Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School So howis it going?

Nice to read about everyone's experiences so far.

DD5 started half-day K yesterday. The class is small and she knew several kids already. Her friends all loved it, but DD was a bit grumpy. She said they did "like 50 crafts and only played outside for 5 minutes." I think it was more like 3 crafts but she doesn't love that kind of thing.

I'm a little anxious for them to get those beginning-of-the-year assessments done so she can hopefully start learning something. I know some schools in this area actually have the kids come in for an assessment appointment prior to school starting- I wish this school did that.

It's been a looooong wait for us to get past this initial 'start of K' phase. I hope your's isn't quite so drawn out. We don't do pre-assessments either. We're on week 4 and doing reading 'screen-outs' (essentially) to pick up kids who are BEHIND but not ahead. The teacher tells me things really won't get differentiated until end of September in some things and mid-October in others...eek. At least they DO end up getting differentiated. Hang in there! We started our own after-school homework last week, but I think I should've started earlier to keep ds from being so dissappointed. GL!

Thanks, Evemomma. DD has been homeschooled for preschool (and I'd love to continue but have to convince DH somehow!) Anyway she's used to learning at home so we'll keep that up for sure. I'm fine with her learning through play at school, but if the required crafting keeps up she's going to be enraged before long. (Not a fine-motor issue... she can cut & paste easily but she has a tolerance for maybe one project of that nature per day.)

One thing that sometimes helps with this in my DD is if she and I approach some things competitively. Her computational speed isn't that far off of mine. It's good for her to see that I make almost as many stupid errors as she does if I'm doing mental math or rushing, too. Not allowing a calculator really really evens the playing field.

DD is in AP physics this year and it is kicking her hiney (well, okay-- this is what it FEELS like to DD to not know everything without having to actually, you know, learn it from the class... LOL). She had a major freak-out yesterday over experimental uncertainty (which hasn't really been specifically addressed in previous coursework, so she was mixing up absolute undertainty with percent uncertainty, and wasn't sure how to work calculations while accounting for either one). Basically, she was certain that if the first week is this hard, she's way out of her league (yeah, okay... um... kinda crazy, but from her previous experience, I suppose...)

So I sympathize completely. I'm actually HAPPY about this, though, which is ticking my adolescent DD off a bit.

She beat me yesterday in a study game on unit conversions, though she did have to cheat to do it. LOL. All in good fun, though. It snapped her out of the "I cannnnnn't" mindset, at least. I think it also provided her with a reality check. I mean, I have a PhD in this area and have spent many, many years teaching this subjecct to college students... so. The fact that she has to actually (gasp) 'work' at this... is okay. Everyone has to work at it at least a little.

Yes. And since the issues at hand have nothing to do with tenure or unions, I stand by my word choice.

Thanks for trolling.

They're going to put him in the kindergarten class for the language arts block starting on Monday.   That was fast, no red tape.  I guess we got a school that likes to teach.

Wow-- that is fast, Tex!

That's great!

And re timing of differentiation, heck we had assessments the week before school but it still seems to be all the same beginning K stuff. They don't use parent volunteers in class for a few weeks, so hopefully then we'll get DD in some leveled groups for reading, etc.

I'm going crazy adapting her homeschool/homework today for her. The writing letters and numbers is great but the learning about them is annoying. And it's not inherent motivating so she doesn't want to write as much as when say she makes a graphic novel. But it's not terrible.

This is the first year that the school has agreed to do something for DS8 3rd grade, but they keep saying that they will schedule an SST (success team meeting). So far end of week three and we haven't even begun to discuss an accommodation.

He loves school, and likes his new teacher but i hope they come to a useful and timely accommodation.

My DD6 is in first grade. We did not pursue a skip even though she tested at at least third grade in preschool at 4. Now she is in a public first grade with no gifted programming in first and a no skip policy. She started reading at 2.5 years old and is currently reading at the rate of an eighth grader etc. They may pull her out for math enrichment ONE HOUR ONCE a week starting in January, but that is a maybe. She has to sit through kids reading big books with sentences like "The cat sat on the mat" that she could read at 2. I met with her teacher and she has been placed in a class with at least two other gifted kids, one who seems to be extremely gifted, but they are both boys who are more mathy. I often wish she could meet a verbally gifted girl--I know there are tons of them out there. It is still the beginning of the school year but so far she is tracing the letters A and B.