Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy should we accelerate @ school or continue @ home?

DS7 is going up to 5th grade math (like you only because it is the highest grade in the school) and we had a reluctant teacher to start. At conferences, that same teacher was singing his praises. Saying how well he fit in, and how impressed he was at his ability to fail and learn from it (unlike most gifted kids he encounters in the 5th grade.) There doesn't seem to be too much adolescent talk during math class and the kids have accepted him as one of the class. He has had a few struggles with the organization needed but he is learning to do it.

I think there are social reasons against for doing this class. He can try out his skills at explaining math to the struggling older students.

I didn't mean to scare anyone. Our DS is much happier accelerated in math than he ever was at grade level, and in some ways it's good for him socially (as well as challenging socially).

It's just that any placement won't fit perfectly, and it's best to go into it knowing that so you're ready to see where advocacy needs to happen next.

DeeDee

A year ago I would have been scared too. It's taken me a while to really understand that my son has special learning needs. If we did nothing to intervene, it would have been disastrous for him. He was careening toward misery at school, despite being such an easy going kid.

The homeschooling option for us has saved us. Even though we only do it part time now, it has meant that my son doesn't have to do a full grade skip now. (Our tester actually recommended a full double skip now. She actually told us it would be "easy" for him to move up two full grades. She didn't recommend three because the executive functions are not quite there.)

Exactly-- and the issue that I pointed out is one that most educators don't see coming, either.

KnittingMama's post hints at this, too. My DD really struggles when she doesn't already know the course material, and tends to have minor freakouts when she has to learn. Luckily we've gotten a little bit of that dealt with prior to having her leave secondary. Hopefully it's enough.

A brief update. I got an email a couple of days ago from the 5th grade math teacher. She would like a big meeting with the principal and a few other people. The bottom line is: DS7 is finding the work challenging and is making an adjustment to the higher work level. He is - gasp - just barely struggling with the first 5-10 mins of each class.

The teacher is concerned because she has only heard the following about DS - that nothing is a struggle for him and he breezes through everything. So, the fact that he takes the first 10 mins of class to actually stop and learn something is evidence that it's a "tough" adjustment for him. When I responded in the email that: DS LOVES the class and we (his parents) are THRILLED to find out that something is causing him to stop and learn - for 10 mins! - per day, the response from the teacher is that they assumed that 5th grade would be just as easy for him as 2nd grade. The goal of the meeting is to figure out if DS should continue in 5th grade. After reading the email, I turned and asked DS about 5th grade math class. "Of course I want to stay in the class mom! I'm actually learning something in that class!"

What is wrong with these teachers?

As long as he is doing well on assignments and tests and understands the concepts after they are taught, there shouldn't be a problem. That's the hard thing about acceleration. People seem to think that the kid will still be at the very top of the class when the real goal is to get them to learn.

yep I have always said that I would rather my kid get a B (or C) that he has worked his butt off for than an easy A where he doesn't actually have to "work"/learn anything.

Even in our homeschooling I tend to make things harder and more complex for this exact reason.

That's great news! There's certainly nothing wrong with a class being difficult for a kid, as long as he can rise to the challenge and work at it.

Update again: I had the meeting with the teacher today. DS7 is doing very well. She reports that he is at the top of the class already....he is "kind enough" to explain the math concepts to the rest of the class when they are struggling to understand something. He has blended in socially, with zero problems. In fact, another teacher commented that the only thing that gives him away as a 2nd grader is that he is smaller than everyone else.

So, he is not struggling. In fact, it sounds a bit like the content is too easy for him. But the executive demands ARE challenging for him, so we will keep him there. The teacher has completely fallen in love with him, which is amazing. I actually started to tear up because she had all these lovely things to say about him....and then continued saying that she could see how important it has been for us to advocate for this acceleration.

So we will stay with this grade in math for the rest of the year.