has some kids with serious behavior problems, so a child who writes well, is well behaved, and far ahead is easy to just let coast... sadly, they do few crafts and rarely have recess. It is a 2.5 hour day and much of it is drilling kids on the basics of letters, numbers, etc.

At this point, I am trying to focus on what is working and not worry too much about what isn't working.
There is a glimmer of hope that they will provide more next year since the gifted teacher visits first grade.

TwinkleToes, for half day kindergarten it is really hard to expect much. Ds' teacher added up her instruction time, and found that if all goes well, she has 90 minutes of instruction daily. They are also on a different daily schedule from the rest of the school, so sending a child to another room for math is a major scheduling problem. DS has a reading group with 4 kids all about the same reading level, and DS now has a computer program he can log into during math -- but the 10 minutes dedicated to a math activity is about how long it takes DS to get to the website, put in his batty password and log back out. Our goal consistently with half day has been to have things set up by the time he hits first grade. {DS now gets to go back to school in the afternoon a few days a week to meet a class in computer lab to work on this program, but mostly he's spending all his screen time on it at home.}

TT
I'm so sorry to hear its so frustrating but glad there are some positives. DS is in a fantastic gifted school, which does all sorts of extras and moves at a rapid clip, and yet, I see the same things you do - DS is in a reading group with the top readers - but they are doing picture books. I posted elsewhere about how they want the kids to take ownership of their reading levels etc - DS was tested at M and he only has i in his box - he knows its too easy -yet in a gifted school, with a fantastic library, with recognition for what he can do, he still has i in his box!!!

DS goes all day - so they do reading, writing, math, science and I am pretty pleased at the pace and the topics and their approach to things - but even here there is no effort made to differentiate beyond a certain point. So on some level, I am fighting the good fight and in some ways I feel like I need to give up, not antagonize the teacher and continue to have fascinating conversations at home about RNA, DNA and all his other interests. Just yesterday he talked about being "engulfed" by the blanket as he pretended to be a ghost! There is no possibility of a skip here - made worse by the fact that his writing is regular level not where the want gifteds - so if they are teaching to color in the lines - he is absolutely not learning it!!! LOL

DS is not overtly complaining - but it is a long day - and he is showing more preference for being at home. So maybe there is some positive in that, if it is a waste of her time, its at least a short waste????!!!

DeHe

DeHe, it sounds as though there are some good things alongside the frustrating ones this year for you. It is great that they have math and science in their curriculum, but I can see how you would be frustrated with the lack of differentiation beyond a certain point.

Things are better at our end. I was told by a third party that they plan on doing some kind of pull out for her next year and to have her in the gifted program a year early. No one spoke directly with me about this with me. My daughter also read something at an all school assembly and no one told me in advance. They are trying to differentiate, but they don't go far enough. She is doing multiplication, fractions, reading very fluently at a very high level, etc. and they are doing number recognition and letter sounds. I think we have a good teacher who is doing the best she can with a huge class. I afterschool for about 15-20 minutes a day and she gets more in one day at home than weeks at school so that is my answer for now. Now I need to talk to the school to get the details about what they want to do with her next year. I am actually one of the few moms who doesn't want her moved up. She is small, looks babyish and young and I wish there was a way for her to be around kids her own age at the same level or to be with kids her age as her base and then work at academic levels with older kids...maybe that is what they have planned. I guess it is time to make some calls.

Hi!

We have MAP testing again this week. I am interested to see where ds comes out in math. He is also doing multiplication, division, adding subtracting fractions. We are just finishing up with singapore 2a and kumon multiplication. Onto the next set of books for us. I am thinking he might have some fun with roman numerals.
As far as reading, we are not as advanced as many of you are. Ds was not an early reader. He is reading at a mid first grade level.

We have decided to go ahead with testing. He will be taking the wisc and wiat on the 22nd. He turned 6 on November 30, so good timing for us.

I wish he was in an all day kindergarten. I wish they did more as far as differentiation. EVERYTHING we were promised over the summer and early fall has not come through. When we have the test results, I will be making an appointment to include the principal, school GATE teacher, the district GATE coordinator and his teacher (anyone else I should ask to the party?).

I don't know if I want him moved to first grade at this pint or not. I also don't think its even an option. I do want to get him some sort of enrichment or joining the first, second or even third grade for math. I wouldn't mind if they brought in someone to work in his classroom with him to enrich. Ughhh so frustrating

TT
glad to hear you are a bit more optimistic - and especially glad to hear they are thinking of doing more, if not this year at least for next. We finally had our conference with the teacher - and DH expected me to go all, he needs this, you need to being doing that - and I didn't (massive restraint on my part) but the teacher actually spent 45 minutes selling us on what she is doing and how bright she thinks he is. So its weird, the school is awesome and the creativity that they use is awesome. She is a fabulous teacher for gifted kids as well. I think what I am still frustrated with is that fact that its seems like school is all about his weaknesses and not his strengths. But with the time passing, she is providing more, she acknowledged that he is beyond where she assessed his reading and that she needs to get him more books, he has books at that level now, last month he didn't. But in math he has no problems with anything they do and could easily do more, faster and deeper, but he isnt spontaneously doing it. So he could do more even with the fast pace they are setting.

Maybe the more of an outlier they are, the longer it takes the powers to be to realize they need more, I don't know, it sounds so weird. I understand the feelings about moving up - for DS - he LOVES older kids and so would be very comfortable with a skip - but his writing and social skills are not up to it - I agree if he could do work with them sometimes, or get the work in his classroom it would be so much better. So I think I am in a better place about what he is doing - not perfect but what is - but funnily my bigger concern is that she might be a problem for doing a DYS app after he turns 6!!

DeHe

This has always been a huge pet peeve of mind. I remember at my DD's first K fall conference, the teacher said DD really needed to practice always starting sentences with a capital letter and always ending sentences with appropriate punctuation. Incredulous, I asked whether that was a kindergarten skill and all I got was, "Oh, no, we don't really teach that until first and second grade!" So then why are you complaining that my DD doesn't do it consistently? I asked a different teacher about how conferences always seem so negative even when your child is way ahead of the curriculum and impeccably behaved and she said teachers always like to give children goals to work towards. Unfortunately, most teachers I've come across phrase these things as complaints rather than goals. And then they tend to play down your child's strengths as "normal" even when they are far from it. But they think they're being helpful!

DEHE,twinkle toes

after reading thru these discussions,I feel we are so fortunate in our district,after approaching school last year (before joining K )school itself suggested DD should go through testing and afterwards they were strongly advised us to skip K

One thing DD had very favorable compared to others in this forum is DD had very good handwriting and we showed all her work and that helped immensely (in retrospect). I am not telling good writing is must,but I feel it is very easy to convince anybody, IMO

grade skip worked well for DD. end of 1st grade her reading level was Q (1st term level was M)and advanced in math,art,music as well

I'm glad it worked out for you, Yannam. For some kids, a skip seems to be just the right move. It probably also helped if you felt that acceleration was a good fit and brought in work samples. My doubt coupled with DD's intensity probably made them question her ability to "behave" in a higher grade and while I showed them testing, I strongly sensed they wanted to "see for themselves" what she could do...

My DD's handwriting and fine motor skills are also very strong, but we were all concerned she wasn't going to be emotionally mature enough to move on, but she actually surprised everyone by being very self controlled, polite, confident, and on task. I have to admit, on some level, I would not want to see her all day in classes with many seven year olds (there is a lot of red shirting in our community so K students are often 6 and first 7 and my DD5 turned five a few months before K), not because she couldn't do the academic work, but for fears of her being too young in some ways to be in the right place. I know so many on here use the Iowa Accelaration Scale (I should check it out) and believe acceleration is the way to go, but I have to admit I have conflicting feelings. The curriculum is far too easy for many grades ahead, (like many on here she had age equivalencies of close to 8 or 9 before she turned 5)but I keep hoping they can accomodate her in the classroom. Maybe I am naive since they were unable to give her the right level work this year. I'm trying to stress less and just be happy that she is a very happy child, popular, and adjusting well.

I have to say I feel very lucky to have gotten Connor into the school he is in. They were very open to talking about his abilities ahead of the year (and even had before school conferences with each child's parents to get a fell for just that). His teacher did her best to differentiate within the classroom for the first two months but then went to the Director on her own and advocated for DS without any push from us. She just called me one night and said "Here, this is what we're thinking..."

He has now been going to 2nd grade for reading for the last month or more and just last week started moving up to 2nd for math as well. He goes back to his K classroom for phys ed, art, music, science, social studies, and Chinese.

I was pretty nervous about the idea at first since DS was having s few behavioral/social/sensory/attention issues in kindergarten still. So far it has been WONDERFUL! DS loves his new classes and comes home telling me all about what they learned (even though it is sometimes things that he 'knows' conceptually but was never taught so he didn't know the formal words or rules behind it) He also seems to be having LESS issues socially and behaviorally now. My thought now is that perhaps when he was misbehaving or having social difficulties in kindergarten it may have been due to him trying to "fit in" with the kids around him. I think he doesn't really understand their way of thinking/behaving and so he tries to imitate what he thinks he sees them doing. Since its not natural to him it comes off looking a little 'weird'... He seems to have less of these issues now (hopefully it stays that way) and I'm hoping that moving up for part of the day is just giving him a chance to be around kids that feel a little more familiar to him. Twinkle Toes- keep in mind that her emotional maturity may be pretty flexible depending on who she is surrounded by.